I think you mean "lets make laserdiscs even smaller than 7" singles and put digitised music on them"
LD came out before CDs :p
Well yes OK, but I don't remember them being commercially available until the 90's? the only other laserdisc tech I remember before then would be the Dragons Lair arcade?
Well yes OK, but I don't remember them being commercially available until the 90's? the only other laserdisc tech I remember before then would be the Dragons Lair arcade?
I could be wrong though? :D
Laserdiscs actually came out around 1979/80 but they completely failed to catch on on in the UK (they were more successful in the US). This was due to a combination of
a. High price, when a VHS copy of a movie was around the ?80-100 mark (movie studios thought that cheap VHS copies would stop people going to the cinema.
b. Unable to record. Big selling point of VHS.
They did enjoy a slight renaissance in the 90s with home cinema buffs.
PS What's that Violet Ray thingy I've seen on BluRay containers. Something like "Also contains Violet version" or something like that. ( Talk about being behind the times, eh. -Ed )
You no good, you so dumb long time, you useless!
Ultra-Violet = you watch movie any-and-everywhere.
Laserdiscs actually came out around 1979/80 but they completely failed to catch on on in the UK (they were more successful in the US). This was due to a combination of
a. High price, when a VHS copy of a movie was around the ?80-100 mark (movie studios thought that cheap VHS copies would stop people going to the cinema.
b. Unable to record. Big selling point of VHS.
They did enjoy a slight renaissance in the 90s with home cinema buffs.
Yeah I think laserdisc popularity is what's clouding my vision here? They've been around since 78 apparently, but supposedly were patented as early as between 1961 and 69!
Bugger me! :o
I really only remember them being really popular in the mid-late 90's before fading away altogether (It always seemed to be anorak types that ever bought them as well, always seemed to be oddball characters hanging around the Laserdisc section in places like HMV).
Now that I think about it I vaguely remember a guy I work with here in the US saying that the rich family who lived down the road to him had a "Lazer Play" or something equally as cheesy sounding in about 1979 that cost them about $700 at the time? Supposedly there was only about 3 movies available for it at the time :lol:
Apparently they were the first family on his street to own a microwave as well :D
I might ask him about it again at work tonight if he's in tonight, he works in a different department to me now, so he's on a completely different schedule, but it'd be interesting to get the full story from him I suppose, even though I'm not really bothered about the Laserdisc format really.
Halfprice book store near me has a ton of laserdisk movies, $3 a pop or something like that, I've thought about picking a player up off ebay and buying some...then that part of my head spoke to me with the simple question "why?".
All that changing would be a pain in the ass...isn't the average movie 2 disks, 4 sides....screw that!
Halfprice book store near me has a ton of laserdisk movies, $3 a pop or something like that, I've thought about picking a player up off ebay and buying some...then that part of my head spoke to me with the simple question "why?".
All that changing would be a pain in the ass...isn't the average movie 2 disks, 4 sides....screw that!
Buy a few, frame them on the wall and tell all the ladies you used to be a musician/record producer back in Yourope, and you made gold and platinum records.
Buy a few, frame them on the wall and tell all the ladies you used to be a musician/record producer back in Yourope, and you made gold and platinum records.
What do I tell the girlfriend when she sees the ladies?
I wouldn't want to be lumped in with the anorak/oddball types :razz: so I feel that I should state that apart from the Star Wars trilogy which I bought to punt on I only ever owned one laser disc and that was only because the guy who sold me his old LD player didn't want it because it had got a bit of laser rot on the second side.
It wasn't even a particularly good film: The Net starring Sandra Bullock. It's probably only memorable because it was one of the first internet films from back when your average Joe hadn't really got a clue what it was exactly ("Woooo!! The interweb thing. It's all cyber-tastic and futuristic and scary and you can be erased by clicking on the wrong thing"). I also remember Ms Bullock apparently bug-fixing something like Wolfenstein 3D at the start. She simply tapped a few keys and all the screen corruption that the original programmers somehow couldn't fix all magically went away.
Anyway...
I was dead pleased with it when I first set it all up but I think I'd just liked the idea of it and hadn't really thought the cost aspect through. The films were bloody expensive and anything good was generally only available on import. My machine had an auto-flip mode where the head would play one side and then switch to the other automatically so you didn't need to turn the disc over. It was still slow and they didn't exactly stop the movie in a good place as I recall so it was hardly seamless.
I saw it in the Bargain Pages and it was dirt cheap (for a LD player) and I think I justified it on the basis that I was just about to start a film studies course at night school. I never bought any films for it and ended up selling it 6 months later and putting the money towards a DVD-ROM for some new format that had come out in the US. A much better investment! :D
Halfprice book store near me has a ton of laserdisk movies, $3 a pop or something like that, I've thought about picking a player up off ebay and buying some...then that part of my head spoke to me with the simple question "why?".
All that changing would be a pain in the ass...isn't the average movie 2 disks, 4 sides....screw that!
Anything under two hours will typically be one disc, two sides, and you can get players that change sides for you. That said, there's a tendency for special editions to be in CAV format where you only get half an hour per side, and some of these will run to four or five discs if the film is long enough and there are enough extras.
DVD? Oh, you are so behind the times! Shirley, you must mean BluRay!
:p
I have one bluray movie. Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland cause the 3 disc was cheaper than the dvd alone :o
Not getting a bluray player until I the recorders and discs are a decent price. Don't want to add yet another thing to plug into the telly without taking one thing away.
