Criterion Laserdiscs

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The Elegant Dandy Fop · #51 Post by **The Elegant Dandy Fop** » Sat Jan 28, 2006 2:45 pm

I have a question.

I got my laserdsic player from a customer where I work at about a year ago, and has worked perfectly, but now it's starting to act screwy. When I put a film that's CLV, it works perfectly, but it messes up with CAV, and I learned the hard way.

I put in my Citizen Kane, and in the last five minutes of Side 1, the laserdisc player starting making weird noises, and the sound was skipping. The all the sudden the images were going 10 times as fast , the disc would end, and thne make weird noises. I pulled out kane and found scratches all along the side. Now, it does this with all CAV's (I wasn't sure if it was only Kane, so i put my Blow Up in, and ending up scratching that too). Is there any way to fix this, or will I just have to buy a new one? Also, this is the first time I scratched a laserdisc, so can anyone help me with how it could affect play?

Thanks.

LightBulbFilm · #52 Post by **LightBulbFilm** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 10:35 am

Can anyone put the Malle commentary from the Damage LD online, I think it's the only commmentary he has ever done...

porquenegar · #53 Post by **porquenegar** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 3:53 am

The Elegant Dandy Fop wrote:I have a question.

I got my laserdsic player from a customer where I work at about a year ago, and has worked perfectly, but now it's starting to act screwy. When I put a film that's CLV, it works perfectly, but it messes up with CAV, and I learned the hard way.

I put in my Citizen Kane, and in the last five minutes of Side 1, the laserdisc player starting making weird noises, and the sound was skipping. The all the sudden the images were going 10 times as fast , the disc would end, and thne make weird noises. I pulled out kane and found scratches all along the side. Now, it does this with all CAV's (I wasn't sure if it was only Kane, so i put my Blow Up in, and ending up scratching that too). Is there any way to fix this, or will I just have to buy a new one? Also, this is the first time I scratched a laserdisc, so can anyone help me with how it could affect play?

Thanks.

Unless the scratches are very deep, you are probably ok. I have a few discs that show some significant scratching but it doesn't seem to affect play.

Sounds like the problem is a mechanical one. The guy who repairs mine, tells me that they are pretty simple on the inside with everything really being controlled by a single belt. Your belt may be old and failing. It sounds like something has slipped loose. The reason that you are seeing a difference in play between CAVs and CLVs may be that CAVs tend to have have data all the way to the edge (boundary) of the disc since they are limited to 30 minutes long. I'm not sure if the laser reads from the outer edge to the center or vice versa, but you get the idea. Many movies are less than 2 hours so on CLV's the side flip may be well before the hitting the data boundary of the disc so you don't see the same problem.

Regarding your LD player, which model do you have? Unless it is a very good one, you may be better off just buying a new one. If it is something you'd like to repair, there apparently is a online resource to do so but I don't imagine it is cheap. I don't have it handy but could probably track it down if you need it. If you do elect to buy a new one, be wary of ebay. I've read too many stories of perfectly working players being damaged during shipment.

The Elegant Dandy Fop · #54 Post by **The Elegant Dandy Fop** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 10:28 pm

My laserdisc player is a Pinoeer Laserdisc Player model CDL-M401. Is this a good player, or bad? I'm not sure.

Yeah, can I please have the link for the online resource?

Thanks!

porquenegar · #55 Post by **porquenegar** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 4:01 pm

The Elegant Dandy Fop wrote:My laserdisc player is a Pinoeer Laserdisc Player model CDL-M401. Is this a good player, or bad? I'm not sure.

Yeah, can I please have the link for the online resource?

Thanks!

This player is listed as a player to avoid on the A Primer for Home Theater Newcomers at the Home Theater Forum. There is a lot of information there, so do a search for "Laserdisc" to get you to the correct area.

In regards to a place for repair, I've heard good things about Laserdiscservice but haven't used them myself.

I own a Pioneer CLD-702 that I'm pretty happy with but am hoping to upgrade to a 703 or 704 if I can find a good deal somewhere.

atcolomb · #56 Post by **atcolomb** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 5:01 pm

I also have a Pioneer CLD-702 player and so far no problems. I have purchased some laserdiscs from Ebay with scratches on them but had no problems with playing them. Sometimes i will play a disc with some dot crawl on the screen.

The Elegant Dandy Fop · #57 Post by **The Elegant Dandy Fop** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 7:09 pm

I have a quick question. Rumor is there is a rare Prince of Tides laserdisc printed only in the 100's. Is this true, and can anyone tell me it's worth, and how is it diffrent from the one finally released (like diffrences in features and cover).

Thanks a lot!

CSM126 · #58 Post by **CSM126** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 7:58 pm

The Elegant Dandy Fop wrote:I have a quick question. Rumor is there is a rare Prince of Tides laserdisc printed only in the 100's. Is this true, and can anyone tell me it's worth, and how is it diffrent from the one finally released (like diffrences in features and cover).

Thanks a lot!

The only difference is that the rarer version had some typos in the essay and the supplements, and la Babs demanded it be recalled so the errors could be fixed. The cover and extras are all the same otherwise.

The Elegant Dandy Fop · #59 Post by **The Elegant Dandy Fop** » Sun Feb 26, 2006 12:31 am

I've seen two diffrent covers for this movie, both under Criterion. The most noticible diffrence is the old Criterion logo is on the corner of the package, so is this the rare one?

