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Topic: The Laserdisc Appreciation Thread

Monte L Fullmer
Film God

Posts: 8367
From: Nampa, Idaho, USA
Registered: Nov 2004

posted 07-22-2005 01:50 PM

True - Doug Trumbull got the award in 1969 for special effects for "2001"

When I saw "2001" for the first time (in 70mm in 1968),it was a lot to grab onto for a kid of 17 yrs old. But after seeing and running this movie more, I then began to accept what the story of this film was about and then appreciated the quality that Kubrick put into this flick.

-Monte

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Bruce Hansen
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 847
From: Stone Mountain, GA, USA
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 07-22-2005 06:02 PM

Joe, S-VHS SUCKS! The only difference between VHS and S-VHS is a slight increase in lumo frequency. response. Nothing was done to improve the croma, which is the worse part of VHS. You want to talk about poor croma res., VHS, and S-VHS down convert the COMPOSITE croma, and then convert it back up again, killing any res. that was there to begin with. The delay incurred in this process is not compensated for properly, so the croma is out of place. If you dub a VHS tape, these problems compound. As for Y/C, the only reason I can see for it is to get people to go out and buy new TVs they did not need. When you add Y and C together you get composite. They are basically the same thing.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 07-22-2005 06:14 PM

S-VHS has superior video quality to LaserDisc with the exception of the normal analog videotape anomalies such as poor tracking, etc. S-video is not the same as composite, it is definitely a step above. This can be seen in videogame systems especially. No dot crawl... none at all, not from a true S-video source anyway. LaserDiscs will dot crawl no matter what since they are composite by nature. With S-VHS, I could videotape a game in either composite or S-video, and the difference was quite pronounced on playback of the S-VHS tape. S-VHS didn't lose much when recording a LaserDisc, either. If you were to record the same games onto a LaserDisc, there would be dot crawl and probably extra noise. It would look inferior to S-VHS because as a video format it is inferior. Now granted videogames have 640 lines whereas S-VHS only has 400 and LaserDisc has only 425 (suck!), but resolution alone does not determine overall video quality.

Blu-Ray is the way to go.

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Bruce Hansen
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 847
From: Stone Mountain, GA, USA
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 07-23-2005 07:59 PM

quote: Joe Redifer
S-VHS has superior video quality to LaserDisc

quote:
S-VHS only has 400 (lines) and LaserDisc has only 425 (lines)

Isn't that a contradiction? Joe, I think your LD player is broken. If you look at the specs, LD blowes S-VHS away. Better freq response, the croma is direct instead of heterodyned, the croma is coherent, unlike the screwed up mess that comes out of a (S)VHS POS.

I have both LD and S-VHS, and I can tell you that LD is MUCH better than S-VHS.

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Frank Angel
Film God

Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 07-23-2005 09:41 PM

quote: Bill Gabel
2001 was presented in select cities in Cinerama. But it was Super Panavision 70MM, 2001 was never available in three strip Cinerama. It open at the Loews Cinerama (aka Capital) in NYC.

Bill, I would usually bow to your knowledge against my aging memory, but here I will have to disagree and insist that I saw this in Chicago in what had to be its premiere opening engagement and it definately was three strip, unless those join lines that I know I saw were artificially put in there to trick me. I saw it with buddies from school and it was on a Cinerama strip screen and it definately had the two join lines because they wanted to know what that was all about.

Could it be that they struck a three strip print just for a particular Cinerama house that could not play single lens Super Panavision 70?

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 07-23-2005 11:22 PM

You missed the part where I said:

quote: Joe Redifer
but resolution alone does not determine overall video quality.

I have both LD and SVHS as well, and I can't stand LD dot crawl! SVHS does not have dot crawl unless it is included in the source. And even if it was determined that LD was better, I don't think it would "blow SVHS away" by any measure. They both suck ass.

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Tao Yue
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 209
From: Princeton, NJ
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 07-24-2005 02:46 AM

On 7500-foot reels, Cinerama runs for about 51 minutes at 146.25 feet per minute (6 perfs per frame, 26 fps). This would not get you to the intermission of 2001 which comes 87 minutes into the film.

Besides which, the last three-strip release was How the West Was Won in 1962. What did this alleged non-70mm theater show until 2001 came out in 1968? Surely not revivals of the old travelogues.

Memory has a funny way of playing tricks. Remember all those people who could just swear they saw the Biggs reunion scene from Star Wars prior to the special edition?

[ 07-31-2005, 07:56 PM: Message edited by: Tao Yue ]

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Monte L Fullmer
Film God

Posts: 8367
From: Nampa, Idaho, USA
Registered: Nov 2004

posted 07-24-2005 03:08 AM

quote: Frank Angel
join lines that I know I saw were artificially put in there to trick me.

...unless,the "join" lines where the seam lines when they joined the vinyl when making the screen....or....that theatre screen's framework wasn't sprayed flat black before they hung that screen and you were seeing the reflection of the framework through the holes on bright scenes.

Yep, "2001" was shot in 65mm for 70mm release - 3 strip Cinerama died after MGM's "Mutiny on the Bounty" - in 1963, or around about there.

-Monte

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Frank Angel
Film God

Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 07-25-2005 02:41 AM

quote: Tao Yue
Memory has a funny way of playing tricks. Remember all those people who could just swear they saw the Biggs reunion scene from Star Wars prior to the special edition?

