Twiztid

Is laser disc any good? I asked urlyer if Divx was any good and everybody said no .. so I aint gonna get a divx player should I get a laser disc player? Or just stick with my philips dvd player?

Does Laser Discs have any thing that dvd dont have? And I see home theaters on the home theatre page and everybody has this white box hanging from the ceiling is that a laser disc player? Or can regular dvds play in that? Thanxs Im new into the home theatre area. All I have now is a 25inch philips tv an a regular single disc philips cd / vcd / dvd player ..

Thanxs in advance!

Frank S

Yes, Laserdisc is good! It is usually as good as a non-Anamorphic DVD with equal the audio quality as well. Laserdisc is not very popular anymore with the advent of DVD but because there are many films on Laserdisc but not DVD there is still a decent interest in it. You can get some VERY good deals on used (and even new) Laserdiscs now and an investment of $150-200 will get you a pretty good Laserdisc player (Pioneer is the best choice) as well. If you want to hear Dolby Digital audio off a Laserdisc you need an additional piece of equipment called a RF Demodulator that takes the audio off the Laserdisc and modifies it so your DD receiver can decode it properly. The RF Demodulators run from $150 up. To listen to DTS surround off of Laserdiscs you need to be sure the Laserdisc player has a digital output (optical or Coaxial) and you are set.

Divx is a dead format so you couldn't buy a Divx player even if you wanted to!

The white box hanging off the ceiling are Front Projection TV's that project the video onto a screen placed on a wall.

Laserdisc players look fairly similar (from the outside) to a DVD player but are a bit bigger and MUCH heavier. The tray that opens up to accept the disc is much bigger to hold the larger (the size of a audio LP but looks much like a DVD/CD). There are dual players that will play both DVD's & Laserdisc players that are nice so you have a backup DVD player as well as a Laserdisc player. They are much more expensive though!

Your TV is fine for viewing Laserdiscs as well as DVD's!


[Edited by Frank S on 04-09-01 at 11:43 PM]

Nismo

I have one of those dual ld and dvd players that Frank S is talking about. It is a Pioneer DVL-91, and it plays both dvds and lds very nicely.

Unless you can find a cheap player though, I probably would not recommend laserdisc to you. LDs are very bulky to keep, and are therefore much more easily damaged. While it is true that you can find old movies at discount prices, you will be pretty hard pressed to find many good movies on laserdisc. You might as well use the money you save from not buying an ld player to add to your dvd collection.

Twiztid

Thanxs Frank & Nismo ..

Frank .... yea my tv is good but just last night I watched Enemy Of The State w/ will smith and since I dont have a flat screen or a widescreen or even a big big screen half the screen was cut off cause the widescreen capability. I mean like a big piece of the top was taken off as well as the bottom. It was a good movie but didnt seem that good cause I couldnt view the whole picture.

Im gonna skip the laserdisc and save for a bigger / flat pannel tv. Maybe 32inch flat screen will do for the size room I have. Nothing bigger or It would be too close.

Thanxs both for the great tips!

Frank S

Point of fact you are for the first time actually seeing the whole picture. You are used to Pan & Scan versions of films that cut up to 40% off the sides of the picture to accomadate the apsect ratio of your 4x3 TV.

DivxGuy

Actually in the case of films shot soft matte (aka open matte), he is getting less of a picture with the widescreen version.

RD, widescreen owner.