Quote:
Originally Posted by Big Tuna
The Laserdisc format began life in 1977 under the name DiscoVision, by RCA and due to the poor conditions of the press room, and poor quality pressings Pioneer took over in 1979 and penned it LaserVision, then around 1987-88 it was called Laserdisc and stayed that until 1998. Japan continued the format for another 3 years, after the US dropped it in favor of the smaller, cheaper DVD, and in that short time they introduced a HD-LD. If you ever see a HD-LD listing pop up on ebay, you'd better be prepared for the outcome. The last one went for more than $500!  |
The HD format in Japan was called "MUSE", and the players that handled it best include the HLD-X0 and HLD-X9, the latter being arguably the best LD player ever made, period. It's narrow red laser cuts through and reads most scratched and dirty disks, even, and its comb filtering and such was a technological breakthrough well beyond that in ordinary players.
Although I have three X1s (an almost-alike version was released as the S2 in the States), which are "almost" as good (and run circles around ordinary LD players), I still kick myself for passing up a shot at an X9. Maybe I'll get another chance one day...it really is the "holy grail" of the LD world.