New Laserdisc owner - what's the attraction?

Well said, Arkay! Unfortunately, alot of those great players are not too common in the states. If you can't find those players you may come across the Pioneer 700 series. These are far more common and are pretty good machines. I would also agree that the Nightmare Before Xmas box is a beauty, and the closest in visual quality to a good dvd. Do you ever run across any Lupin III laserdiscs? Someday I'll have 'em all....
 
Unfortunately, alot of those great players are not too common in the states.

When I wanted a player in 1992, the ones sold here had such an extreme mark-up that it cost me less to buy an air ticket and fly to London and buy it there - which I did.

Heathrow immigration were very suspicious! They couldn't believe anyone would come all that way just to buy an LD player. When I got it home, customs couldn't categorize it to figure out the duty on it - so I told them it was a kind of CD player.
 
There were widescreen CRT TV's made back in the heyday of LD's, just they were not as hot a seller then as they are now, which makes them kinda rare.

Yes they were. The only one i knew about in the late 80's early 90's was made by Sony it was strictly a monitor and quite pricey IIRC it was a strange size like 34". I believe it was originally designed for and used by Disney for exhibits they eventually sold out their inventory to the public and a friend of mine had one. I eventually picked up a 38" RCA 16:9 CRT my son still uses it today for gaming I used that set for many years with the LD player. Although the picture was still too small compared to what is available today.

One thing often overlooked about LDs is that, unlike DVDs, the most important factor in LD playback is THE GEAR YOU PLAY IT BACK ON! A cheap or mid-level LD player will give you mediocre picture and sound quality. A really good, high-end player will give you theater-quality pictures and audiophile sound.

This is very different from DVDs, which --because of their digital nature, only need to accurately reproduce the "1s and 0s". LDs are analog, and just as with vinyl LPs, the quality of the playback gear can make a huge difference in the quality of the output.

The players that are really worth having are the "big three": LD-X0, LD-X1, and LD-X9, from Pioneer. These were all Japanese-market models. The X1 was sold in North America as the LD-S2, so that would be the model to look for there. The LD-S1 is also decent, as are a few others, like the Japan-market CLD-HF9G, the only really good combination LD/CD player. But the X0/X1/X9 series are the ones to have, with the X9 being the "absolute king", due to its superior comb filtering and interlacing, etc.... that yields the best picture.

Be aware that as special parts like drive gears and laser heads on LD players wear out, in most cases there will be no replacements. Capacitors and such may remain available, but not the mechanical bits. Already, many models can only be kept running by cannibalizing other units, and since some of the same components tend to wear out on them, this still isn't a great guarantee of longevity.

I currently have three LD-X1 players (my de facto player of choice, since they are much easier to find in Hong Kong than the X9s that I'd really like to have), and am considering adding three more that a friend has for sale, just as "insurance" that I'll be able to continue to enjoy watching LDs for a while to come. Played back on a unit of this quality, the sound is --on the well-made discs-- superior to DVD sound, and the picture nearly as good, better in some ways on some systems (no digital pixelated crud; if part of the disk is bad, the rest still plays fine; blacks are jet black and rapid movement is smoother, like in the cinema, without the "jerkiness"). That said, without proper upscaling (especially) it won't look as good on 1080p screens as HD stuff; it has, after all, lower native resolution.

As for discs. there are some great concert discs out there, as well as "collector" boxed sets (including bonus bound books, etc...) of films like the Godfather series, the original Star Wars movies, the Nightmare Before Christmas, and others; rare old black-and-white classics from "The Criterion Collection" and others; old and odd television series like Combat, the Fugitive, Dr. Who and Star Trek; documentary things like National Geographic; lots of classical music recordings, etc.... While much of this has been released on DVD as well, some of it has not been, and the only way to watch some of it is via LD.

If you are into karaoke, I think you could bury New York State under karaoke laser discs 100 meters high, and still have enough left over to bury New Jersey, too! :D It was universally THE medium of choice throughout the whole karaoke craze. Japan has plenty of anime stuff on LD, too.


