Firstly, laserdisc tech was invented in 1958. But, you are correct about not being commercially available until 1978. Secondly, there is no data on the aluminum, per say. Discs have data molded directly into the polycarbonate substrate, then a "metallized" layer is applied, covering the molded data with a 45-70 nanometer layer of aluminum, or copper and gold for dvd and bluray, using a turbo vacuumed magnetic plasma transference method in a machine called a "metallizer". This metallized layer's only purpose is to provide a reflective surface for the 3 beam laser heads to reflect off of the data and back into the laser head. A cd contains only a single layer substrate; a single injection molded disc with a data less translucent "mirror" on one side, and a molded data side on the other. Once it comes out of the mold, the disc passes into the "metallizer" mirror side down, to coat the data side with an aluminum reflective layer. Then, a layer of uv lacquer is applied to the metallized data side and cured under uv lamps. Finally, art is screen-printed on the lacquered data side to provide protection for the data. This is why a scratch to the art side is fatal to cds, but not the mirror side. A laser disc has two substrate layers uv lacquered together, with the data facing each other, hence having to flip it over. This also offers better data protection since the data is sandwich in the center by two mirrors, like two cds glued together by the art side. This is why they are thicker. Dvds and blurays are multilayered, with up to 6 layers of molded and metallized data. Difference is in the laser head itself, using triple green or blue laser diodes, instead of the typical red lasers, that adjust power intensity to pass thru different types of metallized layers, avoiding having the need to flip the discs over. First layer is always aluminum, then copper, then varying thicknesses of gold for the remainder of the layers. 6 layer bluray discs contain up to 300 gigs or higher of data. Dual layer dvds contain 4.7 gb. Single layer cds have 720mb. Laserdisc had 3.28 gb. On a side, rewritable media is molded in the same manner as traditional disc. But, the data tracks are "empty", not data dips or valleys. Instead, the tracks are filled with a very thin layer of nondestructive infrared/uv reactive lacquer. Then, traditional cured uv lacquer is applied on top of the reactive layer, or in the case of bluray, several empty track layers sandwiched together. Optical Burners cure the reactive layer, mimicking traditional molded data, allowing an infinite amount of times rewritable media can be "erased" and rewritten, theoretically. Welcome to the world of optical media.
Small little correction: the component connection on later LaserDisc players is only there for DVD playback. Unfortunately the video from LaserDiscs will not pass through this connection (believe me, I've tried).
My uncle was a glacier and then later a bus driver, but that didn’t stop him from having a LaserDisc collection, and we live in the UK! Unfortunately, he threw it away several years ago as it was massive and no one wanted it. I would’ve happily taken off his hands now, but I was too young to know what a LaserDisc was. Back then we just used VHS and DVD.
Some LaserDisc players include S-Video, but due to the way that Pioneer reengineered their composite video output it was unnecessary and some argue worse than the composite output. Play something like The Beatles A Hard Day's Night on LaserDisc and notice that there is no rainbow/color-banding in the black and white image, versus VHS which has constant and rampant color-banding (which might make you pull your hair out from watching). Later LaserDisc releases also featured higher-quality audio, such as AC-3 and even DTS 5.1 through players equipped with optical audio.
Nice video, LaserDisk has always been a format that fascinated me, it felt cool to me when the school would get out the laser disc player even if it was the 90s at the time and the format was already considered dead in most home use, lol.
That's not true, in the early 90's there was a slight comeback before DVD's really took off. I remember a few of us had them growing up but honestly no one really thought they were cool ha ha ha. Then again I was like 7 and they couldn't play video games on them (not fun ones at least) so I didn't care much about them.
What's weird about it? Later laserdiscs are part digital BTW. The audio part will be digital, the video part will always be analogue. And digital doesn't always mean it's better. Try to see it like this: Digital is either 0 or 1. Analogue can be anything between 0 and 1.
Great overview guys. I've watched quite a few videos about laserdiscs and yet I actually learned a few new things here. For video ideas, How about UMD Movies? It was a fairly short lived format. I'd love to learn details about it.
4:17 LOL I find that remark particularly hilarious considering my father had a LaserDisk player in the 90's...and he most certainly didn't have a master's degree or a doctorate in anyway shape or form XD
Nice presentation gentlemen, but I wanted to point out a couple of items. First never stack laserdiscs like you mentioned. It can cause them to warp. If a disc is going to rot it is going to rot. Stacking them won't help with that as it was a manufacturing issue. Second, the component out on later combo players is strictly for DVD. It doesn't work for laserdisc. Third, while some players do have s-video out remember that the laserdisc itself is composite. So whether or not you want to use the s-video out on the player will depend on your TV. Chances are the comb filter in your modern TV is better than that in your LD player. If you run the composite straight to the TV the signal will be split in the TV using the TV's filter. If you use the s-video out on the player than the signal will be split in the player using the player's filter. So depending on what device has the better filter will determine which way results in the best picture. Thanks for the great video.
