From: bill@bilver.uucp (Bill Vermillion)
Subject: Re: Laser disc and video
Organization: W. J. Vermillion - Winter Park, FL
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 13:30:46 GMT

In article <1992Aug17.191328.179156@zeus.calpoly.edu> claudius@zeus.calpoly.edu (King_Claudius (Chris Knight)) writes:


>many [most] full-length movies are recorded in CLV format [constant-linear
>velocity, variable rotation speeds...alot like a giant CD] which doesn't allow
>many of the fancy freezeframe/frame stepping etc. special effects.  If you
>invest in a high-enough end system I'm sure you can get it to handle that for
>you but I have yet to see one.  Also many LD's aren't recorded with digital
>audio...it's a fairly new phase.

Digital audio is NOT a new phase.  It's been out for at least 5 years.

>Some features to look for in a LD player:

>digital audio
>CX decoding [CX is an analog 'dolby-like' filter]
>high [around 400 line for NTSC] horizontal resolution
-----
>good D/A converters [16 bit 4x oversampling, 2 converters minimum]
>digital out, preferrably fiber-optic cable
>ability to play CD/CDV
-----

Those three marked above are more typical of an LD player that also
plays CDs.   That is not neccesarilly a feature you want in an LD
player depending on how you feel about audio.

There appear to be no LD players that are as good as standalone CD
units.   There have been one or two negative comments on the net about
some experiences with a dual unit.   One recently described a problem
of LD damage from the CD section.  eg rubbing against the LD disk.

I am one of those who prefer separates.

>ability to switch between digital and analog audio
>ability to switch between stereo and individual channels
>  [many ld's are recorded with two languages, one in each channel]

That is pretty much standard on any unit with digital sound.  I don't
ever recall seeing an analog only unit that couldn't switch channels
either.  I recall one of the early LD demos when Magnavox had the only
LD player available with a Columbo episode in dual langauges.   Pick
which analog mono you wanted to listend to, English, or dubbed
Japanese.

>One thing I wouldn't recommend:a multi-disk player...you'll pay lots of money
>just to have the laserdisk player change your disks.  Big deal.  Plus there are
>alot more parts to break.

The 'alot more parts to break' analogy will also go quite well with the
players that handle CD's and LD's.

I have a multi-disk player.  An LD-W1.    Has the feature of digital
still field too on any disk.  Nice unit.   I don't think $575 was a lot
to pay for a unit that can auto-change sides and disks, and have many
extras.  The trick is not to buy the current model. Buy the one that
was just discontinued.  You get a new unit with full warranty at a good
price.  The LD-W1 was discontinued, and was selling for $599.  They
asked if I wanted extended warranty. I said not at that price they
wanted.  So they dropped the price of the machine and sold me the
machine for $575 to bring the effective price down.  The salesperson
evidentally makes more money on the warranty.

That was admittedly a great price, but it was in a nationaly
distributed catalog from J&R.  I have no regrets buying that machine.
-- 
Bill Vermillion - bill@bilver.oau.org  bill.vermillion@oau.org
                - bill@bilver.uucp 
                - ..!{peora|ge-dab|tous|tarpit}!bilver!bill

Newsgroups: rec.video.releases