2015 - Time to buy my first Laserdisc Player

[@pkkingcrimsonrequiem1332]

Fun fact: Laserdisc is the only format in which all 114 Hanna-Barbera Tom And Jerry cartoons are presented uncut.

[@nnewt8445]

Just for that, I want a Laserdisc player, but only after I’ve flown the coop.

[@michaelpalmer5351]

@@nnewt8445 You live with chickens?

[@ethansloan]

I was born in 92, didn't grow up with laserdiscs, but started collecting them in high school. I already have most of the films on a more accessible format, but there's just something about LD. You're right, it is like collecting vinyl. Especially when it comes to Criterion editions or box sets. Disney put out some amazing LD box sets of their animated classics. I know it's not the best format, but it's got a permanent place in my heart.

[@JoelSinn-sd5fn]

I really like lazer disc, but at the same time, getting up to swap discs 3 or 4 times in one movie can get old, and breakup the experience.

[@Techmoan]

Pre-answers to questions from the future: 1) The Lines on right of the TV screen are caused by a panel failure - nothing to do with the laserdisc. A new TV has been ordered. 2) No I have no immediate plans to look at CED Videodisc. It might be interesting for 10 mins - but the video quality is the same as VHS (much worse than Laserdisc) and I don't think I want to pay a couple of hundred pounds to make a video about something that would just go on a shelf/in the bin afterwards.

[@rhythmnation2004]

I bought an RCA Selectavision CED player on eBay and it is so fascinating. It really is a record that plays video. The quality isn't wonderful but the idea of placing a record in a 30 year old player and being able to watch it is so fascinating.

[@rhythmnation2004]

+rhythmnation2004 there are also many many titles available on CED

[@That_AMC_Guy]

+Techmoan You're absolutely right. CED's are worse quality than Laserdiscs but there is something utterly fascinating about a CED. I'm not a hardcore collector of them by any stretch but there is something very novel; very nostalgic about watching a movie from a vinyl record. The most fun about them is to show them to people who have no idea what they are. I've always said though, if CED's had come out in 1972 when they had a proper, working prototype; things might be a little different today - at the very least, RCA might still be around.

[@WebVManReturns]

+Techmoan I don't blame you. My local Half-Price Books had maybe 50 CED discs for $.50 a piece, but a good working CED is expensive and not worth the quality you get for the money.

[@SheepRanic]

+Techmoan Aww - but the CED is so .. ridiculous ;-) It wars it out with the optigan for me for silliest technology ever.

[@michaelpalmer5351]

There was something undeniably magical about the technology of the late 80s/early 90s. Even the hypothetical leaps into what they could evolve in to, like seeing a cyberpunk anime or movie where they have some 'futuristic technology' that's actually all clunky, semi-analogue and housed in some big grey console - even that, was something beautiful.

[@RoundenBrown]

I remember being so excited when Blu-ray released in 2006. Went and bought the first Blu-ray player for 1,000$. Wanted a PS3 (600$) but they were sold out everywhere.

[@michaelpalmer5351]

@@RoundenBrown Sadly, it's all been a bit downhill since then, hasn't it. I reckon that was the last of the "new frontier" excitement in terms of home media.

[@Techmoan]

DTS: This video was all about me trying out some equipment I've never owned before...I'm not claiming to be an expert on this subject (and made a point of saying as much in the video). Well it turns out that I didn't mention something that the laserdisc experts want me to mention (even though they already know all about it)...it's DTS. Apparently there were some laserdiscs released with DTS soundtracks and apparently these will sound better than the same DTS soundtrack on DVD due to being uncompressed. So there's something I didn't know. I'll check through my discs to see if any of them have a DTS soundtrack to try out...and if you are interested you can find a list of Laserdiscs with DTS soundtracks here moesrealm.com/home-theater/guides/list-of-dts-laserdiscs/

[@JMacQ77]

+Techmoan Yeah, that was probably the AC3 RF/RCA jack on the back of compatible players. You had to have a standalone DTS decoder back then to take advantage of the surround channels, at least when the system first came out. Later receivers may have included built-in jacks and support.

[@rerolledDK]

+lookatmeanimator Since laserdisc stores video in composite format, the SCART connector probably just outputs composite video anyway. It would be worse than the standalone RCA composite output because SCART cables cram the audio and video wires right next to each other - usually with poor shielding.

[@keithparkhill8321]

+Techmoan Good luck finding laser discs without disk rot. Very simaliar to CD rot.

[@scottsasonicinc2445]

+keith “yoro 70” parkhill - I have never found a LD with rot . I have tons of CDs with it though.

[@Axer128]

+Techmoan Uncompressed DTS would be somewhere in the 5-6000kbps range, per your link they had 1400kbps tracks. Every DVD i've ever played with DTS has it encoded at 1536kbps. Only really weird/old releases were at 768kbps. So no, the audio was inferior in nearly every case (though not by any amount 99.9% of people would notice in the case of DTS/DD releases)

[@anthonyf3957]

In about 2002 I did the exact same thing. I was always fascinated by laser disc, but when I was younger I could never afford to buy the machine, or the discs. So when I found an incredibly cheap mid-90s Sony laser disc player on ebay for only $35 CAD, I took the plunge. I bought dozens of films off eBay, and what I loved most was that I found versions of films that you just could not buy new at the time,. Films like the original theatrical versions of the Star Wars trilogy, or the international theatrical release of Blade Runner. And with the 27" Sony Trinitron television connected via S-video and optical digital to my amp, they looked and sounded great. Honestly, just as good as DVDs, on that CRT television. Eventually, I even connected the LD player to my computer and made very good copies using the video capture card of my ATI All-in-wonder, then edited the captured files from each side (or sides) into one mpeg2 video file and created my own DVD versions, which I still have. Good times.

