Laserdisc

i might collect laserdiscs if i didn't spend my spare cash on weed and psychedelic drugs

are laserdiscs essentially dvd quality? im too lazy to research

  On 5/12/2010 at 8:36 AM, Z_B_Z said:

are laserdiscs essentially dvd quality? im too lazy to research

better than bargain bin dvd, not as good as something like criterion collection.

  On 5/12/2010 at 8:17 AM, xxx said:

Babar, the world's your tipple as a French female; you can rename at will. Cervical mucus is not bloody at all, at least on the macroscopic level and for the middle of the menstrual cycle. Microscopically, the vagina is a cavalcade of interest: red blood cells, macrophages, neutrophils, Doderlein bacteria munching away at lomticks of menstruation and shed endometrium tissue and producing lactic acid as a result--keeping you in a clean goob and a taste/scent that makes the boys say GO! It goes "uncomfortable" from there: undigested vegetable matter from feces that have breached the taint for those misguided "back-to-front wipers", cotton fibers from tampons, weevil eggs and other protists that hitched a ride on the cotton that made the tampon, diatomaceous earth aka sand and soil, "fallen soldiers from the Battle of Fertilization" aka jizz caught in your vaginal textures with dead sperm from your last dirty time, glops of retained lube that stain purple when using the Papanicolau staining technique (where "Pap" smear derives its name). Now, it's dirty but so is fucking so celebrate the spinach and cotton and sand and blood and bacteria and mucus and lactic acid when your man does his clitplay and lays pipe because nothing would be happening at all without that mess. After all, they didn't call it vagina L. "scabbard" for nothing--it's a hidey-ho for the good times and the bad!

*anyone else horny?*

 

But, yeah, I went a bit mad (seriously) hunched over a microscope reading hundreds of Pap smears for 12 hours a day and studying when I wasn't (cytotechnologists are the "first pass" folks to catch cancerous development so the demand for accuracy made me crazy) so that's why I switched to nursing. I much prefer being in teaching/assessment/patient care capacities and by 2015, I should be doing basically the same thing as a doctor except for less money as an advanced practice nurse.

aha thanks for the lesson !.

"Cette leçon vaut bien un fromage, sans doute."

So there is poop in my vagina as well. Huh, that's uncanny huh

*strokes bush*

if i can find a 4 dollar laserdisc player, i will indeed start collecting them.. i imagine the discs themselves are dirt cheap.. but then again so are dvds these days. but i like the idea of having 'the lawnmower man' on laserdisc.

*downloading lawnmower man

it would be great getting really high and watching obscure 90s educational videos

  On 5/12/2010 at 9:32 AM, vamos scorcho said:

it would be great getting really high and watching obscure 90s educational videos

i can tell you from first hand experience that this is not near as interesting as you'd think. had a roommate who had one of those educational versions of the 3do and you're entertained for about 2 minutes, tops. then again, he mostly had stuff related to dentistry, so your mileage may vary.

also sand? in my vagina? it's more likely than you think!

  On 5/12/2010 at 9:26 AM, Z_B_Z said:

if i can find a 4 dollar laserdisc player, i will indeed start collecting them.. i imagine the discs themselves are dirt cheap.. but then again so are dvds these days. but i like the idea of having 'the lawnmower man' on laserdisc.

 

 

 

*downloading lawnmower man

oh word i forgot to reply to this. i don't know where you live but around here we have half priced books, which usually has a decent (and weird) selection of films on laserdisc for super cheap. like 2-3 bucks for most things, i saw Seventh Seal Criterion collection for like 10.

not too sure if theres anywhere around here that would sell laserdiscs (then again i havent looked) but ill bet ebay has a ton...

ok i just looked and ebay does indeed have a ton. players seem to be at least 30 bucks tho. damn. guess thats not too much but you cant beat 3.99

Original poster, what brand and model of laserdisc player did you get?

I bought one about 6 or so years ago cause I wanted to own and watch El Topo and Holy Mountain on laserdisc and at the time, that was the only legitimate way to do it. They've since released far superior dvds of both movies and my heart still hurts.

  On 5/12/2010 at 8:40 AM, disparaissant said:

  On 5/12/2010 at 8:36 AM, Z_B_Z said:

are laserdiscs essentially dvd quality? im too lazy to research

better than bargain bin dvd, not as good as something like criterion collection.