I don't think LDs will ever go way up in price; the number of collectors is too small. However, SOME rare discs (the Beatles Let it Be movie, for example) will retain their value well, and the very best players like the LD-X9 will retain their value, too. But the massive number out there of some movies, like Jurassic Park, compared with the number of people still interested in preserving this medium, will keep their value from going very high in general.

My favorite RECENT LD acquisitions? Stevie Ray Vaughan with Double Trouble: always loved the CD, now being able to hear it AND SEE it performed is just fantastic! :music: Also an LD of Andres Segovia performing in the Alhambra. A deservedly legendary master captured while still alive! :thmbsp:

Just curious how expensive were these Pioneer units new. I know when I purchased my LX1000u it was top rated and cost over $1000. Dual sided play and had about the best picture I saw at the time. Did these come later or were they released about the same time?

I was also curious to the DTS releases. All this has had me looking through some of my discs. A good many of them are dated 1991 and newer and all I can find is Dolby Surround and Digital Sound on them. none of them Like Lawnmower man, The Godfather collection, Star Trek and Starwars collections actually say DTS. So was 5.1 DTS actually available or was it just as they say Dolby Stereo surround? As far as your comment about sounding better than DVD I would have to say that is subjective. The Arcam line of DVD players are compared with CD players costing well into the $3k range with today's technology so I find it hard to believe that it could sound better using 20 year old technology. I am sure it sounds quite good but better would require some serious side by side comparison.
 
As far as I know, you cannot get the original edits on DVD or any other format besides LD and VHS. The bits Lucas added around 1996 for the DVD release are just lame.
Star Wars was not released on DVD until 2004. The added bits first appeared on the last Laserdisc release Trilogy in 1997.
 
The players that are really worth having are the "big three": LD-X0, LD-X1, and LD-X9, from Pioneer. These were all Japanese-market models. The X1 was sold in North America as the LD-S2, so that would be the model to look for there. The LD-S1 is also decent, as are a few others, like the Japan-market CLD-HF9G, the only really good combination LD/CD player. But the X0/X1/X9 series are the ones to have, with the X9 being the "absolute king", due to its superior comb filtering and interlacing, etc.... that yields the best picture.
From my experience, my DVL-909, DVL-700, CLD-95 Elite, CLD-2080, & DVL-90 all have superb playback, and picture quality. The DVD picture of my DVL players is so much better than any new player I have ever seen. Picture is less jerky, no jitter, no flutter, loads quicker and I can bypass all those stupid previews. My first player I had the CLD-2080 and shortly thereafter I found a nice LD-S2 and did a comparison of picture quality and performance. I hate to say it, but I ultimately ended up keeping the 2080 and giving the S2 to a friend of mine.
 
I'm part of the LD bandwagon. I have over 900 LDs, and many different players. All of which I got after LD was dead. LD was uncommon around here so I luckily was able to pretty much buy up an entire collection at Salvation Army. Every so often 10 or 20 turn up at Amvets or another thrift but I usually have all of them.

Picture quality is highly dependent upon the comb filter in the given TV you're watching it back on. Best I've ever seen done was the Samsung 27" TXN2771HF, an early HD ready 4:3 picture tube TV. Any LD watched on that set it jawdropping even on a cheap player. Putting the signal through an AV receiver may or may not yield better results (this depends almost entirely on the quality of the converter in the receiver, usually higher end ones do a better job). Modern sets are hit and miss. The Vizio 50" plasma from a few years ago with the Faroudja did a good job for a TV so large. I have a 27" Insignia LCD which had a rather advanced comb filter (with selectable options for stuff like speckle reduction) which always looked very good for LDs.
 
Star Wars was not released on DVD until 2004. The added bits first appeared on the last Laserdisc release Trilogy in 1997.