Id like to see a video about the types televisions from this time period that could take advantage of the laser discs higher resolution. Old School high end tech is interesting because it was out of reach for many of us and remains a mystery
I have the same LaserDisc player. Mine seems to have the same issue as yours at 2:37 , half the time I have to use an envelope to open the "tray door" before the LD tray ejects.
My uncle was a huge AV buff & I got to watch laser disc horror on his giant (50"?) rear projection big screen. Years later, my high school still used these in Chemistry class to show science videos. Worth noting, some later high end players have 2 lasers so you don't need to flip the disc. I've always been a fan of the format but never came across a well priced unit.
Nice little overview.I have pioneer laser karaoke that has auto switch so it automatically switches to the other side so you don't have to get up. This became a common feature on later discs. Your model doesn't have it as it has a cd tray below it so there was no mechanism made that would've allowed the laser to rotate. Also laserdisc was first format to have special features like commentary and extras. Also lets not forget it's ultra smooth frame by frame on CAV discs.
Quick corrections: LaserDisc actually predates CDs by about 4 years, and while the description of its signal as "composite" is kinda accurate in a loose sense of the term, it's more properly a generic analog signal; "composite" in regards to video simply refers to a type of cable that combines the luminance, chrominance, and brightness signals into a single channel. Also, "CD" is not a generic term, it's a specific format. The format that LaserDisc, CDs, DVDs, and Blu-rays all belong to are called optical discs, as data is read off of them with a laser.
I have a Pioneer VLD-2600 with S-video. I've never actually used the S-video out, though. I've heard that there's something to do with comb filters that determines if you should use S-video or not.
Russell If your player has the better comb filter use s video, most players have crap ones so use composite and the comb filter built into your tv (bonus points for a external comb filter/upscaler)
Your retro tech videos are pretty awesome!! lmao you know you're a nerd when you own Hackers on Laser Disc...Acid Burn lol. Thanks for the cool video guys, on a real note though I really like how in-depth you guys get when explaining things and that you always show good examples of things like artifacting and data rot.
What is interesting to note is that LaserDisc image quality is actually worse than an Analog Broadcast here in the UK as we used PAL System I prior to switching to DVB-T and DVB-T2.
+Alan Tucker yeah you guys had it pretty good on broadcast standards. I remember watching Star Trek Voyager once and complaining about the picture quality. As the episode progressed there was so much noise in the image that you couldn't make out characters from the rest of the image. Thanks, UPN.
They should have printed out the movie script with how big those laserdisc sleeves were. I will never forget Laser Disc because my cousin made me do random tasks in order to watch Days of Thunder. Great video....at Yo Tony! and John. I say Yo Tony in like an italian accent and it sounds funny to me.
Is it me or do other people watch a random TH-cam video that pops into your list and feel drawn to the hosts in ways hard to first explain, then realize that you feel connected to them in the way that local people of your city/state do? I don't know where these guys are from, but I get a strong mid to southeastern Michigan vibe from them...
Also, want to say that this weird familiarity that originally drew me into their content isn't enough to subscribe and keep coming back. I genuinely enjoy their content. TH-cam is so cool in the way it allows people to connect that never would have before.
Laserdisc still looks like or better than DVD with the right setup. Regarding the disc rot, you just need to watch out with some releases they were produced wrong in the factory to begin with. LDDB.com can help with avoiding purchasing rotted releases.
The Shadow Man Well, kinda. A well made DVD will look better as it runs at the same or higher resolution, and has MPEG2 encoding instead of composite video.
true story in fact i was working at a local Goodwill Store and i remember vividly someone Donated to the Store two tubs full of Laserdiscs ironically Goodwill thought they were records but i had corrected them and told them they were Laserdiscs and i have the first 3 Star Wars LaserDiscs and a few others i even have a set of Foreign Laserdiscs one of them is a Chinese Karaoke Laserdisc and the others i haven't got a clue what those titles are
I don't think you need to worry about touching the surface of a laserdisc, they are pretty tough. Back when I had a player I took the worst movie I had and tossed it like a frisbee into the woods. I went back one year later and retrieved it. It had been sitting in the dirt for a year getting rained and snowed on. It was dirty and a bit warped but I washed it off and popped it in and it played just fine! Now to be honest only one side would play due to how the disc warped but it was still damn impressive! I also took one and played frisbee with it then threw it as hard as a could at some corn stalks in a nearby field. I was able to cut down the corn with the laserdisc, popped it in the player and it worked just great. So I wouldn't worry too much about fingerprints
I remember at my local retro game store they had a laser disk player with a 4 disk copy of Independence Day. I thought to myself: who would buy a laser disk version of this movie when the DVD was smaller? Lol!
