Laserdisc player help.

[Spiny Norman]

It was controversial & made you look like an LD fanboi.

Plus, it wasn't factual, just anecdotal. 7 examples doesn't make a trend.

Plus, though I haven't researched it much because it isn't well documented internet-wise, even a simple search through Amazon noted that Buffy & Wrongfully Accused are BOTH available on DVD, with BOTH CCs and DD 5.1 soundtracks. And Roman Scandals? 1933 Busby Berkeley musical MONO B/W? It's available in DVD (as an R2 import). Why not R1? - because it wouldn't sell. It is a good example of one of those exceptions I was referring to.

LD & CD & DVD are all "mass produced". They were even, for the first decade or so, ALL pressed at the same Terre Haute, Indiana, USA pressing plant. Their #s might be different, but don't kid yourself: LD only ENDED UP being marketed to "dedicated film fanatics" because all their attempts at selling to the masses failed. DVD (and to a lesser extent BD) market to BOTH masses and film fans. Have you never heard of "superbit" or "remastered" specialty releases? Criterion, for example, puts just as much effort into their DVD/BD catalog as they do LD.

I'm already aware of LDDB, you don't need to keep bringing it up. My father-in-law has a collection of ~<500 or so LDs, so I'm quite familiar with availability. Plus, and I'm not bullshitting here: I specialized in "Laserdisc technologies" while in University (dates me, I'm sure), so I know technically & economically what I'm talking about.
Nowadays, I would only look on LDDB if I were searching for a particular title, and even then ONLY if it weren't already/also available on DVD or BD. I'm guessing most people would follow a similar strategy.

Scott

No, YOU find it controversial. Your opinion isn't fact even if you did study laserdisc technologies (which, I remind you, is purely anecdotal too).
Also, again, the reasons don't matter if I make a simple statement about the end result. But obviously anyone who hasn't got solid proof must be lying by default. So there is a Spanish DVD of Roman Scandals. Just because you note that triumphantly, that doesn't actually mean you scored a point or anything, you know that, right? If you've got so many LDs in the family you might as well help me out with those other requests.

You know, I quit. Go question someone else, what do I care if you don't believe a word I say? If I wrote that the sky was blue, you'd still call that "anecdotal evidence from a skyfan" because the sky is only blue by day, there is only one example of it, and only as long as there are no clouds, and at night it's black... And it isn't actually blue, it only appears blue to us... etcetera...
You're a walking monty python sketch, only not funny.

[Cornucopia]

The reason I harped on you is because you wrote the equivalent incendiary statement of "the sky is always blue",. Which is

NOT TRUE.

When I called you on it, you just kept digging your own hole deeper.

I appreciate LD technology plenty, more than the average guy, but I understand its strengths AND weaknesses/limitations, and know that its time has past.

But I guess you will keep looking for Dinsdale.

Scott

[Spiny Norman]

Well look who thinks he made a witty remark. Instead of attending laserdisc technology class, you should have taken a course in formal logic. So let's take a look at that controversial claim of mine:

More trivia: LaserDiscs often had 4 channel surround and subtitles where today's DVD/BR is a barebones 2 channel affair.
Just recently I got a laserdisc transfer from someone and it turned out there still were "CC" subtitles on that without him even knowing it!

Clearly highly offensive use of the word "often". I confess: It was a sneaky attempt of me to smuggle untruthful claims into this forum and website. Instead of "occasionally" or even "rarely", I wrote "often" to deliberately spread lies and misinformation, and, worst of all, unsubstantiated anecdotes. And I would have gotten away with it too if it hadn't been for you argumentative kids!

Now google me some subtitles for Return of the Musketeers (1989), will you?

[solarfox]

This piece of ... work.
I was able to watch Cobb... So thrilled.
It wouldn't play the last five minutes though.
It wouldn't function at all last night.
Even with lifting the tray slightly.

There are two possibilities here:

(1) The LaserDisc player is at fault; or,
(2) the disc you're trying to watch is faulty.

Do you have another disc that you can try? If other discs will play through normally, then your "Cobb" disc might be a victim of the dreaded "laser rot", in which an improperly-manufactured disc's reflective aluminum layer degrades over time and the player isn't able to read the disc reliably. (Assuming that "Cobb" doesn't have any obvious surface defects like major scuffs or deep scratches.)

If you can't get any discs to play reliably all the way through (or play at all), then the player is most likely at fault. The most likely suspects, in my experience, are either

(A) the spindle motor isn't able to get up to and/or maintain the correct spin speed (which could be the motor or the controller circuitry), or
(B) the optical block (the part that actually houses the laser, lens, and photodetector assembly that reads the disc) is having difficulty reading the disc (laser is wearing out, lenses are dirty or scratched, etc.); or
(C) the mechanics which move the optical block back and forth aren't "tracking" correctly. (Think of it as a phonograph needle that can't stay in the groove, if it helps.)

Unfortunately, none of these are trivial fixes, even if you can find someone who will work on the unit.

[jman98]

solarfox - Are you really and truly speaking from experience about "laser rot" or just passing on what you think? I've got a laserdisc with laser rot and refusing to play is not what happens, at least on that disc. Laser rot causes the disc to experience visible video defects all over the image, but it will still playback. I think the OP has a player problem. The player had issues and the OP had to lift the tray to get it to work at all with laserdiscs. I'd guess the player is simply going bad. As I stated earlier in this thread, some sellers deliberately sell defective electronics, some sell stuff they BARELY test (one very quick test and they pronounce it perfectly fine) that actually isn't in very good shape at all, and others may not test at all, thinking "It worked the last time I used it ____ years ago".

[solarfox]

It's not as common, to be sure, but I have encountered the occasional disc where the "rot" caused a known-good-and-working player to not be able to recognize it as a valid disc. Hence my question about whether or not the OP had tried any other laserdiscs in the player besides this one.

You will also notice that laser rot was not the only possibility I mentioned, and that the other two possible causes are, in fact, problems with the player.

Given that I've been using the LaserDisc format since the early-to-mid-80s (and currently own three players and about 300+ discs), I think I have a fairly good idea of what I'm talking about.

[jman98]

Given that I've been using the LaserDisc format since the early-to-mid-80s (and currently own three players and about 300+ discs), I think I have a fairly good idea of what I'm talking about.

Nobody is calling you out dude. I'm just asking. We do get people here who post stuff that they don't know at all but they read it somewhere else and they're trying to be helpful by passing it along, but they have no experience whether it's right or wong. I've never seen it but as I only have 1 LD that I know has laser rot and it doesn't stop playing, I was just asking if you really knew. I'll take your word for it.

[Cornucopia]

Laser Rot, or disc rot, can take various forms, depending on where it exists on the disc and in how much area is affected. Since LD discs are Analog and the pits & lands on the disc are pulse-width modulated (similar to FM modulation) in a single serial stream, it is possible for a disc with Laser Rot to exhibit:
1. Small sporadic blips/glitches/smears in the image
2. Breakup of the image temporarily (like a broadcast with poor reception)
3. No startup (if the inner "lead-in" section is heavily affected)

So, you can both be right.

Scott

[Spiny Norman]

That's funny. Unless you identify yourself as an owner of hundreds of laserdiscs, Abbott and Costello here will jump on you, determined to misinterpret everything you say.
Apparently checking stories for proof is now the same as plain agressive, arrogant behaviour. But give the secret LD handshake and suddenly cornutopia is all obliging and pacifying. I find that funny. Shows how bogus they both really are.

[Cornucopia]