May I ask?

gamer2 · Post by **gamer2** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 11:34 pm

Whats a Laserdisc? I havent heard of them upto today. I only knew of CED selctavision, VHS, VCD, then DVD, i never saw a laserdisc.

Questions-
How Cheap Can i get a Player for,
Are they like DVDs,
Are they worth getting a hold of

psychotic_mechanic · Post by **psychotic_mechanic** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 11:46 pm

They are about the size of a LP record....I mean dinner plate.

They were the cutting edge video format (cough.Blueray) for a little bit with the major downsides being no affordable personal recorders and detioration of the disks over time. I'm sure wikipedia has an entry on these.

I wouldn't worry about getting one unless you're a collector-nut or something. I haven't used mine for at least six months and the only reason I bought it in the first place was for access to cheap used older anime.

gamer2 · Post by **gamer2** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 11:50 pm

Well i searched ebay and i found some movies i have been looking for for a while.

psychotic_mechanic · Post by **psychotic_mechanic** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 12:02 am

The disks do degrade over time though, a lot of the ones I picked up do skip. I may let the wife decorate with some of the cooler looking disks and sleeves.

They get quite heavy, both the players and the physical disks, which you may want to keep in mind if you are going to be moving a lot.

Post by **Triton** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 12:04 am

ive been wanting to get a laserdisc player for a long time! coulda got one from 1990 for 15$ with no discs but didnt have that much money. triton loves all things old obscure etc

atari2600a · Post by **atari2600a** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 12:06 am

I have a laserdisc player & some laserdiscs. (Total Recall & RoboCop)

They're good if you want to own an old scifi w/ that vintage feel, w/o the magnetic deterioration. Plus they're cheap!!!

)

I just bought Monty Python & the Holy Grail on Laserdisc! *13374G3*
<img src="http://i15.ebayimg.com/06/i/07/dd/37/0d_1.JPG">

gamer2 · Post by **gamer2** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 12:21 am

These things sound pretty good. But the players are expensive

atari2600a · Post by **atari2600a** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 12:35 am

Not if you know where to look!

The best place is at flea markets! eBay sellers overprice their LD players, & shipping's around $15-25!

I got mine at a flea market for $5! He didn't know if it worked, but for $5, & being the household repairman, it was a steal! (kinda literally! Upon examining it on the ride home, I noticed that the serial number was scratched off...)

vb_master · Post by **vb_master** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 6:11 am

So are laserdiscs subsidable to bit rot?

atari2600a · Post by **atari2600a** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 6:15 am

Semi-kinda...

Wikipedia wrote:LaserRot

To make matters worse, many early LDs were not manufactured properly; sometimes a substandard adhesive was used to sandwich together the two sides of the disc. The adhesive contained impurities that were able to penetrate the lacquer seal layer and chemically attack the reflective substrate, causing it to oxidize and lose its reflective characteristics. This was a problem that was coined "laser rot" (or, "LaserRot", after the original official CamelCase "LaserDisc" name of the underlying product) among LD enthusiasts. Early CDs suffered similar problems, including a notorious batch of defective discs manufactured by Philips-DuPont Optical in Europe during the early 1990s.

Currently, the LaserDisc movie that has the most reported laser rot is the film Eraser (1996), as noted by the contributors of LaserDisc Database. The discs for this title were replicated by Sony Digital Audio Disc Corporation, USA, in Terre Haute, Indiana.

vb_master · Post by **vb_master** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 6:18 am

atari2600a wrote:Semi-kinda...

Wikipedia wrote:Currently, the LaserDisc movie that has the most reported laser rot is the film Eraser (1996), as noted by the contributors of LaserDisc Database. The discs for this title were replicated by Sony Digital Audio Disc Corporation, USA, in Terre Haute, Indiana.

That's quite ironic.

Post by **Sparkfist** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 7:03 am

Well I've seen a Laser Disc in action, roughly 10-12 years ago. It's not even on par with VHS. Infact most people say the resoluion is worse then VCDs. I'm sure having something like a Laser Disk would be really cool, but the standard was dropped because of all it's limitations.

You want a good video player, check out BetaMax. Think VHS, only the cassettes are smaller, only last 1.5 hours and ironicly have better video quality then VHS.

atari2600a · Post by **atari2600a** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 7:14 am

Dude, you can't base an opinion on seeing something once 10-15 years ago! The resolution of laserdiscs is almost twice as better as VHS tapes! (VHS=220, LD=400)

& it wasn't dropped because of it's limitations, it was dropped because of it being expensive, & inconvenient!

By the way, arcade games like Dragon's Lair & Space Age used Laserdiscs!

scherzo · Post by **scherzo** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 7:20 am

BetaMax, hehe. Reminds me of that Cowboy Bebop episode where they have to go searching through and old museum looking for a BetaMax player. Even though I'm well old enough, I don't recall ever seeing a Beta player in action.

cowsgoquack101 · Post by **cowsgoquack101** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 10:01 am

Wikipedia wrote:LaserRot

Currently, the LaserDisc movie that has the most reported laser rot is the film Eraser (1996), as noted by the contributors of LaserDisc Database. The discs for this title were replicated by Sony Digital Audio Disc Corporation, USA, in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Indiana...I live about 50 miles from that town...