[@w8kdzradio113]

the thing i liked was the sound, even on 2ch stereo with the soundsystem I had that only accepted L and Right input the sound was awesome and the picture wasn't super bad it was just analog, but those soundtracks, this is the whole reason I am in it today with the same machine I bought in 94, simply because I will accept a less than high quality picture for the sound, in today's blu rays and dvds especially the blu-rays a lot of sound is super compressed to leave more bandwidth for the HD picture so the sound is crap, and the best thing that made a movie were the soundtracks, and Laserdisc had them and no format ever since could touch the sound of a Laserdisc

[@DavidFBird]

The ATI All-in-wonder! I had one for capturing all my S-VHS home video. Sadly was not compatible with my next, more powerful computer, which I bought for DVD editing.

[@JuhaKoski]

LD's have no menus, starts playing the movie when play is pressed? That is just what I want to happen now with BD. Instead we have tons of fbi warnings and trailers and some over-engineered menu where choosing subtitles takes 3 minutes because of the menu animations and stuff.

[@Culturedog]

+Juha Koski Sometimes there'll be some LaserDisc and studio logos (and THX and DD or DTS snippets on later discs) before the film, but no menus. And if the disc's encoded with chapter stops, you can just hit Chapter 1 on the remote if you want to skip all that stuff.

[@Scott_B1029]

+Juha Koski That was the nice thing about ripping DVDs back in the day. It was easy to strip away all the "prohibited user options", so you could skip all that junk.

[@adamf663]

I get that feature by always ripping blurays. :-p

[@KevinStriker]

Lots of early DVDs I've noticed you can hit the STOP button (or the Home button on a Blu-ray player) and play again and it'll begin playing the film with no warnings or menus. And then you have distributors like Criterion where you put one of their Blu-rays into a Blu-ray player, it goes right to the menu and doesn't give you any unskippable shit *after* pressing play either.

[@emprsnm9903]

Yeah, the FBI warning me about what I just payed for puts a little damper on my experience right out of the gate. Isn't this supposed to be a relaxing entertainment? Receiving a warning from one of the most powerfull governments on the planet isn't so relaxing to me. Between that, unskippables, and HDCP, I just don't watch many movies anymore. It actually encourages piracy in my case, as rips are more enjoyable and reliable, scales better too.

[@GuntPulp]

The real reason to get laserdisc? THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY OF STAR WARS UNALTERED.

[@araol5993]

Or use VHS.

[@emmittmorgans8076]

+HotPocketLord Plays Or get the "Despecialized Edition(s)" by Harmy.

[@WhateverHappenedToFun]

+GuntPulp I totally agree! It's the legal way! Now I miss only the Return of the Jedi!

[@CK2012]

+GuntPulp Yeah I got them they are great

[@DarthHater100]

+GuntPulp They came out with the original trilogy on DVD unaltered with one of the Lucas-edited versions, in one of his many cash grabs. First he altered the movie with his first stupid CGI alterations, then he came out with an unaltered packaged with the altered so you'd buy that. Quite sneaky that guy lol. I used to have a copy. The quality is about what you would get with laserdisc, which is quite low-to-unwatchable. Maybe you can find on Ebay or at a pawnshop. . . still a better way than hunting down the Laserdisc AND the Laserdisc Player. . . But the best solution is to wait for Disney to release the originals on Blu Ray.

[@hepatitis123]

I'm only a few minutes into the first video I've ever watched on this channel and it's already my new favourite.

[@Techmoan]

+hepatitis123 thanks - just another 300 to go.

[@hepatitis123]

+Techmoan Well, I guess I know what I'm doing this weekend :p

[@gvzh8]

I remember being blown away watching Starship Troopers on a LaserDisk through a 36 inch Sony Trinitron WideScreen TV! At the time I would have sold a kidney in order to own that setup

[@nthgth]

You'd sure be kicking yourself now haha

[@w8kdzradio113]

me too, but luckily I didn't have to, I had the pioneer av receiver and a laserdisc, and compared to my 6 head VHS hi fi couldn't even touch a laserdisc from the picture to the sound, the only downside with a Laserdisc is that they couldn't be recorded on

[@MoRRisoNRisiN]

@@nthgth they are so useless now lol i have like 200+ of them they weigh a ton and take up a lot of space... bad vid quality, have to flip them over and change discs... such a pain.

[@NickBartolo]

The thing that made Laser Discs special was that by the 90's it was a videophile only format. It was apparent it wasn't going to be a replacement for VHS by then. The standards set by Criterion discs and stores like QED Laser in Westmont IL separated the true movie lover from the pleebs marching into the ever multiplying Blockbusters. I bought a DVD player as soon as they were available in America and there was no denying the next popular home video format had arrived. It looked great, the familiar disc size was comforting and average consumers were finally becoming educated enough to enjoy the correct aspect ratio and extra features it offered. But at the end of the day it became a popular format that could be bought at competitive price points at any old store. Therefore, it could never hold the mystique or cool factor of a Laser Disc.

[@RyanSchweitzer77]

Yes, and DVD's competitive and econonomically attractive price points were underscored further when Wal-Mart started to sell movies on DVD for $5 or less. I will admit, that's how I was able to build up a good chunk of my DVD collection, but I do agree totally that nothing can ever match the je ne sais quoi that LD had. Especially considering there's still a few titles on LD that have never been re-released on DVD (those are the ones I try to collect in my LD library. :) )

[@daviderinaldi329]

In the Laserdisc era it was clear from those Criterion or Signature Editions that the end user was being treated almost as a colleague of the film makers. An expert to whom video transfer process, correct aspect ratio, director`s opinions, etc. were as important as the movie itself. Just the intro written and signed by the Directors/Producers found in the liner notes, felt like they were handing you the original cinema reels (with a "make good use of it") I don`t know, but that feeling I had with LDs and never got it again.

