We got talking 'bout laserdisc players over in the introduce yourself thread so I thought I'd move it over here instead.

To sum it up; Miltos and Eddie just said LD players are deleted, you can't buy new ones, but they're fairly cheap on eBay (in the US anyway).

So if I buy one, is there a PAL/NTSC issue as well? Do some players only play PAL or NTSC, or do they all play both systems?

And why am I even asking about LD player? Well, cos there's actually quite a few films (not least HK films) that are out on LD but have never come out on dvd so either there's no way of getting a certain film or if you're lucky there'll be a crappy vcd. Sometimes there are better versions on laserdisc as well (and some of them are cheap too on eBay).


Jack

Yes, there's a PAL/NTSC issue on LD players as well. I believe there are some players that can handle both formats though.

I'd love a list of titles where the Laserdisc release is the best one so far, the only one I know of fore sure is Hands of Steel but I also remember reading about some LD release of Suspiria having the best colors.

Sadly, I can't contribute to much since my knowledge is obviously very limited, I am very curious when it comes to this format though.

Yes, you must be careful and choose a multisystem player. I highly recommend Pioneer players.

Alright, I'll make sure to get a multi system one. Cheers.


Jack

Beta tapes are the same. There are some releases that only got put out on beta. Sony manufactured a multisystem for beta. The model #'s end with the letters "ME" for "Middle East" as that is the only place that they were manufactured for. I was able to find me a pristine example on ebay about a month ago.



This one is a SL-800ME model. It is a pro-sumer model with 4 heads and runs on any voltage between 99-264v without need for an external voltage converter. It plays European PAL, UK PAL, ME SECAM, French SECAM, Moroccan SECAM, NTSC 4.43, NTSC 3.58 and has 3 built in tuners. I paid just over $500.00 including shipping.

All in all, I'm just glad I can finally watch my beta copy of "Buitres sobre la ciudad" with Maurizio Merli!!! :)

Wauw!! Thanks for that piece of info!! Now I want one of those!! Just out of curiosity; were are you located and how much was the postage to get it??


Oh, and have a look at this T-shirt I bought a couple weeks ago B) :







Jack

Hi,

I also recommend Pioneer players, my Pioneer CLD-D515 is more than 10 years old and is still running fine ( but I also have a Pioneer CLD-2950 in the cellar in case the 515 dies ). Most players manufactured for and sold in Europe play PAL and NTSC LDs ( I don't know if players sold in the USA can play PAL LDs also )....as far as I remember, there were some problems with TV-sets...the TV must be able to handle the NTSC-signal. To be sure of the players ability to handle both PAL and NTSC just go to http://www.laserdiscarchive.co.uk ....there's a list of manufacturers on the right side of the page, click, choose the type of player and you'll get any information you want.....

Since there's only space for 30 minutes ( in CAV-mode, CAV means Constant Angular Velocity, this mode supports freeze frame and variable slow motion ) or 60 minutes ( in CLV-mode, CLV means Constant Linear Velocity, there's no freeze frame or slow motion, only on some high-end players with a digital frame store ) per side, you'll have to turn the LD over, but there are some players which are able to flip automatically from Side A to Side B ( dual-side players )....

There's a very good article about Laserdiscs on Wiki - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laserdisc .... there you can also find informations on laser rot - the death of the beloved LD....

Cheers....Uncle Chainsaw

Congratulations :)

Hey Uncle Chainsaw, thanks for your info. Very useful.
Hmm, LD rot! Must read up on that. :unsure:


Jack

Thx Jack & Miltos! :)

Jack, I am located in Texas, United States. The price of the unit was $450.00 "Buy it now." The seller was located in Canada. The price of postage was $75.00. The unit weighs about 20 pounds. (It is freaking heavy!!!)

If I were you I'd just save the "SL-800ME" search in ebay so that it'll email you if one pops up for sale.

Niiiiice shirt! :lol:

Texas. Cool! 20 pounds: that is heavy! But then again, I have an old Betamax (European PAL) that's probably 20 pounds as well. One heavy sob and it looks like it's just eaten three dvd players. :lol:

Okay, I'll make that automatic eBay search and see if another one comes up. I had a look last night and noticed that there's actually someone selling brand new Betamax players (ordinary ntsc ones) in the US. I don't want one but it's interesting that you can still buy new ones so long after they stopped making them.