CSM126 · #60 Post by **CSM126** » Sun Feb 26, 2006 7:24 am

The Elegant Dandy Fop wrote:I've seen two diffrent covers for this movie, both under Criterion. The most noticible diffrence is the old Criterion logo is on the corner of the package, so is this the rare one?

Funny, I've never seen a difference in packaging or heard of one.

porquenegar · #61 Post by **porquenegar** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 2:10 pm

From IMDB

According to an article in the "Los Angeles Times" (11 Dec 95), the new discs are not the same discs that were pressed a couple of years ago. The article also claims that Barbra Streisand corrected some "mistakes" and they repressed the discs to reflect these corrections. The article went on to say that the original pressings were dumped in a landfill, EXCEPT for a few copies that got out into the hands of collectors.
About 40 copies of the original version were given to Voyager employees as Cristmas presents. Voyager couldn't demand them back and so they became instant collector's items.
As for the differences between old and new discs, briefly: the changes amounted to correcting several typographical errors in the supplements, fine-tuning the synching of certain sections of the commentary, and reorganizing a split-screen section in the supplement so that three versions of a scene would be shown with slightly different points of contrast (this is a bit hard to explain, but if you truly have one of the originals, you'll perhaps notice the difference). Otherwise the discs, including the transfer and cut of the film are identical.

The Elegant Dandy Fop · #62 Post by **The Elegant Dandy Fop** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 11:50 pm

Alright, I have an other question. How do the John Water films on Criterion rank up to the New Line DVDs? Are the commentaries extremly diffrent, are there more features, better transfers, etc?

Thanks!

flyonthewall2983 · #63 Post by **flyonthewall2983** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 10:44 pm

found this on Wikipedia the other day:

Title Director Year Spine #
Caesar and Cleopatra Gabriel Pascal 1945 90
Green for Danger Sidney Gilliat 1946 104
Spirit of the Beehive VÃctor Erice 1973 110
Truffaut Trio FranÃ§ois Truffaut N/A 176
A River Runs Through It Robert Redford 1992 179
A Few Good Men Rob Reiner 1992 181
City of Hope John Sayles 1992 186
The Bridge on the River Kwai David Lean 1957 193
Easy Rider Dennis Hopper 1969 194
The Lady from Shanghai Orson Welles 1947 197
On the Waterfront Elia Kazan 1954 200
The Elephant Man David Lynch 1980 201
Macbeth Roman Polanski 1971 206
The Firemen's Ball Milos Forman 1968 217

Quick question, would The Elephant Man have been distributed along with Paramount?

flyonthewall2983 · #64 Post by **flyonthewall2983** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 1:06 pm

I wondered where that post went.

Titus · #65 Post by **Titus** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 7:04 pm

Has anybody used this site? It looks kosher, but the format is a little awkward. Am I to assume all of the discs are used? Selection's good and prices are decent, I suppose.

Any other LD etailers out there?

#66 Post by **domino harvey** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 12:52 am

someone should start ripping all these OOP Laserdisc commentaries. I'd be happy to host them online if it's a matter of there not being anywhere to put them up.

Schkura · #67 Post by **Schkura** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 2:23 am

and I will be happy to take them

Gordon · #68 Post by **Gordon** » Sun Apr 16, 2006 11:10 am

As would I. I'd actually pay $20-30 for most of them.

Schkura · #69 Post by **Schkura** » Sun Apr 16, 2006 11:11 am

I will be happy to take them.

Gordon · #70 Post by **Gordon** » Sun Apr 16, 2006 5:08 pm

That's not how the world generally works.

jedgeco · #71 Post by **jedgeco** » Sun Nov 19, 2006 10:01 pm

Does anyone know if there's another archive of the old pre-DVD Criterion website out there? The "Chaumurky" site linked above doesn't work anymore?

Cinesimilitude · #72 Post by **Cinesimilitude** » Sun Nov 19, 2006 10:07 pm

exte wrote:Anyone have the Star Wars Definitive collection? I managed to get Empire Strikes Back and ripped the commentary, but it's less than fifteen minutes! Now I've heard that they were really short, but still... Anyway, being the completist nutjob that I am, I'm looking to nab all three, figuring the commentaries will total in at feature length. Anyone whole-heartedly recommend this? Has anyone listened to them? Are they terrible?

Sorry if you're not looking anymore exte, I realize this was posted a long time ago, but the commentaries ont he definitive star wars are not feature length, only occasional comments, But I'm certain it would be longer than 15 minutes totalled together. I have the laserdisc set ripped to DVD-R, and if you could inform me of how to rip commentaries, I'd be glad to try to get you copies from the 3 films.

porquenegar · #73 Post by **porquenegar** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 4:44 am

Are the essays on the back of the Criterion LDs available anywhere? I was watching my 12 Angry Men LD this morning and reading the back cover and thought of it. I have about a 100 of these and have been thinking of typing them up and posting them somewhere if they aren't already available.

#74 Post by **Matt** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 11:19 am

porquenegar wrote:Are the essays on the back of the Criterion LDs available anywhere?

Jun-Dai used to host an archived version of Criterion's old site that had all the laserdisc info and essays. It seems to be gone now.

And the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine doesn't go back far enough to have those pages either.

porquenegar · #75 Post by **porquenegar** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 2:34 pm

Matt wrote:
porquenegar wrote:Are the essays on the back of the Criterion LDs available anywhere?
Jun-Dai used to host an archived version of Criterion's old site that had all the laserdisc info and essays. It seems to be gone now. And the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine doesn't go back far enough to have those pages either.

That is a bummer. What can I do to help get it back online?