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Topic: The Laserdisc Appreciation Thread

Claude S. Ayakawa
Film God

Posts: 2738
From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA
Registered: Aug 2002

posted 09-09-2010 03:38 AM

I also had the THX WOW disc but sold it for a good price when laserdiscs were still in demand. I wonder how much it is worth now?

-Claude

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Aaron Garman
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1470
From: Toledo, OH USA
Registered: Mar 2003

posted 09-09-2010 11:34 PM

quote: Joe Redifer
What is "faces"?

"Faces" were the CLV THX versions of the Original Trilogy. The name comes from the fact that each jacket had a "face" on them: Darth Vader for Star Wars, a Storm Trooper for Empire, and Yoda for Jedi. They are essentially the same as the discs in the definitive collection box set, except they are CLV. They were also not prone to some of the mastering problems some of those box sets had. I remember paying $1 for each of them when I joined the Columbia House LaserDisc club.

I have to admit, the Phantom Menace is a guilty pleasure...especially the sound mix. The LaserDisc is also the only release that is both 5.1 and the theatrical version of the film: the DVD had some added bits.

Kinda wild...I started collecting LaserDiscs when I was about 15 years old. I probably would have had a larger collection had I, I dunno, had a real job. Even my player was pretty low end: the CLD-S104.

AJG

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Jason Metcalfe
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 134
From: Austin, TX, U.S.
Registered: May 2010

posted 09-10-2010 01:51 PM

quote: Joe Redifer
I don't think I could be proud of any release of Phantom Menace, unless is was just a CD-sized "pod race only" release.

Yep that was called Star Wars Episode I: Racer and it was awesome

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Scott Jentsch
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1061
From: New Berlin, WI, USA
Registered: Apr 2003

posted 09-13-2010 02:48 PM

I have just one laserdisc: The THX WOW! disc. It's now framed and hanging on the wall leading to my home theater, as I do not have an LD player.

If we lived in a perfect world, that disc would be re-released on Blu-ray, and all of the THX trailers since the dawn of time would be on it as well. Throw in all of the Dolby Digital and DTS trailers, and you'd hear my excited voice! But, alas, we live in the world of licensing issues, and the world where Han never gets the first shot again...

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Geena Phillips
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 198
From: Norcross, GA / USA
Registered: Apr 2006

posted 10-01-2010 01:56 PM

Someday, I'll have to post a list of the stuff I've got on LD that STILL hasn't been reissued on DVD.

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Tom Petrov
Five Guys Lover

Posts: 1121
From: El Paso, TX
Registered: Jan 2003

posted 10-13-2010 02:26 AM

quote: Aaron Garman
I have to admit, the Phantom Menace is a guilty pleasure...especially the sound mix. The LaserDisc is also the only release that is both 5.1 and the theatrical version of the film: the DVD had some added bits.

That Phantom Menace disc you have should be Dolby 6.1 I think on;y six titles of 6.1 were ever made.

quote: David E. Nedrow
For the most part, any of the DTS LDs generally had the theatrical mix. God, I remember the bitching an moaning from the Dolby crowd about how DTS only sounded better because it was louder, blah, blah. This got turned up when discs began to be released in both DD and DTS versions. The DTS disc was invariably louder. It turned out that the stems being given to DTS were the theatrical versions, while the Dolby versions had been re-leveled or something like that. I never understood the absolute witchhunt the DD guys were on. Just freakin' turn down the volume when you play a DTS disc. Jeesh.

Interestingly, several studios actually used the SDDS mixes for their DTS LD releases, and you could derive the matrixed extra channels from the discrete DTS tracks.

I have never ever liked DTS in theatre or at home. I have always found Dolby to be fuller and deeper than DTS which always seemed out of control. For the price, DTS is just not worth it on laserdisc as the discs were always so expensive.

The DD soundtracks should be the theatrical mixes...not sure where you learned that they weren't

quote:
nterestingly, several studios actually used the SDDS mixes for their DTS LD releases, and you could derive the matrixed extra channels from the discrete DTS tracks.

