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Laserdisc Logo

.....but it can't even record?

 

 

What is the appeal of laser video disc (LD)?

Why might it interest you, even if you already own a VCR?
In a nutshell:
  • LD is to VCR as CD is to audio cassette.
  • If you collect movies, LD is the closest alternative to actual projection prints, which are hard/impossible to get, cost several hundred dollars per, fade and wear out.
  • If you are buying new release video tapes at $89.95, you can get higher quality and more functionality for less money with discs.
  • Right now is the Golden Age of NTSC laser video. (If you live in a PAL country, read on.)
    • The purpose of this article is to expose LD technology to those unfamiliar with it. This article is focused on home entertainment laser, and not industrial or interactive, although these other uses share much of the technology.
    There are several problems with the video industry in general and the laser biz in particular. One of them is the lack of solid technical information that end-users need to make informed decisions; hence, this article.

    LD Advantages (compared to VCR):

     

    LD Disadvantages (compared to VCR):

     

    What is LD?

    LD stands for LaserDisc, now the industry-wide term for consumer laser video (Pioneer recently surrendered their trademark on the term). During its life, the format has also been known as LV (LaserVision) and CDV (Compact Disc Video). The players are also sometimes referred to as VDPs (Video Disc Players) and Sony calls them MDPs. I use "LD".
    LD, you may be surprised to learn, was first demonstrated by Philips and MCA in 1972, and has been on the market since 1978, or about as long as VCR and twice as long as CD. There are just under 1,000,000 players in home use in the U.S. (compared to 85,000,00 VCRs), and over 2 million in Japan. The U.S. installed base is increasing at over 15,000 units per month. LD should not be confused with the stylus-based Japanese VHD or RCA CED videodisc systems (I have a separate article, LD#16, available on CED, discontinued in 1984).

    Physical Media Types:

    There are three major types of consumer laser video media:
    All LD players can handle 12- and 8-inch. All but one early "combi" player can handle CDV5 (which format is comatose in the US anyway).
    The traditional 12- and 8-inch media are of acrylic construction, and are always two-sided, although sometimes only one side contains program material. LDs are literally two single-sided discs glued together, and the edge of the disc is often sticky for this reason. The LD center hole is larger than a CD's, and there is a small label on both sides. The hole and label are about the same size as on a 45 rpm vinyl record. LDs, like CDs are packaged "loose", and not in a carrier like CD-ROM caddies or the old CED discs. The storage jacket is the same kind of cardboard sleeve used for LPs. From more than a few feet, it is difficult to tell if you are looking at the jacket of the video disc or the soundtrack LP.
    The 5-inch (CDV5 or just CDV) media is the newest, and probably the most familiar appearing, since it is externally identical to the common audio-only CD. CDV5 is single-sided, as CD is. The difference, denoted by the "CD-Video" logo and gold-colored data surface, is that a CDV5 can contain just under six minutes of full-motion video/audio plus 20 minutes of audio-only, compared to 80 minutes of audio-only on a conventional CD. As with CD, CDV5 is polycarbonate on the data side, and lacquer on the label side. Any LD player that can handle CDV5 can also handle audio-only CD. There are only a few dozen titles available in the U.S. on CDV5, and as far as I can tell, none have been released here since 1989. Polygram (the predominant CDV5 label) announced in 1990 that they would produce no more. They are still popular in Japan, often with ONLY the video track present.
    A new single-sided 8-inch format is announced, the "8-inch LD single". It is LD8 format, but polycarbonate construction (like a CD) and about the same thickness as a CD, requiring a spacer when played in most pre-1989 machines.
    Some 8- and 12-inch LDs are referred to as CLDs ("Compact Laser Disc"). This means that, like CDV5, only some of the chapters (tracks) have both video and audio. The remaining chapters are audio only. CLDs are almost always music video discs.
    Other buzzwords: LD players (whether combi or not) do NOT presently support CD-ROM, or CD-ROM/XA (audiofiles), DVI (compressed video) and CD-I (interactive multi-media) formats. Only Karaoke LD players support CD+G subcode text.

     

    Data Formats:

    Encoding: As with VCR and unlike CD, there is no single world-wide format for LD. Only LDs made for the North American and Japanese markets have U.S.-standard NTSC {specifically: M/NTSC-3.58} 525 line 60 Hz video and analog sound modulation. All consumer optical media play from the inside out, and the data for side "1" is on the opposite side of the medium from label surface "1".
    Discs from Europe and other markets are likely to be in EuroStandard PAL {specifically: PAL-4.43} 625 line 50 Hz format, and will not play on current American machines. The PAL LD (also called LV or CDV) catalog is under 1000 titles at present. However, multi-standard players, such as the Sony MDP-515D, Sony MDP-533 and Pioneer CLD-1450, are available in Europe. These may or may not require a multi-standard TV/monitor. There are reportedly no SECAM discs. SECAM countries use PAL for laserdisc. For more information on the PAL LD market, contact: Bevis King ([email protected]), the moderator of the "europe-ld" mailing list.
    As with VCRs, for North American customers, the only significant "grey market" media source is Japan. Encoding is really a non-issue for NTSC consumers, and U.S.domestic discs are sometimes not even labelled "NTSC".
    Color: An LD can store a Color or Black & White signal. It can also handle any 3D format compatible with broadcast TV, although I remain unimpressed with 3D implementations to date.
    Ancillary in-video features are also available. Many discs have Closed-Captioned text encoded in scan line 21 for the hearing-impaired, and this is noted on the jacket. Copy-protection schemes are possible on LD, but no one is doing it yet, and common vertical interval implementations (like Macrovision) are evidently prohibited by the format license.
    Rotation modes: LDs can be mastered for either constant linear velocity (CLV, variable rpm), like a CD, or constant angular velocity (CAV, constant rpm), like an LP. All consumer players can handle either format. Some releases even mix the modes, with the initial sides being CLV and the final short side being CAV. Some films are initially released in both CLV and CAV "collectors" editions. What does this mean to you?
    CAV is also known as "standard play" or "full feature play". Only CAV provides all motion control capabilities on all players (at the expense of more platters and shorter 30 minute sides). CAV also provides constantly improving signal-to-noise ratio as the program proceeds toward the outer edge, but this is typically not noticeable on properly manufactured discs.
    CLV is also known as "extended play". One hour per side playing time results in lower prices and less flipping. In return, you give up all the other CAV features, unless you have a high-end 1988 or later vintage player with on-board digital field store, a feature which adds $250 or more to the price of otherwise equivalent machines. (Only a few high end industrial players have digital FRAME store.)
    The majority of disc titles are available only in CLV. This state of affairs is unlikely to change until such time as true still-frame, frame-seek and auto-stop are available on CLV, at which time CAV will become even less common.
        .------------------------------------------------------------------.
    |                                                                                        |         |Ordinary | Digital*|
    | Capability (NTSC discs)            |   CAV   |   CLV   |   CLV   |
    |====================================|=========|=========|=========|
    | Rotation velocity (rpm)            |  1800   |1800..600|1800..600|
    | Maximum time per side (minutes)    |    30   |    60   |    60   |
    |------------------------------------|---------|---------|---------|
    | Simple fast forward/reverse        |   Yes   |   Yes   |   Yes   |
    | Variable fast forward/reverse      |   Yes   |    No   |   Yes   |
    | Variable slow forward/reverse      |   Yes   |    No   |   Yes   |
    |------------------------------------|---------|---------|---------|
    | Pause (with blank display)         |   Yes   |   Yes   |   Yes   |
    | Still frame (field on digital CLV) |   Yes   |    No   |   Yes   |
    |------------------------------------|---------|---------|---------|
    | Seek to chapter                    |   Yes   |   Yes   |   Yes   |
    | Seek to time                       |   No@   |   Yes   |   Yes   |
    | Seek to frame number               |   Yes   |    No   |    No$  |
    `------------------------------------------------------------------'
    * Digital field-store CLV is a feature of the player, not the media.
      The industrial Pioneer LD-V8000 can perform a true CLV still frame,
      and may be the ONLY LD player that can.
    @ Current time is stored in the vertical interval on CLV discs.  That
      structure is used for frame number on CAV discs.  However, the P-Q
      subcode fields of the digital audio track can contain elapsed/
      remaining track/side time on CAV discs.  Few digital sound discs have
      P-Q subcodes (aka Table Of Contents or TOC), and no players currently
      support seeking/programming based on TOC data.
    $ CLV timecodes can contain a 0..23 or 0..29 frame number sequence
      within the second, but only industrial players like the LD-V8000
      provide true CLV frame seek.

    The equipment:

    The modern LD player looks just like an oversize CD player (and indeed, "combi" players handle CDs as well as LDs). All current models are horizontal tray-loading designs. Earlier models, like the 1981 Pioneer VP1000, are top spindle loading, just like early CD players.
    Unfortunately, many tray loaders have felt support pads that touch the LD in the data region during loading and unloading. Further, the trays on many tray-loaders do not expose the entire tray. Some care is required to insert and load a disc without scuffing the plastic enclosing the data surfaces. Generally, LDs are more robust than vinyl LPs, but I use the same handling precautions.
    Laser Karaoke: Karaoke is a Japan bar/nightclub craze in which inebriated patrons sing the lyrics to instrumental pop tunes. Laser Karaoke players are normal players plus five features:
  • they have a CD+G decoder to extract the sing-along lyric text, and mix it with the video signal,
  • they have a microphone input so that you can sing along with the on-screen lyrics of laser karaoke discs,
  • they often have pitch control, and
  • they have a vocal-killer circuit that blends the two stereo channels in opposite phase, has a voice-band notch filter, or uses Pro-Logic style DSP to cancel front-center signal, which generally eliminates or dramatically reduces the lead vocal on regular non-karaoke CDs and LDs.
  • they often have reverb and other enhancement processing for the microphone input.

    •  

    LD Advantages Narrative:

    No media wear in careful use.
    As with CD, and unlike CED and VHD videodisc systems, LD is a non- contact medium during play. There should be no wear in normal use, even if you freeze a single frame on screen for hours on end. (Some users are concerned with heat buildup in early gas-tube laser players, but all contemporary players use low-power solid-state lasers, so this should not be an issue for an adequately ventilated player.)
    In my opinion, LDs are slightly more susceptable to handling damage than CDs, because, unlike CDs, the video signal and (analog) sound embody no error correction, other than a "dropout compensator", which can replace a single lost scan line with a duplicate of the previous line. A deep concentric scratch is both visible and audible. Radial scratches and light scuff marks tend to be invisible. A regional LD/VCR retailer reports that he has far less damage problems and far longer rental life with LDs than with tapes.
    Of over 500 or so LDs I have auditioned so far, I have witnessed severe handling damage on two discs. Someone had loaded one in an older top-loading player with the shipping screw still in place, and spun it up. I had limited success in polishing out the damage with an aircraft canopy restoration kit. The other disc was spun up in a contemporary player with some foreign object inside. I had complete success in polishing out the resulting circular scuff/scratch. (I have an article available on LD care & repair, LD#13).
    Archival media shelf life.
    The theoretical shelf life of a *properly manufactured*, and properly stored LD is the same as that of a CD; essentially unknown, and possibly longer than the photographic negatives/prints from which the disc was made (certainly longer than many 1950s- and '60s-vintage dye-coupler tri-pack color negatives and prints). There are no known deterioration modes for properly made and stored discs.
    Contrast this with an optimistic shelf-life of 20 years for magnetic tapes of all kinds (less if used often). Tapes have several known deterioration modes: print-thru; binder breakdown; base stretch; not to mention physical abrasion wear and signal loss due to external fields (magnetized VCR components, speaker magnets, CRT deflection coils, and degaussers).
    Note that I emphasized "properly made disc" above. Of the major disc pressing sources, only 3M seems to understand how to routinely make an immortal disc. I have a separate articles available on LD quality (LD#04), identifying LD defects (LD#17) and the interpretation of LD mint marks (i.e. who cast or pressed it, LD#09).
    Discs do fail on the shelf, and do experience other manufacturing defects more immediately evident. I have had several discs with "laser rot" (purchased used). I have also purchased new (non-3M) discs with contaminants under the acrylic. I have had no trouble replacing or getting an offer of refund or credit for the clearly defective discs.
    Three and five year warranties are common on LD media, although Pioneer's is unstated and currently they appear willing to replace anything they ever made and/or distributed. The initial defect rate for LDs is lower than for pre-recorded VCR tapes. The rate seems to be slightly higher for LDs (about 2%) than for CDs (which are about 1%). It is difficult to tell because there is significant variance in how various players handle marginal and defective discs.
    Higher resolution image. Higher s/n.
    Pioneer pitches LD as "60% sharper" (than VHS, without saying so). LD image quality is roughly comparable to standard 16mm film. VHS is roughly comparable to 8mm film. There are no home video formats comparable to 35mm or 70mm film.
    D1 and D2 "Digital Video Transfer" declarations on the jacket notwithstanding, the video storage format on LD is ANALOG.
    The pulse-FM data structure on an LD (unlike ordinary VHS/Beta), is defined to hold all the information present in the composite video signal. Depending on source material and the transfer to disc, LD is above live TV broadcast quality: For NTSC, I understand that this is 425 TVL (luminance lines horizontally) and about 482 visible scan lines, compared to 330x482 for broadcast.
    Techno-trivia: the NTSC signal is FM encoded on disc as:
    sync tip at 7.6 MHz, blanking level at 8.1 MHz and white level at 9.3 MHz.
    Compare this further to 250x482 for typical VHS (Real-time recorded. Pre-recorded is probably less). Only recently have Super-VHS and ED-Beta approached LD capability. Of course, pre-recorded material is not yet widely available in these new VCR formats, and may never be. Even using S-VHS/ED-Beta to tape off-air still only reaches the 330x482 inherent in the broadcast signal.
    Compared to LD, all consumer tape formats also fall short in time-base stability, chroma resolution, video noise and audio fidelity.
    Although the video signal-to-noise ratio (s/n) appears to be about the same for LD and VCR hardware, it is probably not the same for mass-produced pre-recorded material. The LD process (casting or stamping) theoretically does not degrade the signal from master to copy. The tape process (magnetic contact printing) does. The tape copy loses information compared to the master, as well as over time.
    All LD players have time-base-correction; mechanical, optical or digital. TBC eliminates the horizontal line jitter and color errors so common on tape. Digital TBC, present on high-end players, appears to convey no significant advantages over the conventional opto-mechanical schemes.
    LD video output signal connections:
  • Video - All players provide a composite video output, which uses the "video" or "aux" input on the TV/monitor. Contains no audio. This is usually a yellow RCA female phono jack.
  • RF - Most consumer players also provide an RF (radio frequency, "channel 3/4") output. The RF video signal quality is often slightly degraded from the composite. Contains mono audio. This is usually a female threaded F-connector.
    • Caution: Some players, such as the entire Pioneer xx90-series, omit RF output. If your TV doesn't have a "video" input, you'll need to either route the LD's video output through your VCR's video input, or buy the LD player's optional external RF modulator.
  • Y/C - Mid-range and high-end players often provide a Y/C (component or separate luminance/chrominance, aka "S-Video") output, but its value is debatable. On my Pioneer CLD-3070 and Sony XBR-32 setup, there is no visible difference between composite video and Y/C configurations. The native signal format on LD is composite, so Y/C output is only worthwhile if the Y/C separator circuit in the LD player is more sophisticated than the one in the TV/monitor, and the TV is accurate enough to tell. So far, the only player for which Y/C out is always superior is the $3500 Pioneer LD-S2 (the S2's composite is re-combined). The Y/C output contains no audio. Y/C are unique. The player's connector is a 4-conductor miniature DIN-style affair.
    • High quality analog sound, and often full-digital sound.
    There are two types of sound possible on LDs:
  • FM Analog sound, mono or stereo, with or without "CX" noise reduction.
  • Digital sound, mono or stereo (in addition to analog sound).
    • All NTSC LDs have FM analog soundtracks (mono or stereo), and many have full digital ("CD-Video" style) soundtracks as well. All LD players can handle stereo analog sound. LD had stereo long before VCRs or broadcast TV did. Movies have had stereo soundtracks for a surprisingly long time, too. The 1954 "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" is stereo, for example.
