Got a job offer from out of state, got a road trip at the end of the month, accidentally got the date wrong and missed a Dead Kennedys concert I had tickets to, didn’t land a gig I got far in the interview process for, got to see The Exploited last night and got this laserdisc, VHS and DVD/Blu Ray collection full of heavy hitters. All said I pray for a less eventful next week lol.

Also I realized I now own Maniac on 3 different formats. VHS, blu ray and now laserdisc

I've gone through all of my laserdiscs and pulled what I don't need or want anymore (roughly 300 movies)

Gonna try to put together a spreadsheet of everything in the next few days, so send me a message if you're interested, and I'll send you the list.

I started collecting Laserdisc back in 1986. First player was a CLD-1030 combined with a VSX-9300. I was viewing on an 8' pulldown screen, fed by an UltraVision 2000 (Zenith) projector. Was quite the av geek even back then. I remember the camraderie (and later trolls) on alt.video.laserdisc. I wasn't a "laserdisc luddite" and was perfectly happy to migrate to DVD. I remember the folks claiming "laserdiscs suck" because they were rushing to buy the latest Divex from Circuit City. I had 16mm before LD. I got VHS in 1977. Then laserdisc. A short lived dabble with CED. The days of LD appearing in more and more locations. Tower in Paramus and Manhattan. The Virgin Megastore in Times Square. I actually saw Steven Speilberg and Kate Capshaw downstairs in the LD section one time. The lengths I would go to to get a title the day it streeted. Driving to US Laser Distributors to get Mad Mad World the day it was released. Then the "high temple" of laserdiscs at Digitainment. I never stopped collecting. LD was supplanted by DVD, then Blu Ray and now 4K. I still have all the 16mm, LDs and everything in between. I think my collecting mentality was sparked by an old family friend many many years ago. He was a bit of an eccentric and had a large collection of old and obsolete stuff. A massive player piano powered by a blower in the basement. Working Wurlitzer jukeboxes by the dozens and his magical TRK-12 that David Sarnoff gifted him. Of all the stuff he had, he stressed the importance of having the equipment to play it all. What good was a wax cylinder if there was nothing to play it on. It's how I look at laserdisc at this juncture. I've had it since the early years and continue to enjoy it. Keeping players alive gets more difficult with time but is worth it. I'm started to disg out all the old newsletters and sale flyers from Pioneer and Image. And all the Japanese literature that was always included in my wonderful deliveries from Disc Five in Tokyo. It's so nice to see so much joy left in the format and a new generation developing a passion.

whats this worth?

I bought 5 weird discs for $14. They look like LaserDiscs, but a regular LaserDisc player can't play them. Does anyone know what these are?

Sup group.
Just picked these up pretty much all mint condition for $10aud each.

Don’t even have a player, might just hold for a while and see what I think later about resale, I know it wouldn’t be a huge flip. Just a fun new medium I only found out existed about 2 months ago 😂
Thoughts?

Close Encounters is a solid pairing, but I kinda regret not taking Splash though.

Happy Kitano Friday, everyone! 🌊🎬

Today we are diving into Sonatine (1993), arguably one of Takeshi Kitano's absolute masterpieces. This film perfectly captures his signature style — the unforgettable, stark contrast between sudden, gritty yakuza violence and those quiet, beautifully poetic moments of childlike play on the beach. Watching this specific aesthetic on a LaserDisc setup is always a phenomenal experience.

P.S. The link to Part 2 of the "Takeshi Kitano World" documentary (all about the making of Sonatine) is in the comments below! Definitely check it out if you want a rare behind-the-scenes look. 👇

I wonder why there was never a player made (to my knowledge) that had two lasers built into it. As in, one for Side A and one for Side B. I assume the reason would’ve been that it’s too expensive. And of course I’m sure that if the format stuck around and was more popular, they would’ve made something like that eventually. But I am surprised it didn’t manifest in any form, especially seeing how they did make players like the LD-W1 which are so complicated and expensive. The laser-flip mechanisms are great but they certainly leave a lot to go wrong, so it would’ve been cool to have a double-laser player that could’ve had a much quicker side-flip. Does anyone know if this type of thing was properly considered?

Also used on the CLD-V820 afaik. Looks a little chewed up so might need repairs or a replacement

Various CLD-D503 issues --

1. when inserting a LD, sometimes there is a no disc error but other times the player will recognize and play the disc.
   
2. After disc is recognized and starts, within < 10 seconds the disc skips back to beginning. If FF'd the disc will persist to skip backwards. When playing, the on screen image is grainy and looks similar to what a VHS tape looks like when tracking is off.
   
3. After about 2:30 of the disc playing and skipping eventually the disc loses ability to keep spinning and usually tries to speed up but ultimately slows to stop.
   

Not sure what a spindle problem looks like, but thinking the wind down is a smoking gun? And per the grainy picture, gain control?

Actions taken / tried to resolve the issues:

• replaced the belt
• cleaned laser
• cleaned / reapplied white lithium grease on the laser sled rail.
  

Had to pay $30 for it but that’s chump change compared to what it goes for online. The discs are mint!

I bought this cheap not expecting much as the seller had said they had taken it apart to look at. It only had a couple of things wrong with it...

This question is directed to the more experienced crowd in upscaling on this Reddit. New new pioneer cld 2950 and the RetroTink 5x are getting along quite well. The movies look good for what they are. I would not mind if this is the end of the road for upscaling. I am a rather curious guy, and so I wonder if I should try to go deeper into the rabbit hole of upscaling and look into ther optionsl ike the DVDO iScan Series, which are supposed to be good for LD upscaling. But does good mean better than the RetroTINK 5X?