[@albertbenajam6761]

Many Television stations of the time were receiving programs movies and adverse on Laser Disk though with broadcast players not home gear.

[@w8kdzradio113]

what you said about Videophiles holds true, and even though I couldn;t rent them is the prices came down on the movies, and the truth is I got the Crow on Laserdisc 3 weeks before my pre order came in on VHS and it was just sitting in the rack, so I bought it and canceled my VHS order, I don't know if all movies were like that, but Suncoast had a lot of them and that's where I got The Crow 3 weeks before the VHS pleebs could buy it and still had to rent it if they wanted to see it again

[@cubdukat]

I never got the chance to get to QED. I bet it was cool. There was a place on the North Side called Laser Image. I used to rent from them all the time. Generally, I was one of those plebes marching into the ever multiplying Blockbusters because they were the only places that rented Laserdiscs.

[@sachinkapur7569]

Your patience and precision is out of this world !

[@robertholtz]

Great video. I DID own this equipment back in the day. In fact, I spent a small fortune on my elaborate home theater installation which featured a LaserDisc system as the star of the show. This brought back some great memories. I do miss the beautiful box sets with special artwork and bonus content. It all felt very substantial. Thanks for a great retrospective on a wonderful albeit obsolete format. Good times.

[@RetroFan]

I have an LD player now and I recommend Novus plastic cleaner. There's three. One is for removing dirt and to polish and #2 is for minor scratches and #3 is for deep scratches. Vinegar also helps clean away any residue. I noticed some movies that had audio noise or picture were completely cleared up after using the novus product and even vinegar.

[@SzilardPusztafalvi]

I remember my school mate had a laser disk an copied Lone Wolf McQuade (1983) Chuck Norris and Firewalker to the same tape. Best picture and sound ever

[@kierenmoore3236]

Opening that laserdisc drawer - especially just after the cd drawer - in that perspective, reminds me if the opening scene of Spaceballs … ☺️

[@dennisw8263]

I was a Pioneer LD tech from '81 to '03. A bit of disc trivia... There was a company that put out "adult" LDs (late '80s I think), Miracle Films. Their motto was "If it's good, it's a miracle!" I still chuckle when I think about that.

[@CharliePecoraro]

You hit the nail on the head. My interest lies in the grandness of the size, the novelty, the fun, & the rarity.

[@NikHYTWP]

"I'm not going to be trying out MUSE LD" *Laughs in future*

[@johnk7302]

yeah it's expensive to get into but the quality is great.

[@panqueque445]

The one thing I like about laserdisc is all the extra stuff you get. Some movies come with little booklets and stuff.

[@jasontaylor5061]

I honestly love this, some of my earliest memories growing up were watching land before time,twister,the mask,roger rabbit and more. Every time I mention to someone I had one growing up most of the time they don't know what in talking about. I always did love the cover art tho it truly did shine. thanks for this video!

[@soulfreshdays]

2021 - time to buy my first laserdisc player. I have watched your video in 2015 and afterwards I was always intrigued to get a machine myself but I always seen the high prices for such players and did not see much use for me at a high cost. And this year finally I was also able to get a good 300 Euro deal on an old player with 31 movies with it so I could not resist. This would have been a technology I have never seen or used if there were not you and your always charming and interesting presentations. Thank you and greetings from Germany!

[@TrustsLiars]

You posted this shortly after I had purchased my first laserdisc player. I have really grown to love having the option to watch older films on this medium, especially if it was a film I saw for the first time on VHS. I don't know if it's just me but if I have those analog memories I seem to enjoy watching them again on laserdisc. Also, like you say in the video many things that never got a dvd or bluray release are available on laserdisc. That's a big plus.

[@TrustsLiars]

I have a sony

[@TosothYaKnow]

Wee bit late on the train, but had to comment since you brought up SCART; I was reminded of how swore by using it for my game consoles before I got a proper HDTV since it tended to get the best quality compared to composite or *shudder* RF. Having a decent TV (a 32" Philips set, flat pane, still have it around for my old consoles), that connector even allowed me to read the text in Dead Rising without getting head aches, something that was a major issue back then since I think they didn't think much about how many still used CRT's outside of Japan at the time.

[@manicmuse1]

I could listen to you for hours, in fact... I do lol

[@atilliar]

Same. I go on Techmoan benges pretty regularly lol!

[@snowzZzZz]

+James Roy He's knowledgable though with a good cadence, go watch something else if that's what you're looking for.

[@donaldjuan1729]

And he seems like a really great guy, the type you'd enjoy having a beer with, salt of the Earth and all that. Also, just as an aside, that genuine British pluck is fun, considering I'm American (and assuming I'm using that phrase correctly)

[@JohnIainMcFarlanewaspfactor]

Just found your channel and have been enjoying catching up with your posts.I am 55 and was an early adopter of everything up to Blu Ray,then lost interest,sold all my old gear years ago for peanuts,so loving this trip down memory lane.Cheers.

[@AfferbeckBeats]

I had never seen a Laserdisc before until a few months ago. I do volunteer work at a charity donation type shop, and I spied a big box of what I assumed to be LPs. Looking closer I noticed they were all film related, so I thought they were film soundtracks. But then looking inside the sleeves, I found whopping great mirrored plastic discs - my first time ever seeing a Laserdisc! No one else working in the place had any clue what they were, despite them all being middle aged and presumably having noticed them advertised for sale all throughout the 90s. They must not have been popular in Australia at all, because I've yet to meet anyone who really knows what a Laserdisc is. I ended up buying about a dozen of them for a couple of bucks each, stuff like Terminator 1 and 2, Akira, Life of Brian etc. I still don't have a player though!

[@alessandroranzo9748]

nobody knows what laserdisc is here in Italy, not very popular at all

[@brettengland192]

I bought my first Laserdisc player in 1989 with money I received from graduating from college. I bought the Pioneer LD-W1 which had two separate trays and played all four sides of a double disc set.

