The Laserdisc FAQ

by Henrik "Leopold" Herranen

Last Changes:

• 97-05-25: Slight changes to 16.1.5 (T2), 16.1.9 (Babylon 5 availablility) and 16.1.10 (Roger Rabbit discs).
• 97-05-19: Removed some films from the "not available on laserdisc" section.

The FAQ is divided in four parts

• I) Introduction to Laserdisc - Sections 1 through 6
• II) Hardware - Sections 7 through 12
• III) Software - Sections 13 through 16
• IV) Resources - Section 17

In addition, I strongly recommend you read my article, "How Film Is Transferred to Video", which is available at my WWW page http://www.cs.tut.fi/~leopold/Ld/FilmToVideo/index.html. This article is also available locally at the Laser Rot site at http://www.laserrot.com/info/techcorner/transfer/transfer.html.

If you have any comments/questions/corrections, etc. about the FAQ itself, please e-mail me.

Also, if you see any additions that need to be made to the FAQ, I am entirely open to suggestions. From the start it has been a community process, and I hope even more people will get involved and contribute questions and answers to the FAQ. However, as Section III is already very near the magical 64 KB limit, it cannot grow without something else being taken away.

Enjoy.

Henrik 'Leopold' Herranen

Compiled by Henrik Herranen and Timm Doolen
Compilation copyright 1995-96 Henrik Herranen (1994 Timm Doolen).
All Rights Reserved
Authors of individual contributions retain the respective copyrights
of the original works they are excerpted from.

I) Introduction to laserdisc

• 1. Intro to LD technology
  • 1.1 What is LD?
  • 1.2 In short, what are the advantages/disadvantages of laserdisc?
    
    
• 2. Advantages
  • 2.1 Is it true laserdiscs will outlive me?
  • 2.2 Is the picture really better than my VCR
  • 2.3 What about sound quality?
    • 2.3.1 Analog channels
    • 2.3.2 Uncompressed digital channels, or PCM channels
    • 2.3.3 Dolby Digital a.k.a. AC-3, or compressed digital channels
    • 2.3.4 DTS
  • 2.4 What cool features can I expect out of laserdisc players?
  • 2.5 Can I play CDs on a laserdisc player?
    
    
• 3. Disadvantages
  • 3.1 Can I record onto a laserdisc?
  • 3.2 Do LD players cost more than my VCR?
  • 3.3 Can I rent laserdiscs?
  • 3.4 I've never seen a copy of my favourite movie on laserdisc but it's been out on VHS tape for years. Why?
  • 3.5 How come when I watch a laserdisc, I have to flip the disc over?
    
    
• 4. Other differences between laserdisc and VHS
  • 4.1 What are those black bars at the top and bottom of my screen?
  • 4.2 How big must my TV set be in order to truly appreciate LD quality?
  • 4.3 Why do laserdiscs cost so much?
  • 4.4 Sometimes I hear about a laserdisc about to be released and it's forever before it hits the stores. What gives?
    
    
• 5. Defining the Medium
  • 5.1 What parties are involved in bringing a movie to laserdisc?
    • 5.1.1 The studio
    • 5.1.2 The label
    • 5.1.3 The masterer
    • 5.1.4 The manufacturer
    • 5.1.5 The distributor
    • 5.1.6 The retailer
  • 5.2 So laserdiscs are just like big CDs with movies on them, right?
  • 5.3 What's all this talk about NTSC, PAL and SECAM?
    • 5.3.1 NTSC
    • 5.3.2 PAL
  • 5.4 What is "CX noise reduction"?
  • 5.5 What does CLV and CAV mean?
  • 5.6 What is CAA then?
  • 5.7 What is the qualitative difference between CAV and CLV?
  • 5.8 What is the difference between Dolby Surround, Pro-Logic, Dolby Digital, AC-3, DTS and THX?
  • 5.9 What is an anamorphic, or 16:9 transfer?
    
    
• 6. Rivals of laserdisc
  • 6.1 VHS
  • 6.2 CD-I and VideoCD
  • 6.3 DVD

II) Hardware

• 7. Buying a laserdisc player
  • 7.1 What features should I look for when buying an LD player?
  • 7.2 What are all the different outputs on the back of an LD player?
  • 7.3 How are Karaoke players different than regular LD players?
  • 7.4 Which LD player should I buy?
    
    
• 8. Tech Tweaking
  • 8.1 What are comb filters? Why do I need one?
  • 8.2 Does S-video output improve the picture quality?
  • 8.3 What is "LD101: A Video Standard"?
  • 8.4 What are THX laserdiscs? Do I need new hardware to play them?
  • 8.5 What is the THX - WOW disc?
    
    
• 9. Can I modify my player to get these features?
  • 9.1 Dolby Digital RF output
    • 9.1.1 How to add Dolby Digital yourself
    • 9.1.2 How to get Dolby Digital added commercially
  • 9.2 True NTSC output for Pioneer CLD-1450
    
    
• 10. Care and maintenance of laserdiscs
  • 10.1 What is the absolutely best way to preserve my laserdiscs?
    • 10.1.1 Buying a laserdisc
    • 10.1.2 Remove the shrink wrap
    • 10.1.3 Inspect and sample
    • 10.1.4 Upgrade the inner sleeves
    • 10.1.5 Disc insertion
    • 10.1.6 Outer sleeve
    • 10.1.7 Store the disc properly
    • 10.1.8 Playing the disc
      
      
• 11. Common LD complaints
  • 11.1 Can you explain some common defects?
    • 11.1.1 Crosstalk
    • 11.1.2 Dropouts
    • 11.1.3 Laser lock
    • 11.1.4 Lines
    • 11.1.5 Scratches
    • 11.1.6 Seek fail
    • 11.1.7 Skipping
    • 11.1.8 Smearing of colors
    • 11.1.9 Smudges
    • 11.1.10 Spotting
    • 11.1.11 Time compression
    • 11.1.12 Vertical interval defects
    • 11.1.13 Vertical interval errors
    • 11.1.14 Video noise, lines (usually white)
    • 11.1.15 Video noise, snow
    • 11.1.16 Video noise, streaking
    • 11.1.17 Warping
  • 11.2. What is "laser rot"?
    • 11.2.1 OK, so what is laser rot?
    • 11.2.2 How does rot occur?
    • 11.2.3 What titles are known to rot often?
  • 11.3 Some opening/end titles were chopped off while watching a movie. Why?
  • 11.4 Aliasing, or why are all horizontal lines flickering like hell?
    
    
• 12. What is the pin ordering of this connector?
  • 12.1 Scart
  • 12.2 S-Video (also sometimes called Y/C or S-VHS)

III) Software

• 13. Buying laserdiscs
  • 13.1 What is the Criterion Collection?
  • 13.2 What are cutouts and are they ok to buy?
  • 13.3 I've bought used VHS tapes that are unwatchable. Are used laserdiscs worth the money?
  • 13.4 I'm in Canada. Are there any problems using UPS?
  • 13.5 What is the 1-800 number for the Columbia House club?
    
    
• 14. Aspect ratios and letterboxing
  • 14.1 Can you go over widescreen, letterbox, etc. one more time?
  • 14.2 What are some of the terms I need to know when studying aspect ratios?
  • 14.3 What are some of the popular widescreen film formats?
  • 14.4 I heard that if a film is shot "flat" then you actually lose screen information when it is letterboxed. Is this true?
    
    
• 15. Lists
  • 15.1 Popular titles never released on LD in USA
  • 15.2 Popular titles now out of print on LD in USA
  • 15.3 Popular titles not released in letterbox format yet in USA
  • 15.4 What animated Disney movies are available?
    
    
• 16. Specific titles
  • 16.1 Explanations of different versions
    • 16.1.1 Blade Runner
    • 16.1.2 Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
    • 16.1.3 Lawrence of Arabia
    • 16.1.4 The Terminator
    • 16.1.5 Terminator 2: Judgment Day
    • 16.1.6 Bram Stoker's Dracula
    • 16.1.7 2001 - A Space Odyssay
    • 16.1.8 Star Trek movies
    • 16.1.9 Babylon 5
    • 16.1.10 Roger Rabbit discs

IV) Resources

• 17. Resources
  • 17.1 What are some places to mailorder laserdiscs from?
  • 17.2 Are there any good laserdisc magazines I can subscribe to?
  • 17.3 Is there a guide to Bob Niland's articles?
  • 17.4 What good WWW-pages are there for people interested in LDs?
  • 17.5 What are some other Internet resources for LD info?

Originally Created: 04/16/97
Last Updated: 06/01/97