Does anyone think laser disks have better video quality than DVD's?

[Zebo]

I do. I see a lot of atrifacts on the bigger screen I have now that I don't see with laser.

 

[Heisenberg]

Not according the encoding specs.

 

[mpitts]

I don't.

I have had a number of laserdisc players and I really liked the format, but I honestly haven't seen any difference LD and DVD (other than the giant discs that require flipping).

FWIW, I am playing them on a 57" 16:9 TV.

 

[spidey07]

Audio? Most definately better on laser disc, depending on the title of course.

Video? Hard to tell.

 

[Zebo]

Maybe it's just this one movie (apocalyse now) since it's the only one I own in both formats. In all the dark sceens I see some "blockiness" in the DVD version which I don't with the laser. But I have noticed it with other DVD's too and it again makes me wonder which is really better? Seems the encodeing company has A LOT to do with the DVD quality today and varies tremendously from things I've read.

Oh well DVD's are way cheaper on average $20 vs. $35 for LD. I think I can live with it.

 

[iamme]

Are there alot of titles remaining for laser disc?

 

[cjchaps]

Well, I've researched this argument extensively, and the basic answer is "there is no right or wrong answer". Some laserdiscs are transferred better than their DVD encoded counterparts. You have to remember that laserdiscs are a non-compressed format, so you won't get blocky artifacts on the screen. Laserdiscs are not always transferred well, so you can get a bad picture on them. DVDs can be encoded good or not good, it's that simple. It just depends.

 

[spidey07]

Carbonyl,

The folks putting the film on DVD have everything to do with it's quality. The terrible job done with Star Wars phantom menace and attack of the clones shows what can go wrong.

so for me DVDs have ranged from awesome to "what the heck are they smoking?".

 

[Viper GTS]

Scratch that, I was thinking backwards.

The VIDEO on a laserdisc is analog, the audio is digital.

DVD has superior video resolution, however it is compressed which can yield banding and artifacts.

Personally I can't stand all the newer DVD's that have 10 billion special features eating up space on the disc.

I want DD/DTS audio, the highest quality video possible, and an anamorphic trailer. That's it, dammit!

Link on LD/DVD

Viper GTS

 

[cjchaps]

Check ebay. Not a lot of new titles coming out, but craploads of old ones out there for bargain prices.

Originally posted by: iamme
Are there alot of titles remaining for laser disc?

 

[StageLeft]

Geeze i didn't know people still used LDs. my dad bought one years ago and we watched about 10-15 movies on it. There were two rental places locally at the time, and that's down now to none. It just never took off! Spidey, you say audio is better on an LD, but can they handle true surround?

 

[Viper GTS]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
Geeze i didn't know people still used LDs. my dad bought one years ago and we watched about 10-15 movies on it. There were two rental places locally at the time, and that's down now to none. It just never took off! Spidey, you say audio is better on an LD, but can they handle true surround?

Yes, both DD and DTS can be put on a LD.

Viper GTS

 

[spidey07]

Skoorb,

Yes.

 

[spidey07]

Hey Viper,

What do you think of the trend of putting the film on a single disc and all the xtras on another?

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
Geeze i didn't know people still used LDs. my dad bought one years ago and we watched about 10-15 movies on it. There were two rental places locally at the time, and that's down now to none. It just never took off! Spidey, you say audio is better on an LD, but can they handle true surround?

It went the dodo about a year abo at good guys, but you can still get em online

 

[Viper GTS]

Originally posted by: spidey07
Hey Viper,

What do you think of the trend of putting the film on a single disc and all the xtras on another?

I'm all for it, anything to free up space on the film disc. I'd be quite content with the film disc having nothing but the film + one audio format (preferably DTS), & then the extras disc having all the rest.

Basically I want every release to be a "superbit" release, I don't want or care about the extras (except the trailer, I love having the trailers).

Viper GTS

 

[vegetation]

Lots of old stuff on LD at very cheap prices. Even old obscure flicks that you can't find on DVD format.