Oh my God, the only person I knew who had a LaserDisc player back in the 90s was my friend's dad who is a doctor LOL. I thought one in the pawn shop toward the end of its life cycle but all I could afford was a crappy movies in the bargain bins with the exceptional splurge. It was definitely more of a novelty. It looked incredible on my crappy TV. Of course some transfers from the early days actually look better on VHS. I don't understand but I have compared a lot of the old James Bond movies from the original LaserDisc releases. and the late VHS releases look way better than those early laserdiscs somehow.
I know this wa years ago but which editon of Blade Runner did you show? Criterion Collection had the voiceover version released in CLV and CAV editions (CAV can look sharper depending on the player). Warner released a Director's Cut version in the mid 90s, similar to the first dvd release the movie got.
It was not the directors cut. It was the theatrical version with the narration. I wish I had a Laserdisc of the directors cut. But hey that 5 disc Blu-ray has pretty much everything I've ever wanted on it already.
5:12 That seems mixed up. I thought standard definition tv was better than laserdisc, Hi8 or S-VHS. I recall those formats being 440x480 while full standard definition of 640x480 could be achieved with NTSC broadcast, DVD, Betacam SP or Mini DV tape. If it was from a good recording device (many MiniDV camcorders sucked horribly) the Mini DV format could display as good a picture as regular tv. Hi8 wasn't quite as good and every source I've read says Hi8 and Laserdisc had about the same resolution capability.
So are you going to do Betamax too.. we had a VHS player and a Sony Betamax player when I was a kid.. from what I remember Betamax looked better than the VHS
Dustin Gibbons Not by much, but yeah it was a bit better. But Betamax had a far shorter tape duration. If you wanted to make a Betamax tape run as long as a VHS tape from the same period would require massively reducing the picture quality to be worse than VHS quality. So for the most part, VHS was superior was cheaper, higher duration, and almost the same quality.
I wasn't a "Doctor" and I enjoyed the bliss of LaserDisc from 1978 to its demise in 2001. I had a decent collection and rented a lot. But yes, it was expensive and the players even more.
Yep, all the special features that DVD became known for were on laserdisc first. In many cases, they just ported over the laserdisc content for the DVD release.
you never ever store laserdisc's flat they will warp. I'm a collector you always stand them up and as far as disc rot those disc fail because of poor manufacturing most people that own laserdisc's have a player that automatically switches to the other side without getting up off the couch.
Most titles say on the back "When not in use, store vertically in a cool, dry place." Just like vhs, laserdisc is best stored upright. Flattening them could help slow down disc rot but like you said it was mostly due to manufacturing, not storage so there wasn't much that can be done to stop a rot prone disc from rotting.
Knightmessenger your absolutely right there is nothing you can do about disc rot I have a few and some HD DVD'S that suffer with the same issue dvds and cds and blu rays suffer from the same thing
Yeah, any disc format can suffer from laser rot if the manufacture fucked up, a lot of people don't realize that. Luckily none of my DVD/CD/ discs have rot, it's rare but it does happen. I've never heard of Blu Ray having rot but I guess it's possible and they're not that old so time will tell!
I remember having one of these things growing up. I hated it because there weren't that many titles for it and whether you had to get up from the couch or not the disc would end up switching sides like halfway through the movie. It was never in a convenient spot either I think Hook's was right around the time that Tinkerbell became full sized so that she could perv on Robin Williams ha ha. Also growing up in the 90's most people I knew didn't care much about picture quality as most of us were used to watching t.v. with an analog antennae where the picture was always staticy and fuzzy. So the minor picture increase was never really all that appetizing to a kid who was thinking well this costs as much as my first car as they really were ridicuslously expensive..
that is so weird u say that because when i was a teen my best friend had a LD and he was the only person ive ever known to have one well anyway his dad bought it for him and his dad was a doctor lol.
We've covered a number of special edition gamecubes and also development gamecubes. Here's one to start you off: th-cam.com/video/rAwBQomvFZI/w-d-xo.html
Disc rot is not an issue. People are freaking out about this topic. Its a super rare affliction of discs. All these LD youtubers have nothing else to talk about with the format so just keep adding to the legend of disc rot.
