Who still owns a Laser Disc player?

[Olivia Bauer]

Just curious. I don't own one but my friend does.

[Jack]

I never had one of those.  Think they were too expensive back in the day for Mr. Cheap here.  Went straight from VHS to DVD.

[Archivist]

Our family has had at least three players, starting in the 90's.  We didn't buy many laserdiscs, although we do have the Terminator 2 Special Edition box, the Abyss box, and a few others like Lifeforce and some anime.  Our first player required your to flip the disc over; subsequent players had an automatic side-change function, kind of like the auto-reverse function on audio cassette players.  At least one player is still around.

When DVD encoding technology came on to the market, I wondered how much data you could get on a laserdisc using DVD encoding.  Some years later, we have blu-ray that essentially does that, but at the same size as a DVD.

[fulci420]

I was born in 89 and I have never seen a laser disc player ever. I have also never seen a laser disc.

[lester1/2jr]

I have one somewhere. I used it a couple times

[Trevor]

When I applied to film school in 1989, this guy came to the class to demonstrate laser discs. Instead of screening one, he threw the disc on the floor and jumped on it (both feet) to show us how strong it was. 

[retrorussell]

I remember the family had one around 1982 or 1983.  I remember some of the movies watched on it were Creepshow, Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Rodan, The Groove Tube, and Student Bodies.  Man, those discs were ginormous!

[MrMari]

I have an RCA Laserdisc player hooked up to the home theatre. I have a ton of looney tunes discs that were given to me as a present. They work just fine. No plans on giving it up as I dig retro electronics.

[dean]

Don't have one nor have ever had one.  That being said I do have a reel to reel player I bought online the other day which came with a lot of tapes as part of the deal.

Alot of tapes called 'german drinking songs' and the like, so I may have bought it from an elderly European gentleman.

[FatFreddysCat]

My aunt and uncle had one in the mid 80s, when I was in my early teens. I remember going to the store with my uncle to rent movies for it a couple of times. (I used to like that store cuz I could sneak a look at the covers of the XXX laser discs while my uncle browsed...   )

If memory serves the discs were the size of a vinyl LP, but heavier, which made them awkward to handle.

[Archivist]

My aunt and uncle had one in the mid 80s, when I was in my early teens. I remember going to the store with my uncle to rent movies for it a couple of times. (I used to like that store cuz I could sneak a look at the covers of the XXX laser discs while my uncle browsed...   )

Ahhh, that reminds me!  I was on holiday in Hong Kong as a teenager, and was fascinated by the laserdisc covers of the tits and tentacles anime 'Legend of the Overfiend'.  I never saw it until some years later, and it was everything I thought it would be, and more!

Now that I think of it, my first encounter with laserdiscs was probably in the 80's, when I watched the Scorpions 'World Wide Live' concert disc at someone's house.  Memories!

[The Burgomaster]

I never had one.  However, I did have a Capacitance Electronic Disc (CED) player.  It was similar to a laser disc player except the movies were on discs that were sort of like vinyl record albums.  I'm pretty sure my dad still has it and a bunch of movies.  He won't get rid of anything.

[CalrissianFoxxSteele]

Never got one but I am curious. I've seen laser discs and the packaging looks awesome in itself for the movies. Would like to get one eventually just for the hell of it. They're bigger than vinyl's but look like cd's. The fast forwarding isn't that dvd stutter we have now, it's old school vhs fast forward.

http://cinemassacre.com/2010/02/23/laserdisc/

that video shows what they're like in detail. Interesting stuff.

[Robocop]

I have 2 players which I bought recently. Have known about the technology for years but wasn't aware of its existence in the late 90's/early 2000's and even if I had, Laserdisc was so expensive and hard to come by back then that I don't think I would have gotten into it. I'm buying rare stuff now that isn't available on DVD or Blu-Ray because I do have the funds, the motivation and the accessibility.

The fast forwarding isn't that dvd stutter we have now, it's old school vhs fast forward.

http://cinemassacre.com/2010/02/23/laserdisc/

that video shows what they're like in detail. Interesting stuff.

Those were the older players that didn't have digital processing. You also couldn't pause a still frame with those older players on CLV discs (you would just get a blue screen). Both my players have digital processing so the fast forwarding/rewinding/freeze framing is much smoother, very similar to DVD/Blu-Ray which is much better IMO. 

[Newt]

I noticed this thread a few days ago: then I went out to yard sales today and for the first time EVER saw a stack of laser discs.

Stop that!