My brother is convinced that there weren't nearly as much laserdiscs as there are dvds, that nobody bought them since they were 80 bucks, and only lasted for about a few years.

LDs were first sold in 1978 and were made for more than 20 years. I'm sure there are still not as many DVD titles as LD titles. But the way DVDs have sold compared to LDs I would be just as sure that there have been many more total DVDs sold than LDs.

The vast majority were under $80. $30-$40 MSRP was the price for most.

Only lasted a few years? More like 20 - the medium was introduced in the mid-late 70's. I cant tell you an exact number on how many there were, but there were a lot - several thousand releases easy. It seemed that every release from the studio saw an LD come out along with it - so I'd say at least 10K.

Are there more DVDs? The medium has seen a growth that LD never experianced, so as of now yeah. There are more DVDs - but a couple of years ago, I'd say the reverse was true.

It was even being printed in 2000.

there is still titles out there that will never show up on dvd.

the draw back to laserdisc was the price and the general public was already enjoying VHS.

I think my Japanese copy of Phantom Menace was out in very early 2001 - if memory serves me correctly.

Take a copy of the 1984 re-release of Metropolis (with the rock soundtrack and the tinting) - I gar-un-teen that version will never see the light of day in any medium ever again.

The average cost per movie across my laserdisc collection (over 500 titles) is $27.26, which is obviously much lower than $80.

The first laserdisc titles on DiscoVision were priced around $15- of course then the discs turned out to cost more to manufacture than they had figured, since the first ones had so many defects.

I for one have about 80 - 90 Laserdiscs in my collection. Still wont part with them, and still the only place you can get a better than VHS of Star Wars OTR. Phantom Menace was also the last Laserdisc I bought. I have had DVD for about 6 years, and there are still movies I have on Laser that are not on DVD yet. Prices ranged anywhere from $20 to $150 for some Criterions.

I don't have exact figures, but I remember the 'ballpark' number of LD titles being thrown around near the end of the format was 20,000. And the # of players being about 2 million.

DVD has already eclipsed the # of titles (being well over 30,000 now). And, obviously, the # of players out there long ago passed LD.


People definitely bought them. (People are *still* buying them.) And the format -- with a 20 year retail life span -- certainly can't be called a failure. But DVD is obviously a much more successful format.

Getting this version would be like trying to draw blood from a stone!

I saw this version on my 17th birthday, my first viewing of Metropolis. While I now appreciate the colorless, silent version more, this version will always hold a place in my heart.

Are you sure about those numbers? I was about to post that while DVD has sold more units there still are not as many titles on DVD as there were on Laser. There were so many Laserdisc titles. Easily more than 20,000 it seams to me.

I thought so too, which is what I said in the first reply post of this thread. I didn't know the numbers precisely enough to think I could give them but I also think there were a lot more than 20,000 LD titles.

We could be wrong.

20,000 seems kind of low to me, where are you getting your figures?

I am sure there are more than 20,000 laserdisc titles out there. I was an early adopter and had a love/hate relationship with this format. The laser-rot was more annoying than anything you'd see on DVD.

Diesel

No, as I said, this was just a 'ballpark' number that was being thrown around. Probably in alt.video.laserdisc during the late 1990s.

Still, I'm surprised that so many people thing this number is off. I've been a long-time LD owner and I'm very familiar with what titles are (and are not) available. That number seems pretty damn close to me.

But I'd be very happy if someone could provide a more reliable source than my word-of-mouth estimate.


EDIT: From JoshZ's great LaserDisc Forever site(http://www.mindspring.com/~laserdisc...r/prologue.htm):

"In the years before DVD, laserdisc was the definitive collector's medium for high resolution video, producing a tremendous volume of output (estimates say approximately 15,000 titles) and some of the finest archive editions of classic movies, many of which may never be reproduced on DVD due to rights issues."

From Jim Taylor's DVD FAQ:

And a Bargin price is an under statement. I used to be careful what I picked up because of price, now a days if you go to any flea market or used record store you can pick them up for a few bucks. Bought my Blade Runner: CC for 6 dollars. So many titles that will never see the light of day on dvd or be placed on dvd like they were on LD because of legal right issues. If you can find a cheap LD player, I would suggest picking it up just to pick up some cheap older stuff.

Let's put it this way: There may have been 20,000 titles on LD or there may have been 20,000,000 all I'm really getting at is that there were MORE titles on LD than there are on DVD to date. In the CC alone there are 50+ titles that have yet to see the light of day on DVD from anyone and I can name a 100 more off the top of my head. If I can do that so easily I imagine there are thousands of titles on LD that are yet to be on DVD.

...and the other way around there are very few DVD's titles that were never on LD (accept new releases of course, which could off set this count.)

See, I disagree with you here. I can think of *thousands* of titles on DVD that were never on LD. Think of all the documentaries, TV shows, and releases of recent films. And all of the obscure films (Anchor Bay, Blue Underground types).

According to http://www.hometheaterinfo.com/dvdlist.htm there are over 7600 DVDs released for movies made between 2000-2003. With a couple of minor exceptions, NONE of those made it to LD.

And when I try to do it in the other direction, I'm left with a few hundred titles and pretty much the entire RKO catalog.


I think the "total titles" swung to DVD's favor about a year or two ago. I'm honestly suprised that people would disagree.

Oh well, without a detailed list of all LDs released (which, unfortunately, does not exist online), this is impossible to prove. I just know from my own obsessive collecting of both formats over the past 2 decades that I find there are significantly more titles available on DVD. But that's just my opinion.

Sounds like a fun weekend project

I've noticed that many I was going to buy on LD are appearing on DVD, so it appears more and more titles will no longer be only on LD, unless its a really obscure release or a version that studios/directors/whoever refuse to release now.

After further review I have to admit you are probably right.

But perhaps there are still more LD titles of American theatrical movies released before 1997.

There is an ongoing attempt to catalogue, in detail, as many LD releases as possible. It's an interesting effort that you and others may find useful.

The Laserdisc Database

contributions in the form of release info or cover scans are welcomed by the site owner.

Currently the site lists over 35,000 LD titles

Hello,

LDDB.com Admin here.

You must keep (like for DVD) a difference between the number of titles and the number or LDs released.

Some titles were released so many times (Star Wars, T2, etc.) that this is a big difference.

Regarding total number of available LDs wordwide, I have validated about 32.500 entries so far and my evaluation based on remaining lists would be around:

US NTSC -> About 16.000 LDs
Japan NTSC -> About 28.000 LDs
PAL -> About 12.000 LDs

I have no idea about HK releases (600 ?) or China release (mostly bootlegs) but a conservative 50.000 titles/LDs seems to be quite realistic.

Japan NTSC usually includes US titles (minus DiscoVision, they had VHD and other exotic formats for this).

PAL titles were often released in French, English, German and sometimes Spanish, Italien, Dutch, etc.

Very few PAL titles were not released in Japan. Few US titles were not released in Japan.

Anyway, if you'd like to join the Database and give us a hand, you're warmly welcomed!

Regards,
Julien

Thanks for all the info!
I for one will check out your site at my first opportunity.

Are we including porn in the mix, too?

Because porn on DVD has taken off bigtime, whereas I don't think it was that popular on LD.