    All players have at least one set of 1/L(eft) and 2/R(ight) RCA audio output jacks with which to feed an external amplifier and speakers. The RF (CH 3/4 radio frequency video) output contains either L+R or the currently selected audio channel. The composite video and Y/C (S-video) outputs contain no audio at all. To my knowledge, no LD players re-encode stereo audio into MTS at the RF output. If your TV does not have separate L/R audio inputs, and you are not feeding the LD audio into an external audio system, you may only be able to hear mono.
    LD analog sound, at 75 dB s/n, is comparable to broadcast FM radio and superior to 35mm mag/optical film tracks and VHS Hi-Fi (but with fewer dropouts, less compansion effects and no 60Hz helical scan artifacts). LD analog sound is far superior to VHS linear analog sound. LD was considered the "high fidelity" video medium even before digital sound. LD analog stereo is dual-carrier FM, not MTS (multiplexed) stereo.
    LD stereo (both analog and digital) is true two-channel discrete sound with virtually no crosstalk. Consequently, it is possible to find LDs of monophonic movies where the movie track is in one channel, and a commentary or alternate language is on the other. Voyager Press (Criterion Collection) routinely includes informative and entertaining material on the second channel. All players have controls for selecting analog/digital and left/right/both audio.
    Aside: On some industrial or educational interactive video discs (a variety of LD called "IVD"), analog channel 2/R contains either Sony- or Pioneer-specific binary download programming code to control features of "Level II" industrial LD players. CX noise reduction is the rough LD equivalent of Dolby-B on VCR. CX is only used on the LD analog channels. Over half of the LDs in print are CX encoded. Some antique players require out-board CX decoders. There has been a lot of debate about whether to CX or not to CX. Criterion Collection, for example, only uses CX when the original audio source material has wide dynamic range (i.e. frequently not on early optical soundtracks mastered on film). They have ceased using it where the programs on the two channels are different, as it can cause decoder mistracking. With the advent of digital sound, the issue is moot.
    Digital sound: NTSC LDs may also have CD-style digital audio (with full error correction). These channels are also discrete, and are in addition to the analog channels. All new home players have digital sound except for Pioneer's 1989 (and quickly withdrawn) entry-level LD-870, which is analog/CX-only. Due to bandwidth limitations, PAL (Euromarket) LD media can have only analog sound (in which case the discs are called LV) or only digital sound (then called LD or CDV), but not both.
    Digital sound LDs may also have CD-style "Table Of Contents" (TOC) info in the P/Q subcodes, but current LD players don't seem to be able to do much with TOC beyond displaying the track count and total time.
    The majority of LD titles assume that you only have analog sound capability in your player, with the digital content merely duplicating the analog. This is changing. The recent Criterion Collection CAV edition of "Taxi Driver" has the complete dialog/music/FX soundtrack only on the digital channels. The analog channels are: a running commentary by Scorsese on 1/L with movie track under; and the Bernard Herrmann music (only) soundtrack on 2/R. If you have only an analog player, you cannot hear the movie. On at least one other Criterion ("The Graduate"), the movie track is in stereo only on the digital channels. An analog-only player yields only a mono soundtrack.
    Some player with digital sound capability have optical or coxial digital outputs, for feeding the DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) of an external processor. There is no video in this signal. Since it may not be obvious, if a disc has only analog sound, the player's digital output will be silent.
    Stereo soundtracks, whether analog or digital, may be encoded for matrix "surround" effects. You need an appropriate processor (external to the LD player), four (or more)-channel amplifier and matching number of speakers. I have a separate article (LD#03) available on surround sound.
    Surround-processed discs seem to sound like plain stereo on a stereo- only system, although the soundstage may seem wider than for plain- stereo discs, since anti-phase is used to place sound in the surround (rear) channel.
    The most common format is "Dolby Surround" - the consumer term for theatrical "Dolby Stereo" or Dobly MP matrix (same encoding, too). Discs bearing the double-D [DOLBY SURROUND] logo are so-encoded. Discs bearing the double-D [DOLBY STEREO] may be. Other terms are "matrix surround", "Ultra Stereo" and "Chace Surround". Films made from 1965 on, and simply marked "Stereo" may or may not have surround processing.
    Unfortunately, the video disc industry has a problem with adequate labelling. The "Digital SOUND" or "CD-Video" logo sometimes appears only on the disc label, inside the jacket, where you cannot see it before purchase. Warner's has used the phrase "Digitally Processed", which is apparently means "Digital SOUND". Surround processing is not always noted on the external or internal packaging, may appear only in the on-screen credits, and even that may not reflect what was actually mastered onto the disc!
    Widescreen (letterbox and matted) formats more frequently encountered.
    (This issue is not unique to LD. If you own a VCR, understand this.)
    The television screen's width-to-height (aspect) ratio is 1.33 to 1 (or 4:3). This is very close to "Academy Ratio" (1.37:1), which is how films were composed and photographed until about 1950, when TV closely copied that ratio, became widespread, and became a threat to motion picture theatres, or so Hollywood thought.
    Largely to compete with TV, Hollywood made films in "widescreen" processes like Cinemascope, Techniscope, Vista-Vision, Todd-AO, Technirama, Cinerama, Panavision, etc. They are all slightly different, but share one attribute: They are "hard" widescreen formats and their projected-image aspect ratios exceed 1.33:1. Some are as high as 2.65:1.
    Many directors, particularly during the 50s and 60s, filled the entire wide frame with important action or other visual material; some still do. When transferring "hard" widescreen movies to 1.33:1, there are two choices:
           <-  back & forth  ->
      • Crop-off or anamorphically "squeeze" some of the original frame.
    Cropping, often called "panning and scanning", and preserves detail at the expense of information. It is often done very sloppily. In early widescreen movies, two-character dialog ends up as "talking noses" at the edges of the TV screen. The scanning may lurch back and forth across the image, trying to stay with the "important" visual content (or simply with the currently more famous actor).
    Where the image cannot be cropped, it is anamorphically processed, which squashes the image left-to-right, but leaves the height unchanged. Circles become ellipses. Title sequences are often so "squeezed", resulting in tall, thin distorted action under the titles.
