Does anyone here have a Laserdisc player?

Hawq · Post by **Hawq** » Wed Apr 16, 2003 1:00 pm

Lartrak wrote:Star Wars: A New Hope - No DVD, and when it comes out will ONLY have special edition.

It's like George wants us to buy those Hong Kong Star Wars DVD's

Jeeba Jabba · Post by **Jeeba Jabba** » Wed Apr 16, 2003 1:53 pm

I have my LaserDisc player... All I have is T2 on it. heh.

Lartrak · Post by **Lartrak** » Wed Apr 16, 2003 2:49 pm

Is it full frame? Cameron is this big pro-full frame guy, he thinks it's better as a home format. Blah to that I say.

Jeeba Jabba · Post by **Jeeba Jabba** » Wed Apr 16, 2003 2:54 pm

Lartrak wrote:Is it full frame? Cameron is this big pro-full frame guy, he thinks it's better as a home format. Blah to that I say.

It's Widescreen... But it's 4 discs long(double sided).. and has like.. 80 tracks... >.<

404NotFound · Post by **404NotFound** » Wed Apr 16, 2003 2:55 pm

ummm full frame? you mean non widescreen?

4 discs long? omfg... i thought laser discs held whole movies.

Jeeba Jabba · Post by **Jeeba Jabba** » Wed Apr 16, 2003 2:58 pm

404NotFound wrote:ummm full frame? you mean non widescreen?

4 discs long? omfg... i thought laser discs held whole movies.

Actualyl Its 2 discs, but two sided.. So you have to flip them >.<

Master Higgins · Post by **Master Higgins** » Wed Apr 16, 2003 3:13 pm

Pioneer actually released a Laser-disc based console called the LaserActive, well sort of anyway. It had a MegaCD attachment so you could play Mega Drive and Mega CD games as well as some special Laserdisc based Mega CD games (I think). I also think there were some arcade boxes that used LaserDiscs.

can anyone confirm this?

chrisfbt1 · Post by **chrisfbt1** » Wed Apr 16, 2003 3:16 pm

Sickliquid86 wrote:
Pioneer actually released a Laser-disc based console called the LaserActive, well sort of anyway. It had a MegaCD attachment so you could play Mega Drive and Mega CD games as well as some special Laserdisc based Mega CD games (I think). I also think there were some arcade boxes that used LaserDiscs.
can anyone confirm this?

Yeah you see them on Ebay occasionally there was a sega and a Pc engine/tg-16 attachment

Master Higgins · Post by **Master Higgins** » Wed Apr 16, 2003 3:25 pm

just found some info in it, it can play mega cd and trbografx

http://www.geocities.com/rabidsmily/Har ... ctive.html
they also released a HU card version

Lartrak · Post by **Lartrak** » Wed Apr 16, 2003 5:08 pm

Actualyl Its 2 discs, but two sided.. So you have to flip them >.<

If you get a newer player, you don't need to flip them. Flipping them was never a big deal for me though, I don't see why it bugs so many people - slight exception of CAV discs.. I knew someone who had Ben-Hur extended LD on CAV, so it had like 8 sides.

If I could do it all over again, I'd buy one of the last of the Pioneer combo DVD/LD players - you can get them on ebay for like $400, and they're FANTASTIC VERY HIGH END LD and VERY HIGH END DVD players - it originally retailed for like $1500.

yuckymucky · Post by **yuckymucky** » Wed Apr 16, 2003 5:22 pm

There are also Dolby Digital 5.1 LDs, though I don't think there were ever DTS LDs. Can someone confirm?

As far as I know there are no DTS LD's or LD Players. They do have the ability to pull THX off though, all that is needed is a $2500+ decoder/amp. Thats what my roommate has and watching Star Wars with independent 12 speaker decoding is awesome.

Jeeba Jabba · Post by **Jeeba Jabba** » Wed Apr 16, 2003 5:40 pm

Lartrak wrote: I don't see why it bugs so many people -.

Because I dont feel like getting up in the middle of a movie?

Master Higgins · Post by **Master Higgins** » Wed Apr 16, 2003 5:41 pm

r there laserdisk burners?

someoneElse · Post by **someoneElse** » Wed Apr 16, 2003 6:48 pm

Lartrak wrote:Is it full frame? Cameron is this big pro-full frame guy, he thinks it's better as a home format. Blah to that I say.

