The Laserdisc Corner

Laserdisc is something special. I got into collecting them when my brother-in-law gifted me his player in 2019. I came across a handful of Star Trek: The Next Generation discs and asked if he wanted them and mentioned I had my eye out for my own player - to my surprise, he offered me his player.

Laserdisc is interesting because it was definitely a high end, premium experience compared to what was available on VHS. This wasn't a case of overlap between formats similar to what is going on currently with Blu-Ray and 4K Blu-Ray; laserdisc and VHS existed side by side for decades. It was an enthusiast product; the Criterion Collection even got its start on laserdisc. It certainly didn't start that way when it launched as MCA DiscoVision, but it definitely ended up that way.

The experience that most people had with laserdisc was likely in science class in public school. That was certainly my experience with it. I remember being baffled the first time I saw one of those giant discs. I remember seeing laserdiscs and the players at a record store that sold AV equipment in my hometown, but I don't think I had actually seen one out of the sleeve until science class. Not sure why the science department got laserdisc players, probably just had more nerds in that department.

The laserdisc format evolved an impressive amount over its lifespan. Early releases were pure analog audio and video. Eventually, digital audio was added alongside analog audio. In the early 90s, Dolby Digital 5.1 was added and there are even a handful of DTS 5.1 discs. Mastering techniques also improved a huge amount and later releases are surprisingly close in fidelity to a DVD. The analog nature of the format also means that scenes with a lot of fast action hold up very well, where these often suffer on DVD (not as much with Blu-Ray and 4K, of course). Later laserdisc releases began including special features like audio commentaries on the analog audio tracks and some even used freeze frame functions to create layouts similar to DVD menus.

I'm not here to tell you that laserdisc is better than DVD or Blu-Ray. That would be insane. If anyone tells you that, they are insane. But, there's just something special about those nice 12" gatefold releases and popping in that disc and hearing the player spin up. You get all of the fun "...and now our feature presentation!" intros without all of the trailers that were on VHS and that incredible THX logo sound. Stuff like that is missing from our current "scroll through list and hit play" interaction with movies. Home video used to be an event, man.

Also... home theater has just gotten too easy. It's so much fun getting everything put together to get the most out of laserdisc. You want a home theater setup now? Easy, Blu-Ray player, receiver, HDMI cables, TV. Done. You want surround sound for your laserdisc home theater? Get ready to research.

My Setup

Unfortunately, the actual surround sound playback is out of commission at the moment due to apartment living...

...And Now Our Feature Presentation