Laserdisc VS DVD

Calavera · Post by **Calavera** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 12:05 am

Which one wins in coolness?

Nyarlathotep · Post by **Nyarlathotep** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 6:45 am

Laserdisks hold about 25 minutes of fairly crappily encoded video and are the size of an LP.

DVDs can hold over 2 hours of high quality encoded video and are the size of a standard CD.

so... yeah.

Sub Woofer · Post by **Sub Woofer** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 7:42 am

Nyarlathotep wrote:Laserdisks hold about 25 minutes of fairly crappily encoded video and are the size of an LP.

DVDs can hold over 2 hours of high quality encoded video and are the size of a standard CD.

so... yeah.

Errgh? *Tim Allen sound*

Laserdisc's can hold a lot more than that! I've got some laserdiscs that hole around 6 hours or so of footage, (even more if it's doublesided) and they're just about on par with DVD Quality.

Then again, DVD's can hole a lot more than what you mentioned, but I guess your over-exxagerating.

I can remember some laserdiscs even had some form of Directors commentry, and other added extra's back in the day.

The real answer to this question however it's DVD's. Why? well, because it's newer technology that is. Laserdisc's have been around for over 20 years, (remember the Dragon's Lair Arcade games? They ran of a laserdisc player.) which explains the enormous size.

DVD's are much newer technology, therefore they can hold much more data and have faster read times.

Post by **Specially Cork** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 7:50 am

DVD by far

The technology is newer, its been embraced by the world more (Id never even heard of laserdisc until my american uncle mentioned he had a player).

Post by **|darc|** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 8:27 am

erm... He said cooler, not better

As in coolness factor... I'd say Laserdisc because they're old and not many people have heard of them.

bizzle · Post by **bizzle** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 8:28 am

Yeah, I agree.. when it comes to coolness.. Laserdisc beats dvd.. its just much cooler.

MDPBlackout · Post by **MDPBlackout** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 8:35 am

I'd say dvd because the only laserisc ive seen was at school and it was educational

Post by **Specially Cork** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 9:15 am

How is something cool just because its old?

DVDs are so much cooler, the majority of dvd players are silver, which is better than black, the cases are sleeker, the discs are smaller, they hold more data, they have new movies on.

djray · Post by **djray** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 11:02 am

BoneyCork wrote:How is something cool just because its old?

well that's easy... if you look at music... most of the crap they put out nowadays doesn't even compare to the classics back then!

Lartrak · Post by **Lartrak** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 1:06 pm

There is wrong information on this thread. Allow me to correct.

First, the video on LDs isn't really "encoded". It is an analog format, so it is uncompressed. The audio is the exact same format as audio CDs, usually. DVDs, on the other hand, are heavily compressed. It's just a very good compression scheme.

Both are similar in "resolution" (LD doesn't have a true resolution, niether do VHS or CEDs, since they're not a digital format, but as best as they can be compared it is only a bit worse - usually stated at like 15-20% worse on the places I've seen it). On a high end LD player, they are very comparable to DVDs. LDs have analog artifacting, whereas DVDs have digital artifacting. Generally, analog artifacting is more noticable, but not always.

LDs hold either 30 or 60 minutes per side of a disc. CAV (constant angular velocity) discs hold 30 minutes, the picture quality is a TINY TINY bit better, and you can freeze frame and still see the picture and also do frame advance. CLV (constant linear velocity) LDs hold 60, and you can't pause it and still see the picture or do frame advance. Most LDs are CLV, both because it reduces the number of discs and the convenience (less flipping/swapping discs). Some LD players can switch sides, but most can not.

Later LDs do have 5.1 dolby digital, but not that many of them. I'm not positive but I believe there are also a very few DTS LDs.

LDs can not hold 6 hours on one side. Some do have DVD features though, which you could count as that long I guess - like the movies entire script, things like that.

LDs have both a digital audio track and an analog audio track. Typically, on a disc with special features, the commentary tracks are on the analog, and they'll often use only the left or right channel so that they can have two seperate tracks (like VCDs use left and right to have two languages). For example, the Criterion Goldfinger LD. Digital track is a remixed 5.1 track. The right analog is a commentary from people. And the left is the original mono soundtrack. Good stuff, and it also has all the documentaries and crap the DVD has.

I think LDs are slightly cooler. DVDs are NOT lethal weapons, after all. It just is nifty, kind of how I think vinyls are nifty. I still buy LDs once in a while, both in movies with no DVD (Once Upon a Time in the West, only has a crappy full frame dubbed in Italian version) or crappy DVDs (the Howling, which I haven't gotten yet, but it has a GREAT LD with GREAT features and the DVD is bare).

Jeeba Jabba · Post by **Jeeba Jabba** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 1:12 pm

I'll dust off my Laserdisc player when I feel like stopping 4 times during a movie, to swap/flip the discs

Firthy2002 · Post by **Firthy2002** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 1:18 pm

Never used Laserdisc so I can't really comment. Although I do know that there are movies on LD that have yet to get a DVD release.

az_bont · Post by **az_bont** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 1:20 pm

I think Laserdiscs are closer to properly-encoded SVCDs to be honest, although I haven't seen too many, and those I did see were quite a few years ago.

Hawq · Post by **Hawq** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 4:10 pm

DVD definately, well it would be but for 1 fact original Star Wars trilogy is on LD & not DVD

az_bont · Post by **az_bont** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 4:48 pm

Hawq wrote:DVD definately, well it would be but for 1 fact original Star Wars trilogy is on LD & not DVD

And VideoCD. George Lucas doesn't like DVD because he thinks it's going to be another failed format

.

someoneElse · Post by **someoneElse** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 4:51 pm

Hawq wrote:DVD definately, well it would be but for 1 fact original Star Wars trilogy is on LD & not DVD

And they never will be... acording to Lucas, the Trillogy will never again see the light of day in it's original form...;(

So it's either wait around for the lesser and seemingly distraction-oriented 'special' (ahem) editions on DVD, or away to Laserdisk or piracy you will go...

The *cough* ones floating around on ebay and the likes taken from the laserdisks are horribly expensive, about three times what one based on the 'special' edition laserdisks are, last I saw.

I may just break down and encode my fresh barely played VHS set of the originals and burn them to DVD. It won't be any better than VHS quality, but at least I'd know I wasn't destroying the video more and more for every second I saw it.

I'll admit it, I am a DVD whore. There, I said it.

Lartrak · Post by **Lartrak** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 7:13 pm

Jeeba Jabba wrote:I'll dust off my Laserdisc player when I feel like stopping 4 times during a movie, to swap/flip the discs

How often do you watch movies of 4 hour+ length?

Post by **Specially Cork** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 7:18 pm

az_bont wrote:
Hawq wrote:DVD definately, well it would be but for 1 fact original Star Wars trilogy is on LD & not DVD
And VideoCD. George Lucas doesn't like DVD because he thinks it's going to be another failed format .

George Lucas is a crazy old guy.

Lartrak · Post by **Lartrak** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 10:10 pm

It annoys me how George Lucas is so friggin big on digital this and digital that and digital film making blah blah blah. But he's had really HORRIBLE support for DVDs...

SuperMegatron · Post by **SuperMegatron** » Fri Aug 01, 2003 1:45 am

are laser discs those big things that are the size of a record but have a square white plastic box on the outside i have one on these things somewhere i never had to swap discs during a movie though

Laserdisc VS DVD

Which is cooler Laserdisc or DVD?

Laserdisc VS DVD