Laserdisc Player question please help....

[rocky1980]

Well I have joined the Laserdisc club my player turned up today

[oldtimer]

good for you m8!
which one did you get?

[commanderkaiser]

What make's Laserdisc players good? Like are they better quality or anything than dvds?
They look like a novel thing to have around the house now but not much more unless I'm seriously missing something.

[Matt_B]

What make's Laserdisc players good? Like are they better quality or anything than dvds?
They look like a novel thing to have around the house now but not much more unless I'm seriously missing something.

That's a complex question and someone might write you an essay as an answer, but basically Laserdiscs are an analogue format without any form of lossy compression and you don't get the sort of MPEG-2 artefacts that DVDs suffer from, particularly poorly encoded ones. On the other hand, they're of inherently lower resolution and only support composite video, although many high-end players implemented comb filtering to give component or RGB output. Ultimately, both formats are only as good as the quality of the mastering, and there are some films that are superb on one format, but poor on the other so it can go both ways.

Also, I've got a big pile of laserdiscs some of which I simply couldn't get on DVD for love nor money so I won't be retiring mine any time soon.

[rocky1980]

good for you m8!
which one did you get?

Its a Pioneer Laser Disc Player CLD - S315, according to the ebay seller it cost £649 new back in the day So far I have 3 films on the format

Hard Boiled
Dune (god I love that film
Buckaroo banzai

I want to get more but the prices on ebay are starting to climb, and with the new postage increases

[oldtimer]

i get mine off a great seller on ebay, she is real good, even sells sealed ones, i just got titanic double disc off her for £1.99 sealed new plus £3 postage, but she has loads of them always.

[oldtimer]

Just been out this morning to collect 2 X CED Disc players (hitachi and GEC ) 90 ! discs all for the grand price of £40 total !
Got them from a Junk shop , cant believe my luck ... pictures to follw if anyones interested,
These CED Players are different from laserdisc units as they use a floating needle rather than a laser, ive got one or two more at home also, but i just could not resist the bargain, watching Forbidden planet as i type this lol

[ruffian]

One of my bitterest regrets is getting rid of my GEC CED player, so i'd like to see some pics please, Oldtimer. Still haven't got into the laser scene...yet. I've got a couple of junk shops looking out for them for me since i narrowly missed out on one a few weeks ago. Walked in and a pioneer (model unknown) with 20 discs had just sold for 75 quid. They didn't realise how bad
ly i want one...they do now. Probably gonna have to sell stuff and go the ebay route as i can't see anothet turning up in the wild in the near future.

[theantmeister]

Any time anyone asks me what a laserdisc is, I point them to James Rolfe's video. Really interesting! I had no idea laserdisc was an analogue format before I watched that. I can get my head around how a vinyl LP works, but I still don understand how you record a picure and sound on a disc and read it back with a laser?!

He's also done a CED video, although he doesn't do a brilliant job of explaining how it works.

I remember first seeing a laserdisc in a high end Hifi store. They had it hooked up to a massive 60" rear projection TV and surround sound setup. Incredible! Bare in mind, we had a 20" TV at home with a crappy VHS VCR.

I never did get a laserdisc player. I came very close. I found one in the classifieds (pre-ebay) and even drove all the way out to this guy's house in the middle of no-where. The player he was selling had something wrong with it though

I must have a look on ebay...

[oldtimer]

Here is my collection of 6 Assorted laserdisc players, all in good working order.
There are 3 CED Players (2 hitachis and a GEC Mcmichael unit
The other two are the more traditional laser players ,i also have an original Philips VLP Laservision system upstairs too, one is a Pioneer Laser karaoke unit the other one (top in tv cab) is a very rare PAL/NTSC Setron unit
Ive got about 180 CED Discs now and probably about 100 Laser lp discs,









Anyone wanting to trade discs let me know.... i also collect video cds too as i have a dedicated VCD unit (non DVD)

[tekaotaku]

Nice collection oldtimer....Love my CED player, it's had a few replacement belts in its time but really need a new stylus unit. It's starting to skip like a motherfuc*er and becoming unplayable. I used to get stylus units off a guy on eBay but he no longer sells so always super eagle eyed on carboots and charity shops. Oh well...


Would love to add a VHD Player(Video High Density) to my collection but getting one over here is a pain in the arse and shipping from Japan would cripple me for a while but one day! (and after lottery win I'll have the VHD player, the MSX computer and my VHD copy of Road Blaster as well...I can dream on lol)

Thanks for sharing the pics

[ruffian]

Great pics Oldtimer...well i've stumped up for a CED player...Hitachi....with one disk...so starting from scratch again.

Will get into LD when i start selling stuff again...actually sold a few good GC games to get the cash together for the CED.

I'm thinking off selling a lot of my game stuff to get into laser as movies are more my thing these days.

Also collect HD DVD...got a dedicated Toshiba player for £20 from a junk shop a while back.

Might start to collect VCD as i have a cdi..bought one original VCD - 'Swordfish' from a charity shop yesterday...only thing is, i hear all VCDs were full-frame and none were w/s? Wouldn't necessarily stop me from collecting them though.

Whats your dedicated VCD player Oldtimer?

[oldtimer]

ive got 100s of CED Discs ruffian, if you want to trade anything , lots of duplicates .
My dedicated VCD Player is an ELECROVISION unit, thats also got built in karaoke functions too
Picked it up from EBAY For about £3 and even colllected it locally so no postage cost either luckily,

[oldtimer]

Sony Lasermax LDP 3300P Player bought for the sum of ONE POUND!
AND WORKS PERFECTLY

[rolan]

they're a bit of a nightmare if you arent settled into a permanent home, I'm moving into uni halls in september and the only reason my laserdisc is coming with me is its just too friggin big to cart back to my parents house in ireland via public transport... im not selling it tho... glad I only have 12 discs to cart around with me though... its a kenwood player and it is the size of a small car.... ridiculously big and if placed in a suitcase I'm convinced the sharp corners would go through it like mincemeat..