I remember always disliking those Discovision covers, because like 75% of the movie cover was cut out in order to advertise that it was Discovision. A simple small logo in the corner wouldn't do, they had to deface the covers to let you know what it was. F that haha.
I wouldn't be surprised if everybody watching this knew what laser disc was they always used to talk about how much better the picture was but almost every movie was widescreen so like 20% of the picture or 50% of the picture was black bars still better than a VHS wide screen thoughh
I'd never call a Laserdisc a "CD" because it isn't digital and certainly not compact. ^_^ Kudos on getting some of the odder titles like Transmutations/Underworld(1985).
maybe youll get my comment this time hahaha whats up hard4game I am game master DarkShino the one and only original gamer named shino iv had my gamer now now for 21 years im now 28 but ya love ya vids man on the beta quests I never knew so many sweet glitchs and funn stuff was never put out to the public on some of my fav games like banjo & kazooi or Zelda and that ura Zelda dam I wish they would make it allrdy looks sooo cool iv love to play some classics with u guys and metal jesus would be fun my first systems were a Atari and a comador 64 when I was 5 ^^
Poorly manufactured Laserdiscs (i.e. not produced in so-called clean rooms) are usually far more prone to disc rot and other kinds of deterioration than those made "properly"; thus, they offer inferior picture and sound quality from day one, even in comparison to VHS releases. Great video 👍 (Is it time for either VHD or CED now?)
Aleksa Milićević I think Tony and I spotted a CED with 20 movies years ago at salvation army, but didn't get it. He's got one or two movies on it, but not a player. Alas working players are hard to find now.
Aw, that's a shame. Yeah, even players in near-decent-ish condition are a rarity nowadays, and the highly perishable belts (which, along with faulty power supply boxes, remain the most common cause of broken CED units) can be quite a bit finicky to remove and replace. #AllThatGoo
Firstly, laserdisc tech was invented in 1958. But, you are correct about not being commercially available until 1978.
Secondly, there is no data on the aluminum, per say. Discs have data molded directly into the polycarbonate substrate, then a "metallized" layer is applied, covering the molded data with a 45-70 nanometer layer of aluminum, or copper and gold for dvd and bluray, using a turbo vacuumed magnetic plasma transference method in a machine called a "metallizer". This metallized layer's only purpose is to provide a reflective surface for the 3 beam laser heads to reflect off of the data and back into the laser head.
A cd contains only a single layer substrate; a single injection molded disc with a data less translucent "mirror" on one side, and a molded data side on the other. Once it comes out of the mold, the disc passes into the "metallizer" mirror side down, to coat the data side with an aluminum reflective layer. Then, a layer of uv lacquer is applied to the metallized data side and cured under uv lamps. Finally, art is screen-printed on the lacquered data side to provide protection for the data. This is why a scratch to the art side is fatal to cds, but not the mirror side.
A laser disc has two substrate layers uv lacquered together, with the data facing each other, hence having to flip it over. This also offers better data protection since the data is sandwich in the center by two mirrors, like two cds glued together by the art side. This is why they are thicker.
Dvds and blurays are multilayered, with up to 6 layers of molded and metallized data. Difference is in the laser head itself, using triple green or blue laser diodes, instead of the typical red lasers, that adjust power intensity to pass thru different types of metallized layers, avoiding having the need to flip the discs over. First layer is always aluminum, then copper, then varying thicknesses of gold for the remainder of the layers.
6 layer bluray discs contain up to 300 gigs or higher of data.
Dual layer dvds contain 4.7 gb.
Single layer cds have 720mb.
Laserdisc had 3.28 gb.
On a side, rewritable media is molded in the same manner as traditional disc. But, the data tracks are "empty", not data dips or valleys. Instead, the tracks are filled with a very thin layer of nondestructive infrared/uv reactive lacquer. Then, traditional cured uv lacquer is applied on top of the reactive layer, or in the case of bluray, several empty track layers sandwiched together. Optical Burners cure the reactive layer, mimicking traditional molded data, allowing an infinite amount of times rewritable media can be "erased" and rewritten, theoretically.
Welcome to the world of optical media.
Small little correction: the component connection on later LaserDisc players is only there for DVD playback. Unfortunately the video from LaserDiscs will not pass through this connection (believe me, I've tried).
Great video guys! Thanks for making the video Tony! Thanks for sharing the collection John!
omegafolf furfig
There are LaserDisc players that are able to play both sides, and even one (Pioneer LD W1) that can play 2 discs, because some movies came on 2 discs.
That is the original Little Mermaid with the giant golden dick on the cover. They later edited it. I am sad you didn't point it out.
That giant golden dick made the movie that much better.