I don't know about that, but then again I can't say I've come across a 'bargain bin' dvd with subpar video quality. That said I've certainly seen dvd's with crappy video quality however I think you'd need one of the still reasonably expensive high-end japanese LD players with appropriate cables and A/V receiver in order to match dvd quality. My Pioneer player isn't too crappy but not too good and I have a few laserdiscs. I use a nice think s-video cable with gold ends into a good Panasonic lcd tv and the difference to a dvd of the same movie is pretty noticable.

I'd say the picture quality is somewhere between a VHS kept in optimal condition and your average DVD.

goddamn edit post time out. the second part of that message was meant to read easier and be more specific than I originally made it. I doubt anyone cares but for the sake of trying, here it is

  On 5/12/2010 at 1:49 AM, xxx said:

 

If you took pictures of you posing with your player and discs, I'd probably achieve a BI that has been hitherto unpublished in the journals. The addition of wearing Reebok pumps with a pair of Zoombas and gel'd n' spiked hair would cause my corpus cavernosa to explode like when Viagra commercials warn you to go to the ER when your BI is elevated for longer than 4 hours or if the BI is resulting in pain.

 

LOL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtP5QrzuPSY

Angry Nerd made a video a while back about these "obscure" video formats.

I had heard that Laserdisc is sort of the video equivalent of vinyl - analog vs digital, so some things might come through as richer, depending on the hardware/tv/transfer/etc.

Before my dad passed he had quite a laserdisc collection - I mean, like, all the Kurosawa films, Bladerunner, Dune, Terminator, Random video from Apollo, documentaries - all sorts of shit. Remember watching Top Gun to test out his system lol.

My mom started using the LD player in school - showing her kids things like Kurosawa's Dreams (which, as I recall, looked AMAZING). Now it's been donated to her church - *wipes tear* gonna miss those large ass CD's.

  On 5/12/2010 at 11:19 AM, Space Coyote said:

goddamn edit post time out. the second part of that message was meant to read easier and be more specific than I originally made it. I doubt anyone cares but for the sake of trying, here it is

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

I don't know about that, but then again I can't say I've come across a 'bargain bin' dvd with subpar video quality. That said I've certainly seen dvd's with crappy video quality its just the source and content varied. For my money the Arrested Development season 1 dvd is pretty poor quality.

 

I think you'd need one of the still reasonably expensive high-end japanese LD players with appropriate cables and A/V receiver in order to get laserdisc playback to come close to matching dvd quality. My Pioneer player isn't too crappy but not too good and I have a few laserdiscs. I use a nice think s-video cable with gold ends into a good Panasonic lcd tv and the difference to a dvd of the same movie is pretty noticable. The example that comes to mind is Labyrinth.

 

I'd say the picture quality is somewhere between a VHS kept in optimal condition and your average DVD.

 

 

Well tbh the only laserdiscs i've seen were on my friend's rich doctor dad's obscenely expensive setup. They looked fantaaastic.

Oh yah also, some of the cheapo dvds i have really do look worse, thanks to crappy compression and/or lazy encoding. All blocky when the shit hits the fan.

* 350×240 (250 TVL): Video CD

* 330×480 (250 TVL): U-matic, Betamax, VHS, Video8

* 400×480 (300 TVL): Super Betamax, Betacam (professional)

* 440×480 (330 TVL): analog broadcast

* 560×480 (420 TVL): LaserDisc, S-VHS, Hi8

* 670×480 (500 TVL): ED Betamax

* 720×480 (500 TVL): DVD, MiniDV, Digital8, Digital Betacam (professional)

* 720×480 (400 TVL): Widescreen DVD (anamorphic)

* 1280×720 (720 TVL): D-VHS, HD DVD, Blu-ray, HDV (miniDV - 720p)

* 1920×1080 (1080 TVL): Hi-Vision/MUSE, D-VHS, HD DVD, Blu-ray, HDV (miniDV - 1080i - 1440 horizontal pixels interpolated to 1920), HDCAM SR

  On 5/12/2010 at 3:34 PM, T35513R said:

I had heard that Laserdisc is sort of the video equivalent of vinyl - analog vs digital, so some things might come through as richer, depending on the hardware/tv/transfer/etc.

 

Before my dad passed he had quite a laserdisc collection - I mean, like, all the Kurosawa films, Bladerunner, Dune, Terminator, Random video from Apollo, documentaries - all sorts of shit. Remember watching Top Gun to test out his system lol.

 

My mom started using the LD player in school - showing her kids things like Kurosawa's Dreams (which, as I recall, looked AMAZING). Now it's been donated to her church - *wipes tear* gonna miss those large ass CD's.

even though Laserdisc is digital?

