Laserdisc Collecting

NeoSneth said:

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.

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I have the letterbox "faces" set...they take up 3 sides (1.5 discs)...

Gohan, get Rambo.

If only 2015 was really like this...

http://www.11points.com/images/backtothefuture2wrong/laserdiscs.jpg

MattBlah said:

If only 2015 was really like this...

http://www.11points.com/images/backtothefuture2wrong/laserdiscs.jpg

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That was always my favorite scene from that movie!

What a righteous collection terry.330!!! Love the Twin Peaks and John Woo films!!!!!

smokehouse said:

I have the letterbox "faces" set...they take up 3 sides (1.5 discs)...

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Right, but I thought the one disc was all the Lucas interviews for each movie. If i wasn't travelling, i would just look at the chapters.

^ Actually I have the faces LD and looked. The 3rd side is more movie and the Lucas interwiew.

NeoSneth said:

Right, but I thought the one disc was all the Lucas interviews for each movie. If i wasn't travelling, i would just look at the chapters.

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Mr Bakaboy said:

^ Actually I have the faces LD and looked. The 3rd side is more movie and the Lucas interwiew.

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Yeah, there is definitely the end of the films on the second disc...never looked to see if thee were interviews on there.

My LD player auto flips so I only have to get up once to watch one of those films...

Kid Panda said:

Gohan, get Rambo.

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How did you know I love Rambo?

NeoSneth said:

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.

Click to expand...

You might as well just buy the faces edition. The Special Editions mark when the movies started going down hill.

GohanX said:

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

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I have a Die Hard 2 by itself if that auction screws you. Never had a use for it since I got the trilogy on dvd years ago.

I had Titanic before, just remember it was a whole lot of discs

The Titanic version I got is 2 discs. Unless you got a criterion edition or some crazy CAV version (which I never came across since laserdiscs were almost dead by the time it was released) I'm not seeing the bunch of discs.

Forgot to mention there is a reason why I like the old laserdiscs of Star Wars. Before Lucas cleaned up things in the "faces" edition you can clearly see the black matting around the ships move during the space scenes. Makes the movie look a bit cheesy, but reminds me of how low budget the movie really was.

So, I found another player, and it came with a whole collection of movies. Combine that with the other movies I bought, and I got a little carried away...

http://www.lddb.com/collection.php?action=list&user=gohanx

GohanX said:

So, I found another player, and it came with a whole collection of movies. Combine that with the other movies I bought, and I got a little carried away...

http://www.lddb.com/collection.php?action=list&user=gohanx

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Just had to have those Schumacher Batman movies, didn't you?

In all seriousness, I'm very jealous. Die Hard, Commando, Lethal Weapon, The Fugitive, RoboCop, Terminator/T2, and Speed and are some of my favorite action movies of all-time.

Actually, I hate those Batman movies. They were in the lot with the player. Those others you listed, yeah, some of my favorites.

GohanX said:

Actually, I hate those Batman movies. They were in the lot with the player. Those others you listed, yeah, some of my favorites.

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Yeah, I was just busting your balls. I figured you bought the lot(s) for the classic action films and not the shitty Batman movies.

I do like the way the cover art looks on the Batman & Robin laserdisc compared to the VHS/DVD. It looks far more natural and detailed.

I've got mostly Anime for my laserdisc collection. Tried to find obscure stuff, but nowadays most of it is on DVD.

This thread went balls deep into some LD love.

Commando should be given with every LD player that you buy.

Kid Panda said:

Commando should be given with every LD player that you buy.

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Commando was the first R-rated movie I ever saw in the theater thanks to my sixth grade soccer coach. So good.

Someone PM'd me awhile back about some Star Trek TNG LDs but I accidentally deleted the message. Whoever you were: could you PM me again?

I only saw Commando for the first time a few years ago. I love that movie so goddamn much.

Wow, that is an action fan's dream collection, Gohan. What a start

I just sold off all my laseractive stuff in the last few months.
Any big tymers want to buy my MSX Palcom?

I have/had 4+ laserdisc players, The laseractive (sold), an American Laser games with about 8 games hooked up to an Amiga, The Palcom and a Marantz. The Maratanz is light and smaller and has decent features. Lately for some reason it wont start up playing the discs. Have to open and shut it about 10 times. Usually the eject trays break on laserdisc players. Think its not triggering the its closed switch right.

I got my first laserdisc player in '97, a Pioneer close out model at Sears. It was a pretty basic model. I ended up giving it to my Mom after I had it for awhile.
I got movies for it for about a year or two . New Dvd players cost about $400-700+ at the time. DVD's cost about $40-50 a movie.
I had a membership with Columbia House, Suncoast and some record stores sold movies and there was a huge Pioneer retailer that sold and rented movies and sold players and stereo components. Sadly he never made the transition to DVD and went out of business. There was also about six small mom and pop video stores that rented laserdiscs.
In later 98 I got a DVD player at Compusa with a bunch of movies for about $300. The price of DVD's dropped to about $15-30 a movies and it didn't make sense to keep buying new laserdiscs at $40-150 a movie.
I bought close out movies from rental stores and other retailers. I continued to collect laserdiscs until about 2004 from Ebay.
At one time I think I had near 800 laserdiscs, I gave away dupes and movies didn't want to my mom, sold and traded some online.
Think I have about 450 right now.

Sadly I don't really have a reliable player at the second. My wife doesn't really watch the babies too well and they stuck a bunch of cd's in my Laseractive and broke it. That was about my 3-4th Laseractive player in the last 15 years, they just keep breaking and I'm sick of it. I'm just gonna get a cdx or wondermega again and I got a briefcase Pc Engine.
I decided to sell the MSX before they scratch it up and do the same thing to it. I'd need to get a player that outputs s-video because that's all the TV I watch them on takes. Or maybe some cheap local players that output composite for another Tv.
I don't think I want to buy any more online, seems like that ejecting tray breaks on half of them after shipping.
So in all not really worth it to me since I've only watched a handful of movies in the last 5 years with Netflix/ Blu-ray/ streaming etc.

MattBlah said:

Wow, that is an action fan's dream collection, Gohan. What a start

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Thanks

I'm not really trying to buy everything in all of existence, but most of this stuff is dirt cheap! It's like, I hop on ebay, find a movie I'm looking for for two measley bucks with $4 shipping. Oh, this seller combines shipping, let me see what else they have... before I know it, I've bought 5 discs, but only for $15 shipped.