OT: Anyone have an old laserdisc player?
I've got some late 70s / early 80s General Motors laserdiscs that I want to capture, but my 90s Sony player won't read them. I'd like to try the discs in a 70s player to see if there's any hope of getting them to play, but don't want to drop $$$ on a player when I'll only use it 4 or 5 times. Does anyone on this list have a working player from 1984 or older with a gas tube laser? The GM dealers had Pioneer PR-7820's, I'd think that has the best chance of reading the discs. Thanks, -- Jason Perkins 313 355 0085
I have a few Pioneer Laserdiscs that are from the ‘80s I’m not at home to check the model. They were used in interactive exhibits and have serial control if that helps date them. I will check if they work when I get home. Ben
On Jul 28, 2016, at 10:45 AM, Jason Perkins via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
I've got some late 70s / early 80s General Motors laserdiscs that I want to capture, but my 90s Sony player won't read them. I'd like to try the discs in a 70s player to see if there's any hope of getting them to play, but don't want to drop $$$ on a player when I'll only use it 4 or 5 times.
Does anyone on this list have a working player from 1984 or older with a gas tube laser? The GM dealers had Pioneer PR-7820's, I'd think that has the best chance of reading the discs.
Thanks,
-- Jason Perkins 313 355 0085
Jason, The best player for those discs is a Pioneer VP-1100 or a Sylvania VP-7200. The Pioneer VP-660 also works well. Avoid the Sony LDP-1000 as almost all of them have laser tubes that have gone to air. The Pioneer LD-S2 is about the only SS laser player that can play the disks but the old HeNe tube based players do better. Sent from my iPhone
On Jul 28, 2016, at 10:45 AM, Jason Perkins via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
I've got some late 70s / early 80s General Motors laserdiscs that I want to capture, but my 90s Sony player won't read them. I'd like to try the discs in a 70s player to see if there's any hope of getting them to play, but don't want to drop $$$ on a player when I'll only use it 4 or 5 times.
Does anyone on this list have a working player from 1984 or older with a gas tube laser? The GM dealers had Pioneer PR-7820's, I'd think that has the best chance of reading the discs.
Thanks,
-- Jason Perkins 313 355 0085
I've got some late 70s / early 80s General Motors laserdiscs that I want to capture, but my 90s Sony player won't read them. I'd like to try the discs in a 70s player to see if there's any hope of getting them to play, but don't want to drop $$$ on a player when I'll only use it 4 or 5 times. Does anyone on this list have a working player from 1984 or older with a gas tube laser? The GM dealers had Pioneer PR-7820's, I'd think that has the best chance of reading the discs. Thanks,
Did you inspect the discs for laser rot? - Ethan
Yes, some of the discs have a touch laser rot... at least a visible colored wave. None are extreme though, not as bad as this: https://psap.library.illinois.edu/assets/laserdisc-rot01-1500-d1baafba0c9e1e... They're early discs, branded as MCA Disco Vision. Here's what one of the discs did in my player. When the machine reached a bad spot in the disc it would give up after a moment. If I used the jog control sometimes I could skip over the bad part: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgF9BalTHSY This was one of the older discs, but despite having some rot it still played acceptably: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAkLazvGWOg -J On Thu, Jul 28, 2016 at 11:08 AM, Ethan <telmnstr@757.org> wrote:
I've got some late 70s / early 80s General Motors laserdiscs that I want to capture, but my 90s Sony player won't read them. I'd like to try the discs in a 70s player to see if there's any hope of getting them to play, but don't want to drop $$$ on a player when I'll only use it 4 or 5 times. Does anyone on this list have a working player from 1984 or older with a gas tube laser? The GM dealers had Pioneer PR-7820's, I'd think that has the best chance of reading the discs. Thanks,
Did you inspect the discs for laser rot?
- Ethan
-- Jason Perkins 313 355 0085
I have a machine that old - it worked last time I used it. Perhaps we can try at the next workshop? -Ian On Thursday, July 28, 2016, Jason Perkins via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
Yes, some of the discs have a touch laser rot... at least a visible colored wave. None are extreme though, not as bad as this:
https://psap.library.illinois.edu/assets/laserdisc-rot01-1500-d1baafba0c9e1e... They're early discs, branded as MCA Disco Vision.
Here's what one of the discs did in my player. When the machine reached a bad spot in the disc it would give up after a moment. If I used the jog control sometimes I could skip over the bad part:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgF9BalTHSY
This was one of the older discs, but despite having some rot it still played acceptably:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAkLazvGWOg
-J
On Thu, Jul 28, 2016 at 11:08 AM, Ethan <telmnstr@757.org <javascript:;>> wrote:
I've got some late 70s / early 80s General Motors laserdiscs that I want to capture, but my 90s Sony player won't read them. I'd like to try the discs in a 70s player to see if there's any hope of getting them to play, but don't want to drop $$$ on a player when I'll only use it 4 or 5 times. Does anyone on this list have a working player from 1984 or older with a gas tube laser? The GM dealers had Pioneer PR-7820's, I'd think that has the best chance of reading the discs. Thanks,
Did you inspect the discs for laser rot?
- Ethan
-- Jason Perkins 313 355 0085
On 07/28/2016 08:32 AM, Jason Perkins via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
Yes, some of the discs have a touch laser rot... at least a visible colored wave. None are extreme though, not as bad as this: https://psap.library.illinois.edu/assets/laserdisc-rot01-1500-d1baafba0c9e1e... They're early discs, branded as MCA Disco Vision.