Maybe not where you are. Starwars/Empire/Jedi were available in South Africa on DVD around 1998 (not sure of the exact date, but it was pre-2000), but only the 're-edited' versions, shortly after they were shown in the cimemas.
 
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From my experience, my DVL-909, DVL-700, CLD-95 Elite, CLD-2080, & DVL-90 all have superb playback, and picture quality. The DVD picture of my DVL players is so much better than any new player I have ever seen. Picture is less jerky, no jitter, no flutter, loads quicker and I can bypass all those stupid previews. My first player I had the CLD-2080 and shortly thereafter I found a nice LD-S2 and did a comparison of picture quality and performance. I hate to say it, but I ultimately ended up keeping the 2080 and giving the S2 to a friend of mine.

Well you guys have lost me and I find most of the comments subjective, I know i am no longer part of this conversation because i don't see it from the positive you guys do, but what DVD players are you comparing it to? There is a major difference from your run of the mill players vs high end units with quality upsampling chipsets.


So I guess what puzzles me is how can you compare state of the art upscaling technology Via HDMI at 1080P to standard format S video outputs of the top of the line LD players and say S-video can have a better picture? I find this very puzzling.


Not trying to turn this into a pissing match but LD's might have had the potential to excel further but you can't convince me that old formats run through S-video and optical audio look and sound better than HDMI/Component or digital audio without the problem being elsewhere in the system.
 
I don't think you can compare even a great laserdisc with a good dvd...the quality is better on a dvd and that is just the way it is. Yes, with a fantastic LD player and the best of equipment and set-up you can get an excellent picture that will almost reach dvd images. Yes, on "some" laserdiscs you can get audio that beats a dvd equivalent (but not many...and I'm not counting the many musical laserdiscs that still aren't on dvd...you can't compare so lets not discuss it). That being said, many of us just love our laserdiscs. I love 'em more now that they are so cheap.
 
I don't think you can compare even a great laserdisc with a good dvd...the quality is better on a dvd and that is just the way it is. Yes, with a fantastic LD player and the best of equipment and set-up you can get an excellent picture that will almost reach dvd images. Yes, on "some" laserdiscs you can get audio that beats a dvd equivalent (but not many...and I'm not counting the many musical laserdiscs that still aren't on dvd...you can't compare so lets not discuss it). That being said, many of us just love our laserdiscs. I love 'em more now that they are so cheap.

Ok fair enough, maybe I was reading more into than i should have. I enjoyed the format while it was out and i have to agree if you can pick up movies for cheap what isn't to like about that.
 
From my experience, my DVL-909, DVL-700, CLD-95 Elite, CLD-2080, & DVL-90 all have superb playback, and picture quality. The DVD picture of my DVL players is so much better than any new player I have ever seen. Picture is less jerky, no jitter, no flutter, loads quicker and I can bypass all those stupid previews. My first player I had the CLD-2080 and shortly thereafter I found a nice LD-S2 and did a comparison of picture quality and performance. I hate to say it, but I ultimately ended up keeping the 2080 and giving the S2 to a friend of mine.

That hasn't been my experience, and I have very similar players to yours (DVL-91, DVL-90, DVL-909, CLD-59 Elite, CLD-2080, CLD-M450). They're decent LD players, but not the best I've seen. The DVD players in the combo units have their strengths (skip the menus/previews, robust playback on damaged & home-burned discs) but their video quality doesn't approach even my run-of-the-mill Sony consumer decks, forget about the higher-end players I've installed.

I settled on these DVL players mostly 'cause so many people were ditching them in the early 2000s, and it made it easy for me to run them in multiple systems & swap stuff around when needed. Actually, quality-wise, I'm happiest with the CD playback on these units- those are excellent.

je
 
I always thought cd playback was good, too! But I never really looked into it to see if it was just my imagination. Now I have an Oppo blu-ray, though...and there ain't no going back! Hey Oppo...just for laughs, why not make a limited edition laserdisc player?
 