[@EposVox]

This is a pretty cool look at laser discs. I've always been curious.

[@ReNeyer]

Hey! Im a projectionist in a small German cinema and guess what we used to have in our projection romm? A Laserdisc player! These days however we have a scaler and a BR/DVD Player hooked up to bump the signal up to 2k which is our digital projectors output format. However as you stated during the video scaling with special hardware has its limits and the best scaling Ive seen so far is the In-Software scaling of DVD upwards to FHD by the Playstation 3.

[@alternatingbitmusic]

As always your videos are always so well done and half of the appeal is your personality; that perfect combination of passion, knowledge and sense of humor. I still use standard audio cassette and minidisc but have enjoyed many of your other tech vids.

[@Skillet98]

Just found this channel. Just subscribed. And it's entirely because it's really nice to see someone who appreciates older technology and doesn't just toss it aside. I won't be buying any 8-track players or laser discs any time soon, but I do have a special place for retro electronics and entertainment. Even though I was born in '91 and a lot of it is before my time. It's still cool to go to a garage sale where someone is getting rid of their old equipment and you can see it has been taken care of because they enjoyed it and appreciated it... they didn't just throw it away when the new version came out like so many do with their things today. I do want to get a turntable and some records though. That's one of the things I'd like to splurge on someday.

[@Nukle0n]

Composite video isn't just blurry, you have the problem of dotcrawls and rainbows. It's artifacting from the way the composite signal squeezes all 3 colorspaces into one signal, a form of crosstalk if you will.

[@daviderinaldi329]

Contrary to what was said in this video many players (including and specially the one I have, Pioneer HLD-X9) do a great job in separating Y and C into 2 discreet signals. The comb filter in X9 is a unique design made by private lab Nishihara Laboratories (later purchased by Mitsubishi) and is capable of doing a perfect job also on slow moving camera pans (aside from static shots where it switches to 3D and fast moving ones where 2D filtering is used). Moire and dot crawl are thus non existent when played via the S-Video output (nor are block and mpeg noise/compression artifacts, as they simply don`t exist in LDs). I actually have 2 set-ups, one with projector (attached to a pipeline of professional scalers) and one purely LD+(34")CRT TV both look great and allow to experience some material not available elsewhere at the best possible picture and sound quality.

[@targetrender9529]

Most good LD players had good comb filters to assist with that.

[@Shamsithaca]

Love Laser Disc...SO UNDERRATED...regardless of video quality. I love the size just as you!

[@Mind_of_MATT]

I love the idea of laserdisc. Big physical album like packaging with huge physical disc. I never owned Laserdisc but it is appealing to me. That said, I can't be bothered now that I'm neck deep in blu ray. One thing that sucks about BDs is the packaging. In the U.S. cases with holes referred to as "ECO" is absolutely ridiculous.

[@w8kdzradio113]

i'm neck deep in blu ray too but I still show my LD player some love as I just purchased 7 movies from a flea market last weekend and I got Jurassic Park and T2 in the lot I bought, and for those movies alone blu ray can't touch the sound, the picture blu ray is winning, but I like to be immersed into my movies and the blu ray can't do that

[@kingcrimson234]

@@w8kdzradio113 The sound quality is far better on Blu-Ray in a technical sense... as long as the mastered mix is good. It is true that some LD's have a killer mix though, often a direct copy of the theatrical mix, and those can hit hard. A lot of time, the modern mixes for home releases are altered a bit and some of the dynamics are lost which sucks if you have a killer sound setup.

[@andrewkaiser7210]

My absolute favorite thing about LaserDisc is the fact that when you put it in the player, the movie just starts! No commercials, no ads, no trailers, no dinky menu animations. Just pop it in, and by the time you sit down the movie is underway. I will happily deal with lesser video quality for that convenience.

[@hqdefault]

It's 2016 and I still don't have my 3 Heads tape deck :(

[@Tokilainen]

My stepdad had one, and still has alot of movies for it too- It was cool showing people movies on a huge cd-looking disc. Mind you, dvd didnt exist back then.

[@tgaming1002]

In one of the classes in my school my teacher has a laserdisc player and she still uses it to play videos on

[@junkman8742]

I can smell the mothballs

[@inatrance92SK]

Love that you are a Hong Kong film fan as well. Thanks for this informative video.

[@iio58]

I used to have this player as soon as it came out. I was importing laserdiscs and players in the early 90’s and I loved the format. It was glorious having movie covers and gatefold discs in 12” glory! Such a great time and when the auto playing double sided players came out it was like a god sent. Saving having to get up and manually change sides every 45 minutes haha. Although when I first got a player it was on a 14” TV haha. Apocalypse now gatefold was larger than the TV it was playing on haha. Great memories.

[@fsfaith]

I remember VCDs fondly. Back in the days in Hong Kong you could get 10 VCDs for basically £10s. They were mostly old movies but when you're on holiday in a place that often rains quite heavily it's pretty nice to just relax and watch some old movies.

[@aimpointcx4444]

Here in the states, we actually had these in a few classrooms in elementary school. Around 1995.

[@Sinyckle]

Sadly my high school in California 3 years back still used these, that was the first time I had heard of it

[@Audiorevue]

I remember back in the Middle 2000s when I was living in Tacoma Washington there was a little video store down in Lakewood and they prided themselves on having obscure movies and films. I mean it was a huge place and they just had every sort of weird odd sci-fi and foreign film and they really love their Hong Kong karate movies that were all imported. Anyway I was about 15 at the time and I remember that they rented machines and they had a movie on the shelf that I had never heard of and I really wanted to see called THX 1138 on laser disc. Anyway they had a couple machines to rent and I paid $145 including a $100 deposit for the machine just so I can watch George Lucas's first film, and it was magnificent. Still to this day one of the best movies I've ever seen

[@jakestockton4808]

I remember I was in 6th grade when my teacher brought in a laser disc player to show us "the future". Looking back, it was just a record player that used lasers. I really was the last generation to see everything considering I owned a 45 player and an 8-track.