My uncle was a glacier and then later a bus driver, but that didn’t stop him from having a LaserDisc collection, and we live in the UK!
Unfortunately, he threw it away several years ago as it was massive and no one wanted it. I would’ve happily taken off his hands now, but I was too young to know what a LaserDisc was. Back then we just used VHS and DVD.
Some LaserDisc players include S-Video, but due to the way that Pioneer reengineered their composite video output it was unnecessary and some argue worse than the composite output. Play something like The Beatles A Hard Day's Night on LaserDisc and notice that there is no rainbow/color-banding in the black and white image, versus VHS which has constant and rampant color-banding (which might make you pull your hair out from watching). Later LaserDisc releases also featured higher-quality audio, such as AC-3 and even DTS 5.1 through players equipped with optical audio.
Andrew Tompkins Wow. How could S-Video ever be worse than composite!?
Nice video, LaserDisk has always been a format that fascinated me, it felt cool to me when the school would get out the laser disc player even if it was the 90s at the time and the format was already considered dead in most home use, lol.
That's not true, in the early 90's there was a slight comeback before DVD's really took off. I remember a few of us had them growing up but honestly no one really thought they were cool ha ha ha. Then again I was like 7 and they couldn't play video games on them (not fun ones at least) so I didn't care much about them.
what's weird is that laserdisc is not digital despite being a disc. it's analogue.
What's weird about it? Later laserdiscs are part digital BTW. The audio part will be digital, the video part will always be analogue. And digital doesn't always mean it's better. Try to see it like this: Digital is either 0 or 1. Analogue can be anything between 0 and 1.
GAME OVER "WE HAVE EVERY PIXEL COVERED" I'm an analogue player in a digital world.
Great overview guys. I've watched quite a few videos about laserdiscs and yet I actually learned a few new things here.
For video ideas, How about UMD Movies? It was a fairly short lived format. I'd love to learn details about it.
4:17 LOL
I find that remark particularly hilarious considering my father had a LaserDisk player in the 90's...and he most certainly didn't have a master's degree or a doctorate in anyway shape or form XD
Nice presentation gentlemen, but I wanted to point out a couple of items. First never stack laserdiscs like you mentioned. It can cause them to warp. If a disc is going to rot it is going to rot. Stacking them won't help with that as it was a manufacturing issue. Second, the component out on later combo players is strictly for DVD. It doesn't work for laserdisc. Third, while some players do have s-video out remember that the laserdisc itself is composite. So whether or not you want to use the s-video out on the player will depend on your TV. Chances are the comb filter in your modern TV is better than that in your LD player. If you run the composite straight to the TV the signal will be split in the TV using the TV's filter. If you use the s-video out on the player than the signal will be split in the player using the player's filter. So depending on what device has the better filter will determine which way results in the best picture. Thanks for the great video.
I loved my laserdisc player and laserdisc collection which l still have.
Definitely gonna start collecting LaserDisc once I have the money for it.
when are we getting the live stream of spooning while watching the little mermaid
Thanks for doing this video! I've been interested in LaserDisc for years but never bothered to research it. Love the Dot Crawl explanation. Well done!
+AJmon I think those dots really should get some professional help for their drinking issues.
Actually...i believe the final release on laserdisc was"End of Days" in 2000. I could be wrong.
Id like to see a video about the types televisions from this time period that could take advantage of the laser discs higher resolution. Old School high end tech is interesting because it was out of reach for many of us and remains a mystery
I have the same LaserDisc player. Mine seems to have the same issue as yours at 2:37 , half the time I have to use an envelope to open the "tray door" before the LD tray ejects.
U could sharpen one and use it like a tron disk
I would've bought the lot just for the Phantasm II laser disc, HELL YEAH!
My uncle was a huge AV buff & I got to watch laser disc horror on his giant (50"?) rear projection big screen. Years later, my high school still used these in Chemistry class to show science videos. Worth noting, some later high end players have 2 lasers so you don't need to flip the disc. I've always been a fan of the format but never came across a well priced unit.
Nice little overview.I have pioneer laser karaoke that has auto switch so it automatically switches to the other side so you don't have to get up. This became a common feature on later discs. Your model doesn't have it as it has a cd tray below it so there was no mechanism made that would've allowed the laser to rotate. Also laserdisc was first format to have special features like commentary and extras. Also lets not forget it's ultra smooth frame by frame on CAV discs.
Quick corrections: LaserDisc actually predates CDs by about 4 years, and while the description of its signal as "composite" is kinda accurate in a loose sense of the term, it's more properly a generic analog signal; "composite" in regards to video simply refers to a type of cable that combines the luminance, chrominance, and brightness signals into a single channel.