Gosh, this is turning into quite the discussion..............

je, curious...........what TV do you use?

You guys ever heard of the saying...."you can't teach an old dog new tricks" ?

I will always love my LD's, no matter how much "better" the new stuff may be.

The new HD stuff to me looks very grainy, jerky, artificial and pixelated, no pun intended, that is just how it looks to my old, but very good eyes.

No amount of new technology that ever comes out, or circumstance, will ever make me change my opinion...
 
Gosh, this is turning into quite the discussion..............

je, curious...........what TV do you use?

Sony and Mitsubishi CRTs, Sony rear-pro HD LCD, Fujitsu plasma, NEC plasma, and two Sharp LCDs. In the past I've also used CRT and LCD front projectors, both HD and non-HD. I've also installed LD & DVD systems with countless different high-end monitors & projection systems.

No amount of new technology that ever comes out, or circumstance, will ever make me change my opinion...

Well, that kind of explains it, no? If you're happy, that's what counts in your house.

je
 
I thought this was funny

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Some of the Blockbuster stores rented laserdiscs in the late '80s til about '91 or so. I rented a few, and usually copied them to S-VHS.

Main reason I keep a LD player around is to play the few discs that I can't get on DVD.
 
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Main reason I keep a LD player around is to play the few discs that I can't that I can't get on DVD.

Yes, that or pictures that aren't worth buying again on DVD but I might want to watch again (but probably won't), Braveheart for instance in my case.

The device, a CLD-D704, also serves as a CD player.
 
Yes, that or pictures that aren't worth buying again on DVD but I might want to watch again (but probably won't), Braveheart for instance in my case.

The device, a CLD-D704, also serves as a CD player.

That is a nice player, Tom, I have the CLD-D701. The 700 Series are great Machines and If I'm not mistaken, your 704 should be a Karaoke Machine :)

Yup, Braveheart for me too, also Independence Day, Ransom, Conspiracy Theory, Interview With A Vampire, A Few Good Men, G.I. Jane, Apollo 13, Forrest Gump, X-Files, etc etc, :D
 
Yes they were. The only one i knew about in the late 80's early 90's was made by Sony it was strictly a monitor and quite pricey IIRC it was a strange size like 34". I believe it was originally designed for and used by Disney for exhibits they eventually sold out their inventory to the public and a friend of mine had one. I eventually picked up a 38" RCA 16:9 CRT my son still uses it today for gaming I used that set for many years with the LD player. Although the picture was still too small compared to what is available today.

Just curious how expensive were these Pioneer units new. I know when I purchased my LX1000u it was top rated and cost over $1000. Dual sided play and had about the best picture I saw at the time. Did these come later or were they released about the same time?

I was also curious to the DTS releases. All this has had me looking through some of my discs. A good many of them are dated 1991 and newer and all I can find is Dolby Surround and Digital Sound on them. none of them Like Lawnmower man, The Godfather collection, Star Trek and Starwars collections actually say DTS. So was 5.1 DTS actually available or was it just as they say Dolby Stereo surround? As far as your comment about sounding better than DVD I would have to say that is subjective. The Arcam line of DVD players are compared with CD players costing well into the $3k range with today's technology so I find it hard to believe that it could sound better using 20 year old technology. I am sure it sounds quite good but better would require some serious side by side comparison.

I installed a few of the 34" Sony 16:9 CRTs, and all of them were chronic service issues, we could never keep the image from bowing. They weighed a ton, too.

Pretty sure that the last of the Pioneer combo units stopped production last year, and was ~$1,000 retail.

:yes::

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/P...Blu-rayDisc+DVD/DVD+LDPlayers/ci.DVL-919.Kuro

I remember selling some of the Elite combo players for ~$1,800.

My DTS discs are clearly marked with the DTS logo, here's a couple of samples:

Goldeneye: Special Edition ML105987
Great Expectations 449284
Last Man Standing ID3735LI

je
 
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