Actually NTSC Laserdisc’s can store up to 60 minutes per side, and PAL discs up to 64 minutes. ;)

Thanks for your efforts and posts - I remember being very impressed with Laserdisc in 1983 as compared to VHS, which was still a fairly new technology. I remember wowing the hell out of my friends playing Top Gun through my Sony 27 inch Trinitron and my Carver amp and Cerwin Vega speakers with a JVC stereo VCR and a Fosgate 360 processor that created a phantom center channel and sent a mono signal to two speakers in the rear - That was in 1986. So amazing to have lived through all the incremental advances in technology.

Even before auto-reverse players, flipping and changing discs never bothered me, even the CAV ones. What did bother me a lot was the abysmally awful picture quality of VHS tapes regardless of the "4 hours" of video capacity. I trade convenience in favor of quality anytime, that's why I enjoyed premium audio-video with my LaserDiscs (with proper widescreen aspect ratio and surround sound) during the the two decades before DVD when most people endured with the shitty quality of tapes just to have the benefit of not having to move their butts off the couch.

I love laser discs for getting them autographed! More room for the celeb to sign, easy to frame and take out when you get a chance to get another signature on it. Much more durable than a photo or poster

You couldn't record and you had to flip them but the biggest problem with LD in the 90s is that they were too expensive! The cost of 1 movie was 30 to 50 dollars each and that was back in the 90s. The cheapest players were about 500 dollars for the bottom end unless you bought one in a pawn shop like I did.

That was a trip down memory lane. Oh, the good old days

God I love seeing people still talk about laserdiscs. My collection is a bit sparse but I have a copy of Godzilla 1985 and I'm quite proud of that

I had a Pioneer Laserdisc player and over 10 years I never had a single problem with the player. I only gave it up when I made a big move so who know how many more years of life the machine still had in it.

Laserdisc WAS VERY SUCCESSFUL. It stood for almost 30 years and more than 25.000 titles were available. It didn't catch as the terrible VHS mostly for bad marketing strategies. I myself have about 500 laserdiscs and they are all in perfect condition. I'll never get rid of them.

LaserDiscs are analog, not digital like a DVD/Blu Ray, hence the shorter lengths and deterioration. At the same time though, this means that you can do things like fast-forward no matter what, unlike DVDs/Blu-Rays which often block this at certain points. In my mind though, the cons outweigh the pros.

Really nice video!

Major correction needed: Each side on a disc can hold up to 60 minutes of NTSC/64 minutes of PAL video. But since most movies are 90 minutes minutes in length, each side will contain about 45 minutes of video. As for the whole thing about CLV vs CAV, CAV is somewhat popular with true LD collectors as they offer both slightly better video quality due to the smaller chance of crosstalk and also has trick play features such as near-perfect still frame, slow motion and less video noise in general. Only caveat is the playing time of each side being cut in half compared to CLV discs, so choosing between a CAV or a CLV version of a movie will always be a choice between convinience or quality.

Shipping costs and furthermore, weight weren't an issue in the 90s. There was no "online" to order things from. Sure you could mail-order them from some places, but you could usually find one rental place (at least) that rented out LDs alongside VHS tapes. Many of the high end AV shops also sold and rented them as well. (also, it was 60mins per side for NTSC anyway. ;)

You can actually freeze frame a CLV disc too, you just need a better Laserdisc player that supports digital memory; like the Pioneer Elite.

So good to find a channel focused on Quality picture and better sound. I believe we all subscribers have one trait in common: Hi-Standards

OHHHH!!!!! Mortal Kombat LD... something I wished to own back in the day..

The 1993 LaserDisc release of the unaltered Original Star Wars Trilogy being hundreds of dollars is why I prefer to get the separate 1995 releases

Excellent video. I'm a laserdisc collector myself. But I recommend not touching the surface of a laserdisc, because you could potentially damage the disc.

Laserdisc is the only format still that had the Criterion Edition of "Seven", which is truly amazing. It contains almost every photo taken during the production including all 365 Sloth Victim photos and one of the funniest blooper reels ever.