Also, "CD" is not a generic term, it's a specific format. The format that LaserDisc, CDs, DVDs, and Blu-rays all belong to are called optical discs, as data is read off of them with a laser.
I have a Pioneer VLD-2600 with S-video. I've never actually used the S-video out, though. I've heard that there's something to do with comb filters that determines if you should use S-video or not.
Russell If your player has the better comb filter use s video, most players have crap ones so use composite and the comb filter built into your tv (bonus points for a external comb filter/upscaler)
Your retro tech videos are pretty awesome!! lmao you know you're a nerd when you own Hackers on Laser Disc...Acid Burn lol. Thanks for the cool video guys, on a real note though I really like how in-depth you guys get when explaining things and that you always show good examples of things like artifacting and data rot.
Oh my... Can we watch the Little Mermaid? I am not even joking. I'm fangirling so hard.
Amanda * Only if Tony gets to be the little spoon
That's my job but I'm willing to loan John out for the Little Mermaid.
What is interesting to note is that LaserDisc image quality is actually worse than an Analog Broadcast here in the UK as we used PAL System I prior to switching to DVB-T and DVB-T2.
+Alan Tucker yeah you guys had it pretty good on broadcast standards. I remember watching Star Trek Voyager once and complaining about the picture quality. As the episode progressed there was so much noise in the image that you couldn't make out characters from the rest of the image. Thanks, UPN.
They should have printed out the movie script with how big those laserdisc sleeves were.
I will never forget Laser Disc because my cousin made me do random tasks in order to watch Days of Thunder.
Great video....at Yo Tony! and John.
I say Yo Tony in like an italian accent and it sounds funny to me.
Talk about Betamax.
I would pay for them to watch the Care Bears movie on Beta.
First rule of Betamax Club. Don't talk about Betamax Club. Second rule of Betamax Club. Don't talk about Betamax Club.
These legacy video episodes are my fave!
Non-video related question: John. Does your glasses new? Couldn't take my eyes off from it during the whole video :D
Is it me or do other people watch a random TH-cam video that pops into your list and feel drawn to the hosts in ways hard to first explain, then realize that you feel connected to them in the way that local people of your city/state do? I don't know where these guys are from, but I get a strong mid to southeastern Michigan vibe from them...
Also, want to say that this weird familiarity that originally drew me into their content isn't enough to subscribe and keep coming back. I genuinely enjoy their content. TH-cam is so cool in the way it allows people to connect that never would have before.
You're right, we're from the Detroit area.
Can you imagine that the Night Trap game will released on Laserdisc Arcade instead of Hasbro NEMO VHS System or later renamed Control-Vision in 1987?
You guys should do an episode on CED or D-VHS.
Laserdisc still looks like or better than DVD with the right setup. Regarding the disc rot, you just need to watch out with some releases they were produced wrong in the factory to begin with. LDDB.com can help with avoiding purchasing rotted releases.
The Shadow Man Well, kinda. A well made DVD will look better as it runs at the same or higher resolution, and has MPEG2 encoding instead of composite video.
Phantasm II rules!
Love laserdisc art, the letterboxed Back to the Future set is one of my favorites.
true story in fact i was working at a local Goodwill Store and i remember vividly someone Donated to the Store two tubs full of Laserdiscs ironically Goodwill thought they were records but i had corrected them and told them they were Laserdiscs and i have the first 3 Star Wars LaserDiscs and a few others i even have a set of Foreign Laserdiscs one of them is a Chinese Karaoke Laserdisc and the others i haven't got a clue what those titles are
I don't think you need to worry about touching the surface of a laserdisc, they are pretty tough. Back when I had a player I took the worst movie I had and tossed it like a frisbee into the woods. I went back one year later and retrieved it. It had been sitting in the dirt for a year getting rained and snowed on. It was dirty and a bit warped but I washed it off and popped it in and it played just fine! Now to be honest only one side would play due to how the disc warped but it was still damn impressive! I also took one and played frisbee with it then threw it as hard as a could at some corn stalks in a nearby field. I was able to cut down the corn with the laserdisc, popped it in the player and it worked just great. So I wouldn't worry too much about fingerprints
I remember at my local retro game store they had a laser disk player with a 4 disk copy of Independence Day. I thought to myself: who would buy a laser disk version of this movie when the DVD was smaller? Lol!
some of these actually play VCDs as well.
The only time I've ever seen a laserdisc in person, was in school and only once.