[@eekee6034]

I reckon you're about right. I'm a bit younger than you and I've seen 8-track, but only because I had an older tech-loving relative.

[@TexasCat99]

I miss jog shuttle dials on remotes and/or on the player. My first DVD player had a mini-shuttle knob. The frame by frame with CAV was so nice, and why CAN'T we have that on BluRay? There were data CAV discs, in which each frame is a photo of a historical photo. I have some of those, with NASA photos as well as photos from 100 years ago, from the days before the Internet. Ah, when LD and VCRs had 20 buttons, even a headphone jack. All those buttons is like the old days of cars when we had buttons and things to press, push or pull.

[@itchyomalley]

Thanks for this episode, I always thought I might buy the original Star Wars movies on Laserdisc (where Han shot first) but the video quality examples you've shown has changed my mind and saved my money. Thanks!

[@spazzman90]

Thanks for making this video!. It inspired me to pull out my player which had been dormant for the last 15 years or so and reevaluate its capabilities. While I won't be watching many Hollywood blockbusters with it, I found the output extremely satisfying from concerts that were shot on video tape. The quality is quite comparable to the SD blurays they are coming out with which leads me to believe the LD is close to the video tape master in terms of reproduction. The audio is close to spectacular as well. I've added about 30 concert videos to my collection in the last couple of months and my Laserdisc player has re-earned its spot in my component rack thanks to you. Have a nice day.

[@robcfg]

Nice video! I bought a Pioneer LD player some time ago, and at least on my Samsung CRT TV, it looks wonderful. Specially old anime series look better than on any mpeg compressed format. I also got a sealed Escape From L.A. LaserDisc, and I enjoy it quite a lot!

[@w8kdzradio113]

The only thing an end user needed to know about CLV vs CAV is that CAV keeps the disc at the same rotational speed no matter where the laser is, so it allows finer tuning with the frames, CLV is different in the fact that the disc slows down at a rate constant with where the laser is just like a CD whenre the rotational speed is higher at the center, and slower at the edge, without reading the label you will here a CLV disc braking more and you can unload it quicker than a CAV because a CAV has longer to slow down before it is dropped onto the tray, unless you stop a CLV at the beginning to unload then it takes the same time to brake

[@MrJimbofox]

Dude. You mentioned PC ENGINE!!!! Awesome!!! I had the US version --TurboGrafx-16 new in 1989!!!!

[@scottishwarrior3438]

after watching this video I've been seeking out a laserdisc player, found one and hopefully will be winning the bid for it soon. will need some minor repair but aside from the drawer not opening it does play the disc's perfectly.

[@sock2828]

My family had a laserdisc player when I was a kid and I remember one day going through the face melting scene at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark frame by frame to try and figure out how they did the effect.

[@svenjansen2134]

Terrifying scene!

[@stephencostello8792]

I had a CLD2950 (I think that was the model) in the 90's. It was fab. Just before DVDs came out. I got a massive DVD player as well. Good to see them still running.

[@NickMurray]

Really enjoyed. You did a great job with this video, very interesting.

[@Techmoan]

+Nick Murray thanks old chap.

[@jadedheartsz]

@@Techmoan Highpoint is a damn good film and not terrible at all.

[@hiphopguru81]

I absolutely LOVE old technology. Its incredibly fascinating to me. The uploader put it best when he said the word "charming". That's exactly how I feel about the subject of old school technology. Absolutely Charming. Brilliant.

[@christoohunders5316]

21:50 Highvision LD's "that's not something I'm going to be trying out" You betcha ...

[@emprsnm9903]

I caught that too. A better budget does wonders! Glad too.

[@furlag2]

I am a BIG fan of you work - those videos about obsolete formats it is a recall of days when as Young kid was browsing paper catalogues with futuristic - unaffordable piece of equipment. As always - it was good to wait for new to come. Thank you for posting.

[@nicolaibo]

Techmoan buys and reviews, so that we don't have to. All that's left for us is sweet and pure nostalgia.

[@svenjansen2134]

Uncut

[@CharliePecoraro]

Bravo! I agree, there IS something a bit mysterious about why I love LDs. The comedy & simultaneous grandeur of their size, & that whomever I invite over had usually never seen a movie on that format. It's a tremendous novelty that I truly adore.

[@alberteinsteinthejew]

I remember played on CAV disc (side 3) of Batman Forever, watching Jim Carrey, Tommy Lee Jones, Val Kilmer, and Nicole Kidman frame by frame... OMG the old days!

[@cubdukat]

They had a CAV version of that one? That must have been rare.

[@cyberwolfe]

I've got a Pioneer Elite CLD-99 and just love the quality and build of these units. I have it hooked up to my DVDO iScan Duo, then fed to my 60" LG Plasma. The DVDO iScan Duo is a neat device that in addition to up scaling, it can take many different analog video inputs and output them digitally via HDMI. This also includes mixing the analog input audio source and tying it with the inputs video over HDMI ouput.

