Laserdisc - Why It Ruled (And Still Does)

I used to order from Columbia all the time too. I started collecting when Star Wars The Definitive Version came out in the early 90's. I love collecting laserdisc now because the artwork and packaging is so amazing. I love it! :) Keep up the great videos. I'm in Japan right now stocking up on Anime like Yamato, Macross, Gundam, and Sailormoon. Take care and check out my synth tunes on my channel if you get a chance. Take care, Sam.

Like most kids of the 80s & 90s, my first run in with the LD format was in school. My science teacher had one in a lab room and showed us a documentary about the tropical rain forests! I was blown away! The sound and video were amazing.
As an anime fan, I knew for years how the much better the LD releases were. Central Park Media were the only major US distributors that supported LD. I always wanted one but being a 9 yr old 4th grader didn't leave many options. I begged my parents in vain for it as a combo birthday and Christmas gift (only a day apart LOL). It was a couple of years before I knew someone with a player. His parents only used it for karaoke VCDs when family would visit! LOL. I wonder if they still have it...

what do you watch your LDs on?

I loved my laserdisc players & films I had wish it was still going.

hey, you said "night flights" i really need a copy of dynaman. ill trade you some laserdisc

As a new fan of LD, I can't help but wonder what the format could look like, if it were restarted today. The pit/land etching method of storing the RF signal on the discs must've been limited by early laser tech. I don't believe the technology could've been made future proof, but I think with modern technology it'd be much more viable as a produceable niche product. I guess the real question is whether or not distributing film in an analog format is something that benefits the consumer. Except in very specific cases, the only way to experience new films is in digital format. And even for someone who was born at the ass end of the 80's that feels kind of bad.

Nice copy of The Keep...I like your style!

I'm suprised theirs still working laserdisc players around to play the discs on to be honest.They were so cool.

Very interesting..
For me I’m Tempted but is it just like buying a Dreamcast or sega Saturn !
In the days of UHD Blu Ray, HDR, Dolby Vision I’m not sure if I’d be happy with this format !!!
But I’d love to see it in the flesh ...
but this format sounds like the true movie fans format....

Two if my my most beloved Laserdiscs are the Criterion Collection release of "2001 - A Space Odyssey" because Kubrick himself supervised this release. And even thou it's sourced from a 35mm master and looks pretty bad (way too blurry and much worse than a NTSC laserdisc could look like, especially for a 1989 release) it still means a lot to me because you know Kubrick was involved in the making of this release of the possibly MOST perfect movie ever made.

The other Laserdisc i'm proud of the most is the Disney Archive CAV release of "Tron". Which not only looks marvelous but also comes with all the Bonusmaterial that was later used for the Special Edition 2 Disc DVD release. And it was the first time Disney did a transfer of the 60mm Master. Basically THIS Laserdisc was the reason for me to actually getting into Laserdisc at all. And of course also because of Star Wars and "The Terminator". Funny that it's mostly all because of Science Fiction.

When you talk about joining Columbia House and ordering your first titles you remind me a bit of what my best buddy did in the late 90s when DVD was pretty new here in Germany and wasn't sold everywhere yet. He too sometimes ordered titles like that that. For example, i think he paid like 100DM for an Import codefree DVD of "Dante's Peak" which was one of the rare titles with Fullrate DTS. He kept it real and really sold the format to me. Because at this point i was still skeptical and really didn't believe that DVD could make it after the debacle that VideoCD was. lol Well after all this was still 1998 so yeah ;) Your story really brought back these memories.

Just curious how you run your players to your TV? Do you utilize any video processors or dvd recorder? Perhaps upscale through a A/V receiver?

Excellent!..New subby baby!