How can you not have an auto-reverse laserdisc player??? Saves having to flip the disc!! :)
Oh my God, the only person I knew who had a LaserDisc player back in the 90s was my friend's dad who is a doctor LOL. I thought one in the pawn shop toward the end of its life cycle but all I could afford was a crappy movies in the bargain bins with the exceptional splurge. It was definitely more of a novelty. It looked incredible on my crappy TV. Of course some transfers from the early days actually look better on VHS. I don't understand but I have compared a lot of the old James Bond movies from the original LaserDisc releases. and the late VHS releases look way better than those early laserdiscs somehow.
Yay time to learn about this
How much to get a ripped copy of Cyborg 2? My copy is from vhs and it is terrible.
I know this wa years ago but which editon of Blade Runner did you show?
Criterion Collection had the voiceover version released in CLV and CAV editions (CAV can look sharper depending on the player).
Warner released a Director's Cut version in the mid 90s, similar to the first dvd release the movie got.
It was not the directors cut. It was the theatrical version with the narration. I wish I had a Laserdisc of the directors cut. But hey that 5 disc Blu-ray has pretty much everything I've ever wanted on it already.
5:12 That seems mixed up. I thought standard definition tv was better than laserdisc, Hi8 or S-VHS. I recall those formats being 440x480 while full standard definition of 640x480 could be achieved with NTSC broadcast, DVD, Betacam SP or Mini DV tape.
If it was from a good recording device (many MiniDV camcorders sucked horribly) the Mini DV format could display as good a picture as regular tv. Hi8 wasn't quite as good and every source I've read says Hi8 and Laserdisc had about the same resolution capability.
Q Lazzarus reference 👌
So are you going to do Betamax too.. we had a VHS player and a Sony Betamax player when I was a kid.. from what I remember Betamax looked better than the VHS
Dustin Gibbons Not by much, but yeah it was a bit better. But Betamax had a far shorter tape duration. If you wanted to make a Betamax tape run as long as a VHS tape from the same period would require massively reducing the picture quality to be worse than VHS quality. So for the most part, VHS was superior was cheaper, higher duration, and almost the same quality.
Cool topic so I guess that only leaves the PSP UMD Disc and GBA cart formats. I wonder if Sony ever released a UMD video only device for TVs
I wasn't a "Doctor" and I enjoyed the bliss of LaserDisc from 1978 to its demise in 2001. I had a decent collection and rented a lot. But yes, it was expensive and the players even more.
How much was LaserDisc player back in the day?
Interesting video.. Do you have access to a LS-240 drive? The drives that claimed to store 32MB on a 1.4MB floppy
Ice Man With FD32MB it could fit use a standard disk. You could get 120 & 240 disks too
everything2.com/title/FD32MB
If you guys have any CED format disc you should talk about them as they where trying to compete with LaserDisc in the early 80's and failed big time.
Fancy shmancy!
Sorry, no. Dot crawl is due to the comb filter used to decode a composite video source (yellow plug). Nothing to do with resolution.
Apology accepted
@@hard4games :^)
Laser disc, best way to watch Star Wars
Noah Debatable. I’ve heard some people were working on a “despecialized” version of the films in 1080p.
Didn't some of those movies have some amazing content "Special Features" so to speak that wasn't on DVD or even today's Blu-Ray disk?
Yep, all the special features that DVD became known for were on laserdisc first. In many cases, they just ported over the laserdisc content for the DVD release.
you never ever store laserdisc's flat they will warp. I'm a collector you always stand them up and as far as disc rot those disc fail because of poor manufacturing most people that own laserdisc's have a player that automatically switches to the other side without getting up off the couch.
Most titles say on the back "When not in use, store vertically in a cool, dry place." Just like vhs, laserdisc is best stored upright.
Flattening them could help slow down disc rot but like you said it was mostly due to manufacturing, not storage so there wasn't much that can be done to stop a rot prone disc from rotting.
Knightmessenger your absolutely right there is nothing you can do about disc rot I have a few and some HD DVD'S that suffer with the same issue dvds and cds and blu rays suffer from the same thing
Yeah, any disc format can suffer from laser rot if the manufacture fucked up, a lot of people don't realize that. Luckily none of my DVD/CD/ discs have rot, it's rare but it does happen. I've never heard of Blu Ray having rot but I guess it's possible and they're not that old so time will tell!
Store VHS anyways does nothing. Myth that you have to store vertical. It's because the covers are bigger vertical.
could you guys talk abouy Vidoe CD, Super Video CD, and Audio DVDs?
I used to just rent laserdiscs back in the day. I only owned a few movies in the format. No doctors in my family, lol
I've wanted to say this for years, but Tony really reminds me of David Byrne appearance-wise :>
I remember my middle school having a laser disk player.
love me some laser disc.
