Location: Originally from the UK but now living in Pennsylvania, USA!!!
Posts: 2,209
Laserdisc Betamax CED VHD 8mm 16mm and 35mm
Many years ago, my local Virgin Megastore here in the UK started selling laserdiscs.
I was browsing through their titles and came across a box set of the Indy movies on DVD. At the time, I was considering buying a player just for these movies, but I didn't bother in the end. Years later, I am now thinking of getting these movies on laserdisc. I have had a look on e-bay and they have players there for about £50 and the movies are not that expensive either.
I know that Agent 5 has Raiders on laserdisc, and he tells me that the quality is pretty good. Is there anyone else out there who has any of these movies on disc, and if so, is it worth me getting them on this format.
The other question is, do these work like video and DVD, i.e. do you need the correct region to play on your player, or are they universal?
Why would you want them on Laserdisc when you can have them on DVD?
As for me, I have the old VHS versions, the DVDs, and extra-high quality DVD-rips on my computer.
Last edited by intergamer : 12-03-2004 at 04:25 PM.
I own the complete U.S. issue trilogy on Laserdisc. These were sold individually and had widescreen transfers. The image quality and sound were awesome in their day, but they do not compare to the DVDs.
You see, while laserdiscs were twice as good as videocassettes, these discs still had an analog picture. The soundtracks were digital, but the image still had an interlaced, analog source with the typical "background video noise" you find with most videocassette images. Awesome in their day though.
Frankly, I do not understand why you'd want them unless you just want to collect the various releases of the trilogy. Europe and Japan did receive a sweet Laserdisc boxset with all sorts of fun stuff thrown in along with the films. That might be fun to own, but I can't see watching them when the DVDs are right there...
I don't think laserdiscs were regional - though obviously a PAL encoded disc might not play on an NTSC player.
...on Betamax HiFi. How about that? A couple of my friends and I got somewhat bored and decided to go see if there was anything interesting at the local Goodwill. We went as a joke, but lo and behold, there was sitting, just as I walked in the door, a copy of Raiders of the Lost Ark on Betamax. As an avowed Indy nut and fan of obscure tech I had to buy it.
Only problem now is that I have to find a Betamax player.
You can probably snag a laser disc player for a reasonable price nowadays, and it's probably well worth it, considering the quality on LasrDisc rivals DVD.
We used to have Last Crusade on VHS, taped off of a rented laserdisc from the video store, which are ALL dead formats, now. Hah, how technology moves... My computer doesn't even recognize the word "laserdisc".
Location: midlothian Illinois just south of chicago
Posts: 3,370
i bought the laserdiscs on ebay about a year and half ago and they look pretty good , on the player i bought at a garage sale 3 yrs ago. they look awesome , but the big complaint is that you have to turn the disc over to see the next side. ahhhh dead formats ....
I have the NTSC US Laserdiscs since they first came out it was the only way to own the widescreen versions then. Still have them now & can confirm the DVD's are much better looking so its a waste of time/money to aquire now unless your a serious collector.
A decent LD player alone would cost you a lot for an inferior picture to a £20 DVD player!!! LD Players can only output a 480P max video & the picture is analog so you get horrible motion artifacts.
DVD made Laserdisc extinct for a good reason (although some Laserdiscs which use DTS or AC3 sound have superior soundtracks to even some Blurays due to the technical spec & the way the sound was mastered back in the day).
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"....
Last edited by phantom train : 07-09-2012 at 02:53 PM.
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.
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).
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.
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?
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
At the time, I was considering buying a player just for these movies, but I didn't bother in the end. Years later, I am now thinking of getting these movies on laserdisc. I have had a look on e-bay and they have players there for about £50 and the movies are not that expensive either. 
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