  • Put more of the original wide image on the TV screen, leaving blank/grey/black space at the top and/or bottom of the screen.
    • This is called "letterboxing" (or "videoscoping" by Criterion), and preserves *information* at the expense of detail. Compared to standard VHS, LDs have detail to spare, and I strongly prefer this presentation. You may have seen this in some recent music videos on TV or on TBS, but you probably have not seen it in a broadcast of a movie on generic network TV.
    The most frequently encountered presentation on broadcast TV and VCR is cropped. The use of letterboxing on LD releases is growing rapidly. Often you have a choice of aspect ratios.
    One LD label (Criterion Collection) routinely preserves aspect ratios. Recent Speilberg productions (e.g. "Color Purple", "Innerspace" and "Empire of the Sun") and MGM re-issues (e.g. "Ben-Hur" and "Doctor Zhivago") are also widescreen. Until recently, Japanese imports more often used widescreen than U.S. releases. This appears to be the result of both Japanese film purism and the desire to put the Kanji subtitles outside the picture (in the lower blank band). Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, Japanese discs are priced at about twice what we pay for domestic ones. (I have a separate article, LD#02, available on imports.)
    If you haven't had a chance to compare a widescreen and a cropped version of the same film, you may literally not know what you are missing, except for a vague feeling of claustrophobia as you watch one these "chopped and squashed" films. On the other hand, a letterboxed presentation like "BladeRunner" at 2.2:1 or "Ben-Hur" at 2.65:1 (the current recordholder) really requires at least a 25-inch TV with at least 350 lines of horizontal resolution.
    Matted format:
    Not all theatrical widescreen formats are "hard" formats (where the letterboxed image borders are blank because there is nothing there on the print or negative). Some formats are "soft" widescreen:
       <--Absent on "matted" LD
    +-------------------------------+
    |                               |
    |                               |
    |                               |
    |   Composed theatrical image   |
    |      (Matted LD image)        |
    |                               |
    |                               |
    +-------------------------------+
    :    "protect for TV area"      :  ><--Absent on "matted" LD
    `==============================='
>
    Don't automatically assume that the film you saw theatrically at 1.85:1 six months ago has been cropped for home video. Video is now a bigger market than theatres for some material.
    Many films are being shot "spherical soft matte" at 1:37:1 and are being *masked* (cropped) for theatrical presentation! When transferred to video, such works may be 1.33:1 full-frame, 1.33:1 zoomed-in, panned and scanned from the 1.7/1.85/2.4:1 compositions, or matted (leaving letterbox-like bands).
    During principal photography, the masked-out areas are usually "protected" in that they are kept clear of microphones, cables, etc., but they contain nothing crucial to the composition. However, special effects for the film may only have been made to cover a 1.5:1, 1.66:1, 1.75:1, 1.85:1 or 2.35:1 area.
    Even when free of errors, inclusion of the image in the protection bands may diminish the impact of the composition, which is why some directors and LD producers mask it off (example: Criterion Collection "The Princess Bride"). Some VistaVision films were also photographed in soft-matte widescreen (although not in consideration of eventual TV use).
    I will eventually have a more detailed article on aspect ratios. Please note that the LD industry does not consistently use "letterbox" to mean "hard widescreen source material". Matted soft widescreen transfers are often mis-labelled "letterbox".
    Lower purchase price (for media).
    Discs cost about twice as much to manufacture as tapes, but discs usually sell for less. It might amuse you to know why...
    Video mechandising trivia: VHS tapes are the dominant home video medium. Most people rent tapes rather than buy them. The film studios don't get a percentage of the rental revenue. All they get is income from the initial sale of each pre-recorded tape. And the video stores are in hot competition with each other to get new titles fast. It is somewhat a "captive market". The first tape sales are therefore targetted at, and priced for, video rental stores - not for collectors.
    Consequently, new tape releases are priced very high ($80-90 is common). It is not until the the video store demand is satisfied that the studios drop the prices to levels attractive to individual movie collectors ($30-40). When that market is satisfied, prices may drop further for the "Kmart" mass-market customers, $10-20 per tape.
    In contrast, LD is, for the moment, a "sell through" market. The major purchasers of new LD releases are individual movie collectors. LD rentals are not a big market, and there is no low-end mass-market at all. LDs, even major titles like "Top Gun", are typically introduced at $30-40 (for CLV), and stay there. Many recent titles have come in at well below $30. Incidentally, routine 10% discounts are common for LD. I have a separate article, LD#14, available on LD mail order sources.
    Two exceptions to the generally low prices in the LD market are Criterion Collection and CBS/Fox. Criterion releases run from $40-70 (CLV) and $60-125 (CAV). They are worth it because they seek out the finest possible source material (archival negatives, etc.) and deliver the most complete product, often with generous motion and still-frame supplements.
    CBS/Fox widescreen titles are about $10 higher than Criterion, and generally have no supplements. CBS/Fox is currently testing the waters to see if the market will sustain this new rental-style pricing philosophy. I suspect it may backfire, as not only collectors, but low-volume dealers will decide they cannot to invest $70 on an otherwise unexceptional CLV title.
    Related tidbit - the LD release of widely anticipated titles is often delayed from the tape release by a month or two. "Bambi" and "Roger Rabbit" fit this model. The reason is that video retailers often don't order (or get) enough copies of new titles to satisfy their demand. They are strongly tempted to make local (illegal) copies.
    If they have only a tape to use as a master (and they defeat the simple copy protection) they still end up with an inferior duplicate, one that some picky customer may complain about (or report to the FBI). If they have a laser disc available, they can make illegal copies that are higher quality than the legit prerecorded tapes. The intro delay is allegedly to discourage this practice.
    Used media of acceptable quality.
    Used video tapes have an aura similar to that of used cars. In the worst-case scenario, a flaky tape can wreck the heads in your VCR. More typically, the retailer may be selling it because it is damaged or worn out. The (in)famous scene that you bought it for has been played/paused so many times that the oxide, picture and sound aren't even there any more. Also, due to the wear on tapes when played, and the potential for severe tape damage, serious video collectors are reluctant to loan out their tapes.
