Laserdisc Collecting

Don't you guys have receivers and shit? Is an LD player really going to be the largest thing in the chain? Or is it all Apple TVs and sound bars with you?

I can't image how terrible a turntable or floor standing speakers would be for you.

I'm not advocating LD or anything, in fact I wish noobs would stop trying to ruin it, but an average home theater receiver is bigger than most LD players.

And this is a forum dedicated to a system with bible-sized cartridges...so it seems weird.

All LD players i own are deep and relatively tall compared to modern receivers. The better LD players are even bigger. A lot of ikea TV stands will not have enough space.
Old Floor speakers are also big now that you mention it. Modern floor speakers are much more compact.

I actually don't have my Neo in my main viewing area, and that probably goes for most Neo people collectors. I don't have any of this stuff in my main area. It would look terrible and play terrible. I would probably have everything in one place if I was building out a basement, but certainly not in the main area of my house.

Yeah, the players do take up a lot of room and it's also not a very good idea to move them around a lot as they can be quite fragile. When I want to play my AES I just set it up and then pack it away when I'm done, but I wouldn't like to do that with my Laserdisc player, it's best to leave them still if possible.

Two new arrivals today and two of my favourites. I don't remember the seller mentioning it but both have arrived Brand New Sealed!!! Last House only has German dialogue, but I had wanted to watch Zombie, now I'm not sure if I should leave it sealed or open it! I suppose considering that I own two copies of it on Blu Ray, 2 copies on DVD and another Laserdisc version, it would probably be best to leave it alone.

You crazy bastards made me do it! Ordered a player and some discs. It's all your fault.

GohanX said:

You crazy bastards made me do it! Ordered a player and some discs. It's all your fault.

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Nice!



P.S. - I'm gonna shoot some laserdisc porn for you tonight!

congrats! you won't regret it

What I'm getting:

Pioneer CDL-D505
Robocop Criterion Edition
Die Hard (possibly 2 and 3 also, waiting for auction to end)
Terminator 1 and 2
Rocky 1 and 3
Lethal Weapon 1-3

GohanX said:

You crazy bastards made me do it! Ordered a player and some discs. It's all your fault.

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Awesome! Welcome to another addictive hobby

GohanX said:

You crazy bastards made me do it! Ordered a player and some discs. It's all your fault.

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Contrary to my post a couple pages back, I'm really considering it now, too. My wife has been pushing me to get the original Star Wars trilogy lately, and this seems like the best way to do it at the moment.

The oversized artwork is more and more intoxicating the more I look at laserdiscs online.

I have been told to get the "Faces" versions of the Star Wars discs. Look at the box art and you'll get what I mean.

GohanX said:

I have been told to get the "Faces" versions of the Star Wars discs. Look at the box art and you'll get what I mean.

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So those ones came out two years after the Definitive Collection. Are they supposedly better in terms of video/audio quality? What's the upside over the Definitive Collection?

dspoonrt said:

So those ones came out two years after the Definitive Collection. Are they supposedly better in terms of video/audio quality? What's the upside over the Definitive Collection?

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So you actually have a ton of options when it comes to Star Wars Laserdiscs....There were about 5-6 versions of each film. Most were minor changes as laserdisc quality improved over the years. The early ones are not great for many reasons. They are Pan and Scan video, and also early days of LD. Most people just ignore these ones unless you are a completist.

• The definitive collection is nice to have if you find a good deal. I paid $25 for mine. It shouldn't be very costly. The problem is everything is printed on CAV discs for quality, so you'll be swapping discs like crazy. 9 discs for 3 movies. Fantastic quality, but it's a beast. Not really user friendly.

• Faces has less interviews, and it's pressed in CLV format. So no freeze frame, but you don't have to ever swap. It's a single disc per movie. Wide Screen, THX, good sound. They are easy to identify as the cover is a giant face of a character.

• Then there's the Special Edition. This was the last set released for laserdisc. It has more modern composite features if you have good 3d comb filter or Faroudja equipment. It's a mix of CLV and CAV discs. Some movies did this were one side of the disc is CLV and the other is CAV. It allowed for freeze frame and higher quality of some scenes, usually at the end of a movie.

Another one that's worth tracking down is Ep1 Phantom Menace. Not released in the USA, but you can easily import from Japan. It sports DD EX 6.1 audio, amazing video transfer, and the original cut. later movies were again recut by lucas, which included DVD.

Yeah, bubba was telling me earlier that there are often huge quality differences in the different ld's, so it's good to check first. I apparently bought the wrong version of T2, so bubz is gonna hook a nigga up.

If you want Star Wars just download the de-specialized edition.

GohanX said:

Yeah, bubba was telling me earlier that there are often huge quality differences in the different ld's, so it's good to check first. I apparently bought the wrong version of T2, so bubz is gonna hook a nigga up.

