Getting Into Laserdisc in 2023

[@Earthtime3978]

People with bucks had laserdisc back in the day, you’re right. I saw it in stores or in movies and salivated for it. I went wild with the format in the early 2000s and had some rare titles but sold a good number off, and of course regret it. I still have several and they look as good as they’ll ever look on my OLED tv. It’s all about the blacks and contrast which OLEd spits out in spades. I still have two “Squeeze” LDs. They were not sold in stores, they could only be had when you purchased a new Toshiba tv back then. 4 titles were made- Unforgiven, The Fugitive, Grumpy Old Men and Free Willy. I have the first two.

[@zoomar1]

I bought my first LD player in 1987, when I was 24. It was a Pioneer. It was also my first CD player, because they played CDs as well. I liked LD for two reasons; better picture of course, and many LD's were released in letterbox format, where most VHS releases were full-screen. About the pricing. When new movies first premiered on VHS, they were often priced between $79.99 to $99.99 My reasoning is they were marketed to video rental stores, who bought multiple copies for rental. Usually after about a year, the price would be dropped drastically, to about $19.99 or less. Whereas, new LD releases were priced around $49.99 to $29.99 or less. Plus special editions, like the Director's Cut of ALIENS were never released on VHS. I still have a 1990 Pioneer player that is also a 5-disc CD changer. It still works. My 1987 model is in the closet; after many years of use, it acquired some playback issues. Some of the early LD's suffered from something called "laser rot" after a few years. The glue used in making the disc would deteriorate, and the result would be "dropouts" during playback; little white specks in the video image. I sold most of my LD's years ago, with the advent of DVD's.

[@circuitpig]

Nice video! I started buying LDs in 1992 and it's held a soft spot in my memories ever since. I have over 200 movies and 25 music video discs. Most of the discs were in the $30 to $40 range when new but the special editions were quite a bit more. The Definitive Star Wars boxed set was around $250 but it had many extras including a book. I'm still buying LDs to this day, but also DVD, BD, and UHD. Long live physical media!

[@greghanc]

i MISS PHYSICAL COPIES TOO

[@BlahBlah-em2ed]

The first movie I saw on LD was Terminator 2. It melted my brain as a 7th grader.

[@jims_junk]

Pink Floyd's Pulse was released on DVD as well but there's a LOT of compression artifacts. Recently they re-released it on bluray but re-edited it and used different camera angles. The best version to this day is the original Laserdisc.

[@tanelehala6422]

Level 42 - Live at Wembley 1986 same thing, DVD with horrible macroblocking Peter Gabriel - PoV was remastered as Live in Athens on BD but without the interesting extra home video footage Earth Wind and Fire - Live in Japan 1994 has extra tracks on LD vs DVD Elton John - Tour de Force (Live in Australia with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra) not released officially on DVD and the bootleg version has fewer tracks than some LD editions

[@robertwhiley4733]

Move from jersey (uk) to Finland with my pioneer 515 laserplayer x3 two still boxed from new 3,000 disc now. My 1st was Star wars box set 500£ from new, player was just shy of 900£ 😮 still working 💯 % to this day 😅good luck disc hunting.

[@Edward135i]

I grew up with Laserdisc in the 90s the movies cost anywhere between $80 - $100 new in the 90s! Not $35, I remember this well because my dad complained about it often. We had a local home theater store that would rent them, so it was economically viable for us, but I understand that wasn't the norm.

[@BrettDarien]

Oh wow. Do you remember if they were single discs or special editions with multiple discs? I'm sure those were the most expensive. I can understand though why the average consumer wouldn't be interested.

[@Edward135i]

@@BrettDarien Almost all the LaserDisc movies we had where 2 disk I actually found our old copy of Jurassic Park a few years ago when my parents moved it had 2 disk and had a price tag on the front that said $79.99

[@BrettDarien]

@Edward135i I just bought a 3-disc directors cut of The Alamo at a local store for $10. I'm guessing it originally cost over $100 when new. That's a hefty premium to pay.