Alas, Tao, you may be right. Perhaps it was because it was on a striped Cinerama deeply curved screen that I am thinking there were join lines. So yes, memory can be a tricky thing. I have this memory of my first experience as a kid seeing my first CinemaScope film -- THE ROBE at its first run engagement and thinking I saw the Fox logo/CinemaScope frame with the fanfare and extension music, which everyone tells me and I see in all the video releases of this title, was never present on that first CinemaScope film. So I will revise those corrupted memeory cells about three strip 2001. Single lens Cinerama it must have been.

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Michael Coate
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1904
From: Los Angeles, California
Registered: Feb 2001

posted 07-25-2005 10:57 AM

quote:
I saw ["2001"] in Chicago in what had to be its premiere opening engagement

While there's no doubt that what you saw was not 3-strip, it is possible, depending on when you attended, that you might have seen the longer cut of the film.

A "2001" article of possible interest.

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Evans A Criswell
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1579
From: Huntsville, AL, USA
Registered: Mar 2000

posted 07-25-2005 11:40 PM

Darryl said

quote: Darryl Spicer

Evans,

Couple of suggestions. First turn the sharpness all the way down and if you havn't already done so order yourself a copy of Digital Video Solutions and follow all the tests for setting up your rear projection set.

I got this disc years ago (1997, probably) and have always used it to calibrate my sets and test sets to see how well they handle different things (they have a chapter of many different test patterns).

That's exactly how I know where my sharpness control should be set, and after being used to looking at a properly setup picture, it is painfully obvious when edge enhancement (oversharpness) is present. Defeating Scan velocity modulation and setting the sharpness control properly is a must to get a decent picture. Not doing so will make compression artifacts on DVDs stand out much more than they should.

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Andy Summers
Master Film Handler

Posts: 397
From: Bournemouth Dorset United kingdom
Registered: Jun 2005

posted 07-26-2005 10:01 PM

Hello there all

T-10, 9,8 ignition sequence start, 7,6,5,4,3,2,1 Houston we have cleared the tower at 13:13….

Apollo 13 is a human story of triumph, referred to as the successful failure, how those three astronauts made it back home over quarter of a million miles one wonders.

So when the cryo-oxygen tanks explode and the words pieced the void of space “Houston we have a problem” the crew knew the spacecraft (Odyssey) was crippled forcing the crew to use the (Aquarius) LEM Lunacommand module crew was to use the LM and forcing the mission to be aborted astronauts (Jim Lovell played be Tom Hanks) (Fred Haise played by Bill Paxton) and (Jack Swigert played by Kevin Bacon)

This film that got a whole lot attention to detail, they even throw in the Kitchen sink for good measure, and this is a trip for those who like the (NASA Space Program) and with yesterday’s return to flight of (STS-114 Discovery) and continuing the mission after 2 ½ years absence God Speed Discovery.

The highly technical visual effects brought life back into the mighty (Saturn V) rocket, which is demonstrated very well and Digital Domain really gave it life and conviction that the level of visual effects are now being pushed to there limits, where the imagination as no boundaries.

Chapter 13 side 1 on the DTS laserdisc is a totally exhilarating high octane of bass and LFE the feel of it I guess sounds right, or more like an earthquake effect at 110dbc weighting SPL at certain parts in this complex mix where the numbers of mutable tracks playing simultaneously in fact thousands.

The Oscar for best achievement in sound was well worth the effort that the sound designers, sound effects editors and the re-reordering mixers put into this film project.

Conclusion the laserdisc is the benchmark for showing the film, with the high DTS bit rate that blows the DVD out of the water for the time, though I have the first DVD edition 2000 technically its not there, in terms of sound while the framing and the imaging is jaw dropping I’m one that is mad for the sound and sound is my pet love so the DTS for this one is the step in the right direction. [thumbsup]

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Monte L Fullmer
Film God

Posts: 8367
From: Nampa, Idaho, USA
Registered: Nov 2004

posted 07-27-2005 12:29 AM

quote:
(yes, “2001: A Space Odyssey” has screened in 70mm format at a drive-in),

...and this movie played at the Park-VU in SLC, Utah that spring/summer of 1969.

That drive-in had one of the biggest screens in the SLC valley. The screen itself was perforated to allow some of the wind to blow through being so big...and it was slightly curved. The yard could amass 600 cars.

Unfortunately, I never saw the booth, but with the booth being on the second level of the building, the light had a straight throw to the screen, no incline whatsoever.

I've heard that they had "AA-2's" up there and each speaker pole had the two speaker arrangement for stereo.

...now all what's there where the Park-VU drive-in was is a huge apartment complex....

..just some good ol' memories of classic drive-in's.

-Monte

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System Notices
Forum Watchdog / Soup Nazi

Posts: 215

Registered: Apr 2004

posted 08-27-2007 02:24 AM

It has been 761 days since the last post.

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Allison Parsons
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 630
From: East Peoria, IL
Registered: Oct 2004

posted 08-27-2007 02:24 AM

So how hard is it to transfer/burn a laserdisc on to a DVD via your computer? 1) I have a Dell 'pooter with DVD burning software (Roxio). 2) I have yet to buy a LD player. I know where I can get one but i have to get off my lazy ass and get it haha.

Am I going to have to buy some uber expenisve software or whatever? Or will this be easier than I think...?

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