[Travis Mays]

I posted this as a reply somewhere else, but it might get swallowed up. I've never ever seen a laserdisc movie. How do they par up to DVD? I know they're better than VHS but do they even approach DVD quality? I'm wondering because I might get the OT and I just want to know if it would be worth the money or if I should just settle with my VHS copies.

[civilian_number_two]

I posted this as a reply somewhere else, but it might get swallowed up. I've never ever seen a laserdisc movie. How do they par up to DVD? I know they're better than VHS but do they even approach DVD quality? I'm wondering because I might get the OT and I just want to know if it would be worth the money or if I should just settle with my VHS copies.

The very rare all "CAV" laserdiscs have every single frame of film on the disc, so you can pause and slo-mo with perfect fluidity and zero artifacting. It is an analog format, like VHS, so what you see is what you get. The quality of the image is mych better than VHS.

The more common "CLV" format contains about half the frames of the film, with digital approximations making up for the motion of the film. These look fine when you watch them, but they naturally do not have the fluidity in slo-mo, reverse, etc.

The hard-to-get boxed set of the OT is all CAV, and is the preferred source for making DVD copies. There are similar boxes for a few other films, from Alien to Lawrence of Arabia.

Laserdisc priced itself out of the market, and may have long-term weaknesses. Many users claim that their discs are losing their quality over time, suffering an effect commonly called "laser rot." Also, as digital compression gets better, DVD image quality will improve. Its sound quality was right off the bat better than anything laserdisc ever managed.

[Travis Mays]

Yes, yes, I know all this. My question though, is on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being VHS, 10 being DVD - where would CAV laserdisc copies of Star Wars rank? I just want to know how good it looks, is it worth forking out $100 + for a player and the discs?

[civilian_number_two]

Oh jeepers. My detailed analog response wasn't good enough; you want something vague and digital? Ok, comparative scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being VHS and 10 being the nonexistent transfered-from-film DVD, DVD, the ideal laserdisc-to-DVD transfer would be about an 8. But the laserdisc on its own would be about a 12, for the visuals alone. DVD is compressed and just not as nice, remastered images and sound notwithstanding.

It is worth forking out $100 + for a player and the discs, if you can really do that. I bet it would be more in the neighbourhood or $200+

Of course, that's a completely relative stat, too. I have no idea what that kind of money means to you. For me, it's just 1-2/10ths of a new ivory backscratcher.

[Travis Mays]

Cool! That answers it! I've seen the transferred to DVD thing and it looks like crap to me. I don't know if all copies are like this, but there was so much ghosting that watching the VHS was preferable. It looked like someone added a slow shutter effect or something. Are there any copies that aren't like this?

I'm quite a videophile, even though I've shamefully never seen laserdisc (Too damned expensive in the hayday). I could find them around the price I want if I'm just patient about it.

[Darth Player]

Can anyone comment on the extras that appeared on the laserdiscs? Are they better than the ones on the DVD release?And if there is more than one commentary track, does it differ than the DVD one, is that better? If so, I'd be interested in undertaking the quest to get an ultimate edition of ESB, even forking over for the player if I had to. TIA, DP