The 3-inch (or more correctly 8cm) size is part of the original Blu-ray specification, as is the 12 cm (~5 in), so my statement stands. There won't be any other sizes made, unless they change the spec, which is not going to happen.

Yes, Pioneer made two tray flippers/changers.

SD sound is inferior to laserdisc. Plus laserdisc has frameable cover art like LPs... So I still like to collect them for various reasons... An autographed laserdisc looks much better than a dvd.... But most of mine have been replaced by DVD...

Good to know. I found a page dedicated the the Pioneer LD-LD1, which contains a cool animated gif showing the dual-disc/dual-side playback:
http://www.laserdiscarchive.co.uk/la...neer_ld-w1.htm

SD DVDs could hold a PCM soundtrack, just like laserdisc, and some do. SD DVDs also support full-bitrate DTS, just like laserdisc. Of course, in practice, studios usually forwent the higher-quality and space-hungry audio tracks for half-rate DTS or just DD.

Of course, with BD, a lot of releases are including lossless tracks, which makes a revived interest in LD even more unlikely.

Laserdisc video was analog and took up a lot of space unlike the advanced digital compression formats of today.

That is what makes Laserdisc extremely outdated. Compared to DVD's and Blu-Ray Disc, advancements show that digital is better than analog. Meanwhile, analog based technology is slowly being phased out.

Here's a question...If analog is ultimately phased completely, would future TVs lack the analog connections necessary to play LDs?

It's possible, although you can always convert analog signlas to digital signals with converters.

Most laserdiscs players at least hav an S-Video cable, and those are still on new TV as far as I know

Some of the higher end Laserdisc players which sold for about $800 or more had dual lasers which allowed both sides of the disc to be played without having to flip it.

I remember most movies were CLV discs which allowed up to one hour per side but the quality was not as good and (at least on my machine) you were not able to freeze-frame.

The special edition discs came as CAV format which only allowed 30 minutes per side but the picture was better and it allowed freeze-frame.

I bought the Halloween CAV Criterion Collection disc in 1995 and was absolutely blown away by it! The picture was widescreen (which it had never been on home video), had an audio commentary by John Carpenter, Siskel & Ebert episode (which has never appeared since) and the TV footage (taken from the original 1" video tape) which had never been released.

I have a Pioneer DVL-700, which not only reads both sides of a laserdisc but plays DVDs as well.
It's highly improbable LDs will ever be popular or even reach their limited level of popularity of 15 years ago. They're too unwieldy and expensive. When one is used to paying $10 for something compact and good quality (DVDs), who wants to pay $40+ for something inconvenient and lesser quality? Just for the collectors' cachet?

As others have mentioned in this thread, laserdisc is dead and for good reason.

I was an early adopter. I own two players and close to 100 LDs. With the exception of some rare or novelty discs (like my Japanese import of SUPERMAN IV, which is longer than any DVD ever released), I don't see much reason why I would invest in the format any longer.

Laser-rot is the most common problem. Many of the discs deteriorated chemically into sludge within a year or so. And, yes, I kept my discs in tip-top shape and in a good environment (physically speaking, not necessarily morally).

Anyhow, WIDESCREEN REVIEW once advocated using laserdisc size for DVDs, therefore improving bit rates for audio and video and so forth. I'm glad the companies never bothered. Other than packaging, laserdiscs were too unwieldly for what is now an increasingly portable entertainment medium. Good riddance.

HD-DVD has a better chance at a comeback.

Sold my Pionner 1,000 dollar player for $20 bucks at garage sale few years back.the guy said it would be a great cd player. It hurts to think of the $100 dollar special editions I bought and the import Dune Special edition from Japan that my "ex" wife really wanted
for over $200 bucks. Nope don't miss the laser discs or the annoying "change of discs"
on the CAV editions which any self respecting laserphile would have if it was available.
I still remember being at Ken Cranes(now DVD Planet) in huge store of laserdiscs and seeing a "small "section of this new dvd format in corner of store.

I still have a couple of boxes of laserdiscs in my closet. Are they basically landfill at this point?

Laserdiscs were much better than DVDs when it came to using their covers to clean the stems and seeds outta yer weed. Otherwise, this thread is a joke and the OP is worse than Stalin.

I still have 100+ LD's and 2 working players, one of which has the ability to play both sides (Pioneer DVL-919 - Hong Kong Champagne Model).

http://www.laserdiscarchive.co.uk/Pioneer_dvl919HK.jpg

I have a great player that plays both sides and allows me to freeze frame and frame by frame regardless of CLV or CAV discs. I have about 200 discs, and I still buy laser discs, mostly because I can pick them up for about $1, so sometimes things not on DVD, or OOP DVDs (like Stewart Saves his Family), I can pick up the LD for next to nothing and get a good widescreen version of the movie which looks pretty good on my TV. I have a 42" HDTV and hooked up with S-video some of my Widescreen lasers look great.

My Batman Mask of the Phantasm disc looks a lot better than my DVD of the same movie.

Where do people buy their lasers these days? Online or brick-and-mortar? I have a laserdisc player but no discs (yep). I'm in the NJ area.

Thanks.

Amoeba is the only B&M place I know of left in all of Los Angeles. Most of my purchases are from ebay.

Lasertown (online) might still be around . There prices were kinda high,

Yes, I have that same memory. Funny how quick it changed over. I kinda miss the old store since they moved to the other side of the freeway. It gave the illusion they had even more stuff when they were crammed into the smaller store. :)

But what everyone seems to forget:

There was never a SINGLE DVD that had non-skippable commercials or menus built into it. You could pop one in and actually WATCH a movie.

Those were the days.

(Yes, I still have my LD/DVD combo for the few things that you can't find on DVD, like Lynch's "On the Air")

-jason

If you're near a Half Price Books, check them out, too. The ones here still occasionally get used discs.

I had to watch Lawrence of Arabia on LD for one of my film classes. Take a guess how long THAT took.

I think DIVX has a better shot making a comeback.

When DVDs first came out, I thought a new format would be just around the corner with laserdisc-sized DVDs able to contain entire movies in high-def. I imagined new players would soon be introduced that were backwards-compatible with older analog laserdiscs as well.

Obviously this prediction never came true, and we now have Blu-Ray. So LD is definitely as dead as 8-track tapes. I'm a little surprised, however, that there is no longer a market for LD players (aside from used ones on Ebay).

Looks like someone is doing some market research for maybe "LaserdiscTALK.com"

Ha ha I said Laaaaaaser!