And for chiptune use, to fulfil my rule of mounting a console onto the Retro Wall only if it can be used in-studio. I've squeezed too many up there as it is:
I'm glad about that Chris. I've come home with a Laserdisc player and I want to feed it.
£20, quality and working perfectly. (I would have thought for that money at least the automatic b-side player would be broken.) DVD's lost its shine now, with its tiddliness. No wonder I'm still up 'til this time...
At some point my Gran had a laserdisc player, but the only disk she had was... you know, I can't remember, but it was adult and boring. Space-age, holding such a disc though.
Well let's see, now I'm awake early and itching to play some more goodies. (A bit of cultured music I think as I've got the MC Hammer.)
The two aren't directly comparable, just like VHS HiFi soundtracks and CD. The Video Game Nerd said LD was analogue but I must admit I scoffed. After all, you got digital audio from it and the disc was read by laser but the claim turns out true. The Nerd's also right that there can be more of a sheen to the LD picture than DVD as a result, which is especially impressive when LD is 15 years older.
____________________________________
My own unit is a good, late one by Pioneer, so output quality should be among the best. It carries two laser transports to play both sides and has SCART and optical out too. On top of this, it plays both NTSC and PAL discs, directly outputting whichever format so there's no conversion to sully the signal chain. And a later one should have more durable works too, with good, solid, industrial mechanics. (And with LD discontinued, that's a must.)
Even so, I'm not sure mine's as new as the Nerd's. And a good CRT telly is a definite must to really see that polish.
Two drawbacks are that LD was never recordable and there's more to go wrong in a deck. But you don't get blocking or other digital artifiacts and it's intriguing to get your hands on a disc where you get to see what the production master tape looked like. That's not quite true on a DVD.
I still love DVD as it's ubiquitous, cheap, high grade by now and you get a recorder in every computer. But Laser Disc is special isn't it, a technically unreplaced, unique format on its own.
Last edited by Commie_User on 19/09/2013 - 8:27, edited 3 times in total.
If you got an essentially lossless version of the master tape I can see why that would be special. I'm guessing the Star Wars laserdisc is... expensive on Ebay?
Well you'll be surprised at times. LD is still common enough second hand, with Oxfam shops still selling them for just a few Pounds each. Turn of the Millenium the discs were still made and mine must only be roughly 1993, judging by the stock Pioneer design and the look of what's inside.
And put it this way, it's still good enough for me to want a spare deck. Blows my mind the format was launched in the '70s.
And for me, there's an interesting thing to watch out for. LD may be old and troublesome for a hi-def TV to work with. And Blu-Ray may now trounce it in terms of pure capacity and video information.
But you get that DIFFERENT quality with Laser Disc, that more natural look which is foregone with digital, as the picture is processed for the resolution to count more. The tellies are just different now, which is why I have both types.
__________________
EDIT: Yeah, I was right. Bang on '93.
Google search return:
Pioneer LaserDisc - LaserDisc UK Web Site http://www.laserdiscarchive.co.uk/pioneer1.htm
19 Mar 2007 - Pioneer CLD-1400 (1990) NTSC 3.58MHz Upgrade Pioneer CLD-1500 ... Pioneer CLD-2950 (1993) Pioneer CLD-1850 (1994) ... Pioneer LD-V8000 circa mid 90's, player were made for several years. Pioneer CLD-V1212D
Who knows then, perhaps there's choice homemade porn by some kinky old rich couple floating around somewhere. I'd rather watch that than some pretentious knobends like INXS. Though only worth recording for the novelty, as the analogue TV is now off.
Good, strong picture. I had to turn down the controls on my LCD, so vibrant were the pictures coming through.
I owned a Laser Disc player in the 90s. I had "Dune" and "Bladerunner" and several others. It took many many DVD releases of Dune until there was finally one that would match the Laser Disc's quality. The same can be said about Bladerunner DVDs until the release of the remastered blu ray that is.
