Laserdisc-The godfather of ALL consumer optical disc media

honestaquarian

Anyone still holding on to theirs like I am?
What players are you using?
I finally got my hands on a Pioneer Elite DVL-91 after waiting a decade and a half.
Also does anyone know about the movie "The sixth day" on Laserdisc? I'm looking for this very hard to find movie. LDDB.COM has four copies up for sale in their marketplace for some absolutely outrageous prices by some sellers who clearly know what they have!

motorhead43026

That is probably the only four copies in existence...lol.

honestaquarian

It's one of the last movies to come out on Laserdisc and was only available in Japan. It was also the last of only nine titles available on Laserdisc in Dolby EX. 6.1

[Deleted User]

I still have mine. People are finally giving up on their LDs judging by the resale shops.
I can strongly recommend the king kong criterion collection with commentary by Ronald Haver.
Also pick up the 25th anniversary collector's edition 'Night of the Living Dead.'

honestaquarian

Which player do you have?

[Deleted User]

Pioneer CLD-S104. $20.00
I had another bottom of the line Pioneer that gave up reading the discs so
I picked this one up. I had a 16mm working film projector as well but
I messed up the focus and don't know how to fix it.

honestaquarian

I had that player 20 years ago. I had a DVL-919 for over a decade until I was able to find a decent used DVL-91 on eBay for less than a million lol. Same player,but better picture, because it's built better. No wonder they cost so much more.

george daniel

Still have my Pioneer,,got some great Neil Young,Floyd,Mac,and Hendrix.

EndersShadow

I have 2 players and about 50+ titles

xjghost

I have my original Pioneer and still pick up titles here and there for $5. Love my LD music videos.

honestaquarian

Speaking of Laser Music Videos. Anyone got any five inch CD-Vidoes (*remember THAT short lived format-not to be confused with the Video-CD,which was a totally different animal*)?

quickr1

i have a pioneer elite player. can't remember the model but has issues. so pretty much have discs but no player.

mantis

I had a few of them in my time and my last one was a CDL-59 if I remember correctly. It also was an Elite model.
LD was awesome and I always loved it.

Just on a side note I still have a HD DVD player in my system I can't seem to Un install. I have considered removing it as it hasn't been used a quite some time but i get that feeling as soon as I remove it I'm gonna wanna watch one of my movies in HD DVD.
I've had every single Loadable format since the beginning of time except Reel to reel. I never felt the need to pull that off and I had many opportunities to do so.

aprazer402

I have not yet acquired a LD player. I have recently seen a few at local thrifts, but passed. Actually about two weeks ago, going through the usual poor LP's at GW I did buy three mint LD's for under a buck each; remastered The Godfather and The Godfather 2, and Pulp Fiction. I have a few other movie LD's can't remember what they are and a few, mostly classical, music LD's.

cvc

Just sold all my LD'S a few months ago.. Had about 80 taking up space and decided to get rid of them for lp room.. No regrets.. I once had a Pioneer Elite player after reading a great review back in the day.. Could have been the 91 but don't remember or care much because it broke down twice.. I have my first player (pioneer cld-504) still in the closet.. That Elite player really pissed me off.. Never bought another Pioneer product and never will.. I'm still pissed.. Ha!

honestaquarian

I was amazed at the difference between the DVL-919 and the Elite DVL-91!
The 91 is a MUCH BETTER player.

[Deleted User]

Interesting HA, I'll look out for one.
I guess LDPs have gone the way of really great cassette players.
There are some hard core fans but why? I plugged in my
player a while back and it was like watching VHS!

quickr1

Mantis. I'm pretty sure I bought your player and discs from you years ago. Pretty sure you are correct that its a cld 59