    Used LDs, on the other hand, are like used CDs. Laser rot aside, if they physically look ok, they probably will play like new. The random access capability of LD makes it easy to skip through and QA a used disc in the store (which I routinely do). My collection has a sizeable percentage of used discs. I can't tell them from the new ones. With agreement on careful handling, many LD collectors are willing to swap discs for auditioning. I have a sample loaning agreement, LD#08, available on request.
    And the prices of used discs are appealing. My average used disc has been $14.00, with a low of $8.00 and a max of $25.00. One local store also used to sell his rental inventory, knocking off $1.00 per recorded rental. I obtained some hard-to-get titles that way, and cheaply at that. I refuse to buy cropped movies at normal retail prices, but I will take a chance on them at used prices.
    If you seek used or "cutout" merchandise, make sure you and the dealer understand each other on the matter of defects, which are more likely on older pressings. Most dealers will accept the return of any disc they sell, regardless of what bin it came from. But in the case of older titles, the dealer may not be able to replace it with the same title. Find out what recourse is available to you in that case.
    No bootleg media.
    Have you ever bought or rented a tape that turned out to be a 2nd- generation copy, or worse, a low-quality EP or LP recording (when the box said "SP")? Tape piracy is common, and it is also not unusual for dishonest rental customers to duplicate a rental tape, and swap the labels onto to dub before returning it.
    Because LD is a read-only medium, and because there are only a dozen pressing plants world-wide, and fewer (and thus better known) distribution channels, piracy is unheard of. New discs are virtually certain to be authentic.
    However, there is one scam to watch out for... When buying used discs or when renting re-releases: Crooked customers will sometimes rent a new edition/transfer/pressing, and swap the discs for older platters from their own collection. You may end up with a defective pressing of a cropped transfer of the pre-restoration edition of the film - in analog mono instead of digital surround. Always check disc labels, catalog numbers and side counts against the packaging. (Although reported, I have yet to have this happen to me.)
    Random access. (Obviously, you never have to "rewind" an LD.)
    All players can randomly seek to start-of-disc in seconds, and to "chapter marks" (the equivalent of "tracks" on a CD) if the disc has chapter marks on it (not all do). The lack of them can be a considerable annoyance on music videos. The lack of chapter marks is not generally considered a "defect", unless advertised on the jacket but not present on the disc. So if none are listed, and you care, make sure you investigate before leaving the store. The possible range of chapter numbers is 0 thru 79, per side.
    Virtually all CLV players can seek-to-time with at least one minute resolution. If the disc is so coded, contemporary players can seek to one second resolution. Unfortunately, the timecode resolution of CLV discs is never noted on the jacket, but fortunately, 1-second is now the most common.
    All players and discs can perform a blank-screen pause (indefinitely) and skip fore and aft at high speed (described earlier).
    CAV discs can seek to individual frame numbers (if the player or remote has a keyboard), and play forward and reverse at unusual speeds, often in the range 1/3x to 3x. Single-frame-step fore and aft is also available. The newer players have a "jog wheel" that allows variable speed slow/fast-mo fore and aft.
    I have a more detailed article, LD#12, available on the curious world of CAV still frame, and how 24 frame-per-second film is transferred to 60 field-per-second video.
    Since this is frequently asked about: A handful of arcade video games (e.g. "Space Ace", "Dragon's Lair") were based on a pair of CAV laser players feeding a video monitor. These are no longer made (and few are in use). The discs are now collector's items, and will display, but cannot be "played", on consumer hardware, unless you have a pair of players and the original controlling software.
    Still-frame subjects available.
    The seek-to-frame plus the still-frame capability allows LDs to contain material unthinkable on videotape. A CAV LD can store 54,000 individual still images per side. Discs with all the photos from the Voyager spacecraft mission exist, as well as photos of all the art in Louvre, 250,000 aviation stills from the Smithsonian Air & Space, etc.
    It is also possible to mix motion and stills. Criterion Collection LDs often follow the feature presentation with background material such as: production stills; related text material; outtakes; interviews; set design art, etc. The player automatically pauses on stop-coded still frames, and you are prompted to STEP forward or press PLAY to resume full motion.
    More extensive liner notes.
    The larger container required for a 12-inch disc invites the inclusion of supporting text and illustration. And at least in the case of Criterion Collection editions, you get it. Full credits, dates and details of sourcing (negatives used, whose "cut", etc.).
    Sometimes the notes are included as still-frame text on the disc itself. For example, the CC "High Noon" includes, on disc, the complete short story from which the screenplay was ostensibly drawn. The Criterion CAV edition of "Ghostbusters" includes a complete shooting screenplay.
    Theatrical trailer sometimes included.
    When there is space on the final side after the feature, and an original theatrical trailer ("coming attractions ad") can be located, it is often included on the disc. If you frequently host "video parties", this may be a useful tool for teasing your audience.
    Trailers, by the way, often contain scenes not in the actual film. And, because they are created long before the film is "in the can", the music in the trailer may also be completely different from that in the film.
    Computer control of Pioneer players via Macintosh or Apple IIgs.
    Industrial LD players routinely provide a full-duplex RS-232C port for computer control and status readback. Consumer players have not provided RS-232C since the early 80s. Pioneer players do have a Control-In and Control-Out port, and the Voyager Company has built an adaptor ("The Box") which allows a Macintosh or IIgs PC to control the player via that port or the IR remote sensor, depending on player model. Voyager offers HyperStack Mac software for many of their CAV titles.
    If you need computer control, particularly from a non-Mac PC, consider getting an industrial player.
    LD "combi" players (common) can also play your CDs.
    All current low-end and mid-range LD players are "combi" players (see above). Only a few high-end units (such as the Pioneer LD-S2) are LD8- and LD12-only. If you don't already own a CD player, an LD combi player usually makes a satisfactory first player.
    In contrast to dedicated CD players, LD players are often about a year or two behind in convenience features - for example, CD-carousel capability arrived on combi players in 1990, several years behind CD players. In my experience, LD players do not provide the same level of audiophile performance that a state-of-the-art CD player can. If you care about CD performance, be sure to test the player as you would a dedicated CD player. I have an article available on how to buy a CD player (LD#94).

