May the "force" be with you

[pixelthis]

The ONLY reason that Laserdisc (I'll be even more clear and say "12 Laserdisc, so people don't confuse that with the other sizes), is because STAR WARS, along with a few other great films, was one of the titles that had a great "12 Laserdisc history and was one of the titles that fans and collectors still sought after due to the fact that the DVD was botched by many standards. There are still other titles out there that have yet to be released on DVD in superior picture/sound than the Laserdisc, which is why collectors were/are still paying top dollar online to get these discs.

Obviously LD is out-dated in many respects, especially since the picture resolution cannot compete with Blu-ray, but DVD was often recylced from the LD issue on many early DVD releases. Often though, the rights that companies like Pioneer had on Laserdisc (such as Madonna) were exclusive and have yet to be released on DVD various concerts.

Of course sound matters just as much as picture, LD was full-bit rate DTS, whereas most DVD's were half-bit rate and that is why many of the DTS Lasers are still as popular as ever.

It is only now that we are getting Blu-ray releases of various films with DTS offerings that beat out the LD's. A great example is the recent Blu-ray release of TOY STORY, which finally gives the film that DTS punch that the Laserdisc had..... of course the LD was available for 13 years until something came along that could beat it.

Has anyone heard whether the Blu-ray issues of the STAR WARS trilogy will be the 1997 versions or not???

They will be the "remastered" versions.
AND SOONER or later you will get out of LD, they don't make players anymore.
You are not fighting the DVD "war" (that war has been lost), you are fighting a war where one side basically nuked the other.
Truth is, LASER had trouble competing with vhs
It never was a mass market medium
One good thing about LASER, its cheap, about ten bucks a CRATE, with some titles
going for 75 cents.
LD was a great idea at the time, but that time was a decade and a half ago.
Give up the ghost, this "battle" is over, everybody has gone home

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

Of course sound matters just as much as picture, LD was full-bit rate DTS, whereas most DVD's were half-bit rate and that is why many of the DTS Lasers are still as popular as ever.

Being full bit rate does not automatically make the audio better than a half bit rate track. It all goes back to the quality of the mixing, and master used to do the encode. The better the mix and the cleaner the master, the better the sound whether we are talking full bit rate, or half bit rate. Do you really think the lossless Dts-HD Master Audio track of Battle of Britain is as good as the lossy Dts track of Saving Private Ryan?

It is only now that we are getting Blu-ray releases of various films with DTS offerings that beat out the LD's. A great example is the recent Blu-ray release of TOY STORY, which finally gives the film that DTS punch that the Laserdisc had..... of course the LD was available for 13 years until something came along that could beat it.

The master used on the Blu ray disc is different from the one used on the LD, so they cannot even be compared. The Dts master used for the 10th Anniversay DVD of Toy story is the same master used for the Blu ray release.

I would dare you to do a double blind test of the full bit rate Dts track of Toy Story against the half bit rate encoding on the 10th Anniversay edition. I bet you won't be able to tell the difference because the encoders used for the latter were better than those used on the former.

[RGA]

I have about 40 Laserdiscs - basically I am no videophile. I bought LD entirely because the movies offered widescreen which most VHS indeed none that I saw offered.

The picture was better too but that was secondary. LD was a pain to have to flip over half way through. The machines that did it for you seemed to break down faster. Although I believe Denon had a 25 LD changer or some such monstrosity.

It's pretty tough to argue against the quality of Blu-Ray. I watched a bit of "The Dark Knight" as my first Bluray purchase and it is quite spectacular looking.

A bunch of stores are selling several titles for under $20 which is the max I will spend on a movie. I lived in China and buying perfect copies for $0.85 and entire TV series for $5 is difficult to come back and see idiotic prices that go up and down like a yo-yo. I don't mind price fluctuation but when a season of Dexter can be bought at Wal-mart for $10 for 2 months and Best-Buy sells it for $34.99 and then for two weeks sells it for $19.99 and then goes back up to $29.99 - well it bugs me.

Star Trek: DS9 seasons were $162.99 and now sell at Future Shop for $39.99. Just wait them out. Six Feet Under $59.00 - my mom waited and then bought each season for $17.99-$19.99 - now they're back over $50.

