LaserDiscs
Posted by Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 103 comments
My uncle was (is) obsessed with Hong Kong action films and in the 90s he would buy them on LaserDisc and then tape a copy on the VHS for me. I realize this was a pretty unique experience getting access to Chinese movies this way but did anyone else have any experience with LaserDisc tech?
RoyalPuzzleheaded259@reddit
Our school had one. They only bought maybe two discs for it because they were too expensive so they wasted a bunch of money on a resource for the kids but cheaped out on the actual media because it was too much money. Just like my dad. He bought and installed a huge state dish in our yard in the late 80s. No idea how much he spent on it. Then refused to subscribe to any channels. There were like 10,000 options from around the world and we got 4 channels, all foreign news. I spent the better part of day home sick from schools once going through as many of the channels I could to see if there were anymore. Or even just something other than foreign news. But no dice.
jackfaire@reddit
My science teacher would show us Bill Nye episodes on laserdisc relevant to what we were studying.
Soszai@reddit
A guy in my Boy Scout troop would make me VHS tapes from his LaserDiscs. Back then you could only get some versions of a movie on disc. This is how I got my prized Letterbox version of Terminator 2
Madam_Apathy@reddit
My 7th grade science teacher managed to get the school to “invest” in a LaserDisc player for the school… and one movie, Jurassic Park. As a kid in 1995, it seemed crazy because of the expense. As an adult, all I can ask is “How the hell did he get that approved?”
Ok_Yogurtcloset_9613@reddit
My husband loves his laser discs. We have moved boxes of them around, and he will pick up a laser disc player whenever he sees a good condition one. I never want to move the boxes of them again! Heavy freakin things!
Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit (OP)
What are his favorites from his collection?
Ok_Yogurtcloset_9613@reddit
Well, I don't mess with it.. I think his would be some of his Star Wars or Star Trek, but honestly- we don't even have on of the hooked up right now!
WalkingWikipedia@reddit
I used to go to my friend’s house and watch Marx Brothers movies on laser disc.
WendyPortledge@reddit
My friend’s dad had a laser disc player and the first flat screen projector tv I had ever seen. It was huge. I was three years older than my friend so they had me “babysit” once and he put on Animal House with friends. The boys went wild. Lol
Lhamorai@reddit
I had about 700 laserdiscs in total. They were and are still the best medium, though so many of them got laser rot. So having the VHS copies of them is a fantastic way to have those films. Count yourself lucky. 🍀
Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit (OP)
Oh bro you might have the biggest LaserDisc collection! Freaking laser rot. I'll count myself lucky if I can find these old vhs's in my basement packed away, but that's another day's adventure.
Lhamorai@reddit
Mine was about half the size of a friend of mine. And we’d copy the ones we didn’t have for each other. For HK this was really the best way to see some of the more obscure stuff. Especially when you wanted to see Cat III films. Do you have The Essential Guide to Hong Kong Movies? It’s such a good book. Highly recommended if you don’t have it.
Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit (OP)
I will check it out right away thank you for the recommendation.
His uncle of mine used to run film festivals at the local theater, HK film fest, he held it at least seven or eight years in a row because I had the official t-shirt from every year. In high school I wore these shirts like everyday! Oh man it's fun to reminisce. I'm a peep that book you said and hopefully it'll jog some more memories!
Lhamorai@reddit
HK Film Fest? Was this in Germany by any chance?
Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit (OP)
No..USA, Boston (Brookline)
Lhamorai@reddit
We had one in Hamburg Germany too
nonexistentnight@reddit
An older friend of mine had one back in the day. He was the person I knew that was most into hi-fi and home theater stuff. He had a collection with lots of Sci Fi films and stuff like that. He died young and I wound up inheriting them, but wasn't too attached to them and just sold them off. Also a cousin of mine is into anime and has a bunch of import only discs that he's been collecting since the 90s.
Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit (OP)
Sounds like you meant a lot to this friend. I'm really appreciating hearing all of these tales of the legendary laserdisc.
nonexistentnight@reddit
He meant a lot to me. Taught me how to build computers and showed me a lot of classic sci fi stuff both good and bad (especially via MST3K). I had a lot of uncles and older cousins that I didn't have any kind of relationship with but I did have people like him.
barktwiggs@reddit
Ii vividly remember my first laserdisc experience which also involved boobs. It was with a church sponsored scout troop. A nerdy scoutmaster in his 30s suggested a movie night followed by a campout in his backyard.
He popped in the movie Airplane on his laserdisc player. I think he had to flip it when it was halfway through. It was one of the most hilarious movies from the 80s before PG-13 was a thing. I still remember this like it was yesterday with a baseent full of 11-14 y/o boys. During a panic scene a topless woman with huge honkers randomly jumped in front of the camera for 1-2 seconds. The look on all the boy's faces and the realization of the Scoutmaster was indelibly imprinted upon my young teenage brain. I think I heard him muttering 'oops, forgot about that part".
