Collect Questions

Currently have a bid on Ebay for a old laserdisc player, so this got me thinking are there any films not yet out on DVD that have a laserdisc version and are worth hunting down?
A quick browse on EBay suggest the following maybe worth getting:
The Lion King THX
Star Wars Trilogy
Indiana Jones Trilogy
Naked
Scream Directors Cut
Anyone else got any opinions/recommendations?



Disney films are worth getting!



You can get many films with better sound than DVD. Plenty of DTS titles if you look



Thanks for that, I'm slightly more confident on bidding for this laserdisc player now. :thumbs:



Just sent you a email contact me if you are interested.
:norty:



Only worth it for Indiana Jones and Star Wars, but be warned the picture quality is only about 400 lines.



arent soundtracks on LDs PCM ?



Dolby Surround, Dolby AC3 digital & DTS are available and quite common.:notworthy



The real reason for hunting down laserdiscs is the content that is likely to never turn up on DVD.
Typically these are Director Commentary Tracks.
A few lost gems are:
Scorcese on Taxi Driver and Raging Bull
John Carpenter on Halloween
David Cronenberg on Crash
John Singleton on Boyz in the Hood.
A Lot of the Criterion Laserdiscs (350+) have content that will be never been seen or heard again. Due to Licensing issues.
So LaserDisc is the only way to experience it.
Here is a list of the Criterion Laserdiscs.
http://www.criteriondvd.com/laserdiscs.asp?Sort=Name
Colin



Criterion Laserdiscs!! i have around 120 in a box at my mums but no Player as i cant afford one at the moment i picked all 120 laserdiscs up at an auction for £55!! i also have a few other but not as good titles.



LD, doesn't that stand for long dead?



Originally posted by Lee_eel
LD, doesn't that stand for long dead?
Are you blind, can't you read the posts above yours... there are some serious items that need looking at on Laser Disc for the serious film fan... :mad:
Edit: New boy, welcome to the forums, I hope your other posts are more constructive than the one above :nono:



Originally posted by Lee_eel
LD, doesn't that stand for long dead?
Ha!!! fookin noobies!



Sorry, i didn't realise a sense of humour by-pass was required to post on this forum!



We don't suffer fools gladly, lets put it that way. :nono:



Calm down guys, I thought that was quite funny :p



Originally posted by CARL
Calm down guys, I thought that was quite funny :p
Yeah it was rather chucklesome. :)
Although I always thought it stood for Large Discs. They make a right racket when those suckers spin up! :eek:



Short Cuts and Blade Runner criterions are a couple I really love that you should get. I got about 35 others but they are mostly movies that I thought would never make it to DVD, but some already did, like Folks and Mr. Destiny.



Hearts of Darkness - never going to appear on DVD in it's original form due to Coppola now hating it.....
ali



Jaws boxset has a longer documentary
Frightners SE is still not on DVD :rolleyes:
Elm St 1 has a slight censor cut on DVD but not on LD



Well, thats two people with a sense of humour anyway! Its a start.



Guys, now need on advice on the player - I am currently bidding on a Pioneer CLD-D515 Laserdisc Cd Player which is currently at £92.00 + £15 postage. Is that too high? I had it at £90 but some little monkey just outbid me :nono:
Comments - auction ends 19:11 tomorrow night!



Good bargain price.



Originally posted by The Karate Kid
Good bargain price.
Now at £102 :thumbs:



what extras are on the Blade Runner LD ?



Originally posted by jroadley
Now at £102 :thumbs:
Why don't you snipe it, then you won't have any other bidders pushing up your price. If you are not around when the auction ends, you could try Bidmate. I have used a few times now and it is excellent.
http://www.bidmate.co.uk/home.cfm



Just got the AC3 Get Shorty LD with commentary, deleted scene and trailer for a bargain £8.50 on eBay - so my bare bones dvd is getting sold. I love my laserdiscs, and some of the OOP discs (especially the Criterions) are well worth the cash. Although someone recently bid £50 for Dead Presidents Criterion - which is quite insane. I did put a bid down for £40 though, which makes me slightly less insane, I guess.



I've got a load of LD's still sitting gathering dust and 2 LD players ... The only reason I haven't thrown any of them out if for The Lion King and Alladin ... I would like to get my hands on Halloween and Frightners tho :)



I'll end up selling my laserdisc collection as i have had them a while and never botherd to get a new player! i should get a good price on 120 crits and loads that havent reached dvd as well as the few with commentrys that never made it to dvd!



