May 22nd, 2015 at 1:17 AM
so for those of you that don't know, a laser disc was a CD of sorts, it was the size of a vinyl record and had 2 sides from which to store video, Movie's were usually stored on 1 or 2 discs depending on the length of the film and you had to flip them over/switch the discs when each side was done (some players like the one I have automatically reads the other side.).
![[Image: IMG_20150521_180625.jpg]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/94631310/retro%20hardware/IMG_20150521_180625.jpg)
This is an example taken by me from my living quarters showing off the LD player I own with a disc in the drive.
a lot of movies were out on laser disc that are not out on DVD, and if you want to get a format from before DVD, LD was the highest quality, and in some cases still was until Blu-Ray came along.
a lot of movies were ported from LD to DVD/Blu ray as it was the highest quality format at the time, especially in the case where the original flim strips were lost.
TV shows and anime were also available on laser disc.
there are two types of laser disc, CAV and CLV, the main difference is how much time is stored per side of the disc.
the format came out in 1978, about 8 months before VHS, and though VHS dominated the market because of price Laser disc was the highest quality video format until 2004/2006 DVD technology finally surpassed it as far as video clarity and quality.
the Discs stopped being made in 2001 making this a collectors piece now.
also of note is that audio quality was only recently surpassed by blu-ray's high definition audio content, such is the nature of analog formats!
typically the players are quite expensive for a decent quality one even now, but the discs can range on average from $5 to $25 though occasionally more if it's a rare one.
I can attest that the movies look fine on modern HDTV's and the sound quality in many cases beat most DVD versions.
hope you enjoyed my explanation here, and post comments below if you have any questions!
This is an example taken by me from my living quarters showing off the LD player I own with a disc in the drive.
a lot of movies were out on laser disc that are not out on DVD, and if you want to get a format from before DVD, LD was the highest quality, and in some cases still was until Blu-Ray came along.
a lot of movies were ported from LD to DVD/Blu ray as it was the highest quality format at the time, especially in the case where the original flim strips were lost.
TV shows and anime were also available on laser disc.
there are two types of laser disc, CAV and CLV, the main difference is how much time is stored per side of the disc.
the format came out in 1978, about 8 months before VHS, and though VHS dominated the market because of price Laser disc was the highest quality video format until 2004/2006 DVD technology finally surpassed it as far as video clarity and quality.
the Discs stopped being made in 2001 making this a collectors piece now.
also of note is that audio quality was only recently surpassed by blu-ray's high definition audio content, such is the nature of analog formats!
typically the players are quite expensive for a decent quality one even now, but the discs can range on average from $5 to $25 though occasionally more if it's a rare one.
I can attest that the movies look fine on modern HDTV's and the sound quality in many cases beat most DVD versions.
hope you enjoyed my explanation here, and post comments below if you have any questions!