[qoute]PS What's that Violet Ray thingy I've seen on BluRay containers. Something like "Also contains Violet version" or something like that. ( Talk about being behind the times, eh. -Ed )[/QUOTE]
I had to read up about that a while ago, I think it's just a funky (i.e. ****ty) new name for Digital Copy. I can't remember if Violet Ray is the distribution system or the protection scheme. I bet they chose it because they can shorten it to VR and say to our past selves "look, VR is in the future and it's brilliant" :lol:
The Godgather Saga was apparently shown in HD back in March so I'd assume that they'd release it on DVD and Blu-Ray soon-ish as they don't like spending money prepping things for HD if they can't then charge consumers for the privilege :)
Ooohhh. I wish I knew about that. IIRC Coppola had grown tired of the Saga version and refused to let it be released on DVD. Maybe this is him relaxing that attitude, or the production company saying sod it, we'll make money out of it even if you don't want to.
--edit--
With all this talk of Laserdiscs, if you know where to look you can get the Laserdisc Star Wars Trilogy on DVD. Properly done with the menus and extras. Looks like the real thing, except it's miniature 'cause it's the future :p
Oh, no. Every time you turn up something monumental and terrible happens.
I don’t think I have the stomach for it.
--Raziel (Legend of Kain: Soul Reaver 2)
Comments
Well yes OK, but I don't remember them being commercially available until the 90's? the only other laserdisc tech I remember before then would be the Dragons Lair arcade?
I could be wrong though? :D
a. High price, when a VHS copy of a movie was around the ?80-100 mark (movie studios thought that cheap VHS copies would stop people going to the cinema.
b. Unable to record. Big selling point of VHS.
They did enjoy a slight renaissance in the 90s with home cinema buffs.
You no good, you so dumb long time, you useless!
Ultra-Violet = you watch movie any-and-everywhere.
Yeah I think laserdisc popularity is what's clouding my vision here? They've been around since 78 apparently, but supposedly were patented as early as between 1961 and 69!
Bugger me! :o
I really only remember them being really popular in the mid-late 90's before fading away altogether (It always seemed to be anorak types that ever bought them as well, always seemed to be oddball characters hanging around the Laserdisc section in places like HMV).
Now that I think about it I vaguely remember a guy I work with here in the US saying that the rich family who lived down the road to him had a "Lazer Play" or something equally as cheesy sounding in about 1979 that cost them about $700 at the time? Supposedly there was only about 3 movies available for it at the time :lol:
Apparently they were the first family on his street to own a microwave as well :D
I might ask him about it again at work tonight if he's in tonight, he works in a different department to me now, so he's on a completely different schedule, but it'd be interesting to get the full story from him I suppose, even though I'm not really bothered about the Laserdisc format really.
All that changing would be a pain in the ass...isn't the average movie 2 disks, 4 sides....screw that!
Buy a few, frame them on the wall and tell all the ladies you used to be a musician/record producer back in Yourope, and you made gold and platinum records.
What do I tell the girlfriend when she sees the ladies?
"They're just groupies! They don't mean a thing!"
It wasn't even a particularly good film: The Net starring Sandra Bullock. It's probably only memorable because it was one of the first internet films from back when your average Joe hadn't really got a clue what it was exactly ("Woooo!! The interweb thing. It's all cyber-tastic and futuristic and scary and you can be erased by clicking on the wrong thing"). I also remember Ms Bullock apparently bug-fixing something like Wolfenstein 3D at the start. She simply tapped a few keys and all the screen corruption that the original programmers somehow couldn't fix all magically went away.
Anyway...
I was dead pleased with it when I first set it all up but I think I'd just liked the idea of it and hadn't really thought the cost aspect through. The films were bloody expensive and anything good was generally only available on import. My machine had an auto-flip mode where the head would play one side and then switch to the other automatically so you didn't need to turn the disc over. It was still slow and they didn't exactly stop the movie in a good place as I recall so it was hardly seamless.
I saw it in the Bargain Pages and it was dirt cheap (for a LD player) and I think I justified it on the basis that I was just about to start a film studies course at night school. I never bought any films for it and ended up selling it 6 months later and putting the money towards a DVD-ROM for some new format that had come out in the US. A much better investment! :D
Anything under two hours will typically be one disc, two sides, and you can get players that change sides for you. That said, there's a tendency for special editions to be in CAV format where you only get half an hour per side, and some of these will run to four or five discs if the film is long enough and there are enough extras.
I have one bluray movie. Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland cause the 3 disc was cheaper than the dvd alone :o
Not getting a bluray player until I the recorders and discs are a decent price. Don't want to add yet another thing to plug into the telly without taking one thing away.
[qoute]PS What's that Violet Ray thingy I've seen on BluRay containers. Something like "Also contains Violet version" or something like that. ( Talk about being behind the times, eh. -Ed )[/QUOTE]
I had to read up about that a while ago, I think it's just a funky (i.e. ****ty) new name for Digital Copy. I can't remember if Violet Ray is the distribution system or the protection scheme. I bet they chose it because they can shorten it to VR and say to our past selves "look, VR is in the future and it's brilliant" :lol:
Ooohhh. I wish I knew about that. IIRC Coppola had grown tired of the Saga version and refused to let it be released on DVD. Maybe this is him relaxing that attitude, or the production company saying sod it, we'll make money out of it even if you don't want to.
:lol: :lol: :lol:
--edit--
With all this talk of Laserdiscs, if you know where to look you can get the Laserdisc Star Wars Trilogy on DVD. Properly done with the menus and extras. Looks like the real thing, except it's miniature 'cause it's the future :p
I don’t think I have the stomach for it.
--Raziel (Legend of Kain: Soul Reaver 2)
https://www.youtube.com/user/VincentTSFP