OT: Fond Memories Of Laserdisk?

[Mr_Vindictive]

All of this hype around HD-DVD and Blu-Ray DVDs has me thinking back to the heyday of the laserdisk.

In High School, I remember that some of the teachers had laserdisk players in their rooms.  We'd watch documentaries and various boring instructional videos on the huge platters.  I remember being amazed at the time.  The huge discs, the giant players, and the amazing video quality.

I was an early adopter of DVD, and loved the medium from day one.  It was everything that I loved about laserdisks, but put on a small format.  At the time, there were a lot of films that I was dying for on DVD.  Quite a few of them weren't released at the time, so I went ahead and made the plunge into buying a laserdisk player and a few laserdisks.

I bought Return Of The Living Dead, Re-Animator, and the (now I know...) ultra rare blood-red Evil Dead 2 laserdisk.  They were films that I had loved on video, and weren't released on DVD yet.  A few years back, I sold the player and the discs after finding most of the films on DVD.

I really wish I had never done that.

I still love the laserdisk format.  The huge discs were a big selling point for me.  They were fragile, but they were just so damned....cool.  You'd pull them out of the huge sleeve at a party, and everyone would be amazed, even more so when they would see the clarity of the films.

And just think....where would we be without laserdisk?  Imagine if Criterion had never done those amazing laserdisks back in the day.  Just think, they pretty much created the "special feature".  Without that, we'd just have these discs with a great film without any supplemental material.  That would be a sad world to live in....


So, what are your fond memories of laserdisks?  I know that some of you had to have owned a player with atleast a few discs.  Anyone still have any laserdisks?

[Ed, Ego and Superego]

Other than I always wanted one...NO.  Sorry Man.
-Ed

[odinn7]

I never had one. We were one of the first on the block to have a VCR and I've just stuck with them all the way up until about 5 years ago when I got my first DVD player.

[ThadC]

I was lucky just to have a tv when I was a kid.

[The Burgomaster]

I never had a laserdisk player.  But I DID have the ultra-rare and short-lived Capacitance Electronic Disc (CED) player.  The movies came on discs that were sort of like LP record albums encased in hard plastic sleeves.  You slid the entire plastic sleeve into the player and the disc would automatically load. You never touched the actual disc itself.  When the movie was over, you slid the empty sleeve back into the player and the disc would automatically slip back into the sleeve and lock itself in place.

Inside the player was some sort of a needle like a record player needle.  The disc would spin against the needle and the movie would play.  The picture quality was about equal with VHS tapes.

I had a small stack of movies . . . maybe around 30 - 40 titles.  Stuff like THUNDERBALL, PSYCHO II, THE GODFATHER, BONNIE AND CLYDE and THE WILD BUNCH.  My parents still have the movies and the player.  I'll probably sell the whole set some day.  

[LH-C]

Right before DVD was introduced, my dad took the LaserDisc plunge. We have about 200 discs combined (many movies that still aren't out on DVD), and a good working player. I do want to try and find a player for myself when I move.

[raj]

A friend in college had one.  We got to watch Star Wars and a bunch of other movies I forget (but then, there's a lot about college that I don't remember).  Very cool system, especially for the time.

[BeyondTheGrave]

You know I still don't know anyone personal with a LaserDisk. I never had one either.

[Scott]

I never had one, but remember them for sale at the local TV store and thinking how much better an idea it was than VHS.