[@josephwilson8391]

lddb lists the price of laserdiscs when they were new and many of them are between $29.99 and $49.99. Keep in mind that type of money back in the day would be close to $100 now a days by today's standard of currency. They didn't actually sell for $100 unless it was a rare exclusive and had a bunch of stuff in it such as a collectors edition. I think Star Wars Trilogy may have sold for around $79.99 which would be around $160 by todays standards. I hope I didn't confuse anyone. I also wanted to mention there's still movies stuck on this format not officially released on dvd or blurays.

[@psychedelicpucho]

I collected laserdisc in the early 90’s. There was a laserdisc store that carried and rented laserdiscs. It was great while it lasted. I amassed a decent collection of lots of my favorites. However, I have no idea why people are interested in these today. They aren’t really comparable with today’s TVs. They look like crap on them. Rare media is a separate subject.

[@r.bonifant43]

Hi Brett, I just found your site and love your videos. I was an avid laserdisc fanatic back in the mid 80s and 90s. I at one time had over 1100 discs and most of them were priced from between $39.00 on sale to $99 just out. In San Antonio there was only one store which was a very high end audio retailer that sold laserdiscs. I also bought a Pioneer model which played both sides for $750. I was able to buy my last player from Japan brand new in 2009 when they officially announced they were stopping production. By the time I added shipping it cost me over $1300. I still have my players but only have about 400 lasers left. I am starting to add to them and will never part with any again. Hope you enjoy your venture into lasers. Thanks for your videos.

[@BrettDarien]

@r.bonifant43 I feel like I'm becoming a fanatic of all of these old formats. I don't use them everyday but I just enjoy having them around and learning more about them. Thank you for watching!

[@WeberEnthusiast]

Still looking for a good ld player , always wanted on as went DVD then Blu-ray . Some great movies only available on ld and vhs .

[@billsandiego3385]

Awesome man

[@tanelehala6422]

The biggest differences can be seen in chroma smearing, on the red side view mirror against a neutral background. The S-VHS recording is clearly worst regarding that, I wouldn't accept that as a "solution", chroma reso is just as bad for S-VHS as for VHS. VHS has a horizontal chroma reso of 240 lines per picture height whereas the chroma reso is only a meager 40. LD has 425 (NTSC), 440 (PAL) and 70 respectively. Using S-video for LD means you're using the YC comb filter of the LD player which may or may not be better than the comb filter of whatever you connect the composite output of the LD player to. New tech might be better but cheap new tech might not.

[@timothyfrogue]

I collect LDs and play them.

[@erwintimmerman6466]

Great video! It would help though if you did a split screen where the left half was one version and the other half the other. Or cuts from one to the other in the middle of the scene so you can see the same image one right after the other. Also if you use a more still video part, YT compression doesn't show blocks like it currently does. As LD is analog video, I don't think it contains any blocking artefacts. But great video nevertheless, I got a LD player + a few discs too. Not to actually watch films on but more to show people the curiosity of what once was. The big discs are indeed very cool.

[@CaliGreen559]

I never even heard of them. I just found 2 big boxes of laserdisc’s, I was surprised how many popular ones were so expensive. I wonder if they sale

[@alexamorin5534]

I want to hook a laserdisc to a projector on my back patio. And put a screen and some speakers. And buy lots of 80s laserdiscs. Mostly ones that never made it to bluray

[@jaycoleman8062]

I sold my collection but saved about 20 music videos. Tom Waits Big Time is one i believe hasn't made it to dvd yet.

[@schlesinger29]

Blu ray and 4k are the way to go

[@zaneiken07]

I have a Denon clone of your Pioneer, and hooked up to a PVM CRT, I get a cleaner image via s-video.

[@BrettDarien]

I really want to believe the S-Video is better because in theory it should be, but apparently it isn't always better. If the video filters in the player are better than the filters in the display you're using, then S-Video will give you a better image. But most modern displays will have more advanced filters than the player.