Originally posted by KeyserSoze
what extras are on the Blade Runner LD ?
Just a bunch of preliminary drawings and renderings, photos, production notes, fan's essays, syd mead gallery. But it's on 2 discs, 4 sides, CAV widescreen version of the original theatrical print, that's why I got it.
They should put it on DVD for the upcoming SE which should have come out in 2001 for the anniversary, though the official one is 2002, but that's not gona happen now either.



I heard the Frighteners LD is worth a shedload and very difficult to get hold of as it has hours and hours of behind the scenes, its a directors cut, or something. sounds tempting. and the Jaws LD which has a substantial amount of extra doco stuff they left out / edited them down for the rescent DVD releases.
The Blade Runner LD is one I'd def. like to see.
How much are the "prised" ld's worth?
Jamin



If you are looking for the frighteners with extra's make sure you are buying the frighteners signature collection box set directors cut this is the one that costs the money.
another good signature box set is ET.



Is Ebay the best place for Laserdiscs or are there websites that sell old stock at good prices?



Originally posted by wonderpants
I'll end up selling my laserdisc collection as i have had them a while and never botherd to get a new player! i should get a good price on 120 crits and loads that havent reached dvd as well as the few with commentrys that never made it to dvd!
What have you got that you might be selling ?



Originally posted by raptor
What have you got that you might be selling ?
Don't come in here and hijack my thread I get first go on anyone selling off their collection :p :D



jroadley have several hundred if you would like a list i live in thetford not to far away.



So would it be worth getting a LD player? + did they have region locks like DVd?



Originally posted by noodles
So would it be worth getting a LD player? + did they have region locks like DVd?
No, just make sure you get one that plays PAL and NTSC.



I'm afraid this has been a waste of time, as I got well outbid on the LD player I only wanted to pay £120 tops for one, but with the £15 postage it went for £170 :eek:
Still, may keep an eye on ebay in future to try and pick one up as there are several discs out there worth getting :thumbs:



I remember back in the early days of DVD, LD fans said that the DVD picture was inferior - mentioning blocking specifically.
I very nearly bought the combined Pioneer DVD/LD player to hedge my bets on the new technology back in 1998.
My question is can LD potentially deliver better pictures than DVD or is it that now that DVD encoding has been perfected, can it surpass the best that LD can offer?



In my experience LD image quality on my CLD925 is very good, but in comparison with my Pioneer 444 it's pretty obvious that DVD is better. The most obvious problem with LD is chroma noise, and while the 925 is immensely better than the 1750 that we used to own, it is still a visible problem. Also LD pictures seem slightly soft to me, whereas DVD seems crisper and more film-like. LD is still very good, but I think DVD wins hands-down.



Originally posted by jroadley
Currently have a bid on Ebay for a old laserdisc player, so this got me thinking are there any films not yet out on DVD that have a laserdisc version and are worth hunting down?
A quick browse on EBay suggest the following maybe worth getting:
The Lion King THX
Star Wars Trilogy
Indiana Jones Trilogy
Naked
Scream Directors Cut
Anyone else got any opinions/recommendations?
Yup.
Laserdisc is an outdated, technologically superceded audio-visual format prevalent in the 1980's...
Any questions?



But some like it.
Never seen one, me.



Originally posted by Troll
Yup.
Laserdisc is an outdated, technologically superceded audio-visual format prevalent in the 1980's...
Any questions?
You've obviously missed the blatantly obvious point that there are masses of discs with commemtaries that will probably never see the light on DVD.
That is the point. :rolleyes:



Originally posted by Solidstate
I remember back in the early days of DVD, LD fans said that the DVD picture was inferior - mentioning blocking specifically.

I've never seen a LD look better than DVD, unless the DVD has been encoded badly.
Sound on the other hand....
The DTS soundtrack of Jurassic Park II on LD is astonishing. Jaw dropping. It's the disc I put on if people are round at mine and want to find out what cinema sound is like. I don't have a DVD that can match it, and I have quite a few DTS DVDs.
My LD player (CLD-2950) doesn't output AC-3, so I've not been able to check the soundtracks on the Dolby Digital discs I have. Which is slightly annoying as I have things like Shine and Star Wars SE which would be nice to watch in Dobly 5.1.
If sound is important, LD can be better than DVD. Picture.... I don't think so.



The only way laser disc can look better than DVD is if the DVD has a very low bitrate, visable blocking, or even a really inferior print.
It's the disc I put on if people are round at mine and want to find out what cinema sound is like. I don't have a DVD that can match it, and I have quite a few DTS DVDs.
Very true, even some of my non DTS laserdiscs sound better than their DVD equivalents.



whats the data capasity of an LD? how much is usually on a disc?
Jamin



Usually you can fit 1 film on a two sided disc.
Sometimes they are spread over 3 sides with special features also on the third side.