From: otto@jybox.jyu.fi (Otto J. Makela)
Newsgroups: rec.video
Subject: Re: Laserdisc vs. VCR
Date: Sun, 13 Sep 92 23:05:34 EDT
Organization: Jyvaskyla Electronic Mailbox

singg@alf.uib.no (Kurt George Gjerde) writes:

>    I'm thinking of buying a Laserdisc player (I already have a VCR), and
>    would like to hear other people's opinions (and get some facts right)...
> 
>       - Is the max. playing time per side 30 minutes ?  (so you have to
>         disc-jockey 2 or 3 times during a film) ??

About 55 minutes on a "standard play" disc (CLV), so for most films it's
only once per film.  30 or so minutes on CAV.

>       - What is CX encoding(/decoding) ??

A noise reduction scheme for the sound.  Modern players have it, you don't
have to worry about it.

>       - What is CAV ??

Constant Angular Velocity play mode.  The disc plays like an old phonograph
record, rotating at the same speed all the time.  The idea is that one frame
of film forms one track on the disc, thus you can seek frame-by-frame thru
the movie.  Great slow motion and reverse play options for those hard-to-see
SFX and small details.  Also used for storing still pictures.

>       - What is CLV ??

Constant Linear Velocity.  The disc speeds up as it goes out from the center
to the edges (like a CD) so as to keep the same "data rate" of material from
the disc.  This of course makes for more economic disc area usage and the
added length per side.  Minus is that the stop/slow effects cannot be done
without a digital field grabber in the LDP (unfortunately I don't know of
any multistandard LDP with a field grabber).

>       - What's the difference between Widescreen and Letterbox ??

As far as I can tell, the people writing the ads.

>       - What's the average price for a film ??

Depends where you get them and what your taste in films is.  Mail order price
for NTSC films from the US is around $35 plus postage.  The newly announced
PAL titles seem to be about the same number in UK pounds, so they are quite
a lot more expensive.

>       - Is the picture quality (resolution,color,etc.) better than VHS ??

Picture quality is noticably better, sound quality even moreso.

>       - Are the discs easily damaged ??

Not worse than CDs, though they are a bit clumsier to handle.

>    Question to European readers:
>       The Pioneer 1450 can play both PAL and NTSC discs on PAL TVs, but
>       can you copy NTSC discs to PAL video with it??

No, as the output signal from it is PAL color encoded, but still 60Hz frame
rate.  The Pioneer 1750 (the following model, I don't think they even sell
the old 1450 any more) will also give out a pure NTSC signal, so you could
use a good multistandard VCR to produce a normal NTSC tape.  Or a Panasonic
NV-W1 to convert it to real PAL.

>    Would you recomend a Laserdisc player ? 
>    Or, should I wait for something better (HDTV...) ??

I'd say go for LD, HDTV has (unfortunately) been several years something
that is going to be real-soon-now.

One of those new widescreen TVs might be nice, though.
--
By the way, I recommend Bob Niland's excellent LD information articles,
available in Europe from nic.funet.fi anonymous ftp.  They explain all
I've said here and much more (I hope I haven't flubbed anything)...

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