    LD Disadvantages Narrative:

    Does not record.
    Neither do CDs and LPs; even if an economical recording LD machine is ever introduced, it is too late for LDs to dominate the video market the way that VCRs have. In audio, if you want quality playback, you get a CD or LP player. If you want to record, get a cassette or DAT deck.
    65% of American homes have a VCR. The typical LD owner is likely to have both a VCR and an LD. The recording issue is really a non-issue as the LD product is currently positioned.
    Recordable laser video technology does exist. The ODC write-once "RLV" system produces LV-compatible CAV discs (no digital sound) for $300 per side and up, but recording must be done at a certified ODC site. Several vendors offer re-recordable video disc cartridges, but this $300-1200 cartridge media can only be used in the associate $30,000 recorder/player.
    Entry-level LD player prices higher than VCRs.
    New LD players run from $300 (discounted) to $3500. You can get a VCR for under $200. If you are concerned about features, the prices of comparable LDs and VCRs are about the same.
    You can get a used player from $100 up. Sight&Sound recently advertised a used Pioneer LD-700 for $125 and a (2nd generation digital sound) CLD-909 for $225. The only significant missing feature on pre-1987 players is digital sound. The video performance appears to equal Pioneer's current low-end machine (CLD-990). Conventional wisdom in the LD world says to avoid players prior to the VP-1000 (circa 1981).
    Having once bought a used VCR, I would not do that again (worn out head). An LD player seems less prone to wear, and even if it doesn't work properly, at least it won't eat your media (as long as you remember to remove that pesky shipping screw :-).
    Fewer rental outlets.
    LDs are rented, at a typical price of $2.00 per day. Due to the longevity of the medium, you can often rent titles that are long out of print.
    However, unless you live in a major market (L.A., NYC, S.F.Bay, greater Boston, etc.), you may have trouble finding an outlet. Here in Fort Collins, CO (a city of 100,000), we had no outlets within 50 miles between 1986 and 1990. Until the two stores opened recently, I bought discs, swapped them with friends, but did not rent. There are reportedly some 3500 LD stores in the U.S., including a few chains, and over a dozen national mail-order sources. Several import and export.
    If you are renting for auditioning of the program material, rather than for routine viewing, this is not a big deal. Rent tapes. Buy discs. Or, simply borrow discs. Establish loaning agreements with your LD acquaintances. If you are interested in renting Criterion titles, be advised that some LD rental stores do not rent them, esp. CAV titles.
    Fewer titles available.
    There are some 6,000 titles in print in U.S. release, and about 10,000 in Japan, with some overlap. New titles are appearing in the U.S. at a rate of several dozens per month. By contrast, I would guess that there are over 50,000 total titles available on tape.
    I'm not particularly concerned. Of the 300 or so titles that I would like to eventually own, it appears that only two are available only as Japanese imports and less than a dozen have yet to appear on disc at all. If I get desperate, I can always get the tape, I suppose. At the moment, new titles of interest are coming to market about as fast as my budget will allow me to buy them.
    Regarding those Japanese titles... Unlike Japanese audio CDs, Japanese LDs may have modified contents. Japanese moviegoers are more critical than Americans, and insist on original-language presentation, rather than dubbing. So unless the disc is widescreen, the Kanji subtitles may appear on-screen and in-picture. An accurate Japanese LD catalog is required to know for sure. I have a separate article, LD#02, available on imported LDs.
    Also, Japanese films censor some types of nudity acceptable in U.S. [R] rated films. "THX-1138", George Lucas' first film, available on disc only in Japan at the moment, has had this flesh-colored airbushing done to it. There are no uncensored [X] or [NC-17] films at all in Japan.
    Media requires flipping after 30 or 60 minutes.
    Sometimes the 60 minute breaks on CLV discs provides a useful intermission for the audience. CAV discs (30 min.) are more annoying. If you are a professional couch potato, or prefer to watch films in a single sitting, theatre-style, this is a consideration. Side breaks are also sometimes poorly chosen (or not chosen at all, resulting in an abrupt interruption of a scene).
    In any case, 1988 saw the introduction of the first autochanger (Pioneer LD-W1, plays 4 sides). 1989 saw the introduction of the first single- platter players with 2-sided capability (Pioneer 2070, 3070 and the high-end CLD-91). These have all been twice replaced by subsequent models, and joined in 1990 by competing brands with "auto-reverse". Pioneer calls two-sided play capability "alpha turn". Side change takes about 15 seconds (by hand or automatically). There are no apparent disadvantages to multi-side players.
    Unpredictable title availability.
    LD titles listed in catalogs and announcement flyers are often not available in adequate quantities, available at published dates, and sometimes not available at all. There are several factors involved, one has a hidden benefit to the LD collector.