BAHH

I never bought Star Wars on any format. The three disc set was always interesting but Return of the Jedi and the lame Ewok muppets was such a pathetic let down. The first film is tough to re watch and the star of all the movies was Empire - it's the only one I can watch multiple times. The latest three were some of the biggest piles of caca in film history - It's the first time in years I shut a movie off before getting to the second half. Jar Jar certainly was jarring to the intelligence of movie goers. And prequels are dumb for the most part because you know nothing bad will happen to Vader junior. And all the CGI just looks like CGI.

Give me real damn special effects like the wolf change scene in American Werewolf in London or John Carpenter's "The Thing" over the CGI crud coming out. Just got home from watching the lame Pirhnna 3D and it looks so unvelievably fake.

Where is the true artistry and craftmanship and model making gone? Some putz on a Uniblab 5000 computer creating the whole movie. Bahh again!

This review of Phantom Menace says it all - the review is FAR more entertaining to watch than the movie. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxKtZ...eature=related

In fact that review makes me think that the Phantom Menace may arguably be the worst big budget highly anticipated film in the history of movies.

[PeruvianSkies]

I have about 40 Laserdiscs - basically I am no videophile. I bought LD entirely because the movies offered widescreen which most VHS indeed none that I saw offered.

The picture was better too but that was secondary. LD was a pain to have to flip over half way through. The machines that did it for you seemed to break down faster. Although I believe Denon had a 25 LD changer or some such monstrosity.

It's pretty tough to argue against the quality of Blu-Ray. I watched a bit of "The Dark Knight" as my first Bluray purchase and it is quite spectacular looking.

A bunch of stores are selling several titles for under $20 which is the max I will spend on a movie. I lived in China and buying perfect copies for $0.85 and entire TV series for $5 is difficult to come back and see idiotic prices that go up and down like a yo-yo. I don't mind price fluctuation but when a season of Dexter can be bought at Wal-mart for $10 for 2 months and Best-Buy sells it for $34.99 and then for two weeks sells it for $19.99 and then goes back up to $29.99 - well it bugs me.

Star Trek: DS9 seasons were $162.99 and now sell at Future Shop for $39.99. Just wait them out. Six Feet Under $59.00 - my mom waited and then bought each season for $17.99-$19.99 - now they're back over $50.

BAHH

I never bought Star Wars on any format. The three disc set was always interesting but Return of the Jedi and the lame Ewok muppets was such a pathetic let down. The first film is tough to re watch and the star of all the movies was Empire - it's the only one I can watch multiple times. The latest three were some of the biggest piles of caca in film history - It's the first time in years I shut a movie off before getting to the second half. Jar Jar certainly was jarring to the intelligence of movie goers. And prequels are dumb for the most part because you know nothing bad will happen to Vader junior. And all the CGI just looks like CGI.

Give me real damn special effects like the wolf change scene in American Werewolf in London or John Carpenter's "The Thing" over the CGI crud coming out. Just got home from watching the lame Pirhnna 3D and it looks so unvelievably fake.

Where is the true artistry and craftmanship and model making gone? Some putz on a Uniblab 5000 computer creating the whole movie. Bahh again!

This review of Phantom Menace says it all - the review is FAR more entertaining to watch than the movie. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxKtZ...eature=related

In fact that review makes me think that the Phantom Menace may arguably be the worst big budget highly anticipated film in the history of movies.

I have roughly 90 Laserdiscs left, most of them I have replaced in time as better versions became available either on DVD or Blu-ray, but there are several that I still have that I am holding onto no matter what, mostly because they are cool collector items or like I mentioned before, they still don't have fully equal versions on some other format. I'm gonna start a new thread listing LD worthy of still owning.

[pixelthis]

I have roughly 90 Laserdiscs left, most of them I have replaced in time as better versions became available either on DVD or Blu-ray, but there are several that I still have that I am holding onto no matter what, mostly because they are cool collector items or like I mentioned before, they still don't have fully equal versions on some other format. I'm gonna start a new thread listing LD worthy of still owning.

They are not worth owning, as this is a DEAD format. Theres' better out there.
LASER is 480i, at its best, and thats interlaced, so you get maybe 300 lines, at best.
And they arent "collectible", except for sentimental value.
But you are right , some lasers dont have "equals" in other formats, they have superior
presentations in other formats.
ITS all relative, laser used to wow my friends , even tho the letterboxed pic was a postage stamp on my 32"xbr Sony.
Now its dated. But waste your time if you want.