Some older movies that were 90 minutes or shorter world have split formats. The first side would be CLV and the second side would be CAV. Since most films like BEAST FROM 20, 000 FANTOMS had most of the special effects in the last half-hour that was great because you could step through it.

love your videoes!! :) Such high quality! Keep up the great content!

great knowledge...... great to know from a greater person.....

To grab a disc: hold the sleeve so the disc falls out. Hold the edge (no grabbing) of the disc; then when the hole is out, put your thumb in the hole and your fingers on edge. C simple!

I believe that quite a few of these discs have special features that have never been seen on later formats, so if someone is into that sort of stuff, then that's another incentive to collect these things.

OMG the rescuers! I got that vhs stuck in a player once, then bought the DVD. Recently i saw it was on Blu-ray now.

Great video Niki :-)

Love laserdisc. My Pioneer DVL 909 and newer Pioneer amp are a beautiful combo.

There was a film format that caught on in Japan in the 80s/90s. Like Laserdisc, it was a disc format, but it was actual vinyl. The player would read the grooves as binary and translate it to video and audio.

I was curious about laser discs and this really helped, thanks!

WOW I really like the new video format

Super video.

Did you make that Pewdiepie Jurassic edit? I saw your name and I came here.

Well, I happen to have a lot of luck in terms of Laserdiscs. I found a Laserdisc player at a local Charity Shop for $60AU. It was an Panasonic NTSC model, and given the rarity of finding such things in a store like this, I decided to go for it. And with the discs being inexpensive now, it's a worthwhile investment.

On paper laserdisc just seems awful but there is just something about laserdiscs that i love, and i cant stop watching and collecting them

To be honest I dont mind flipping discs, cause it gives you time to get up take a bathroom break and stuff or grab something to eat, I mean you could always pause the movie but flipping movies for me is not a big deal.

My uncle had a few when I was a kid and my cousin has been collecting for years of so many classic movies

Its hard to belive some people never new what laserdisc was crazy I wish they still made them

Interesting. I bought into laserdisc when The Searchers was released on the format.

Another important detail worth mentioning is that DTS Laserdisc audio tracks are uncompressed, 1,235 kbit, whereas dvd's are only 768 kbit. An example is JURASSIC PARK on Laserdisc. The dvds and blurays are all remixed, but the DTS Laserdisc is the pure original transfer from theatres.

Sweet! You got Twister on laserdisc! Great movie!

Still have laserdisc. One nice thing about them is, they didn't have copy protection. Here in Denver, we had a store Laserland, that rented and sold laserdiscs exclusively. Have the 5 set of Warner Bros "Golden age of animation" 5 sets, 5 disks each, 10 cartoons on each side. A lot of early anime was only available on Japan imports. Great Video. Thanks

Hey Niki! Love your amazing content, I have a suggestion you can consider. Maybe you should change the channel name to something else instead of your name. Having a channel called something like Movie Talk is a lot more recognizable and memorable than a persons name. Keep it up, awesome videos dude

No matter what you say i would much more prefer LD over DVD and Bluray. No trailers of new movies coming out on DVD. No menus to set up. The movie stats straight away on LD not so on DVD or BR. It was no hassle to turn a disc over or change the discs. Hell even in Cinemas they have adverts and ice cream breaks etc. But it was the feeling i got when inserting a huge LD and sit back and enjoy unknown quality in those days

If Discovision was disco... then LaserDisc was Rock and Roll!

Laserdiscs had so much use here in Spain in 1993/4/5 because it was the format for karaokes, made by Pioneer (also the players) :)

You also need a decoder (sold separate) for better sound orherwise you get static. Tward's the end they were Laserdisc/DVD combo. Also there was HD Laserdisc called Muse Hi-Vision. Also there was a rare 2 Laserdisc machine

I love Laserdiscs i have 4 players connected to 60” Pioneer Kuro plasma tvs. They look pretty good and sound amazing especially with DTS and Ac-3 digital. I keep buying them especially all Disney remastered versions. I actually see flipping side since my automatic option broke as good thing to grab a snac etc. dont mind switching sides at all

Cool comparison sequences great job!