    LD producers sometimes announce titles before they have the rights completely nailed down. This may be carelessness, but there are other causes as well, such as "surprise" old contracts that turn up late, and contain language that failed to anticipate LD (e.g. "We hereby assign to OneTimeVideo the LP, cassette and video tape rights to 'Revenge of the Valley Girls III'. All other rights are retained." So who has the LD rights?
    LD producers also often announce titles after clear rights have been obtained, but before acceptable mastering source elements have been located. This is apparently what held up the long-awaited letterbox release of several titles, including "The Magnificent Seven". MGM/UA says that the entire old United Artist vault materials are in sad shape. They had to go to Rome for decent print of "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly". Criterion Collection often announces that they will offer a title when they get the rights, long before they have collected, collated, annotated and transfered all the CAV supplements they are so famous for. Criterion, at least, does not advertise an orderable catalog number until about 45 days before first LD shipment.
    The practice of pre-announcing has the advantage that the major dealers often offer 15% pre-release pre-order discounts, sometimes 20% on megatitles. The dealers get a larger discount on large initial stocking orders, and they can pass it on. (Conversely, if the title attracts little or no stocking orders, the producer may cancel it altogether.) Pre-announcing also allows you to learn if an existing generic LD from one of the major labels will be soon be joined by CAV and/or CLV editions from Criterion Collection. In general, you can stay about six months ahead of the industry, and budget purchases carefully.
    Once rights and source material have been obtained, the LD producer must schedule transfer time and pressing time, further complicated if closed- captioning or other special-processing is used. LD jacket artwork and editiorial content needs to be prepared as well. There are a limited number of video houses who perform quality, LD-compatible telecine transfers; fewer yet who offer digital transfers. There are only eight pressing plants worldwide that are routinely available for NTSC LDs. If they all are flooded with "megatitles", as they were with "Batman", "Indy-III" and "Bambi" early in 1990, lower volume titles get delayed.
    Pressing plant capacity also affects inventories of back-titles. New issues often sell-out, and are not re-pressed for six months or more. If you are just starting out in LD, expect some frustration in finding all the back titles you seek. Having been at it for three years now, I have been able to locate all the back-catalog titles I want, most of the out-of-print titles, and new releases are arriving about as fast as I can afford them. The pre-announcing has allowed me to plan purchases. New and improved transfers are being introduced all the time, but I have yet to find myself regretting a purchase due to a "surprise" release of an improved product.
    LD Players can be noisier than VCRs.
    A 12-inch disc spinning at 1800 rpm can entrain a fair amount of air, and requires a motor much more powerful than that of a CD player or VCR. A slightly unbalanced disc can cause audible vibrations. Generally, if your low-end LD player is 10 feet or more from your seating position, you won't notice it. High-end players tend to be better sound insulated. My mid-range Pioneer CLD-3070 is about 4 feet away, so I placed Sorbothane pucks under the feet and lined the rack opening with Sonex. End of noise.

    The Golden Age...

    NTSC LD is growing faster now than at any time in its 13 year history. There are more titles than ever, with new ones appearing faster than the average collector can afford to buy them. The media, film-to-video transfer quality, and disc features are better than at any time in the past. Disc prices are stable, and a higher percentage of catalog titles are actually available than at any time in the past.
    Current LD technology is fully compatible with professional line doublers and consumer IDTV (Improved Definition TV - if you can find an IDTV set that's tolerable, and I haven't).
    Although HDTV (High Definition TV) is getting a lot of press lately, U.S. broadcast is at least five years away, and HD-LD is today only being demonstrated (in Japan, at under 20 minutes per CLV side). In any case, future HDTV laser players will almost certainly handle current NTSC discs. Furthermore, the final standards chosen may not be much of an improvement over properly delivered NTSC and PAL, may introduce serious problems of their own, and may be well less than full "HDTV" quality in consumer magnetic and optical (if any) implementations.
    Consider laser, even if you already own a VCR, and particularly if you don't yet own a CD player. I see no point in waiting.

    Copyright 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992 Robert J. Niland All Rights Reserved

    Written by Bob Niland ([email protected])
    converted to HTML by bov! ([email protected])
     

    Mick Evans 1999-2001

      [email protected]

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