A little after film reels and VHS but certainly before DVDs and Blu-Rays, and even internet films for that matter, what was it like to watch films on a Laser Disc? Quality-wise, in the 1990s or so, could they compete with DVDs, would a laserdisc player work on a modern TV these days?
shareYes, you can use a laserdisc on a modern TV. They weren't as clean as a DVD but they were fairly good. I still own a player and about twenty discs but I haven't used it in years. Aside from the size and certain formats being double sided it was just another optical media.
shareA while back I actually bought a laser disc thinking it was a vinyl soundtrack. So I own one but without a player. 😄
shareYep. My dad had some of those. It's virtually DVD-quality when viewed in an old small CRT TV. Clean and crisp visuals, Dolby or even dts surround sound, most releases came with chapters, optional closed captioning, bonus contents, etc.
All that in an analog format just like a vinyl record. Now with lazer! It really was ahead of its time.
The only inconveniences were just that the discs were huge and most movies came in 2 or even 3 sides (on 2 discs) that you have to change and flip yourself, manually. Total immersion breaking and a mood killer.
Yes, they were big like record albums, right? Never bought into that tech
sharei just ripped 2 laserdiscs (movies not on dvd) recently.
theyre not dvd quality, but obviously better than vhs and i notice some sound pops/hiss on my rips. might be my laser weakening :/
also theres a pause in the middle of the movie to flip to side B of the laserdisc that takes about 15seconds. i had to edit them out.
If you're referring to those record-sized CD's, then I have a fun short story to tell you :). See, I had never heard of such things, having grown up in the era of VHS tapes, audio tapes, early CD's, and film reels. What happened was, when I was in high school my Freshman year (in 2000), I got the chance to see a real-life laser disc! My biology teacher even had a player for them!
She had apparently been keeping them safe for a while, since they were only available for a brief time in the 90s, and using them once or twice a year for her students (including me) to watch a few little films. She had at least 3. The picture quality and sound were pretty good, though the format unfortunately had that peculiar halting quality instructional videos sometimes have today, like a robot was narrating.
So that was the only time I've ever seen laser discs.
A friend had one in the UK in the 90s. The quality for the time was very good, certainly better than VHS.
But it was very expensive. The player alone could cost up to 1000 UK pounds, and movies could be almost 100.
Plus there was tje fact that you need to flip the disc half way through.
But I remember the movies were packaged very well, especially on major films like Aliens, T2 and The Abyss.
Yep...my friend was a bit of a Cameron fan...
My dad got Aliens and Terminator 2 too. And many many more on LaserDisc... RoboCop, Jurassic Park, Back to the Future, Batman Returns, Superman IV, Total Recall, Stargate, The Shadow, Indiana Jones III, Allan Quartermain, etc. mostly 80s and early 90s blockbuster action and scifis. Other genres like dramas and cartoons were usually on VHS.
Never had The Abyss tho'.
That's one thing people forget these days; that things such as VHS or early dvd's were expensive! It seems whenever there is a new tech that allows you to watch movies or tv, it's always expensive at the start because it's new. It only becomes cheaper in the succeeding years.
shareDVDs started out relatively cheap tho'. The PlayStation 2 came out in late 2000 for only $299 and it can play DVD movies better than more expensive dedicated players.
I got my first DVD movie in 2001 and never bought any VHS again ever since.
A format that came out around the same time as LaserDisc but is more obscure is the RCA CED. I remember them being sold at the store sometime around 1981.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PnpX8d8zRIA&list=PLv0jwu7G_DFVP0SGNlBiBtFVkV5LZ7SOU&index=1
CEDS ARE OLDER THAN LASERDISC...THEY ALSO HAVE TERRIBLE PICTURE/SOUND QUALITY AND THEY WEIGH A TON....THEY ARE VERY COOL FOR COLLECTING PURPOSES THOUGH...I HAVE A FEW DOZEN.
share