I actually prefer 'fullscreen' 4:3 for certain flicks, like several Kubrick films. Because they were actually shot in that aspect ratio, and cropped down for theatrical release.

We've gotten so used to films being cropped down on the sides for television broadcast, that sometimes we forget that they can also be cropped down on the top and bottom of the frame for theatrical release.

I see a lot of widescreen DVDs, etc. for films that were originally shot in 2:35:1, but cropped down to 16:9 for the widescreen video.

Then again, there's a lot of 'fake widescreen' DVDs today that are not even widescreen in any sense... They took the 4:3 'fullscreen' transfer that had already been crop-chopped on the sides, and then cropped it AGAIN on the top and bottom of the frame to make it LOOK like you're getting widescreen...grrr...

At least laserdiscs didn't get flooded with all of those... If they did, it was nowhere near as prevalent as it is today. So sue me, I'm bitter..

supernintendo10101 · Post by **supernintendo10101** » Wed Apr 16, 2003 8:20 pm

ya i have a laser disc player ive got star wars and austin powers

supernintendo10101 · Post by **supernintendo10101** » Wed Apr 16, 2003 8:22 pm

Master Higgins · Post by **Master Higgins** » Wed Apr 16, 2003 8:27 pm

supernintendo10101=spam

anyways are there laserdisk burners, if so how much, where to get the writer and the media?

Lartrak · Post by **Lartrak** » Wed Apr 16, 2003 8:28 pm

r there laserdisk burners?

No. The cost would be astronomical if it was even possible. LDs were expensive to make even for the companies.. I've heard figures as high as $10 a disc. This helps explain the extreme cost of discs - The Fifth Element was like $80 when it first came out, if I remember right. The Phantom Menace LD was $110 in Japan.

I actually prefer 'fullscreen' 4:3 for certain flicks, like several Kubrick films. Because they were actually shot in that aspect ratio, and cropped down for theatrical release.

Well, yes, the original aspect ratio is best. It's important to remember that sometimes they film it at 4:3 with the intention of chopping it down (though of course, any movie before the mid 50s, 4:3 is the filming ratio as well as the intended viewing ratio). Because of this, some of those fullscreen releases you can see some odd things - like boom mics. If you watch the fullscreen A Fish Called Wanda, in one of the cuts where John Cleese is naked, you can see he is wearing jeans.

Master Higgins · Post by **Master Higgins** » Wed Apr 16, 2003 8:37 pm

No. The cost would be astronomical if it was even possible. LDs were expensive to make even for the companies.. I've heard figures as high as $10 a disc. This helps explain the extreme cost of discs - The Fifth Element was like $80 when it first came out, if I remember right. The Phantom Menace LD was $110 in Japan.

So it would be like a couple hundred dollars for the burner?

Master Higgins · Post by **Master Higgins** » Wed Apr 16, 2003 8:56 pm

Oh, how wrong you are, my friend. Laserdiscs were most certanly burnable. They were THE thing to use for instant video access, before CD burning was big. Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, where the Detroit Red Wings play, used to use it exclusively for all of their headshots and moving font backgrounds. The same for the Detroit Tigers at Tiger Stadium. All of the font backgrounds, home and away headshots, and animated sponsor logos were put on them. They were incredibly ideal, with a cueing time of only a few frames. Compare that to having multiple Betacam tapes, which could take 20 seconds to a minute to prepare.

Unfortunately, due to the move from Tiger Stadium to Comerica Park, the writable laserdisc machine was stolen (god only knows who wanted or could use it). Joe Louis' writable laserdisc machine is still around and kicking. Even though we have an MPEG server for all of our videos and backgrounds now, the JLA video wall test patterns and other color patterns still come off of our reliable old writable laserdisc machine.

It was the greatest thing in the world in the mid-90s. The only pain was when you ran out of space on one side and had to have an operator eject and flip those big-ass platters over. It added 15-20 seconds to your cue time, but as long as you didn't put material you had to access all the time on the back, it worked just fine.

got that from slashdot.com I imagine the Laserdisc burners float around from place to place and r relativey inexpensive now

since they arnt a collectors item yet. I want one