Really nice review!

Rare special features Original theatrical (lossless) soundtracks And original cuts of films are 2 big reasons to buy Laserdiscs. The other is beautiful sleeve art.

DVDs and CDs laser rot to

nice niki i enjoyed your video

This was fascinating to watch cause I didn't know what a laserdisc was when we're there things made

Betamax didn't have better audiovisual quality than VHS. That's an urban legend.

Very informative video, thanks. I grew up with Betamax. Some one mention 'Video 2000' in the comment section, yep I recall that, boy that was a really heavy machine ; - ) I have never own a Laserdisc, in fact i don't even recall any one who bought them. What about subtitles on a laserdisc? Was that even possible?

I still have a huge collection of laserdiscs.

They were pretty popular in Japan back in the day. I think it's because Pioneer subsidized the cost so it was more affordable with VHS.

My dad has a laserdisc player and it still works to this day

I just saw a laser disc today for the first time and I was like I have never seen a vinyl record like this before😍

Хорошее видео!

great uploads you do informative.

Hey man, I used to have these bro. I had Jurassic Park! These laser discs ran for only two years I believe, mid to late 1990s

You don't have to flip the disc over if you're playing on the front-loading Laserdisc player. You just have to push the "Side 2" button...

Very Much informative video! I Love it Man!

In the old days people did not have remote control TVs. They had to get up to adjust the sound, change channel etc. And funny thing is that they did NOT mind. They did it without even giving it a thought!!!!! Today we are just spoiled!!! Lol!!!!!🤣🤣🤣

That used to be the case with pausing CLV and CAV discs however with newer players, CLV discs can pause with the frame on screen. Also CLV evolved to CAA discs but still labeled as CLV.

Interesting stuff about Laser Discs. But I think they were initially released in 1976. I had a copy of ' 76 Popular Science mag touting a player on the cover. And another player makes an appearance in the movie Airport '77. But no doubt in 1978 is when most of the major titles and classics started coming out encouraging the public to buy players and disc's. And I remember LD's being rented before VHS as well.

LaserDisc didn't get huge because of 1 thing: It couldn't record. This is completely ridiculous, but people back then only were concerned about recording television. The idea of actually "owning" a movie was alien to most. Then, video rental stores started popping up and they only rented VHS and Beta. The war was between those 2 formats. Laserdisc wasn't even in the ring. It was a niche product. Only the smart, informed people owned it. It was a "high-end" product. It was intentionally designed to be exactly like an LP. This way it would be a "familiar" product even though it was a new product. So the size was never an issue in the beginning. It was the concept of buying and owning a movie. Nobody valued the idea. Then on top of that, the cost of the investment was much more than a tape machine. As the Compact Disc grew bigger in the '80s, Laserdisc grew with it, then the two merged into one. As the demands for home theater became bigger, Laserdisc fit right in and became the standard for A/V movie presentation in the home. But, by that time people were so used to the size of a compact disc, the LD seemed a little bit too big... enter the DVD format.. So there ya go! It is a niche product. Blu-ray has become the same thing. And on we go into the future...

For the people who dont no if your using a stock av cable on your LaserDisc the picture quality will be completely garbage but if you use a monster AV cable or a monster / THX cable the picture is amazing if you like that movie theatre quality

If you connected a laser disc, dvd & Blu-ray play to a CRT tv the difference would be nominal but they would all be much better than a VHS. The real benefit of a laser disc came from the audio with a good home theater system - especially if the disc was encoded for AC3, the precursor for Dolby digital sound.

I'm 32 and have been wearing glasses since I was 7, and I have no problems reading small print on the back of a blu ray box, come on son. 😝

Do one with Anamorphic Laserdiscs!

How they encode an analog signal into two state pits and lands seems like a voodoo. I wonder how does the track pitch compare to CD, and if there was a possibility for improvement to increase the capacity. CDs got denser over time.

Maybe is a good thing laser disc did win the format war. Imagine the size of a camcorder. Not to mention the battery.

