Got me a laserdisc player!

[Curlypaul]

A friend of mine gave me this player and stack of disks!



Its a pretty decent player I think, plays PAL or NTSC, a flipper and does AC3 audio. It was struggling to open the tray so I think it needs a new drive belt and it to start with it didn't want to spin the disk so I think I need to clean and grease the spindle.

Got a bunch of disks with it as well. Not sure how many, but about 2 feet of them. Loads of great films in there as well including all of the Aliens, The Godfather, Star Wars special edition, Abyss, and lots of others that I would actually watch. Chuffed to bits with it.

Last night I watched Jurassic Park The Lost World and was generally pretty impressed with the picture - it was clean and warm. It wasn't as sharp as DVD and the colours not as vibrant, but still a nice a picture. Connected it with an RGB scart, but I'm not sure yet whether the machine actually takes advantage of the RGB.

I know there are a few laserdisc buffs on here, so what else do I need to know about these monsters?

[BRIK]

Wow nice find! I had a dream last night I scored one of these actually haha.

[Luke]

I know there are a few laserdisc buffs on here, so what else do I need to know about these monsters?

If you can grab the original Star Wars Trilogy on LD, do it!

[Curlypaul]

It came in the set

However its the PAL 1997 special edition box set, not the NTSC Definitive edition with the hardback book and CAV disks. Still a nice item though

[Luke]

It came in the set

You lucky sonovagun! That's awesome!

[Curlypaul]

I know

I've had a quick look around ebay and the prices of the player (£200>) and the disks that I've got, I feel bad about just taking this lot. I'll have to offer my mate some cash for it all

[Zing]

I spent $367 dollars on my Pioneer Laserdisc player around 1990. The electronics store in my area always priced their stuff ending in 7 for whatever reason. I remember I specifically paid more for a TV with composite input (only on mid-high end TVs at the time) so I could connect my player with the "best" connection.

I bought the LD player for one primary reason: Scarface. It's cliché now, but at the time, it really was cool to have Scarface playing in the background. I already owned the VHS version, but I wanted my 425 lines of resolution and letterbox! I ended up getting about 15 movies total. The Star Wars trilogy, both Batman movies, JFK, and others from the era. I even picked up a Playboy Centerfold disc. That one got a lot of use, as it was pre-Internet.

I still have all of my discs in the closet. I no longer have the player. I sold it on Ebay for $5 plus shipping a few years ago, and when it arrives, the buyer claims it doesn't work. It worked when it left me, so maybe it was damaged in transit.

[Nemoide]

Wow, I didn't even know there were LaserDisc players that can play both NTSC and PAL! Pretty awesome!

I got an LD player last year and love it. My primary interest is rare, old anime; there are many titles that have never been released on DVD and there's no annoying region coding to deal with. Criterion Collection discs are cool too, you can find commentaries not released on DVD.

If you want to find out more about specific releases, LaserDisc Database is a good resource.

[Curlypaul]

Yeah the NTSC playback is a bonus. I've read that most PAL releases were lazy re-encodes of the NTSC disks that didn't even take advantage of the slightly higher resolution that we can get. About 2/3 of the disks I got are NTSC versions which is cool.

Thanks for the link as well, been geeking up on laserdisc and all of the cool things that I can get on them.

First on my list is Withnail and I, just because my avatar demands that I own every release of the film that I can.

[CRTGAMER]

Its a pretty decent player I think, plays PAL or NTSC, a flipper and does AC3 audio. It was struggling to open the tray so I think it needs a new drive belt and it to start with it didn't want to spin the disk so I think I need to clean and grease the spindle.

I know there are a few laserdisc buffs on here, so what else do I need to know about these monsters?

Very nice! One of my Laser Disc player also sometimes has problems with the tray eject. It is the front panel that sticks while dropping down. A tiny bit of WD40 or 3in1 oil at the corners helps, not too much that might cause a short. Even then I sometimes have to help the door drop with a small nail file.

As for NTSC and PAL discs there are no Region locks or Macrovision. However none of my players will display PAL discs on my NTSC TV correctly. Just a black and white rolling pic because of the PAL 50hz scan rate. I'm curious if your player converts the NTSC to PAL or does your PAL TV support 60hz NTSC?

I posted a Laser Disc Guide: http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... 40#p232140