PS: thanks. Yes it is, I got one in green as well :lol:



Jack

Hey Miltos and Uncle Chainsaw, I took you up on your recommendations and yesterday I bought this:



- the PIONEER CLD-D 925!! And actually the seller is located next door to you, Frank, somewhere in Germany. I won it on eBay and paid €282 for it. He states it's neuwertig, like new. Apparently it was only used by an elderly lady on Sundays. :lol:


And obviously I needed something to go with it so last week I bought a couple of those shiny (but not so small) discs:



O.C.T.B.CASE:THE FLOATING BODY (starring Lily Chung)



RED TO KILL (also starring the sleazy princess of the nasty Cat. III films: Lily Chung).


Jack

very cool! although I would be very worried when I spend that kind of money on a machine to just send it with the post. I wouldn't mind owning a betamax player myself, but I am only looking for it in the neigbourhood so I can come pick it up.
On that last laserdisc it says "part II". Does that mean you are missing a first disc or is part I pictured on the other side?

You're right and it's always a risk to have expensive stuff sent thru the mail (not least electronic stuff). I don't know if it's gonna make it less of a risk but I'm having it sent via a freight company. Unfortunately I live in a fairly small city (pop: 40,000) and around here there's nowhere to buy a good second-hand LD player.

Yes, two discs. I just didn't bother to show the other side :rolleyes: :lol:




Jack

And of course, with a LD-player and a DVD-recorder, you can transfer some rare movies from LD to DVD. One of the advantage being that you can have the complete film on disc, not in two parts... and the "loss" of informations is minimal (much less than in copying a VHS to another VHS).
I transferred my old LD of Curtiz's MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM (with Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray) to DVD. This LD version was the only one to have the TRUE colors of the movie. Regretfully, the makers of the DVD found it "necessary" to "adapt" the curious colors of the original, without any respect for the historical value of the early Technicolor process.
Incidentally, this old LD also has DOCTOR X (the color version, photographed by Ray Rennahan) so it's priceless for a collector.

This thred brings up a lot of memories! I bought my first LD player back in 1989! It was a Pioneer player. It played only NTSC discs (only US and JAP discs available, mostly)

Before I started to import (to Sweden) myself, I bought my discs from a company that had their business in a small dark cellar!

Had about 400 discs back then. Lots of rare JAP, HK an US discs! Just love the artwork! It's about comparing a CD to LP right!

I manage to sell of all discs some years ago...

congrats jack on ur LD player .... :)

I bought a Pioneer CLD-D925 a few weeks back for 50 euros. Would be interested to know where to look up for interesting laserdiscs that are mostly not on dvd? I'm also interested in beautiful cover art and if there are alternate versions that are not on dvd. Ebay I can look up for myself. Also any posts on cover art would be satisfying... I'm mostly into horror/sci-fi/fantasy and plain weirdness. Thanks! :)

Really? I recently bought MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM (on a double bill dvd with HOUSE OF WAX) but haven't watched it yet. Colour version of DOCTOR X? I'm afraid although I do like old horror movies from the 30s I don't know too much about them - I did watch Mystery of the 13th Guest recently though! B) (althought that one is from '43).



Jack

Thanks, Joe!

Goldberg: This is all new to me and I have no answers to your enquiries. The ones I bought were from eBay. Maybe someone else here, Miltos, Uncle Chainsaw (anyone?) knows where to buy rare LDs.


Jack

Congrats Jack J! B)

Killer find!

Thanks, Kenneth! And yes it is and now I just hope the delivery people don't "kill" it! :lol: :unsure: :unsure:

Hi,

sorry ( especially to Jack ) for my late response, but I wasn't at home last week ( shitty job :( ).....

@Jack: congratulations - that's a damn fine machine and if it's really as new, it's like the first prize in the lottery.....did it already arrive at your place ?? The 'Red To Kill' - LDs remind me of the good old ( and very expensive ) times when the Hong Kong Chinese came up with the great idea to put a 90-minutes-movie on two seperate LDs and to claim full price for each of them....I always try not to remember how much I paid for 'Hard-Boiled' and some other titles....

Where to buy rare LD's ? Hmmmm...that's not easy, I haven't bought any LD in the last few years and so I would also suggest ebay....there are also some German sites but there are mainly German LDs offered and they are not very interesting....but there's also the great 'LaserDisc Database' site ( http://www.lddb.com/ ) which provides infos on thousands of these shiny babies.....you can also sell and buy LDs via this site.....and I see things there I want to have....this is not good for me :unsure:

Lucio10 is right - it's like comparing a CD to a LP....there's place for the cover art and there's no loss in the picture quality because of the high compression on DVDs - it's warm and analog :D .....there are also some interesting versions of movies released on LD like the 200-minute version of 'The Alamo' and the unrated version of 'A Nightmare On Elm Street Part V', both never released on DVD....