Laserdisc featured true wide screen most DVDs didnt wide screen DVDs would show full picture from side to side but they would cut off part of the picture at the top and bottom of the screen

Someday, I’ll get a laserdisc player and Lion King on CLV and CAV.

you should do an video about movie formats before VHS (super 8 8mm etc)

He forgot an important thing: 1/2 of discs offered ACs (audio commentaries.) In fact some discs had TWO ACs. I pg $110 for Spartacus which had 2 ACs and several docs!

The Reason Why The Audio On The VHS Is Because He Doesn't Have A Hi-Fi Stereo VCR

Didn’t know what these was til about a month ago. Went to eBay and bought two of my favorite movies on laserdisc to add to my collection and to have two of my favorite movies on all forms of physical media available. Titanic and JFK. Might frame them and hang them on my wall

you mentioned that CAV discs have better quality than CLV wrong the reason that CAV discs only have 30 minutes of video is because of it information to pause and use still step when you pause a CAV disc the picture will stay on screen as with a CLV you screen will go blank that is if you are using an older player but if you are using a newer machine some have a chip inside to keep the picture on the screen if you pause a ClV it ha nothing to do with picture quality CAV basically means interactive

Betamax released in 1975. VHS in 1976.

Didn't catch on?!?! It lasted between 1978 to 2001. VHS started in 1977 and stopped in 2008. So laserdisc did really well actually.

Awesome laserdisc collection du har dig! :D

2:15 omg you have robin hood

Thank God blu Ray and 4K came to the picture

I still own many; the ave price was $40, that was the main killer

So the running time on each side could be either 30 minutes (CAV) or 60 minutes (CLV), at least with NTSC discs. A lot of movies that were over 2 hours (and thus needed more than 2 sides) put about 45 minutes on to even out the amount of video on each part and to ensure the side breaks were put at the least distracting point. For example, Star Wars is 122 minutes. It would have been silly to put 60 minutes on the first 2 sides of disc 1 and then the last 2 minutes on the second disc.

There are a lot of misinformed things on this video but let me just talk about Star Wars. The 1993 releases are remastered and have considerable DNR done to them. They have artifacts and the colors are off compared to the original film prints. Thus, they are arguably inferior to the previous widescreen versions: 1986-87 in Japan and 1989 in the US. The 2006 DVD releases aka as "GOUT" didn't "come" from the 1993 THX remastered laser discs. It came from the same masters. And it does live up to DVD standards.

I worked on a video store and my boss had laser disc player for sale, never new how good quality was

I have a good LaserDisc collection and still watch then.

i just bought a pioneer dvl-90 recently i plan on getting those dts converter and hdmi s-video connector to see what this thing can really be like if they were still produced today. the last LD player that came out was in 2009 that`s when they discontinued the LD for ever.

The dvd example of Titanic you used is not a fair comparison. It is from the 2012 remaster which is also used for the blu-ray and features a different color timing. The dvd from 1999 might have been sourced from the same master. I'm not sure what capturing equipment you used but some parts (like the sky at 5:52) look less washed on on your vhs. (Maybe because it's a PAL vhs which has more horizontal lines of resolution?) But at 5:59, the lower third of laserdisc shows some vertical lines inside the ship. Notice they are completely blurred by the vhs. This is exactly how the 440 lines vs 220 lines of vertical resolution makes a difference.

In Japan laserdisc was huge . And watching and old anime in laserdisc looks much better than some dvd version . Since most studio didn't took care of there old master

Very informative video 👍

fantastic research and review go ahead brother ...

You said the sound is the same as DVD, but Dolby Digital on laserdisc sounds better than DVD Dobly digital, which is more compressed. Yeah, they nurfed DD on DVD pretty bad. DTS on DVD sounds great though.

I never had a laserdisc. But I heard some special features were on the laserdisc that didn't pass onto the DVD or bluray version such as ET the extraterrestrial. It has a long making of featurette which I also found on KZfaq but it's not on my DVD or bluray versions.

*Fascinating!* 🤙🏼⚡⚡🤙🏼

LD's. Iconic. Nothing like a little Criterion action.