Laservision quality

W

Wil

Guest
Years ago, I had a Laservision player and I remember that the picture quality varied greatly with the mastering. Some films looked superb while some would have been a disgrace to VHS.

My question is, not having seen Laservision recently, can anyone who has both DVD and Laservision tell me how DVD compares? Does a good Laser title give DVD a run for its money? Is that why people are still buying them?

Those big disks were pretty cool but fancy having to turn them over! And what a way to turn it on, press the lid down. :rolleyes:

Thanks.
 
Wil, it really has been along time! Top-loaders went out a long, long time ago, relatively... Players and discs got better, then DVD appeared. Players became front-loaders. Dual side play happened. They got digital outputs for high-qualty PCM audio output. Players also appeared that would also play NTSC LDs. In the last generation of players came the AC-3 (audio coder 3, DD!) digital audio output for NTSC AC-3 LD's. BTW, AC-3 showed up in 1995. In 1997 the DVL models appeared, players that played DVD/LD/CD.


LD's got way better as time went by, but they don't have the pixels to compete with DVD picture. Even Japanese anamorphic "Stretch" LD's don't look as good as DVD. They're close. They have have plenty of lines even to make 2.35 to 1 images with low amounts of "line wiggle". However, the colour, even employing high-end LD players isn't quite as vivid as 1st rate DVD's.

Another disadvantage to LD is the better players are more exensive than DVD. But, LD does have a few advantages over DVD. The sound is better. DVD's DD may be as good, mostly, to what's on LD. PCM and DTS are both unbeatable on LD. The biggest LD draw for me these days is collecting the old catalog titles from the 20's thru 50's, mostly black & white stuff. This era is being snubbed here in the DVD era, me thinks!

Popular music from the 80's and 90's are really nice on LD's too. DVD coverage is weak because most of that old music isn't "popular" anymore. So, LD is a good way to collect ZZ Top or Kraftwerk or other stuff that's downstream, a bit.

BTW, Pioneer is making the last prodution run of the mighty HLD-X9, Japan's best dual-side player this Febuary. I think production of other players is already over...? In a few more months there proably won't be any new LD plaers at all, unless Pioneer continues to make industrial players for commecial applications. You'd be suprised how many ways they've been used, in video games, medical records & images, Tubes in auto dealers showing the vehicles breakng all traffic laws, real estate records, geeeeez, there's way more. The LD era is to end, officially, this year. You missed the best part of it! Best wishes from Laserland!
 

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