Laserdisc Betamax CED VHD 8mm 16mm and 35mm

phantom train

New member
Wow, what a blast from the past - I haven't thought about laserdiscs in years. I never had one, though was aware of them back in the '90's. Like Beta, this was a home video format that never caught on. Though the picture quality was superior to VHS tapes (but not as good as the then-future DVD format), the logistics of watching these was a hassle, i.e. a two-hour film was on a large, bulky double-sided disc that had to be turned around (like a record) halfway through the film...

I never even knew the YIJC was available in laserdisc....

For what it's worth, I remember seeing Star Wars: A New Hope in "widescreen" on a laserdisc player circa 1994. However, though at that time I didn't know much about aspect ratios (since most VHS tapes were in pan & scan format) I did notice that in the celebration/awards sequence at the end of the film, the right of the screen was partially cut off - so, this was obviously a "non-anamorphic" print of the film, and not really true "widescreen"....
 
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Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
indi02.jpg


Apparently the bonus Japanese disc contained "The Making of Raiders" and "Great Adventurers and their Quests." Crusade was 2+ hours and required an additional disc. The only way to see the movies in widescreen at home until 1999, but nothing exciting to us today.
 

Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
I saw the early 80's 2-disc, 4-sided version of Raiders on Laserdisc at an estate sale but passed. The deceased early adopter even had the Paramount Jack Ryan movies on DIVX (1998-1999).

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Agent5 has Raiders on 8mm, but no other celluloid format. There were about 1000 35mm prints of Raiders in North America, the surviving prints cobbled together from shipping reels in acceptable condition. Nearly all are controlled by the studio but every now and then one escapes (yes, this is an active auction... bags are packed for the Banana Islands). If a college or other institution wanted to project a second run 35mm or 16mm Indy movie in the 80s or early 90s, they turned to Films Incorporated, which had the Paramount contract. I don't know if Paramount or Films Inc. created the probably full-screen 16mm prints, but this film format is surely the rarest of all.

One other obsolete format comes to mind: Raiders (and Temple of Doom?) on VHD in Japan.

VHDindy(1).jpg

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Indyfan82

Member
As a fan of older technology, I find this thread quite interesting. Neat to see the Betamax, VHS, CED, LaserDisc, etc. formats for the Indiana Jones movies.
Somewhere in here I saw someone mention something about The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. Does anyone know if those got releases beyond the 1999 VHS set and the later DVD release?
 
Indyfan82 said:
As a fan of older technology, I find this thread quite interesting. Neat to see the Betamax, VHS, CED, LaserDisc, etc. formats for the Indiana Jones movies.
Somewhere in here I saw someone mention something about The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. Does anyone know if those got releases beyond the 1999 VHS set and the later DVD release?

Laserdisc boxset released in Japan only... unedited
 

Indyfan82

Member
Seriously? WOW! That is WAY awesome! If I had the money, I'd love to track down the LaserDiscs (and get a LaserDisc player) just to watch the series in high quality (or as high quality as LDs get) and the original unedited form. Thanks for the information.:cool: :whip:
 

Stoo

Well-known member
Moedred said:
Agent5 has Raiders on 8mm, but no other celluloid format. There were about 1000 35mm prints of Raiders in North America, the surviving prints cobbled together from shipping reels in acceptable condition. Nearly all are controlled by the studio but every now and then one escapes (yes, this is an active auction... bags are packed for the Banana Islands).
Will have to confirm but I believe that dear ol' Rocket Surgeon acquired a 35mm print of "Raiders".
Indyfan82 said:
Somewhere in here I saw someone mention something about The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. Does anyone know if those got releases beyond the 1999 VHS set and the later DVD release?
throwmetheidol said:
Laserdisc boxset released in Japan only... unedited
There were 6 European VHS cassettes in 1993 (U.K., Finland, Netherlands + maybe more).

Japan also had 8 VHS cassettes in 1994 (which were presumably the same as the 1993 Laserdiscs).
 

Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
70mm

This great Last Crusade retrospective lists about 100 North American 70mm engagements in 1989. (The frames pictured are from a foreign print.) Not sure if any of the other films were released this way.

indianajonesandthelastcrusade_70mmframes1.jpg
 

raiders1

New member
raiders versions

i have various movies, in various formats:

raiders - laserdisc (gave it away)

i do have a CED player, so i might try to hunt down that version.
----------

film
--------------
8mm super 8 version 400 foot digest - will get it scanned

16mm film - last 10 minutes, partly in color, and partly red faded
will post a clip of it

35mm film - don't own it, but a friend did, and had it scanned in
1080hd, and now also a 4k scan

35mm trailer - indiana jones and the crystal skull - have that scanned
in 4k

eventually, there are people working on restoring the whole quadrilogy
in 4k.

later
raiders1
 
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UKFilmNerd

Active member
I know this is an ancient thread but it seemed like the right place. I thought my tiny collection of UK laserdiscs was rotting in my parent's attic. It turns out that they were safely stored in the cupboard in my old bedroom. I thought UK laserdiscs would be as good as their US counterparts but very rarely did any films have any extras. I think the UK market only had 100s of films whereas the US had over a thousand.

Anyway, after that rambling, here's a picture, surprised to see I kept the cellophane on. I'm definitely buying those vinyl display frames. I've just noticed that these are rated PG, so Temple of Doom would be edited.

 
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