I had a LaserDisc player back in the 90s that I got rid of once I bought my first DVD player. I accidentally won a player on eBay background 2005. Anyway I've had a collection of about 250 movies for years now. Just kind of a fun way to watch old movies. I have Saving Private Ryan, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Trainspotting, The Sex Pistols great rock and roll Swindle, Clerk's, Etc. In the nineties I had all the crappy movies so when I started collecting them again I was finding all the great movies for like $0.50 at Half Price Books. I just can't believe people are collecting these now. I'm almost starting to see dollar signs come out of my collection if anybody's interested in buying some good movies on LaserDisc :-)

It's a shame Laserdisc wasn't hugely popular in Europe. I can imagine Laserdiscs being encoded in widescreen with PALplus encoding, where the pictures would be in standard PAL leterboxed, but in the black bards at the top and bottom, there'd be extra detail stored which would show up on non PALplus compatible TVs as... sort of colour noise in those bars (or at least, that's how PALplus looked on 4:3 non PALplus compatible TVs back in the day)

PALplus, or an NTSC equivalent, might have extended the life of Laserdisc, provided there were enough widescreen TVs that were PALplus (or for the American market NTSCplus if such a thing was ever developed) enabled. Sadly, not even widescreen TVs included the PALplus technology, more's the pity.

Primmer?

Almost 5 years later and still coming back to this video because it's cool!

Love laserdisc and I collect discs from all eras and use my pioneer cld 1750 every day..

Wow! I'm so impressed and amazed by this video and your knowledge and stories!!!

I am right there with you laserdiscs are old, but cool at the same time to true laser peeps. I have grown my collection to over 20,000 movies and karaoke discs over the last 12 years. I am in the big pain in the ass process of putting them in alphabetical order right now is going very slow. I also have many of the players one in particular though that I am still surprised I managed to buy is the Pioneer LC-V3000 the commercial karaoke 72 disc changer setup from 92 in mint condition. You only have play and stop functions for movies, but works out for movies that are more than 1 disc. I have very much enjoyed collecting laserdiscs and still do today. I keep telling myself I am done buying them, but still have not stopped. Keep on collecting :-)

it's good in terms of original unaltered theatrical presentations and special features

I used to love collecting laserdisc movies back in the 90's. I still remember going to a bunch of stores that carried them and just flipping through the catalog of titles.

Now with online shopping, that's all gone with BluRay.
Stores rarely carry a decent selection. Walmart only carries new titles or best sellers.

I miss those days going into a store picking a movie..... Couldn't wait to go home and watch it.
For some reason, I don't get that same feeling with BluRay today.

Maybe it was those nice covers on LD. I really loved the ones that opened up like Titanic. I'll never sell my collection. I think the most expensive one I bought was Terminator 2 special edition. Cost me $150 Canadian.

I can see why the format never worked for the general public. It was definitely an expensive hobby.

I remember showing one of the disks to my friends and the first thing out of their mouths was "wow, that's a big disc". Then making a reference to how small compact discs are....

To this day.... Never regretted the money I spent. The audio was amazing and still sounds better than some DVDs!

Wish stores in my area still sold them. I still remember putting in " the perfect weapon" starring Jeff Speakman, and showing off what my sound system could do. Laserdisc far superior to VHS. No contest.

The funny thing about it is that I have over 300 Blu-rays and I would trade them for laser disc at the drop of a dime. There's something about LaserDisc that makes you feel like you're back in the old theater watching a movie. The only thing missing is the popcorn smell. And who's complaining about noise Anna movie I love the noise on the movie that takes me back to the first day I seen Escape From New York

Blade Runner CAV I think was my first Criterion disc.

That Sony 333 had a terrible picture. The older Sony MDP 200 had a killer picture but the sound was a little bright.

I can't believe that some people I knew thought that a laserdisc player was something to connect to computer. lol

I still have my laserdisc collections. I got ninja turtles, and famous singers from the 1990's, Halloween, Beverly hills 90210 season one and holiday movies.

I love Laserdisc, and I didn't even get into it until a couple of years after they stopped making them. I wanted to back in the early 90's but I was just a kid. It's got it's limitations, but it's just such a fun format. The presentation is great, and a well-made disc does look pretty good on a quality player as far as standard def goes. It can sometimes get near-ish DVD quality. It certainly blows VHS out of the water.

its really SAD that movies on bluray shipped with watered down as compared laserdisc that felt so awesome the fidelity that punch I really missed that feeling and never gonna have it, with just hiting the digital audio on remote and its completely a new world and now with all the technologies having 4 to 5 audio track 4k video and audio is compressed .
This is the only reason people still collect laserdisc .

