How Many of you Still Have Laserdiscs?

[Big Tuna]

What's up everyone! I was just curious if ther are any AKers who still have their Laserdiscs? I have been collecting them since they quit pressing them in 1998. My Collection spans over 1000 so far. I have loved the sound and picture through my Widescreen 1080i Samsung HDTV. Especially the later ones where they really cleaned up the picture. And I also love the fact that NONE of them have any previews or other junk before you get to the movie.

[John in MA]

I have a small collection, and good Pioneer LD player. But I haven't watched one in a couple years at least.

[Rex Everything]

I picked up a nice Pioneer LD player and about 28 classic LD's and met a fellow AK'r at a garage sale last fall.

I know keep my eyes out for LD titles I'd like to have.

[ybaolywa]

I've got a few karaoke LDs, but still waiting for a nice player to come my way..

[retrokeeper]

I have about 6 players by various companies,and about 40 disc.I have some disc of Ray Harryhausen's great special effects (the Sinbad movies and others) that I cherish allot.I also have a rare Pioneer Laseractive player with the Genesis pack....wouldn't mind having the TurboGrafx one someday. Rob

[Lady Ayeka]

i have about 80 discs, over half of them Anime(japanese animation) the balance being some of my favorite movies,including all the original star trek films,and a PIONEER CLD-3030 laserdisc player with remote&manual. between it all, i'd say i have around $200 invested in it all. i am a rather recent but very passionate laserphile, being fascinated by laserdisc technlogy for only about five years now, and i believe that 1980's era laserdisc players are some of the most beautiful audio/video equipment ever conceived. below is the actual image of my CLD-3030 when i first ran across it on ebay.(it's actually far cleaner, and in much better condition than that pic would indicate.)(BTW,i am on the beat for one of those CLD-A100 units with the SEGA GENESIS module, and i'm always game for more japanese anime, asian popstar and karaoke discs...)

[vinyldavid]

I want to buy another CLD-M90 (mine died when I was 11) and some more LD's. I just love the idea of that kind of format existing, and I have seen it once, and I remember it being superior to anything I had ever seen before or since, in the home.....

[AnalogDigit]

I have a Pioneer CLD-S201 in the living room. My brother has a Pioneer CLD-700 in his bedroom. He is the laserdisc collector. He has around 25 movies. He mostly buys DVD's now, but he has movies in VHS, Laserdisk and DVD format. I notice laserdisks play CD's very good, including my worst CD-R disks.

[Rat44]

I still have one hooked up.Used it as my main CDP till I bought a Marantz CDP.Only have about a dozen titles.

[Arkay]

LDs? Yep, got 'em, still get 'em, love 'em! I don't like the amount of space that they occupy, but I like having covers that can contain a lot of info which can still be read without a magnifying glass. I like their sturdy almost-indestructibility (compared to most formats), the high-precision, high-velocity nature of their play (that is, the quality of the transports used), the fact that they are analog (=no digital artifacts), the way they look almost identical to movie theater visuals when projected, the fact that their sound is CD-quality (better than DVDs!). I like the way the players, with their higher speeds and narrower lasers, can read CDs better than most CD players (and with direct out capability and a good DAC, can equal or exceed all but the best audiophile CD players, at a fraction of the cost... but sssshhh, don't tell anyone!).

I have half a dozen players, including three Pioneer (Elite) LD-X1 players (one main, one spare, and one for parts) and two of another Pioneer Japan-market-only model that has Pioneer's then-best CD player built into it, as well. Also one Denon player, just because it matches a full Denon stack I have (champagne-gold fronts, wooden end panels). Still looking for that ultimate X9 player (=the best LD player ever made), though. Had a shot at one once but didn't get it. Sort of regret it, but the X1 is a very, very impressive performer already (almost the equal of the X9), so I do enjoy the LDs.

As for discs, I now have a few hundred, but don't know the exact count. There are places here in Hong Kong that regularly have boxes of them to sift through, so sometimes I go pick out a few more to add. Just earlier today I added "Cinema Paradiso" to the collection, and recently added the Widescreen "Definitive Collection" black boxed set of the original Star Wars trilogy from a thrift shop. The set even came with a hardbound book by George Lucas, a guidebook to the discs, and even an original ad/brochure for it slipped inside. That had to be one of my best LD "scores" to date, as people say it is the absolute best-ever (quality) version of the original release (without the CGI stuff added later) ever released.

I pick up most concert disks I find; I think it is one of the best uses of the format, because the sound is better than DVD. This is also good because many of them (like Simon & Garfunkle in Central Park) my wife likes, and any time I can increase the WAF of audio/AV stuff, it's good.

I also grab most of the "moldy-oldie" classic movies I find, like Casablanca, Gone With the Wind, etc... Also a careful selection of decent movies from the LD era, like the Rambo series, Alien series, Godfather series, Jurassic Parks, etc...but there are a lot of shlocky movies out on the format that I don't like enough to keep. I do have a bunch of old horror movies (British Hammer films, War of the Worlds and Tales from the Crypt episodes and such) and sci-fi movies and TV shows including some Star Trek TV shows, the Prisoner, etc... (geeky, huh?!). The last category I look for are good foreign movies like "Once Were Warriors". I have a few "art films" like Koslowski's Blue, White, Red series (although I don't particularly like them), and some porno stuff (Japanese, Penthouse, Playboy). I don't go out of my way to get porno stuff, but sometimes it comes in bulk buys from the flea market, and I usually trade it for movies I want to see. There is one guy with a basement shop who trades LDs part-time, and he always gives me good trade-in credit for these things, as he has customers for them, but fewer customers for the English movies I want more. I also traded a whole boxful of Japanese Anime (cartoon-like) stuff I didn't want, along with some Japanese Popstar LDs. See a lot of them around and they have a market, but I don't like watching them; for me they are a waste of time, so when I get them I trade them off.

[Fred Sanford]

I blame Al Roker. After I'd designed and installed the AV and lighting systems in his NYC townhouse, he gave me his old LD player (Mits, I think, only played side "A") and collection (mostly sci-fi and animation, good stuff including the Star Wars box mentioned above). It's been all downhill from there. Other customers and co-workers have given or traded me their old players and disc collections. I've stuck with five of the Pioneer LD/DVD/CD combos just for consistency, and the other players (Pioneer, Mits, Marantz, etc.) have gone on to new homes.

Check out www.lddb.com, an easy way to catalog & share your collection. You can search mine under username "jdeavs".

je

[ekmanning5]

I have a Zenith player I picked up at a GS last summer. I finally got it hooked up a few months ago. It worked great for a couple of days and then just stopped. Need to get it repaired I guess as I have about a 100 discs.

[Clmrt]

CLD-D504 and about 100 titles, lots of NASA stuff, classical / jazz videos from one collection I bought. Used to have the Urotsukidoji box set...scary.

[shrinkboy]

sheesh! you guys are making me think maybe i should...ahh!! NOOOO!! get away from me, satan!!

[soundmotor]

Yes, a small collection.

The best in it is a Japanese pressing of the original, non-re-imagined Star Wars.

In other words, Solo shot first!