The Dolby Digital version of Jurassic Park had to of used the DTS 6 track mix. Univeral were DTS exclusive for a while back.

quote: David E. Nedrow
several studios actually used the SDDS

Again, where did you get this info?...this seems wrong. Plus most DTS laserdiscs were Universal. Some were Disney, some were Fox, some were independent and a few were Paramount.

To my knowledge, SONY never released a single DTS or DD laserdisc, it would make no sense for DTS to use the SDDS mix

There were only a handful of laserdiscs that were released that did not have a theatrical DTS release. Die Hard 1 and 2, Born on the 4th of July, were a few.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

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

posted 10-13-2010 02:45 AM

I know on DVDs from Disney that have both a Dolby Digital and DTS audio track, the Dolby Digital sounds much better (Pirates from the Carribean is a great example). The DTS sounds very harsh and yes, too loud in comparison. Many people think the extra volume = better quality and therefore Dolby Digital is inferior to DTS. I've said this before and I'll say it again. I've taken the same 6-track uncompressed mix that I made myself and compressed them into full bitrate Dolby Digital and DTS streams and I'd be hard-pressed to tell the difference between the two. In fact, the DTS encode had a very subtle "tick" in one part that didn't exist in the Dolby Digital or the original. But the thing that truly sucks anus about Dolby Digital is all of the midnight modes and whatever else they call it to compress the dynamic range. It is near impossible to shut that shit off. Dolby should be ashamed of themselves for this nonsense. But again, I'm sure that I am repeating myself.

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Tom Petrov
Five Guys Lover

Posts: 1121
From: El Paso, TX
Registered: Jan 2003

posted 10-13-2010 02:56 AM

quote: Joe Redifer
But the thing that truly sucks anus about Dolby Digital is all of the midnight modes and whatever else they call it to compress the dynamic range. It is near impossible to shut that shit off. Dolby should be ashamed of themselves for this nonsense. But again, I'm sure that I am repeating myself.

You should be able to just turn off midnight mode.

The best ever Dolby Digital Laserdisc I have ever watched was "The English Patient"...I think part of that had to do with films award winning sound/engineers but on LD it is pretty impressive. Titanic is good as well.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

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

posted 10-13-2010 03:31 AM

I can't disable dialog normalization on the receiver. It's up to the person who encodes it to do it correctly, which few do.

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Tom Petrov
Five Guys Lover

Posts: 1121
From: El Paso, TX
Registered: Jan 2003

posted 10-13-2010 10:10 AM

quote: Joe Redifer
I can't disable dialog normalization on the receiver. It's up to the person who encodes it to do it correctly, which few do.

There is no issue with it, that is the way it was designed to work.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

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

posted 10-13-2010 03:42 PM

Yeah, like I said, it's a shitty design.

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Frank Angel
Film God

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

posted 10-14-2010 02:08 AM

What is "midnight modes?" Never heard that expression.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

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

posted 10-14-2010 02:18 AM

It's a technique that flattens the dynamic range so you can listen to movies at a lower volume without having to worry about loud, scary sounds when something explodes, etc. With Dolby Digital, it works very poorly. You can hear the ramping up and down of the volume and it is never quick enough to catch the first part of a loud sound. The only way I have found to combat this is to put the dialog normalization at exactly -31dbFS during the encode. Some DVD players do not allow you to turn this mode off (especially those software players used on computers) so you had better damn well encode this correctly in the first place.

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Sean Weitzel
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 619
From: Vacaville, CA (1790 miles west of Rockwall)
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 10-14-2010 08:58 PM

quote: Claude S. Ayakawa
I also had the THX WOW disc but sold it for a good price when laserdiscs were still in demand. I wonder how much it is worth now?

-Claude

I looked on ebay and saw a completed auction for a THX WOW disc sold for $23.27 after 5 bids.

quote: Geena Phillips
Someday, I'll have to post a list of the stuff I've got on LD that STILL hasn't been reissued on DVD.

I'll start you off with one from my collection: "Streetwise" 1984. Martin Bell and Mary Ellen Mark's documentary of runaway and homeless teenagers living on the streets of downtown Seattle, WA

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