[@dharkbizkit]

when i first saw and LD on my friends house, his dad had one, i was stunned and wished we had one too. i waited long for them to get cheaper but they never dropped that much. it felt like "they" wanted it to be something exculsive, something thats not intended for anybody. sort of a premium product that would lose its value if it became a mass market product

[@w8kdzradio113]

that's true I dropped 700 on my first model which was a both sides play

[@cepibolla]

well, laserdisc was basically this, a very exclusive format for people trying to get the best video and audio quality (before the failure of w-vhs)

[@batforjustice]

I laughed when I heard the concern of disk rot that others brought up. Ask yourself and think of the shear number of DVD's being subject to man induced disk rot. Scratches, bad buffing, finger prints, dropping them, etc. In the late eighties I rented LD machines and discs where you inserted the case and then pulled it out. But it was a commercial player for the rental market. When I bought my Mitsubishi (with" bad singing capability") LD player new. They talked up AC3, but did not say that you needed a rf demodulator. It worked fine with a dolby surround receiver any way. Even when I got my first DD 5.1 Pioneer VSX-D411 I didn't care to buy a demodulator even then. If somebody has a use for things it not obsolete its only no longer in production.

[@CoinOpTV]

ahh yes i remember the laser disc era for sure

[@dannymain542]

Your videos are really interesting. This is the only channel on youtube that can keep me glued to the screen for 30 minutes straight.

[@GuruAidTechSupport]

You should mess about with HD DVD

[@CamryLong]

GuruAidTechSupport YES

[@AnonymousFreakYT]

Oh, craaaaap. I'd better make sure to rip mine to computer quickly, then.

[@PixarMan2001]

HD-DVDs usually have disc rot. He won't last a day with HD-DVD.

[@PixarMan2001]

@@pineappleroad that's true. But I've had some Universal ones rot on me too. Basically, they're very unreliable in general in my opinion.

[@bubba842]

@@PixarMan2001 only Warner Bros titles do. Every other studio does not suffer Warner Rot. I have over 30 HD DVDs and the only one that doesn't work is 300 by Warner Bros. I only have 2 Warner releases. I just don't buy Warner Bros discs.

[@SarahLJP]

6:48 I remember that remote. My family had a Pioneer Laserdisc player when I was young. I loved playing around with the jog feature, because of how smooth it was going from backwards to forwards. Also, the analogue reverse and forward was nice. You had so much control.

[@bloxyman22]

Even though they are a bit softer it had one advantage over dvd in that quality did not degrade during complex scenes/action scenes. This is something I even notice with HD videos these days where there is pixelation/digital artifacts due to bitrate not being high enough for certain scenes. This is a huge issue with digital cable/satellite since they compress the bitrate as much as possible to fit in more channels per transponder. Also alot of the issues with image quality also comes down to how badly modern tvs scale up the signal or how it has to use post processing deinterlacing. Often deinterlacing is even done by pretty much cutting away half of the resolution or blurring them both together causing both ghosting and blurry image. Even with a big crt compared to a same size lcd tv you would notice a huge difference in quality.

[@bloxyman22]

apollomemories73 Yep... KZbin is perfect example since they never use high enough bitrate for the resolution. And the reason you notice this on analogue tv also right now is because they usually just rebroadcast the digital source so these days with analogue cable or terrestrial you get the worst from both worlds.

[@heywoodjablowme1624]

+bloxyman22 LDs had no compression artifacts and very few had edge enhancement, which is something that they really started going crazy with with DVDs

[@heywoodjablowme1624]

***** Artifacting is the result of lossy data compression. Since LDs did not use data compression, you will not see compression artifacts... I don't care how good your display is.

[@bloxyman22]

***** That is a whole different issue. Analogue media of course also has artifacts when it comes to noise, but the image does not degrade further with a complex scene with alot of changes like a action scene. And that is where digital video is much worse with todays low bitrates. Of course with a high bitrate seen on most bluray discs this is not as noticeable, but that is besides the point since I was talking about dvd which had a max bitrate of 8mbit and usually used a lower bitrate to have more video on one disc.

[@apollomemories7399]

+Mike P : Not in all cases. I recently bought the Blu-ray of Led Zeppelin's "The Song Remains The Same" and the audio is not nearly as good as that on the 2xDVD version. Quite why I'll never know. However, picture wise it's very good.

[@Dexter649]

I was in 6th grade when this was uploaded, i was 7th grade in 2016 and i ended up getting a LaserDisc for Christmas. I love this format ever since and i am now 21 and i love this format way better than VHS!

[@ianenri]

Now you need to get a Hi-Vision LaserDisc, which are 1080i High Definition LaserDiscs... from 1993

[@Techmoan]

They came out before that..

[@ianenri]

+Techmoan :O, when?

[@dellagustin]

Ian Nájar they were actually 1035i, this is a very interesting technology. It seems they already transmitted in this same encoding through satellite at the end of the 80s. I could not find when the first hit vision ld players were launched, but in wiki it says they were announced in 91

[@DelphianFilms]

Thanks for sharing this. Having been an LD retailer back in the day (as well as a collector), I can appreciate your enthusiasm for the format.. flaws and all.

[@MattSharp8]

The same laser disc player is in my loft I remember playing with it as a kid I always used the LD tray button for CDs just because it was so huge

[@ReetinEntertainment]

I just got the CLD 5104 from work! We moved buildings and they had some stuff in the storeroom, one of which was a Laserdisc player. I love it.

[@Ernststrike95]

Great Video! But I don't think your side by side comparison is entirely fair. A lot of what makes the LD picture look "washed out" has to do with the contrast/brightness settings on your tv. Laserdiscs require some tweaking in order to look right, and you'll even get a little more detail out of 'em if you get it right. Of course, it's going to look nowhere near as good as a blu-ray or anything, but it will at least rival DVD.

[@Culturedog]

+Ernst de Yeah, I have wildly different calibration settings on my rig for LD vs. DVD and Blu-ray. They really are apples and oranges, so it takes some time (and hopefully a copy of Video Essentials) to get LD looking its best like you said.

[@JLeaguer]

You are so right about the contrast/brightness settings. Also that's definitely a sub-par LD used for the comparison. As a longtime LD collector, I also made the observation that the average Japanese LD looks A LOT better than average US (or even PAL) discs (Criterion being an obvious exception). They are also much more collectable because of their wonderful artwork (almost always surpassing their western counterparts by far) and overall care given to each release. There are hardly any state-of-the-art Japan LDs in this video (and I'm not talking about squeeze LDs and MUSE LDs, which are still an entirely different story).