Here's what one of the discs did in my player. When the machine reached a bad spot in the disc it would give up after a moment. If I used the jog control sometimes I could skip over the bad part:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgF9BalTHSY
This was one of the older discs, but despite having some rot it still played acceptably:
Unfortunately me and my laserdisc players are on the wrong side of the country these days, but I just have to say, the opening to that second one is amazing...
Here is the beginning of one of the GM laserdiscs, you will here some FSK audio at the beginning, that is to program the CPU in the pioneer PR-7820 to go into "interactive mode" This copy is from a defective pressing, that was then used on side 6 or the dead side of Jaws. There where a lot of problems with defective pressings because MCA/DiscoVision thought that optical video discs could be pressed under the same conditions as LP records.... WRONG! https://youtu.be/zG5S_NWLwIQ Sent from my iPhone
On Jul 28, 2016, at 8:28 PM, Jason Howe via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
On 07/28/2016 08:32 AM, Jason Perkins via vcf-midatlantic wrote: Yes, some of the discs have a touch laser rot... at least a visible colored wave. None are extreme though, not as bad as this: https://psap.library.illinois.edu/assets/laserdisc-rot01-1500-d1baafba0c9e1e... They're early discs, branded as MCA Disco Vision.
Here's what one of the discs did in my player. When the machine reached a bad spot in the disc it would give up after a moment. If I used the jog control sometimes I could skip over the bad part:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgF9BalTHSY
This was one of the older discs, but despite having some rot it still played acceptably:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAkLazvGWOg Unfortunately me and my laserdisc players are on the wrong side of the country these days, but I just have to say, the opening to that second one is amazing...
I believe that Ian Primus has one. I believe he used it to show an old move at a past Festivus. On Thu, Jul 28, 2016 at 10:45 AM, Jason Perkins via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
I've got some late 70s / early 80s General Motors laserdiscs that I want to capture, but my 90s Sony player won't read them. I'd like to try the discs in a 70s player to see if there's any hope of getting them to play, but don't want to drop $$$ on a player when I'll only use it 4 or 5 times.
Does anyone on this list have a working player from 1984 or older with a gas tube laser? The GM dealers had Pioneer PR-7820's, I'd think that has the best chance of reading the discs.
Thanks,
-- Jason Perkins 313 355 0085
-- Jeff Brace - ark72axow@gmail.com
I have more than one Pioneer LD-V8000 laserdisc players. These were the industry standard player for commercial use - videowalls and the like. They may be "too new" for your use but anyway... For what it's worth they can play both CAV and CLV discs. I bought a bunch (used) for a job in 1996 for a job, and now some of them are still lurking in a dark corner. Every once in a while, I ALMOST get motivated to get them onto ebay, but for now here they sit. The next chance I have to get to a workshop is September. If you still need to try one then let me know. Steve -----Original Message----- From: vcf-midatlantic [mailto:vcf-midatlantic-bounces@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org] On Behalf Of Jason Perkins via vcf-midatlantic Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2016 7:46 AM To: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> Cc: Jason Perkins <perkins.jason@gmail.com> Subject: [vcf-midatlantic] OT: Anyone have an old laserdisc player? I've got some late 70s / early 80s General Motors laserdiscs that I want to capture, but my 90s Sony player won't read them. I'd like to try the discs in a 70s player to see if there's any hope of getting them to play, but don't want to drop $$$ on a player when I'll only use it 4 or 5 times. Does anyone on this list have a working player from 1984 or older with a gas tube laser? The GM dealers had Pioneer PR-7820's, I'd think that has the best chance of reading the discs. Thanks, -- Jason Perkins 313 355 0085
Will do. Thanks everyone for the replies. I'll have to haul my butt up to NJ for a workshop to capture some of these discs :) -J On Fri, Jul 29, 2016 at 2:58 PM, Steven Michelsen via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
I have more than one Pioneer LD-V8000 laserdisc players. These were the industry standard player for commercial use - videowalls and the like. They may be "too new" for your use but anyway... For what it's worth they can play both CAV and CLV discs. I bought a bunch (used) for a job in 1996 for a job, and now some of them are still lurking in a dark corner. Every once in a while, I ALMOST get motivated to get them onto ebay, but for now here they sit.
The next chance I have to get to a workshop is September. If you still need to try one then let me know.
Steve
-----Original Message----- From: vcf-midatlantic [mailto:vcf-midatlantic-bounces@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org] On Behalf Of Jason Perkins via vcf-midatlantic Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2016 7:46 AM To: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> Cc: Jason Perkins <perkins.jason@gmail.com> Subject: [vcf-midatlantic] OT: Anyone have an old laserdisc player?
I've got some late 70s / early 80s General Motors laserdiscs that I want to capture, but my 90s Sony player won't read them. I'd like to try the discs in a 70s player to see if there's any hope of getting them to play, but don't want to drop $$$ on a player when I'll only use it 4 or 5 times.
Does anyone on this list have a working player from 1984 or older with a gas tube laser? The GM dealers had Pioneer PR-7820's, I'd think that has the best chance of reading the discs.
Thanks,
-- Jason Perkins 313 355 0085
-- Jason Perkins 313 355 0085
participants (8)
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Ben Greenfield -
Ethan -
Ian Primus -
Jason Howe -
Jason Perkins -
Jeffrey Brace -
Matt Patoray -
Steven Michelsen