AlienDelarge@reddit
My highschool science teacher would pull out stuff on laserdisc. Funny thing I was just in a video store that had a bunch of laserdiscs.
Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit (OP)
Was it a vintage store?
AlienDelarge@reddit
Not technically. It was a video rental store with a large sale section for physical media. A latge portion of that physical media did happen to be vintage though.
Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit (OP)
Sounds like a cool store. I feel like standalone vintage or used media stores are falling to the wayside
AlienDelarge@reddit
Yeah its an old store under new ownership so will be interesting to see how they do. Its in Astoria, OR which has a somewhat evolving economy these days.
Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit (OP)
If they know what's good for them they should tap into the vintage.
AlienDelarge@reddit
I think "vintage" is a pretty saturated market in that town so they may need to differentiate themselves on that front.
15750hz@reddit
Here's a fun one for you: LaserDiscs are analog. The video part anyway. Some had digital audio.
Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit (OP)
Wait what how? You don't have to trouble yourself to answer if you don't want I can look it up, but damn that blows my mind
15750hz@reddit
The discs still use pits and lands, like all the later disc formats, but instead of using the transition from pit to land (opposite maybe, I can't remember) to signify a digit, the length of the lands themselves is what the player used to determine the analog video signal.
tl:dr: It's like all waves, man!
Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit (OP)
Well dude this is stuff that's still is beyond my comprehension. No matter how many times I read about how vinyl records work I still can never really fathom that a diamond needle can derive sound from a wax plate and send it through a cone so that we can hear it. I don't even know where to begin to try and understand what you just explained.
15750hz@reddit
The real truth?
disdain7@reddit
I collected LaserDisc and CEDs for awhile. They’re really cool if you’re into that sort of thing but there is a reality to them that I rarely see mentioned.
They’re heavy. Especially CEDs. Like they’ll snap a shelf on a cheap book case if you aren’t careful.
But more to your question, I remember them in school. It seemed like at the time they were always documentaries. I remember our high school library had one and you could pick out laserdiscs and watch them. They had a copy of Woodstock that I watched a lot when doing research.
Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit (OP)
Ah yes "research" 😜
disdain7@reddit
lol it was honestly both! This was still in the encyclopedia days and headphones were cracked down on so it was a pretty decent find as far as having something on in the background.
Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit (OP)
I was a regular Encyclopedia Brown. I don't recall seeing too much footage of the original Woodstock maybe Jimi Hendrix waking everybody up that's about it.. I'm going to go look for some. I do remember really feeling like I was missing out on something awesome during Woodstock 94, but really feeling like I dodged a bullet not going to Woodstock 99!
disdain7@reddit
It’s not hard to find at all. The same laserdisc feature has probably been used tons of times over the years and remastered. There’s even a Blu-ray of it.
somethingdouchey@reddit
My 5th grade class and another class at another school took part in an experiment ran by Ameritech. All the students homes got a cable box like device that linked to a server in the library via fiber optics. In the server there were laser disc players teachers could load and students could watch at home. This was in the early 90s.
Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit (OP)
Wow that's really cool what a setup. Did you all have to watch at the exact same time or could you stream any time?
somethingdouchey@reddit
We could stream at any time. There was usually a short assignment related to what was shown. There were also some basic educational games and other stuff. I made a short slide show picture story about a skeleton and wizzard playing basketball. I recorded it to VHS and it was featured when the whole thing wrapped up. The network was called the ThinkLink.
somethingdouchey@reddit
I named the skeleton 'Shaq' and the wizzard 'magic', 🤣
somethingdouchey@reddit
Heres the google ai🤮 summary of the project...
Ameritech ThinkLink was an innovative early 1990s video-on-demand pilot project launched by Ameritech in Sterling Heights, Michigan. Partnering with the Warren Consolidated Schools, it allowed selected students and teachers to access short educational videos directly on their TVs using an interactive fiber-optic network.The program ran between 1993 and 1994 and was designed to study how interactive telecommunications could spark student interest and complement classroom learning. Rather than focusing purely on entertainment, ThinkLink provided 10-to-15-minute educational videos on-demand to fourth and fifth graders for a small monthly fee.Key facts about the project:The Goal: To test the viability of video-on-demand technologies and evaluate the educational benefits of interactive television in residential homes.Participation: It served roughly 150 students, their families, and their teachers, boasting high trial retention rates.Recognition: The project was awarded and documented by the prestigious Computerworld Smithsonian Awards for its pioneering use of academic technology.You can read more about this historic test-bed in the Chicago Tribune archives or review the project documentation preserved at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit (OP)
Damn that's some future tech
TheJokersWild53@reddit
Having a laserdisc player kinda sucked for me. There was only one place to rent from and they had a poor selection of movies. I was happy when we got a VCR and could watch a lot more movies
Scissorsguadalupe@reddit
I own a laser disc copy of Wrestlemania 1! I bought for a dollar. Laser disc always remind me of that scene from SLC Punk where Hans is like "it looks like a silver record, but it's not a silver record. There's a movie on there!"
Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit (OP)
Hot damn that's epic. Also I feel ignorant saying that I don't know what SLC Punk is so I'll have to look that up too.
Scissorsguadalupe@reddit
It's movie from the late 90s. Check it out!
Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit (OP)
Aye aye Captain!
Procrasturbating@reddit
I watched the original Star Wars trilogy on LD at a friends. Other than that, just used one at school for some multimedia learning stuff.
Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit (OP)
Who shot first? On laserdisc that is
Procrasturbating@reddit
Han shot first! That Greedo shot first blasphemy came after the prequel releases.
Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit (OP)
The only way it should be told.
Frosty_Cloud_2888@reddit
The original Star Wars trilogy on laser disc is pretty expensive. I think it’s the only high def version before all the revisions were done. If you want to see an original version of Star Ward where Han shot first in High Def, you need laser disc.
Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit (OP)
No doubt. I think there was a little bit more footage that Lucas slipped in that version too like some extra CGI creatures?
cybah@reddit
Yes. But mostly in school. Early 90s school got a grant to buy these for some of the science classes, as some interactive laser discs were available for teachers. Yes interactive laser discs.
Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit (OP)
Interactive like embedded during the film there would be interaction?
cybah@reddit
Like they would show a short video, and then have a questions at the end that you had to use the remote to select the response.
A couple of them were purely question and answers sorta things with lots of multimedia.. videos, sound clips, animations.
Was kinda impressed laser discs did this. DVDs also do this but its seldom used anymore.
They were special pioneer laser disc players fwiw
Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit (OP)
Well they were pioneers in something!
justpassingby_thanks@reddit
The home theater special room in circuit City had a laserdisc of Terminator 2 that we would go and put on as loud as we could until they kicked us out. That digital surround sound was amazing compared to VHS surround.
Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit (OP)
Oh Circuit City we didn't deserve you
LaryEsen@reddit
Man, those huge discs felt like the future back then.
Coderado@reddit
Those discs were so cool. IIRC they were pretty thick and heavy vs a CD. After video discs, these did seem so futuristic.
A_the_Buttercup@reddit
I always thought the term video disc and laser disc were interchangeable - I was wrong!
Videodisc
Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit (OP)
Dude that little Jingle at the beginning of the video how do I know that??? Was it proprietary for RCA or is it some well-known Melody?
Coderado@reddit
I got to experience both. The quality on laserdisc did not blow me away after video disc and VHS. And you still had to flip them. It's crazy that basically a vinyl record could nearly match early digital quality. Of course I could be misremembering, like with anything.
Apprehensive_Hat8986@reddit
Videodisc TL;DR - "His master's voice and face." 🐕🦺
Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit (OP)
My sentiments exactly
Flaxscript42@reddit
I remeber getting up to flip the disk.
I also remember the disk that could freeze frame and only had 30 minutes per side.
We had the freeze frame version of Terminator 2, and the giant box weighed like 10 lbs.
Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit (OP)
Oh my god dude I never actually got to watch one cuz the laser disc player was at my uncle's place and I rarely went there but all this to say I had no idea that you had to flip a laser disc halfway through! TIL!!
Significant_Dog412@reddit
Never seen Laserdiscs outside of high end tech shops, but the mention of 90s Hong King action movies hit me right in the nostalgia. Loved these in my nerdy teens.
Either movies like Hard Boiled, City On Fire, or God Of Gamblers (often featuring Chow Yun Fat), or the sexy Category III stuff with action babes like Michelle Yeoh or Chingamy Yau.
Lhamorai@reddit
Chingmy Yau! Naked Killer FTW. Yeah the LDs from that era from HK were the best quality available. Criterion was on Laserdisc long before DVD and Bluray. The Killer and Hard Boiled had CAV laserdiscs on Criterion back then.
Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit (OP)
Dog we're kindred spirits!
That same uncle gave me the hugest poster of hard boiled for my room. Like literally floor to ceiling it must have been some promotional poster.
Police story, super cop 2, the killer, better tomorrow, some of my faves. I will have to check out City on fire.
Wing Chun was one of my absolute favorites and I was totally enamored with Michelle Yeoh.
jelloslug@reddit
I had a laserdisc player in the '90s. I was getting into home theater stuff and at that point in time, laserdiscs were the only way to reliably get letterboxed versions of movies. Fun fact: Columbia House also had a laserdisc club like the CD club where you could get a bunch of movies for a penny and if you let them send you the disc of the month and just write "return to sender" on it and send it back, they would eventually just cancel your membership without having to buy anything.
thethirdllama@reddit
+1 on the letterbox point. I had (and still do I guess) an intense hatred of pan and scan/cropping. It can completely change the movie.