[@Doellimann]

You're definitely not the only one of your kind! Im also a little bit weird when it comes to old types of media... That starts at my love for vinyls which are all professionals cleaned by my self and stored under optimal conditions in nagaoka sleeves. It's simple something magical around that celebration you have to go through to listen to a vinyl record... Im switching on my old Aiwa stereo system from the late eighties, then my mixing console, both turntables, picking out one of my old treasures, get them as gently as possible out of theirs sleeves onto the turntable, starting it and then finally place the needle gently on the record... But it ends not there, I've also listen to good lot DAT-tapes while I'm driving... complicated, uncomfortable but it feels sooooo good doing it!

[@JamieR1988]

1998 seems like last week. Scary to think it was 18 years ago! I was only 10 lol.

[@JamieR1988]

Phil Matibag. And?

[@SpektralJo]

I was born that year

[@motofingo]

yes me to same watch mortal combat 1998

[@JamieR1988]

Lynchology101. There will be advancements made on all technology. A phone Android/iOS can only do so much. 4K Blu-Rays are out, soon to be 8K. Gaming in 4K is also starting to be produced in 5K. We just don't know what's next. It could be anything. Who would of thought in 1998 we'd all be here writing comments to total strangers on a video streaming site using our hand held devices? The next generation of kids, my son included have a lot to look forward to. I can't wait for the day we have proper 4k smartphones!!

[@JamieR1988]

Lynchology101 aw yeah I know folk used to do chat rooms etc. American pie demonstrates that very well. KZbin is far more advanced and it's handheld. Where as chat rooms required a pc/laptop and dial up Internet lol.

[@arri275555]

loved the video. It was well put. I my self miss the format. Long story: I purchased my first one when I was in high school. (1996) I now have three models today. Two pioneers and one Sony. Again great video..

[@LaserRotShow]

Glad you joined the club! it's a fun thing, i review LaserDiscs and have yet to come across a terrible transfer as opposed to the millions of DVDs i have that look like shit.

[@onenightblitz]

20:52 That VCD was from Hong Kong. They were a big distribution label with VCDs during the late 90s and early 2000s.

[@vcancer]

Great Laserdisc to add to your collection is David Bowie:let's dance concert. A Great concert.

[@daviderinaldi329]

Most people experience with LD is that, they buy an average LD player, a bunch of movies (of which they know little as far as "which version" its in their hands) connect it to an HDTV, see bad quality and think that, well, that is it. Then they discover the composite video part and move on. But you better hold your horses as there is far more to LDs than just those simple facts. Contrary to what was said in this video which player you have, how you are connecting it to the display device, which display device you are using and which version of the movie you own will heavily alter your experience with LDs. For example, many players (including the one I have, Pioneer HLD-X9) do a great job in separating Y and C into 2 discreet signals. The comb filter in X9 is a unique design made by private lab Nishihara Laboratories (later purchased by Mitsubishi) and is capable of doing a perfect job also on slow moving camera pans (aside from static shots where it switches to 3D and fast moving ones where 2D filtering is used). Moire and dot crawl are thus non existent when played via the S-Video output (nor are block and mpeg noise/compression artifacts, as they simply don`t exist in LDs). One of my LDs set up comprised of an X9 connected via S-Video to a 34" Sony CRT is good enough to deliver the LD goods when the right version of the movie is played. Some movies in fact were (re-)published up to 4 times during LD format life span, and the quality of the transfer generally ranges from abysmal to very good (though even a very good disc will play badly on an average player connected straight on to an HDTV, period). I do not agree when this video states that it`s all academics as Blu Ray is better. There are still exclusive experiences to be had on LD, Robocop for example, the Criterion laserdisc is the only version featuring the original theatrical aspect ratio (altered in all other versions), The Matrix even after the 4K release, still resemble the theater more than DVD/Blu-Ray and 4K (no no no Dolby Vision`s chromatic aberration and coarse artificial film grain are far from accurate, was really disappointed when I watched the 4K release), some exclusive content only made possible by CAVs frame by frame advancement (some great stuff in the Akira Criterion release for example thousands of production frames) are still only available on LDs, and the list goes on and on. Thus experiencing these exclusives at the highest possible quality is a real issue, not something to be dismissed. The Bottom line is that the gorgeous LD jackets are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what LDs have to offer, and the "sufficiency" (when not superficiality) this format if often treated with, really does no justice to it.

[@GnCFilms]

What a great video. Nice, clear, and informal naturalistic speaking without any "crazy antics" or stupid comments to try and sound cool". Highly informative and a whole lot better than most of the dross here on KZbin. As an aside, it was a joy to see that Criterion Collection disc of The Killer (I love Criterion). Having only ever seen the front cover of the packaging, it was great to see it opened up. I wonder why they didn't use those subtitles for the subsequent DVD release (one of the crown jewels in my rather limited Criterion collection!). Cliffhanger, too, is another great film; they don't make them like that anymore. Anyway, apologies for the rant - thanks for sharing this video! (Incidentally, Criterion were the ones who first started letterboxing films and providing commentaries, as well as producing special editions!)

[@Trojan0304]

I was big into VHS , had hundreds of movies & TV shows. Decided to past on LD. Went big on dvd,BR, 4K movies. Thanks Matt for more trips into tech past

[@cb1671]

For anyone getting into the Laserdisc format (as a hobby, obviously), avoid the S-Video output. The S-Video output uses the internal comb-filter in the Laserdisc player, and they are almost always terrible. Only the high-end players have decent ones. 99.5% of the time, the TV comb-filter or an outboard one is far superior. Stick with the Yellow Composite output unless you have one of the really high end models.

