Laserdisc players

branie2

This is a bit of a long shot question, but did anyone here ever own one?

NIMAN

I owned one of these
http://www.laserdiscarchive.co.uk/laserdisc_archive/pioneer/pioneer_cld-s315/pioneer_cld-s315.htm

Think I had about 5 discs. Can't even remember what they were now.

endacl

It'd only be a long shot question if you were looking for one. Are you looking for one?

branie2

No, just wondering if people here owned one. They were the forerunners to DVD players

NIMAN

They were big in the US, not so much in the UK and from what I can gather, practically non-existent in Ireland.

endacl

NIMAN wrote: »

They were big in the US, not so much in the UK and from what I can gather, practically non-existent in Ireland.

They had a stuttering start in the US. Never really took off. Huge in Japan and Hong Kong. Never really gained any sort of popularity here.

fiachr_a

Supposed to be better quality than DVDs.

branie2

fiachr_a wrote: »

Supposed to be better quality than DVDs.

Yes, I heard about that

endacl

fiachr_a wrote: »

Supposed to be better quality than DVDs.

But a much lower capacity on a huge format medium.

Professey Chin

Id love a laserdisk player (and obviously disks and the space for both )
Something about them always amazed me. Probably the size of them. I dont know why but putting one on almost seems like an event in itself :pac:

endacl

Professey Chin wrote: »

Id love a laserdisk player (and obviously disks and the space for both )
Something about them always amazed me. Probably the size of them. I dont know why but putting one on almost seems like an event in itself :pac:

Get a turntable. Vinyl is the same size, it's cheaper, and it's widely available. Also sounds better!

nlgbbbblth

Didn't own one but was good friends with somebody who did.

He purchased the laserdiscs in Tower Records and on visits to London. They were shockingly expensive.

My first copy of A Clockwork Orange was purchased in 1993. A VHS dub from the Dutch laserdisc. Great quality. £20.

darkdubh

Think I read somewhere that the animated video for Kraftwerks Autobahn(the one they used to always show on RTE in the 80s) was the very first laserdisc release.

branie2

That's very interesting!

branie2

The very first audio commentary was on a laserdisc, for the film King Kong

fiachr_a

fiachr_a wrote: »

Supposed to be better quality than DVDs.

Personally I wouldn't think that, if the bit rate of the DVD was sufficient.

LaserDiscs had a horizontal resolution of 425x480 (NTSC) or 440x576 (PAL) and were analogue composite video. So DVD is capable of higher horizontal resolutions, 720x480 and 720x576 respectively, and RGB video.

Capt'n Midnight

fiachr_a wrote: »

Supposed to be better quality than DVDs.

one of the worlds worst jobs , quality control for laserdiscs

you had to sit and watch 4 screens playing the same film, repeatedly

*kill me now*