Lhamorai@reddit
P&S was the fucking worst. Thank you for reminding me of this
Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit (OP)
Genius! I definitely had schemes going for the Columbia house and BMG for CDs
fromthedarqwaves@reddit
My middle school had a couple laser disc machines that rarely got used. I never knew anyone who had one at home.
johnb300m@reddit
We did a unit in 6th grade science with interactive laser discs for Voyage of the Mimi!
Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit (OP)
I don't know what that is I'm going to have to go look it up!
bullseye11b@reddit
My grandparents had a player. I remember watching Star Wars and Superman.
Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit (OP)
Oh I bet they looked awesome on LD
bolt422@reddit
Never saw them back in the day. I occasionally see them in thrift shops now, usually mixed with the vinyl records because they are similar sizes. Always disappointing to think I found a great soundtrack only to find it’s a laser disc. I’ve never seen a player for them.
Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit (OP)
Yep that happened to me with a copy of labyrinth just last year
YogurtclosetDull2380@reddit
When I would run out of quarters at the mall arcade, I would slip on in to the local home theater store a few doors down where they would play the opening of Top Gun over and over again. That shit was cool
Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit (OP)
Oh shit was that Suncoast?
proxminesincomplex@reddit
I have something for this.Spock and a Rock. But not The Rock.
Leonard Nimoy and a talking rock demonstrate the wonders of laserdisc.
Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit (OP)
I will check it out. Nimoy is the best. They still have his voice as part of the intro to the local IMAX theater at the museum of science where they use his voice to showcase the speaker system. Who put the bop in the Bop in the Bop in the bop she bop.
WiseAss38@reddit
I have a copy of Rocky Horror Picture Show on Laserdisc. Never owned a player for it, i just thought it was cool
Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit (OP)
Haha that's so funny once I saw labyrinth on LaserDisc and I almost bought it for the same reason just like last year
albanyanthem@reddit
I had an Uncle who had a laserdisc/dvd player. He only had like 6 or 7 laserdiscs and our local video rental store had a couple but he quickly moved on to DVD
Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit (OP)
It's always the uncles
frawgster@reddit
My cousins parents bought a laserdisc player in the 90s. Paid out the nose for it. And it just sat around, virtually unused, in perpetuity.
We lived in a very rural area. Buying groceries, necessities…pretty much buying anything… was a 30-40 minute one way drive. Buying LASERDISCS was a logistical nightmare that they didn’t consider. They’d have to drive several hours to a large city to find a place with an even halfway decent selection. There was a Hollywood Video in the “grocery store town” that offered laserdiscs for rent, but they’d have maybe 5-10 total available at any given time. And rentals were outrageously expensive cause capitalism. There were mail order options…but having to pay a) a premium cause they’re laserdiscs and b) shipping costs, which were expensive back in the day…yeah, they wound up securing like a handful of discs before giving up on the endeavor.
Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit (OP)
Dude thanks for this little vignette. Another poster commented that he was a member of Columbia House for laserdiscs, I hope it's not too late to set your parents up with the membership!
Paquistino@reddit
My cousin had a Lazerdisc set up that looked like it was out of this world. Outside of that, I never had Lazerdiscs. I was into a lot of Chinese action movies in the late 80s and 90s. Ethnically, I'm Pakistani, and whenever I would visit family in Pakistan I would rent these movies to pass the time. Since Pakistan shares a small border with China, these movies would flow freely into the video rental stores over there. Fun memories!
Prestigious-Emu5277@reddit
My dad was committed to laser disc tech. Every time a laser disc shop would close (happened often) he’d buy out their stock. I grew up watching laser discs almost exclusively.
LazarusDark@reddit
Only time I ever saw one in person was at school, had one in high school with educational discs, mostly nature and biology stuff for science classes, on a huge cart with like a 30" tube TV on it.
Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit (OP)
Back when 30-in TVs were gigantic
Opunaesala@reddit
My uncle would do that to, and rent movies on VHS and copy them to beta or from beta to VHS. He had several cases full of bootleg movies.
Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit (OP)
Props to these type of uncles right! What was his go to genre or favorite movies?
IntraspeciesJug@reddit
My brother got an early laserdisc import of Pulp Fiction. He copied it to VHS and was the hero of the dorm his freshman year.
Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit (OP)
Legend
FoppyRETURNS@reddit
It seemed like every school had one. Literally, just one.
Scharlach_el_Dandy@reddit (OP)
You might be right I think my school did have one they just never broke it out. If we were lucky we got the TV VCR push cart!