[@Techmoan]

+Chris Barbati finally, someone who knows what's going on and doesn't want to argue about using composite out. Thanks.

[@cb1671]

Techmoan​ No problem :)

[@CODMarioWarfare]

My 98 TV has no comb filter lol

[@RyanSchweitzer77]

Yes, there is truth to this, for I've read that in comparison, the built-in comb filter in most TVs (even mid-range sets) can do a better job with LD's NTSC (or PAL)-standard composite-encoded video as opposed to using s-video and leaving the chroma separation to the player's own lesser-performing filter. And I've always hooked up my LD players via yellow-RCA-jack (or BNC if pro equipment) composite video (aka CVBS, composite video with burst & sync) anyway, since as covered in this video, the disc's video contents itself are already composite-encoded in the NTSC fashion (or PAL for European LDs).

[@wbfaulk]

Maybe this is true these days (I haven't used my Laserdisc player in many years), but I can assure you that using S-Video on the Laserdisc player was a night-and-day difference when I was using it in the '90s, at least in the US on NTSC.

[@jsz2619]

I have a Pioneer CLD-505 LD player. I bought it in Dec. of 2001. It was a store demo unit and came with some discs too.

[@LukusMaxamus]

Jeez 2015 doesn't feel like 5 years ago.. time flies

[@paulj5336]

I have the same Ld player and I absolutely love it. The Dts version of Jurassic Park is my favourite and whenever I meet someone who has worked on a film in my collection I ask them to sign the sleeves.

[@gabrieldepinho]

Hey, about the Disc rot... Is there anything to protect the discs?

[@Techmoan]

There’s nothing you can do - disc rot happens from the inside.

[@AvidRetro]

@@Techmoan Found only a small handful of laserdiscs that suffer this problem. Less problematic than some Warner HDDVD discs ha ha. I think my copy of Ace Ventura Pet Detective is fine on one side but not on the other. Which is strange. My player same as yours is still going fine after I picked it up 15 years ago at a car boot sale for £15. Fast forward to today it seems a good investment and is highly sought after!

[@keanueraine]

The box art, the formats size are always a conversation starter whenever some one looks at my media collection. And there really is something charming about the format like Techmoan says. I cant put my finger on it, nostalgia maybe, but I really dig playing my laserdiscs.

[@deltaray3]

Jog shuttles were awesome, its too bad we don't see those as much any more. Probably fairly expensive to make though. The speed of interaction in laserdiscs and betamax tapes was obvious much faster than it is now. Technology isn't always moving forward. :-(

[@CH-ho5vr]

This video bought back so many memories from the 90's. I had exactly the same pioneer player, had over 700 Laserdiscs. Friends and family thought i had more money than sense. I got film releases from U.S. months before they came out in U.K. cinemas. I remember owning a red colour laserdisc of the Evil Dead and the Star Wars Trilogy in original versions. I bought them from Derann AV in Dudley U.K. (sadly now closed down). I remember some discs suffering from the so called laser rot (I think it was due to poor manufacturing process).

[@awnnerd]

A fair and honest assessment of LD - good job. Still want one though :-)

[@AfferbeckBeats]

Oh I didn't know you need a CRT. I haven't had one for years, I'll have to pick one up off the roadside when I know it hasn't been raining.

[@arrjay2410]

I had an girlfriend in the late 90s whose father (here in Canada) had one of these. It was a 'rich man's toy'. I do remember being blown away when he fed it through a video projector, but even at the time it was a bit fuzzy. - I just discovered your channel, so I'm bouncing through the videos in no particular order.

[@deckofcards87]

Laserdisc's not only sound good they sound superior to DVDs due to being mixed in lossless PCM. Also, DTS laserdiscs maintained the original theatrical soundtracks while blu rays are re-mixed.

[@TheMediaHoarder]

Blu-Rays can do multi-channel uncompressed PCM, but only the first generation of discs seem to have that.

[@NaieraDK]

@@TheMediaHoarder Many anime Blu-rays still have PCM, but DTS-HD MA or Dolby TrueHD is 100% lossless compression anyway, if done properly (with a license).

[@Salisbury2015]

I always enjoy the Techmoan videos on retro technology, and this one didn't disappoint. When I was in college in the late 90s, I recall the DVD format arriving on the scene. A few friends who were film buffs were skeptical about whether it would survive as a format, and stuck with the then highest quality format, Laserdisc. I don't think any of us had any idea how quickly DVDs would catch on, achieving a very high adoption rate that even Bluray has yet to attain. Great video.

[@Maintenancebay]

11:15 “That’s what the CD tray looks like” My first reaction: “Duh! Everyone knows what a ...” Oh wait..

[@steveg5122]

+Techmoan The laserdisc format improves with player. It's all analog for the video, so each player introduces glitches. I love my collection, but i will not hesitate to upgrade to DVD/Bluray on stuff that is unavailable due to license issues.

[@Groth1175]

I still refuse to give up on Laserdisc, stubbornly hang onto old technology for no practical reason ^_^

[@Simufreund309]

+Groth1175 Same here. I really like VHS, MC, and vinyl record. (I hope I wrote that right)

[@Groth1175]

Simufreund309 What is MC? :)

[@Simufreund309]

Music Casette. I might wright it wrong I'm from Germany ;)

[@Groth1175]

Simufreund309 Oh yeah that makes sense, just never heard them referred to exactly that way before, We just always called them "tapes" here.

[@Simufreund309]

Now I've learned something new today :)

[@williamfinch2777]

After years of experiencing and learning about LD. I've found your picture quality really depends on how you're watching it. The quality looks really good on a large CRT tv. On a 30+ inch 4:3 or widescreen tube LD looks incredible and the format takes advantage of the interlaced format of a CRT. Never sleep on CRT TVs when getting into LD. They look as good as DVDs on those screens.