I don't understand the logic behind compressing the original theater mix on Blu-ray unless user have the equipment to decode they won't have high dynamic range nobody blew their TV with laserdisc than why don't they include original track .

I knew of the existence of laserdiscs before I started watching this channel. But in the last couple of years even though I've never actually physically seen the laser display if somebody gave me the choice between a brand new 4K player and 50 of my favorite films or a good quality LaserDisc player and only 15 or 20 films on LaserDisc I swear to God I think I'd pick the LaserDisc. Even though yes I know that the 4K is supposed to be the most absolute quintessential in quality. Of course I'm also one of those weird people that have I still had movies on VHS I'd probably try to get ahold of her old school CRT Style television to watch the ball on LOL. But of course collecting isn't about getting things that are perfect it's about getting things that you love.

I love the art and content printed on the media covers, but the low res and flipping was lame.

Miss the 1,800 RPM of digital / analog goodness

It's a crime you have so few subscribers

I think you'll find that DVDs are more directly related to VCD than Laserdiscs. VCD and DVDvh store digital video as opposed to LDs analog. In many ways, LD has more in common with VHS that it does DVD. Ironically, VCD is an extremely enduring format that still occasionally gets new releases, so one might argue VCD is more popular that Laserdisc, DVD and Blueray, and has certainly been in production longer than any of those individual formats

The first time i saw a laserdisc player was in elementary school tthe teacher put a laserdisc on this was after dvd come and i thought it was funny how big it was ithought it was kind of cool

I BOUGHT A PIONEER LD PLAYER IN 1994. THIS WAS IN THE PERIOD BETWEEN VHS AND DVD. STILL WORKS GREAT. HAD IT CLEANED A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO AS IT NEEDED SERVICE. 27 YEARS. I THOUGHT PIONEER WAS THE ONLY MANUFACTURER OF LD ONLY USE MINE FOR MUSIC VIDEO. CLASSIC ROCK AND BLUES.

Laserdisc is physical media at its most physical. Fun to collect and nostalgic to watch.

I’m back 5 years later, I have two pioneer players a cld 925 and a 2950 and about 400 discs, I absolutely love the format and I’m glad I took the plunge, Although it’s kind of become abit of an obsession haha. This video and the why bother? Video I’ve watched a few times over the years and I’m currently enjoying the Wolfpack . So thanks for your content Sam it really has had a massive impact on me 😀👍

I've been interested in LD since like 2018, especially because of anime and Japanese music videos/karaoke. I finally found a DVL-700 at the thrift store for 29.99 so I guess now's my chance! Your videos have been a great introduction to the format, thank you!

please list the setup of your system would love to know what you use to get the best picture thanks and respect!

They are great for getting autographed at cons and such!

Great informative video. Laserdisc had its day. Surely paved the way for DVD, BLu Ray , streaming and 4K.

I wonder if these can gauge how long it's possible for dvd's stored properly to last....

my first laserdisc was PAL AC/DC Live at Donington and the player a Sony MDP-850 in 1994, wich i had modded for AC-3 a cuple of years later.

If anyone still thinks laser disc's are still worth it your wrong and you have problem's like this guy he's kinda creepy looking this is the kind of guy who hangs out by the school yard watching

Большое спасибо за ваш рассказ. Много споров об этом формате. Самый высококачественный фопмат записи аналогового видеосигнала, а таже звукового, первоначально аналогово, а затем и цифрового. У меня небольшая коллекция , но в ней представлены все варианты дисков. Самое главное, этот формат не использовал пережатие сигнела. Как и Вы., очень люблю этот формат.

Do you recommend using composite or s-video for laserdisc?

Love the audio on laserdisc, the supplements. The cover art. It is probably my favorite way to watch anime.

Loved CAV format! I remember Dracula third side CAV on my Pioneer LD player, still frame by frame the scene where Winona Ryder cuts off D's head! You could see it was a dummy! Perfect still frame. Ahh, so cool what we had back in the day.

I'm well aware that there are two types laserdiscs. There's CLV discs and CAV discs. What are the differences between the two types of laserdiscs and which one is better?