[@Carlos_Barrera]

El sonido del laserdisc es muy especia ,es menos duro ,menos digital no cansa escucharles durante muchas horas , yo uso un Enlightened Audio Designs T7000 Universal Transport usando la salida coaxial hacia un DAC Topping D90 conectado a un previo BAT y a un krell KSA 250 con altavoces Wilson Audio y ahora he pedido un conversor S-video a HDMI marca Tendak que pasará y escalará la señal de video a traves de mi Denon avc-x4800h ,yo he tenido muchos reproductores laserdisc que he ido mejorando u otras veces han muerto pero como todo mientras mejor calidad de construcción mejor es la espectativa de vida de cualquier electrodomestico ...saludos desde suecia

[@Joe-ey7cu]

We shouldn't let them take our physical media. Don't be controlled by streaming price hikes and ads. You control your media when and how you want.

[@IvyAguas-b2j]

hi good day laserdisc karaoke is taking asia by storm in the 90's i have a huge collection of it will you mind if i send you some of my collection and make a REVIEW

[@owomushi_vr]

I really want ld because I wanna import anime from Japan that was never released here in the states

[@Bigbadwhitecracker]

I won a laserdisc player in a local auction. I never knew anyone who had one back in the day. I remember seeing them in stores. They were extremely expensive compared to VHS. Beside the price, the fact that you had to flip over the disc to continue your movie is a deal breaker for many people - and I do find that to be a pain in the A$$. Yet, they DO make quite the statement. What I hate about DVDs is that, in general, the artwork and packaging is horrid. Never heard of Josh and Sam

[@joshuapowell1868]

God bless you God more greater than your video is now days

[@Bigbadwhitecracker]

14:39 Try putting it on DVD instead of svhs and see what happens.

[@ronny332]

wrong: optical output is not AC3. and AC3 discs aren't something special. they were around since they were invented quite frequently. DTS is more rare. I personally avoid any comparison of S-Video and Composite. Laserdiscs are stored as Composite, so S-Video is just an extra unneeded conversation. Especially analog conversation should always be avoided. it's not the same as today when you have a 4:2:0 source, transfer it as 4:4:4 and use it as 4:2:2 at the end of the chain. Totally different and often causes extra distortion or originally available details get accidentally filtered out by the extra circuits. if your player outputs the best possible Composite signal and you get it on a good quality cable to the endpoint you like, that should the way to go.

[@BrettDarien]

You are correct, but I never said that the optical output was used for AC-3. I implied that there were two different digital outputs. The optical output is for the digital audio track of the disc, while the AC-3 output requires a separate decoder box. Laserdiscs look best on the display they were intended for, CRT displays. But since most people don't have CRTs anymore, a converter/upscaler is necessary to view laserdiscs on a modern television. The quality can vary but I found the results I got to be acceptable.

[@cowgoesmoo3850]

Sounds like you have some type of interference with your microphone and camera. I scanned the comments to see if anyone else noticed. I didn't see anyone mention it, so im just letting tou know lol.

[@BrettDarien]

Yes there usually is a buzzing noise when I use the lavalier microphone I have. I use audacity to reduce the noise but it doesn't remove it completely unfortunately. I might try making the noise reduction stronger next time.

[@martincontreras4033]

Where do you purchase laser disc movies???

[@BrettDarien]

I have a store nearby that sells them, but I also get them from Ebay.

[@bingcherry1122]

What is Jake Harper doing driving a car!!!! Lol!!!!🤣🤣🤣

[@motorkent]

Physical is best

[@joshuapowell1868]

Damage vhs movies doesn't stop playing at all like that thing does everything proven people like myself are repairing VCR players and fixing broken vhs tapes with Scotch tape it starts playing again with out no problem's everything proven vhs tapes last longer then your video does

[@jean-pierrem34]

OK. Stay with your 240 lines. I stay with my 425.