honestaquarian

Red
Don't forget the fact that prior to the arrival of DVD and the ensuing compressed,digital high definition discs. Laserdisc was THE BEST that you could do in the consumer arena. It is uncompressed analog video (*the reason for the size of the discs at 12"*) It also had the AFM analog Hi-Fi soundtrack BEFORE Beta and VHS Hi-Fi had it (*drop the "A" in "AFM" and what do you have left? "FM" Look familiar??*) Then when Phillips (*the holder of all of the patents*) Invented the Compact Disc and co developed it with Sony. Pioneer's engineers discovered by accident you could put the 16 bit, 44.1khz digital data on the Laserdisc. So now the Laserdisc has uncompressed analog video and uncompressed digital audio. The Laserdisc also later had the compressed digital audio formats Dolby Digital and DTS first. In addition to all of the interactive features that you now take for granted on DVD and Blu-ray had their start in one form or another on Laserdisc. Of course they took them to the next level on Blu-ray.
The Laserdisc never really went beyond niche market status in America. It was in Europe and Japan that it really took off! When the other two consumer videodisc formats died,Americans-not knowing there were three competing videodisc formats-(*anyone remember the CED videodisc,AKA needlevision??*) thought the Laserdisc was dead as well. After everyone including Phillips drops the format in America,Pioneer kept the format alive here by themselves. Making the movies and the players. Which is the reason why so many people considered Pioneer the standard by which all other players were judged after the Laserdisc experienced a bit of a revival once the 16 bit digital audio was added. Since it was more expensive and not as easy to find (*not to mention much larger than a videocassette*) it never really took off here. Despite the fact that it was literally TWICE the resolution of a standard VHS cassette. Then there was the fact that prior to Pioneer's ingenious side changing laser mechanisms.You had to get up and turn the discs over halfway through the movie. If it was a long movie you had to change discs!
DVD quite literally had a whole fifty more lines of resolution that the Laserdisc! (*not to mention the compressed digital video*)However since it is the size of a Compact Disc AND you didn't have to have the movie interrupted momentarily while the player flipped it's laser mechanism. DVD took off big time

honestaquarian

Anyone have any 5 inch CD-Videos that they want to get rid of?

[Deleted User]

I had exactly one of those. Think a girlfriend got it.

bikezappa

I liked LDs because there were two stores that rented them. Both stores were in Waltham MA. It was a great way to see letter boxed movies. However I bought about 30 LDs but I never watch them anymore. I also liked the fact that the movies started instantly with no BS advertising in the beginning.

honestaquarian

I also liked the fact that the movies started instantly with no BS advertising in the beginning. [/quote]

YESSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Danny Tse

I still have crates upon crates of LDs, including the THX-remastered (but otherwise unmolested) version of the original Star Wars trilogy.

Tom Cruise is still a big fan of the format. He was talking about it recently with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show. I can almost see the confused look on the studio audience's collective faces.

honestaquarian

Yeah especially if they were part of the 30 and under crew!!
I have that Box set of the Star wars trilogy as well as the 5.1 remastered box set.

Hey would you happen to have a copy of "The sixth Day" by Arnold Schwarzenegger?

Danny Tse

honestaquarian wrote: »

Hey would you happen to have a copy of "The sixth Day" by Arnold Schwarzenegger?

I don't think I have any Arnold movie in my LD collection.

honestaquarian

Okay thanks

daddyjt

EndersShadow wrote: »

I have 2 players and about 50+ titles

Did you ever hook up the S1, Dan?

honestaquarian

As in LD-S1?!?!?!

WOW!!

StantonZ

Still have (and use) my Elite CLD-99; makes a great CD transport too. I even added an out-board AC3 decoder when I upgraded AVRs recently (no longer built in). Too bad they removed S-Video inputs from everything so now I have to watch (up-converted) HDMI. We still watch Die Hard on Christmas Eve and Titanic on New Year's Eve...on LaserDisc.

honestaquarian

StantonZ wrote: »

Still have (and use) my Elite 99. Makes a great CD transport. I even added an out-board AC3 decoder for it when I upgraded AVRs recently (no longer "built in"). We still watch Die Hard on Christmas Even and Titanic on New Year's Eve...on LaserDisc.

Hey which AC-3 RF demodulator do you have?
Just curious
Yes Laserdisc players make excellent CD transports.I can no longer use mine for anything other than laserdiscs though,because the digital data coming from my Elite DVL-91(*and conversely the non elite version the DVL-919 which I used to own*) on any CD's (*standard OR DTS*)doesn't seem to make it intact through my Meridian 519 Rf demodulator in a way that my Onkyo can decode.
Funny thing is that the Elite DVL-90 and it's non Elite cousin the DVL-700 worked just fine in this respect with the same equipment.