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[XiaNaphryz]

I thought that these were discontinued 8 years ago or so. Where have you even been able to buy these in the past few years?

I'm sure a small handful of video specialty stores in the US may have carried some of the hybrid models, like the LD/DVD one (assuming no region coding issues).

 

[bengraven]

Even LaserDisc beat HDDVD

Too-fucking-che.

 

[Drkirby]

- As a format, Laserdisc is older than Compact Disc.

Never realized that.

Also, the last time I saw a LaserDisc Player was in my 8th grade English Class 5 years ago, and the last time I saw one play was in 3rd grade, 10 years ago. Wish my schools used the things more, my elementary and middle school had one in just about every room. Only reason my high school didn't have them (Even then, there could of been a few somewhere) was that it was brand new, with my class being the first to go though it all 4 years.

Also, looking back, buying 1000's of Laser Disk players that seem like they were never used was most likely a huge waste... I wonder if I could snag one from the school board...

 

[Jake.]

Niche market? Nintendo still manufactured the Famicom well into 2003 in Japan.

...really?

 

[djtiesto]

...really?

I think he means that Nintendo still supported the Famicom, i.e. as in repairing and tech support, till 03.

 

[neight]

Pioneer is the the f*cking bomb ass electronics company. You should go to their site and look around, they still make plenty of HiFi tape decks too.

R.I.P. - Laser Disk

Pioneer is my most respected company. The way they support the best tech is amazing. Laserdisc would've died a long time ago without them and enthusiasts would've been stuck with VHS tapes. And the way they make high end plasmas giving us the best PQ we can get out of a consumer display despite most of the market being LCD. So disappointed to hear of their financial troubles.

 

[cvxfreak]

My family owned a LaserDisc around the end of the 90s for karaoke. It was a popular format for Japanese and people from HK as well.

 

[FnordChan]

All hail Laserdisc, god's own video format. As much as I like the smaller form factor of DVD and Blu-ray, LD's size did make for superior pack-in extras for the hardcore fanboy collector. My collection is still at home, safe and sound, and ready to be played at a moment's notice. For that matter, I've got some stuff on LD that I really need to encode digitally before some OOP material succumbs to disc rot.

FnordChan

 

[atomico]

wow, didn't know the format was that old. nor that it was still in production.

 

[Beer Monkey]

I still have three players and a variety of discs that aren't on DVD (mostly music titles).

 

[Shiggie]

First time ive heard of laserdisc.
also

Got Dayum its huge!

 

[Gary Whitta]

Wow I had no idea they were still being made! I kinda want one now :lol

I remember seeing T2 on Laserdisc for the first time many years ago. Blew me away. I don't remember much about the format though... how did the PQ/AQ quality compare to DVD?

 

[MrSeaneyC]

Farewell LD, despite the number of jokes I had at your expense (Anyone fancy trying to market a Laserdisc Walkman?) it was truely a format ahead of its time that unfortunately didn't adapt to the market as it needed to. Gave us our first taste of true uncompressed digital sound, and DD and DTS in the home. Not to mention, the backbone for genius games at the arcade such as Mad Dog McGree with its "super fast" random access.

I remember going to my uncles' houses in Singapore when i was 11 in the early 90s and think god damn these things are huge but SO COOL.

 

[DJ_Tet]

Wow I had no idea they were still being made! I kinda want one now :lol

I remember seeing T2 on Laserdisc for the first time many years ago. Blew me away. I don't remember much about the format though... how did the PQ/AQ quality compare to DVD?

I remember seeing Star Wars on LD at a time when not only were there no VHS/DVD copies of the movie for purchase, it rarely even came on cable stations like HBO. Strange to see Lucas jump on LD so early yet still releasing VHS in 98 because he wasn't sure about DVD :lol

Not that anyone believed that excuse but still.

I bugged my parents to no avail to get an LD player for years for that SW Trilogy.

 

[FnordChan]

I don't remember much about the format though... how did the PQ/AQ quality compare to DVD?

My understanding is that the two are reasonably close in quality, though your average DVD had a slight edge over a good LD and you couldn't really get anamorphic video on LD (with at least one exeception that a few seconds with Google just informed me about). In the early days of DVD there were exciting (read: pointless) flame wars on Usenet about LD being superior to DVD, but that's almost certainly just crazy talk. I also have the unsubstantiated notion that the DVD era saw more remastering of films for home video release, so they looked better overall than LD.

FnordChan

 

[Beer Monkey]

In the early days of DVD there were exciting (read: pointless) flame wars on Usenet about LD being superior to DVD, but that's almost certainly just crazy talk. I also have the unsubstantiated notion that the DVD era saw more remastering of films for home video release, so they looked better overall than LD.

Most movie laserdiscs were freshly remastered (new telecine) because existing TV/VHS masters were panned/scanned.

Early DVD often didn't look so hot because they weren't compressed very well, the MPEG-2 knowledge and technology increased a ton over the first couple of years. Quite a few early movies squeezed way too much data on a single-layered disc and had tons of artifacts and noise. It was understandable that some people thought they looked worse than LD, especially over s-video (component input TVs were very rare in 1997).

 

[Skittleguy]

Damn! What will I watch my 2-disc special edition of Forest Gump on now?

 

[polyh3dron]

Wow I had no idea they were still being made! I kinda want one now :lol

I remember seeing T2 on Laserdisc for the first time many years ago. Blew me away. I don't remember much about the format though... how did the PQ/AQ quality compare to DVD?

Sometimes it was better because there wasn't any compression going on and with DVDs you'd have all that artifacting and edge enhancement going on. DVD was capable of looking as good as LD and sometimes better but it didn't always happen.

 

[NekoFever]

I wonder how prevalent rot issues will be for current existing CDs/DVDs/BRs in 10-20 years from now.

I've lost a few DVDs to rot. No CDs or BDs, though, and last time I checked all my LDs are fine. I guess it can happen to any disc that's been manufactured poorly.

 

[XiaNaphryz]

I've lost a few DVDs to rot. No CDs or BDs, though, and last time I checked all my LDs are fine. I guess it can happen to any disc that's been manufactured poorly.

I also read somewhere that burned discs (i.e. not professional pressed at a manufacturing site) are much more likely to be affected by rot.