Laserdisc

The original Star Wars trilogy on LD was fucking epic for it's time - I recall a rich friend in high school taking me to his house to show me his Dad's fuck-all home theatre setup, and we watched all three movies that day instead of going to school while his parents were at work. Even though it was only Dolby 2.0 surround, it was epic to say the least.

If I recall, S-Video or Component Video (RGB) was the best output you could get from LD...

  On 5/12/2010 at 9:59 PM, T35513R said:

  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.

weird, i always thought any information that was encoded as such that would require a laser to read it would be digital information. thanks for the lesson

  On 5/12/2010 at 8:36 PM, Spore said:

  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

Looks like it'd get the job done. I've got a Pioneer CLD-1750. Doesn't really have anything special but it does ntsc/pal and cav/clv which was my priority as far as specs go.

I hear those nicer models that can flip the disk aren't so good to have around as the mechanics for the flipping break down over time.