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LDDB is actually great for finding the best version that works for you. I don't always grab CAV for example.

Thanks for the info, guys. I'll probably go for the "Faces" versions then when I make the jump, while probably also picking up The Phantom Menace upon your recommendation, NeoSneth.

I love Laserdisc.

I have a Pioneer Elite CLD-59, plus a few lesser models sitting in storage somewhere.

I have a ton of cool stuff, though. The Faces Star Wars trilogy+Phantom Menace, four or five Miyazaki films, T2 Special Edition box set, Jurassic Park special edition, my favorite version of Blade Runner (fuck Ridley Scott and his "Deckard is a replicant" recuts), Alien 1-3, a bunch of Disney films, Pulp Fiction, Heavy Metal, Spaceballs. I probably have about 150-250 movies in total. A few family friends finally dumped their collections and just gave everything to me, so I'm not even sure exactly what I've got.

I tend to choose Laserdisc for "ridiculous" movies or movies with an emphasis on sound. To this day it scares the shit out of my dog when I watch JP on LD.

Oh noes! My laserdisc player sale fell through. Need to find another.

This box set version of Pulp Fiction is a must own.

NeoSneth said:

All LD players i own are deep and relatively tall compared to modern receivers. The better LD players are even bigger. A lot of ikea TV stands will not have enough space.
Old Floor speakers are also big now that you mention it. Modern floor speakers are much more compact.

I actually don't have my Neo in my main viewing area, and that probably goes for most Neo people collectors. I don't have any of this stuff in my main area. It would look terrible and play terrible. I would probably have everything in one place if I was building out a basement, but certainly not in the main area of my house.

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My CLD-99 is an average sized player. It sits on a small Ikea credenza kinda thing with an HK AVR that is larger than the player and still I have room for surround decoder, TBC, and a Playstation 3. It would be a lot harder trying to fit my LD-W1 in there though, I do admit. An X0 demands furniture be made for it, but people with that kind of bread don't complain.

Serious home theater stuff is still as big as it ever was, 19" racks. The more pedestrian stuff is always smaller and therefore manageable. Nothing has shrunk except the players and the projectors.

And the furniture.

Like I said, I'm not trying to talk anyone into LD, its already too crowded, I just assumed that anyone who collects the largest games ever made by a mile would carry a bigger purse.

SignOfZeta said:

Like I said, I'm not trying to talk anyone into LD, its already too crowded, I just assumed that anyone who collects the largest games ever made by a mile would carry a bigger purse.

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Too late, you have unintentionally caused a price hike with neo-geo.com members.

Actually I don't really care to even try LaserDisc. Sure it's cool, but it sounds like a pain in the ass to store and protect from damage. For movies, I don't have a problem just watching them digitally or on DVD. Not so with game consoles, those are a completely different matter. I dunno, maybe I'm not a big enough movie fan in general to consider owning collector pieces of my favorites.

The biggest issue with LD is getting a picture that doesn't look like total garbage on a modern TV. While an XRGB is a nice $400 magic bullet for this same problem when it comes to 16-bit video games, with LD its way more complicated. There is no "set and forget" solution, and the gear is significantly more obscure and expensive. I hope you guys *really* like the covers because the video will look terrible on most LCDs and most people aren't crazy enough to set up two home theaters (SD and HD).

I'm into LD because it was never retro for me. It's something I started during the LD boom and just never stopped doing. So I already have mutiple high quality CRTs, an RF demodulator, test discs, etc. I honestly think getting into it now is pointless, another thing to hoard like an insane person for a year and then dump like an insane person, but regardless, it's really taking off with people like the ones here. I kinda wish it wouldn't because the trailer park capitalists are going to ruin another one of my hobbies with their myopic gouging bullshit.

BTW, the "faces" SW discs look like shit. Massively overly processed. This had its advantages on CRTs, but they look more aliased than a PS2 game on an LCD. The old American issues are great. People like the Japanese Special Collection versions a lot too, but I've never seen them.

I've had good luck with LD on plasma displays as well as using a prepro to up convert the video.

SignOfZeta said:

most people aren't crazy enough to set up two home theaters (SD and HD).

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That sounds like something I would do.

I figure if your crazy enough to get into laserdisc in 2015 you're probably crazy enough to have some crts laying around. The thought of using one of these with my hdtv never crossed my mind, I can't imagine how awful it would look.

GohanX said:

I figure if your crazy enough to get into laserdisc in 2015 you're probably crazy enough to have some crts laying around. The thought of using one of these with my hdtv never crossed my mind, I can't imagine how awful it would look.

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Yeah, the LD player is hooked up to my PVM.

The plasma is for the Blu Ray player.