  On 5/12/2010 at 11:12 AM, Space Coyote said:

Original poster, what brand and model of laserdisc player did you get?

Run of the mill late 80s player: http://www.laserdiscarchive.co.uk/laserdisc_archive/pioneer/pioneer_ld-838d/pioneer_ld-838d.htm

My ex-brother in law had a vertical record player in the 80s something like this

Proper good old retro technology, but totally pointless as it took about half a day to load a record.

  On 5/12/2010 at 8:44 PM, Caretstik said:

My ex-brother in law had a vertical record player in the 80s something like this

 

 

Proper good old retro technology, but totally pointless as it took about half a day to load a record.

i cringe at what that might possibly do to a record

  On 5/12/2010 at 8:46 PM, oscillik said:

  On 5/12/2010 at 8:44 PM, Caretstik said:

My ex-brother in law had a vertical record player in the 80s something like this

 

 

Proper good old retro technology, but totally pointless as it took about half a day to load a record.

i cringe at what that might possibly do to a record

Pretty sure that's another reason they never took off, thankfully.

They had Cadillacs that had record players in the trunks...

  On 5/12/2010 at 8:06 PM, oscillik said:

  On 5/12/2010 at 3:34 PM, T35513R said:

I had heard that Laserdisc is sort of the video equivalent of vinyl - analog vs digital, so some things might come through as richer, depending on the hardware/tv/transfer/etc.

 

Before my dad passed he had quite a laserdisc collection - I mean, like, all the Kurosawa films, Bladerunner, Dune, Terminator, Random video from Apollo, documentaries - all sorts of shit. Remember watching Top Gun to test out his system lol.

 

My mom started using the LD player in school - showing her kids things like Kurosawa's Dreams (which, as I recall, looked AMAZING). Now it's been donated to her church - *wipes tear* gonna miss those large ass CD's.

even though Laserdisc is digital?

Ok, and I don't pretend to really completely understand this, but check out the below (found here):

Editor's note: Nearly everyone is in agreement that DVD is quickly replacing the laserdisc as the videophile format of choice. Despite both technologies utilizing a laser that reads pits, they are decidedly different beyond the obvious distinction (i.e., the size of the disc, 12-inch laserdisc vs. 5-inch DVD). The author explains why the video data on a laserdisc is not digital.

Despite what some legacy advertising might have led you to believe, laserdisc is not digital video. It's not always digital audio, either. This is not surprising considering that the original "LaserVision" was basically a 1972 technology. LD video is pulse FM.

There is a single track consisting of a continuous spiral of pits and "lands" (non-pits). Encoded on that track are the composite video (luminance, chrominance, sync, info), one or two analog audio channels and a RedBook-style stereo digital PCM audio or DTS digital audio data stream. Dolby AC-3 audio may also be present, and replaces one of the analog audio carriers. Side, track, time, frame and other control signals are encoded, during pre-mastering, in both the Red Book subcodes (if present) and in non-displayed scan lines in the vertical blanking interval of the composite video signal.

* The pre-mastered base band composite video signal (about 4.2 MHz wide for NTSC) is used to modulate an FM carrier signal with a nominal frequency of 8.5 MHz. The amplitude of the NTSC signal deviates the FM carrier over the range 7.6 MHz (video sync tip) to 9.3 MHz (video white level).

* The two analog audio channels each modulate a pre-emphasized FM audio subcarrier (2.3Mhz 1/left, 2.8MHz 2/right).

* The Red Book-style digital audio bits are pre-emphasized and used directly. They represent a signal envelope with a bandwidth under 1.4 MHz.

* The audio content is all attenuated 26dB.

* The three FM carriers (video, analog 1/L, 2/R) and the digital audio are all summed, then clipped.

The resulting clipped signal looks like square waves, and the low level, low frequency components (analog and digital audio) cause a variation in +/- duty cycle. This signal is then more-or-less directly recorded as pits and lands.

In over-simple terms, the video signal is represented by the pit-to-pit spacing and the audio is represented in the difference between pit/land length.

Pretty fucking IDM huh?

Now, I recall watching films on Laserdisc and feeling there was a "warmth" there that wasn't when I watched the same movie on DVD. However, how much of that is filtered through the ever-questionable lens of nostalgia? I don't know.

All I know is Laserdisc quality is definitely better than VHS quality (duh) and DVD has it trumped, but not by too much. I enjoy the whole experience though, Laserdisc are fucking awesome looking.