http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/ Engadget Comments for Pioneer finally kills production of its remaining laserdisc players http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/Jan 14th 2009 12:24PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/
I remember when my elementary school were using Pioneer LDs in science class to show images of the earth etc, it must have taken 6-11sec to load each image lol]]>Jan 14th 2009 12:31PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/Jan 14th 2009 3:38PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/Jan 14th 2009 2:07PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/Jan 14th 2009 2:12PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/Jan 16th 2009 2:33PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/Jan 14th 2009 12:25PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/Yo soy dos]]>Jan 14th 2009 12:25PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/Jan 14th 2009 12:28PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/Jan 14th 2009 12:35PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/Jan 14th 2009 1:34PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/
I thought it was one of those scary albino guys from I am Legend]]>Jan 14th 2009 2:01PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/Jan 14th 2009 2:38PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/Jan 14th 2009 2:38PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/Yo soy = I am. word by word. Now you look silly trying to correct a language you don't understand yourself (redundancy intended)]]>Jan 14th 2009 4:10PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/Jan 14th 2009 6:23PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/Jan 14th 2009 12:29PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/Jan 14th 2009 12:56PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/Jan 14th 2009 1:10PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.laserdiscarchive.co.uk/laserdisc_archive/sony/sony_ldp-900/sony_ldp-900.htm
LD is uncompressed (unlike DVD) and the shelf life is longer, so my collection stays (no panic'ed rush to eBay). Oh, and blast you Frankenstein White!]]>Jan 14th 2009 1:19PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/

Ok, i'd be lying if i said i didn't even know they existed, i read an article on wikipedia about them about a year ago when i was trying to find out what if there was any kind of optical disc older than CDs. But before that i had never heard of a laser disc, i never saw one or a player for one, i thought there was only VHS. It's kind of weird that most of the people here know what LDs are.]]>Jan 14th 2009 3:56PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/
LaserDisc doesn't really have any significant advantages over DVDs. Sure, they're uncompressed, but they're an analog (composite) signal with limited chroma information. They suffer from crosstalk and only have about two thirds the resolution of a DVD.

Like anything, if you compare a good Laserdisc to a bad DVD, Laserdisc is going to look better. But if you compare a good Laserdisc to a good DVD, there's no question. Plus, DVDs have a lot more future longevity, as they'll likely be playable for decades to come.]]>Jan 14th 2009 8:49PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/Jan 14th 2009 9:59PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/Jan 14th 2009 12:33PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/Jan 14th 2009 1:05PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/I wonder if pioneer will do a deal where you can swap laserdisks for DVD's, after all the movies on them are all 15 years old anyway so it's mainly the cost of the media.

]]>Jan 15th 2009 7:42AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/Jan 14th 2009 12:33PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/Jan 14th 2009 12:30PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/
My uncle had a player and he still has his collection of LD. I remember watching Waterworld on LD as a kid. Stupid DVD-like discs the size of a 33 1/3 LP that also needed to be flipped. I thought it was a dumb idea as a little brat.

]]>Jan 14th 2009 12:43PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/
I've actually started seeing the Laser Discs for sale in some second hand DVD shops.]]>Jan 14th 2009 1:06PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/Jan 14th 2009 1:06PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/Jan 14th 2009 7:06PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/Jan 14th 2009 12:31PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/Jan 14th 2009 12:33PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/
Also even after DVD came out, somethings, like the ORIGINAL master of the Star Wars trilogy and some other movies were only available on Laserdisc or VHS, and Laserdisc is a much better format from an audio/video quality standpoint...

Hell, you'd be surprised the number of DVDs that are in fact just rips of the Laserdisc version....which means for people with good Laserdisc players, they don't find a big reason to really re-purchase a lot of it...

Laserdisc was more like Blu-Ray than VHS however, it was for Home Theater Enthusiasts....they never got the players affordable enough to the masses and the discs stayed at the $25 mark or so...]]>Jan 14th 2009 12:40PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/
Having to flip the disc is what killed it IMO, then the high cost, and to make matters worse, there were two formats, CAV and CLV, and later on a digital audio track, so each time some new format came out, the older players couldn't play it. ]]>Jan 14th 2009 1:02PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/
Best picture and sound possible at the time.

But DVD killed it completely....it was bound to happen anyways....plus people like collecting the same movie over and over and over...

I have Star Wars on three different formats...and will buy it on Bluray when released. Why? Cause I'm f*cking stupid! ]]>Jan 14th 2009 1:14PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/Jan 14th 2009 1:21PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/
I have My Neighbor Totoro in like five different formats: Japanese LD, VHS fansub, VHS commercial release, and both DVD releases. I will probably buy it on Blu-Ray at some point in the future (most DVDs though I wouldn't bother rebuying).

Laserdisc was the best format available in its heydey, but DVD made it instantly obsolete. Particularly for anime fans, as DVD solved the sub vs. dub dilemma. ]]>Jan 14th 2009 1:27PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/
No forced FBI warnings.
No non-skippable previews.
No menus that you had to try to interpret in order to play the movie.
No floaters in the cases.

of course there was the price.. :-(
]]>Jan 14th 2009 4:13PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/
How is the video analog? How is the analogue video waveform contained on a laserdisc? Do these discs not store information the same a cd/dvd/bd as a series of microscopic pits and landings (0's and 1's)? Perhaps merely just uncompressed digital video? Although that would take so much...
I'm so confused. ]]>Jan 14th 2009 5:01PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/
Yes, but movies on VHS and Beta tapes sold for about $100. They were priced for RENTAL; the thought was that video stores would soon recoup the cost. I worked at a VideoConcepts store where we sold all of this gear AND the movies, and once I saw LD I pushed it hard. Great sound, unbeatable picture, and ZERO WEAR. Why would anyone buy a crappy VHS tape for $100 when you could get an LD for $35?

But people complained that "you can't record on it." So I'd point out that you couldn't record on CDs either, but they were flying off the shelves. "Uh, oh yeah, that's true," said the shopper. And years later we come to find out that 99 percent of VCR owners NEVER record anything.

LaserDisc hailed from a time when some people and companies wanted to push quality ever higher, and thought that it would sell. Sadly, we know now that people not only can't recognize high quality, but will setlle for just about anything. Look at the abysmal state of "digital quality" today: screens full of compressed hash that we wouldn't have accepted from VHS tape 20 years ago.

DVD marks the last gasp of the high-quality movement, and even it was crippled by short-sighted design blunders and old technology when it came out. It's downhill from here.]]>Jan 15th 2009 11:26PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/Jan 14th 2009 12:31PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/Jan 14th 2009 12:32PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/Jan 14th 2009 12:31PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/Jan 14th 2009 12:35PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/Jan 14th 2009 12:55PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/Jan 14th 2009 7:15PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/
Back on topic, the only time I think I've seen a laserdisc is during school a few years ago, where they had some nice cheesy educational videos on LD. Schools always seem to keep the most obsolete things... like IE6.]]>Jan 14th 2009 7:07PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/pioneer-finally-kills-production-of-its-remaining-laserdisc-play/
I have some LD's that have never been released on DVD, so for that small investment, it's worth keeping around. I had an old CLD-S303 before that, but it quit working completely one day - would no longer eject. These things were notoriously unreliable.
]]>Jan 14th 2009 5:20PM