Oh my god, what have you done.....I've licked blood again....have to go now and play with my LaserDiscs.....

Cheers....Uncle Chainsaw

That's all right. Sorry about your shitty job! :(

Thanks mate!! Well, the seller had a good reputation (and the pictures look fine) so I believe him when he says it's like new. And no, I haven't received it yet. Berlin is a long way away :lol:

Yeah, I've heard about those two-disc LDs that were put out to make an extra buck. Knowing HK mentality I'm not surprised.

Thanks for the link. Incidentally, today Andras (of this forum) posted a link to an eBay seller in HK over at another forum:

http://entertainment.search.ebay.com.hk/ld...fonlyQQsbrsrtZl

It's a bit tricky figuring out which LDs are which as most of the text is in Chinese but the seller does sell to countries outside of HK so that's no problem. They're not cheap though.

Also, in this thread it's been mentioned that there are LD releases of films that are different on dvd. The aforementioned thread is actually about this (but most of the info is about FULL CONTACT):

http://adg.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=2582&st=0
(and "Gynther Meyer" is yours truly :D ).


Jack

I received my first LDs today and, gee, those muthers are real heavy, eh! :lol:


Jack

Jack, it's very nice, these things help us to remain "children" :lol: :lol: :lol:

The only problem, they're too big to scan them (like the LPs). You need a good camera - mine sucks, and I'm a very bad photographer too B)

A few months ago I looked around for a big scanner (to scan things like these) but here you shall make a special order and it's terribly expensive...

Funny you should mention it cos a couple of hours ago I tried to google scanners that are big enough to do A3 (so I can scan LDs and my Mexican lobby cards). I found a couple but I don't know how good or bad they are:

http://www.pixmania.com/dk/dk/621107/art/m...ress-a3-us.html

http://www.pixmania.com/dk/dk/131643/art/m...n-p3600-a3.html

- and yeah, they tend to be more pricey. The first one though isn't too expensive (but maybe it's crap).


Jack

This is the cheapest I found in Greece :(
http://www.zero1.gr/product_info.php?products_id=56513

You should try find a program like Photo Stitch that can combine multiple scans to form a single picture. I know it's easier to scan the covers as a whole but this a cheap way (doesn't cost you a penny). An option anyway.

Yes, I have it, but I'm not really good with these things B)
But I guess I have to try harder...

I have tried splicing scans together (with a different program) and it works fine if you put two A4 scans together. But the thing is I have these lobby cards (and now LDs) that are size A3 so it doesn't work very well scanning them twice because you can't lay the card on the scanner properly because of the edge on the scanner. The scanning doesn't turn out very well. But thanks for the suggestion anyway.


Jack

Got my player yesterday. It came in the original wrapping and it does look like NEW!! :D :D


Jack

Congratulations again :)

Cheers mate. :D

There was also a LD with some classical music in the box. Ehh, any of you fellas want a LD with some classical music??? :lol:


Jack

Those of you that are after HK films on LD can check out this thread:

http://adg.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=2557

It's HK guy Miles Wood who has lost his religion and is selling all his HK laserdiscs. This is just thread no. 1, he has 6 more.


Jack

Congrats from me too, Jack.....have you already watched one of those shiny babies ?? Perhaps the classical one :) ? Although I love classical music ( and metal ) I unfortunately also have no use for the LD....I try to stay away from music on LD....self-limitation, you know :D ....

....oh, and also thanks for the Miles-Wood-link....I praise the Lord that I have no money in the moment :lol:

Thanks, Uncle Chainsaw. No, I still haven't, I'm visiting my folks for a few days but as soon as I get home I will. Hmm, what will be first? Some nasty Lily Chung Cat. III film maybe. Miles Wood; yes he does have a lot doesn't he. I bought three of them, all stuff you either can't get on dvd or stuff that is OOP. One film I bought is SHAINGHAI BLUES!!! I have an old tv recording of this and it's a fantastic Tsui Hark film. And never released on dvd.


Jack

i own a few Pioneer players
CLD-R7G (with 3-D comb filter)
CLD-07G
CLD-S201
CLD-S104
CLD-V820
i have never paid over 250$ for a player but i have my i eye on a LD-X1 from a shop around here and i might have to bend the rules for the one!

If any of the American members here are looking for one of these SL-800ME ultimate multi players there's one on eBay right now. Unfortunately, the bastards only sell to people in the US.

6 days to go:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...US:1123#vi-desc

:ph43r: