LaserDisc – Why Bother?

[Music] what's going on YouTube culture dog Sam hatchback here with some more laserdisc content and we've known a lot of LD related videos lately especially with the audio series decided to put it out and that inspired me to do this as well this is a topic that comes up all the time especially within the laserdisc collect collectors groups circle and particularly on Facebook's latest forever group which is you know growing stronger every day it's about 10,000 members so there are a lot of different people coming at this hobby from multiple different directions and some people are just super curious about it and don't actively collect it but we do hear this topic being brought up a lot and I always meant to do a video about it in some fashion in the laserdisc essential series which again I mentioned in the audio series it just requires a lot of work and I mean not that I don't like putting a lot of work into these videos but it you know I don't want the water is to grow stagnant so I think it'd be fun to just do a total unscripted video like I did with the audio once and just kind of sit down and chat about this stuff and so yeah forgive me if some of the thought threads might meander a little bit or maybe they they kind of interweave strangely but yeah we're just gonna sit and chat about this topic for a little bit and it is why bother why bother with laser to ask and why buy the collecting and particularly watching it when there are you know blu-ray discs and you know DVDs and UHDS etc why bother with this old format which again always strikes me as a funny comment or question because you know as collectors yeah I mean collectors in general collect all sorts of things things that aren't deemed useful for modern living but they're perfectly acceptable to collect and I guess it's fitting because laserdisc always was a bit of a quirky strange format so I guess it just makes sense that it continues to be so and it's dead format stages it and you know and it always boggles my mind when people react angrily to people enjoying laserdisc yeah and even you won't have sat down that uh you know my table at retro World Expo I've had people come up and say whoa I'm into retro but not this this is this is too retro even for me so so it's funny yeah I mean the argument which has some basis in logic and is usually that laserdisc was the best home video format of its time it no longer is so therefore if you the only reason you collect in the first place was because of its high quality and its attention to detail and special features and all that stuff now that something else has some planted it and is doing it better it serves absolutely no purpose in our universe now so you're done with it and it's perfectly okay for you to collect other things that match that description but yeah not laserdisc so you know the argument is that it's it's a it's a replication for the most part most these are movies that were released in cinemas so it is a way to watch thirty five millimeter films or you know what have you on home video and it's an attempt to replicate that experience in the home environment and you VHS did it you know albeit in terms of compromising shot compositions with you know payments can and and all that so laserdisc up the ante with letterboxing and things like that though they had still plenty of pants game transfers as well but better picture quality and everything so it was the you know smart thing to do was to get on board with laserdisc especially if you enjoyed film or were a film lover and yeah Roger Ebert and Martin Scorsese they're all you know had laser discs and Ebert had a pretty sizable laser this collection so it you know it was the format for the cine Aston than the film lover so it makes a certain amount of sense to say that well now that there's something else that can do a much better job at recreating that cinematic experience feel why bother with laserdisc and again being a replicated experience is it its held against laserdisc but for other medium not so much like there's all these other analogues like it's totally okay to collect really really crappy old Atari 2600 games or VCS games that are replicating poorly arcade cabinet games that's okay so uh but Lee's bisque is not okay and a lot of the people that will give me crap about you know collecting laserdisc well you know so their tongues down the back of VHS is trousers all day long so it's really it's it's strange how it goes and of course there's people that collect old cars yeah it's always funny watching Top Gear or Grand Tour when they take a Ferrari from the 80s and then in watch it get clobbered by a Ford from modern day it's like these things haven't aged if their capabilities haven't aged along with them but maybe there's something else maybe there's something more than the sum of their parts so that's what was the question here is laserdisc the format more than the sum of its parts and for some people like myself the answer is yes usually what happens in these threads is and sometimes there are they're worded tactfully other times not but it's usually a bit of a groaner because it's the justify your pretty taste thread it's a what you love sucks why do you love it and it is funny to see people get thrown for a loop especially nowadays because an older format and there are some people that are kind of coming at laserdisc like it's via testing or there's the Dom Ataris or like it's so stupid it sucks it's awesome yeah that sort of thing and they're completely bewildered by the fact that there are people that still celebrate it in a totally different way and actively watch it and enjoy it in a totally different way so that you know just now makes people's heads explode on the regular so there's always a level of curiosity especially with people kind of tripping across the the community for the first time I'm like wait these beat this is a little bit different than other other weirdos that collect old stupid things what's the deal here and a lot of times those threads turn into total total pitch shows because of the reactions to the you know I'm having what you love put trial and your reasons for doing it put on trial a lot of people don't take the bait but then some people reflexively feel the need to justify their city tastes and then out come all the justifications for collecting laser discs and a lot of it just feels like trying too hard like there's always the well you know they've got the proper color timing and then you know the theatrical sound and it's cool there are some times when you can get a theatrical sound mix as opposed to like a Muirfield mix or something like that on laserdisc but I know having been there as an old-timer 1ld was a thing it's I don't really see that much of a distinction between the quality of the content and and how it was presented from laserdisc to DVD to do blu-ray to UHD like the format's are different and have different capabilities but in terms of you know transfers good or bad like there were both in each kind of generation of this media there were great laserdisc there were poor laserdisc there were great dvds there were four DVDs etc and it really nothing really seems to have changed but there is this tendency to put on the rose-colored glasses and kind of make believe that there was this world like there was this consortium of dudes and suits back in the day they're like you know what Jim I think we should make sure that laserdisc has nothing but the most accurate representation of theatrical color timing you know like you know what you know what Bob we should also make sure it's exactly the theatrical mix because near-field mixes suck and laserdisc is we're gonna put all our efforts into making sure it is a hundred percent accurate and then DVD came along they're like you know what that was fun and all but we should really make sure we do the opposite of that and screw things up as much as possible like that Wow it's a little too simplistic of a way to look at things and for me it just it they all just kind of rolled together like one big wave and granted the fillets of disc hadn't died and was still around to that today like all those orange and teal things people complain about would also be applied to laserdisc it's it's not on those discs from the 80s and 90s because people weren't doing it back then so it's just a progression and I could see people not enjoying older transfers because the art of young tell us any the art of transferring these films onto home video and the Masters and everything that also progressed so if you're looking for anybody in the industry to understand your you know fervor for laser discs they're probably not going to because they're just going to see this creaky old ship and they're like well you know we designed a much better ship you should just ride in that thing and it's probably a little bit safer and you're like no doubt man there's some charm to this old baby you know they're probably not gonna feel that and that that goes for multiple medium because I watched that documentary about the cassette tape and you know how about now in the wake of record store day now there's a cassette day and the filmmakers traveled to visit one of the creators of the the compact cassette at Philips and he was just bewildered by the fact that anybody would still enjoy it now because things came out that were better CDs came out or whatever and he wasn't nostalgic at all for the for the format he was proud of the time he spent on it and the yeah the the friends he made while he was working on it but he has like no intrinsic love for the format itself so yeah likewise if you're looking for dudes that did transfers back in the 90s young they're they're just gonna see old versions of their job and like primitive tools that they used to do their job so they're not gonna love it here so yeah me and maybe we're all wrong maybe this is a stupid format to collect but yeah so these people come out of the woodwork with their justifications for why they collect and nine times out of ten like it it applies very minimally in my case in terms of why I collect this format there's always the yeah so there was the you know the color timings are correct and the sound and everything like that and that's cool and all and I can appreciate it but I rarely ever find myself watching yeah I love any given film and we go oh did you catch that blue that was a right shade of blue high-five everybody or young like oh my god did you hear that bass rumble at 40 Hertz behind us yeah that's like turned down 12 DB and the other mix it's like I know there's just not how my brain is personally wired so I don't celebrate those moments as I'm actively watching the film it's cool to know and it yeah it's cool yeah just really like oh that's a version with the correct sound or that's a version with the 70 millimeter six track yeah audio transferred over isn't there yeah but that's about as far as it goes in terms of impacting my life and my collecting habits so yeah so there's that that then the next level is well there's you know this huge catalog of films that are available that aren't available on DVD and blu-ray etc and that that list is shrinking all the time that that that argument has becoming less and less of a you know a valid talking point as the years progressed and and when I think about it I've got like over a thousand of these damn things and what the keep I've got to keep that's not available on blu-ray or DVD properly it's bootlegs like hell dudes was one of them but now scream factory put that out so or Scout factory shell select cheers guys yeah I mean it's that seems like I guess that is a way to get into the format but that's not why I collect it otherwise I wouldn't have any of this stuff on here I've got films in here that I own on multiple other formats and you know we call it the Grand Slam if you have something on VHS laserdisc and DVD and blu-ray and 4k and yeah you know damn well I've got multiple copies of the Evil Dead series on other formats and Big Trouble in Little China etc so so that's certainly not hey there then there's argument for the artwork of course that's pretty cool you know 12 12 inch size jacket much like vinyl then again I store these things all vertically like this in cubes so I just see the spines most of the time I don't really frame them I've got a couple frames but I've got like records in those things so I don't think I really have any you know displayed LEDs and frames or anything like that I mean that said you know the jackets are pretty badass hokum but that's not a reason enough to collect the format there is a subset of major horror aficionados that that are really into horror on laserdisc and I mentioned previous videos I've got one fit foot in that and one foot out of it I personally enjoyed hor on home video a little bit more in the DVD age when I mean all the groundwork for that was laid at the latter end of L DS lifespan when Rome group and alley and you know a number of these small boutique companies were becoming what's really the the norm nowadays with the screen factories and the arrows and everything like that and the severance and all that stuff yeah was kind of becoming a thing you know the the criterion of horror was starting to form in the latter years of laser discs and but it really kind of came to fruition I mean I just remember going to media play one DVD was a thing and just being a GOG at the amount of killer titles that were available for you know 25 bucks on DVD I could get you know tombs of the blind dead or whatever it I didn't have to pay 60 bucks for it so yeah that's the other thing in tends to be priced a little high and I don't mind paying a premium for an elite copy of something but I'm not gonna pay $60 for an old image dump of a VHS transfer of something unless there's you know maybe it's like returnable Living Dead or something like that but there's there's got to be some sort of pull so that's not really it either and you know I'm not really like a full moon completest or anything like that so that's not gonna but I do I definitely understand if you're a convention here and you love getting autographs I mean if you're gonna get somebody to sign something like what better way to you know have that done with a 12-inch laser this jacket yeah I've seen people with their criteria and Halloween jackets and the elite re-animator jackets signed and yeah that's how that's how you do it The Nightmare on Elm Street with the Freddie sweat around there that's a great one to get signed so but again I don't really do that either because I mean that's a pretty hefty investment in time and money in particular and yeah in my day back in the day it's like you just got a autograph from getting the ticket to the convention and they just paid the the personality but now it's a whole different money-making machine and yeah I haven't really gotten into that so so that's not it either so there's all these different reasons of why you know and then I've heard think it's more cinematic looking it's more this it's more I don't know and a lot of times it just feels kind of like grasping at straws and it's like if you're that desperate justify your shitty tastes like I don't know just just and who kind of own it and a lot of people have started to do on that you're like you know I love it cuz I love it you know if you have a problem with that step but yeah I said before like there's that question of is it more than the sum of its parts and yes for me it is and I love a little bit of cognitive dissonance when it comes to collecting things and I embrace that it's it's never seen as anything detrimental I just love the fact that I can agree with those people on the level that yes laserdisc was you know at the top of its game it was the the Primo format for delivering sound and picture quality it has been outdone and outpaced by subsequent medium which I just kind of view as like the children of laserdisc anyways and I can I can relate to all that I can agree with that but that still doesn't negate that I want to watch these things and continue collecting them so usually the the argument is if there was one guy recently that was like what why would you do that to yourself why would you you know suffer through watching these horrible films that you know did such a horrible job at replicating the original source material when there's something so far better and yeah that usually starts a war of words that goes on but you know I never suffer and they always say yeah well why don't you just collect blu-ray and especially in terms of pricing too there's certain late release films that obviously you can get for like $2 on blu-ray at Big Lots but you know you're gonna pay 150 for a Japanese copy of something on laserdisc so yeah there is some kind of inherent illogical behavior in collecting across the board not just the laserdisc so so there's that that argument but a lot of times the people that are LD aficionados also do watch other formats they watch v HD they watch CED they watch VHS they what beta they watch DVD they're watch blu-ray they watch 4k uhd and yeah I've got a like right next to this camera I've got a 4k television watch 4k discs on and I watched laser discs on it's a thing it's not a problem and then I've got an old CRT TV and the other room and I was just watching Blues Brothers the Signature Collection on my projector downstairs last night and not only did I not feel that I was suffering I was actively engaged the whole time and thraldom them was just kind of buzzing about the experience this morning so no there's no suffering going on and you can actively enjoy this format in my case there's a couple things going on one is somewhat paraphrase Samuel Jackson I'm a time-traveling because I was there during the kind of like 90s Golden Age of laserdisc I kind of play into the flag there and I can always go back at any time so and funny I actually remember there was a UConn professor that was talking about time travel and he was saying that you know time travel into the future is impossible but time travel into the past is theoretically impossible if there were some kind of marker there something for you to focus on and I forgot about the Massa nations of how it would all work but that's how it works for me I you know planted a flag at some point in the 90s and I can go back there so I have a switch like in my brain basically this goes BAM 1994 mode or whatever and I can switch it back so I can easily watch a lien on for can this thing and be excited about the sharpness the clarity and and everything else and then I can also that same night put on the old CA V miss framed laserdisc and/or the 70 millimeter six tracks around a c3 digital version that came out a few years later on laserdisc and and enjoy the hell out of that too I've always viewed time strangely I kind of think about the future and the past a little bit more maybe then a lot of my peers so I am not bothered by being trapped in the now at all and I'm always kind of amused by the fact that people like to focus on things of the past being stupid or outdated now when they're not I used to work with the girl they drive me crazy because she would always go through her you know CDR spindles a mix disc so again yeah showing my age it was mixtapes back in my day but you know this woman would put together mix CDs and she'd always be like oh I can't believe I listened to this Oh Kim I love this song so stupid this song so horrible and uh I was over so annoyed because I'm like if you are constantly ashamed of and and dislike everything you were into about a year or two ago just stop just stop listening to music like period like because that implies that not only that yeah everything you listen to in the past it just means that you were too stupid to realize that it sucked and that's not how I live life and enjoying my media because that also implies that you're also too stupid to realize that the stuff you enjoy now also sucks so it just imbues it with this horrible futility because because I mentioned often think about the future so there's got to be some future version of you know maybe streaming with high quality bandwidth or something but there's some version of UHD that's better than UHD so if you think laserdisc is stupid you also thank you HD is stupid and there's absolutely no point in you collecting it and I always reject this concept that time has a way of destroying I mean the ravages of time will destroy maybe the physical components of something but that's it it has no effect on something that was great it's all in comparison and contrasting but that's just a mental construct the thing itself hasn't changed so what I loved about laserdisc and this was always my argument is if laserdisc was great in 1993 or 1994 if it was it still is nothing about it has changed I mean unless the disc is oxidized and you know the capacitors have gone as bad and the player etc and the lasers failed nothing about it has changed it has moved through time untouched it's presenting the same exact quality it delivered in 1994 and if you thought that it was good then you have to accept that it's good now and the comparison to today's medium like that's neither here nor there it has no effect on it you hd's don't get into a time machine and go back in time you know Skynet doesn't send them back to 93 to destroy laser disk they have no effect on it it's all in your mind so it's your problem not my problem like I said I've got a switch I can just flick it and I'm back in 1993 mode and then maybe that's not useful people that weren't there and don't remember it so but I mean sure everybody has their own kind of way of time traveling and enjoying things of you know of your like that so that's it yeah at least disk will always for me be a very kind of modern and enjoyable thing because that's what it was so that I mentioned before I like collecting 90s discs because in some ways it's and it's not just nostalgia because I should equally be as nostalgic for a VHS because I mean I pretty much grew up in a video rental store because my biological dad was a manager of a you know a local chain back in the day and yeah I mean I remember being like what ten years old and recommending Apocalypse Now to people so yeah I was like baby baby Tarantino like that was my life so I should be much more nostalgic for VHS than lasers even though I did watch laserdisc disco vision back in the day when I was first dropped and seeing like sergeant pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band playing on the demo machine at the at the store and then you know being super psyched to see Flash Gordon on laserdisc etc so but I don't really have that much nostalgic for that period of laserdisc my nostalgia is more tied in with the 90s era the golden era and part of that's probably because I really became solidified as a film enthusiasts around that I mean I grew up always loving films but it all kind of coalesced around the same time that I rediscovered laserdisc and started actively collecting it into it so it was this kind of golden age for me so yeah there's a little bit of nostalgia there but I'm also enjoying films that one I didn't see back then because I'm buying them now so I'm enjoying the kind of time travel aspect of it because I can then go and get all these discs for next to nothing and then watch them and for me it's like when I watch something for the first time like virtuosity or something I'm always like ah man I always meant to go see that in cinemas and I never did it just feels like I got back home from Suncoast or Saturday matinee with a fresh laser disc and I'm putting in and I'm having almost the same reaction the same experience as I would have back then I'm not thinking oh man I wish I had had this moment back in 1994 now it's the same exact moment nothing's changed about it it's all in your head and how you process things you even just the other day I was checking for rot and I popped in like Basketball Diaries on this 4k TV and I just I didn't want to stop it I was just like yes yeah I was just psyched and there's just something about film from that period there's just so many films that I haven't seen yet so it's just a great fun way to experience them and there's something about scores for films yeah that was kind of the last gasp of big bombastic themes and real kind of like emotional scores before they it kind of turned the page and the 2000s and became something else almost entirely but then that said it doesn't have to be 90s like I said last night I watched Blues Brothers and a slightly tweaked dolby digital version and a slightly tweaked expanded edition on laserdisc and that was a later laserdisc but I enjoyed the hell out of that thing so yeah it wasn't because it was the theatrical version I remember it as a kid because it wasn't and it wasn't the sound because I remember that as a kid so it was its own thing but I still like I said there was never a moment during that screening when I was like I wish I could be watching this on blu-ray so yeah leezar just sit for me is definitely more than the sum of its parts so what's not just like I like collecting old movies and anime looks good on it and black-and-white films look good on it they got that that all holds true and it does hold true that the technology that was put into laserdisc kind of kept on moving and evolved and and but again they're still going to be bad transfers on UHD just like there were bad transfers on the LD and again if you think otherwise do yourself a favor and start like looking on the old the old threads that Google is archived to the old message boards and you'll see that people complained about just about every given laser disc and the transfers and everything about them just as much as everybody does on blu-ray comm nowadays you're kind of fooling yourself if you think otherwise so yes it was a golden age but maybe not in terms of everything being a hundred percent perfect but I don't know it's perfect for me and yeah there's something intangible there's an essence to laser discs that is more than all of the arguments that you can put out there for collecting it it's more than the jacket size it's you know more than the letterboxing and it's more than the theatrical sound mixes and yeah and on top of that the fact that I can adjust my expectations and then just my you know kind of temporal alignment you know man I mean I can I can throw on Reservoir Dogs right now and still be just as jazzed and kind of flashback to watching it in my mic pad you know back in 1994 or whatever so yeah just told the time machines stuff it's beyond nostalgia it's awesome it's laserdisc why bother why not do it cheers everybody

Channel: Culturedog

Views: 18,905

Keywords: LaserDisc – Why Bother?, LaserDisc, laserdisc, laser disc, laserdics, laser dics, lazerdisc, lazer disc, laserdisk, laser disk, lazerdisk, lazer disk, sam hatch, culturedog, 90s movies, home video, vintage media, retro media, old video formats, dead formats

Id: YrU8UVfGdNc

Length: 28min 24sec (1704 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 15 2019