I remember having one of these things growing up. I hated it because there weren't that many titles for it and whether you had to get up from the couch or not the disc would end up switching sides like halfway through the movie. It was never in a convenient spot either I think Hook's was right around the time that Tinkerbell became full sized so that she could perv on Robin Williams ha ha. Also growing up in the 90's most people I knew didn't care much about picture quality as most of us were used to watching t.v. with an analog antennae where the picture was always staticy and fuzzy. So the minor picture increase was never really all that appetizing to a kid who was thinking well this costs as much as my first car as they really were ridicuslously expensive..
that is so weird u say that because when i was a teen my best friend had a LD and he was the only person ive ever known to have one well anyway his dad bought it for him and his dad was a doctor lol.
How about a review of special edition gamecubes?
We've covered a number of special edition gamecubes and also development gamecubes. Here's one to start you off: th-cam.com/video/rAwBQomvFZI/w-d-xo.html
Ahaaa I see I'll go watch thank you.
Disc rot is not an issue. People are freaking out about this topic. Its a super rare affliction of discs. All these LD youtubers have nothing else to talk about with the format so just keep adding to the legend of disc rot.
I really want to see the japanese side of laser disk. Because I know a surprising amount of anime came out on it
I remember always disliking those Discovision covers, because like 75% of the movie cover was cut out in order to advertise that it was Discovision. A simple small logo in the corner wouldn't do, they had to deface the covers to let you know what it was. F that haha.
Agree. The DiscoVision covers are 75% branding/25% cover art.
I approve of this
Cool vid
I wouldn't be surprised if everybody watching this knew what laser disc was they always used to talk about how much better the picture was but almost every movie was widescreen so like 20% of the picture or 50% of the picture was black bars still better than a VHS wide screen thoughh
I'd never call a Laserdisc a "CD" because it isn't digital and certainly not compact. ^_^ Kudos on getting some of the odder titles like Transmutations/Underworld(1985).
12:25 lol
Next, talk about Blu-Ray quality VHS tapes.
If we can get a DVHS player, we will!
Cool video.
Seriously chill. You don't need to be that delicate with Laserdiscs just don't get them dirty and scratched.
i have a tears for fears concert laserdisk
LazerDisc, was never release on latinamerica.
If someone had one, the movies will be on english.
420 Lines per Blaze It
Wtf! I had one and I didn’t even know.
after watching this all i can say.... thank christ for dvd
EL DVD ERAN UNAS PAR DE LINEAS MAS...Y A VECES SE VEIA MEJOR EL DISCO LASER...ADEMAS LOS DVD SON MUY DELICADOS...UN DESCUIDO Y LO PUEDES ESTROPEAR....
Do an ep where we point and laugh at GBA and PSP video formats.
Oh no! Don't tempt me, i might just do that. - Tony
Some players had auto reverse.
maybe youll get my comment this time hahaha whats up hard4game I am game master DarkShino the one and only original gamer named shino iv had my gamer now now for 21 years im now 28 but ya love ya vids man on the beta quests I never knew so many sweet glitchs and funn stuff was never put out to the public on some of my fav games like banjo & kazooi or Zelda and that ura Zelda dam I wish they would make it allrdy looks sooo cool iv love to play some classics with u guys and metal jesus would be fun my first systems were a Atari and a comador 64 when I was 5 ^^
Hard4LaserDiscs
So was the original owner the Angelina Jolie fan or did you buy those seperately afterwards, John?
+morteh It was the owner....totally obsessed
Cool shit
None of those had pixels, because they're analog.
It's not a cd. It just looks like one.
The only way to watch star wars.
Hi
Poorly manufactured Laserdiscs (i.e. not produced in so-called clean rooms) are usually far more prone to disc rot and other kinds of deterioration than those made "properly"; thus, they offer inferior picture and sound quality from day one, even in comparison to VHS releases. Great video 👍 (Is it time for either VHD or CED now?)
Aleksa Milićević I think Tony and I spotted a CED with 20 movies years ago at salvation army, but didn't get it. He's got one or two movies on it, but not a player. Alas working players are hard to find now.
Aw, that's a shame. Yeah, even players in near-decent-ish condition are a rarity nowadays, and the highly perishable belts (which, along with faulty power supply boxes, remain the most common cause of broken CED units) can be quite a bit finicky to remove and replace. #AllThatGoo
*pixel goes off while making a point* I really need to learn to mute that damn thing.
Yeah it went off like 10 damn times john. I'm disappointed in you. You are no longer my father.
Praise Kek!
Can you talk about memes
Only if they're dank.
Fine by me
yo
Yo yo
Welcome to the clubhouse!