| Cinema Cynergy June 2001
Requiem for the Laserdisc
"This movie is hilarious," noted the clerk at the
video store as I brought Army of Darkness: Director’s Cut on DVD to the
counter. "Yeah," I replied, "I saw it on laserdisc years ago and thought
I’d rent it again." A look of bemusement came over the clerk’s face.
"Laserdiscs, those huge things? They disappeared real quick," he continued.
"Yeah," I sheepishly replied again, not knowing exactly what to say. "Say,
you don’t still have a laserdisc player do you?" he asked. "I sure
do," I answered, as I beat a hasty retreat from the store.
Back at home, I looked at my LD copies of Star Wars
Episode 1: The Phantom Menace (Japanese import), the Star Wars Trilogy: The
Definitive Collection, Schindler’s List, Beauty and the Beast, The
Lion King, Aladdin, Forrest Gump, Raiders of the Lost Ark, etc.,
which all sat lovingly on my shelf. I knew, however, that their days there were numbered.
As more and more catalog titles become available on DVD, my cherished collection of films
on LD that are not yet available on DVD becomes less precious and less practical to use. I
have already replaced some LDs, such as Jurassic Park and The Lost World in
DTS, The Ice Storm, Close Encounters, and Toy Story: Deluxe
CAV Edition.
 It was not so long ago that laserdisc was
the format of choice for high-quality home-theater systems. DVD, which was only introduced
in 1997, has really taken off in the few years since its inception. Flash forward to 2001
and there is another George Bush in the Whitehouse, the Internet is a common method of
gathering and distributing information, and the laserdisc seems like only a distant
memory. Once DVD players went into production, manufacturers dropped LD faster than they
had dumped Beta. Software availability dwindled rapidly and the manufacturing of LD
players literally ceased overnight. Pioneer was the only major electronics manufacturer
who continued to produce new units, and they still offer the DVL-919 and Elite DV-91
DVD/LD combination players today. For all the success that the DVD format has enjoyed, let
us not forget that it was the laserdisc whose technology had been available for decades
that provided consumers with a high-resolution video picture and high-quality audio for
many years.
Although they store video information in an analog format,
LDs are capable of producing over 400 lines of horizontal resolution and can provide a
stunning picture. The audio tracks were originally high-quality analog, but digital PCM
tracks were added as the CD format was developed. Later, Dolby Digital (or AC-3 as it was
known back then) and DTS were added to the LD standard. DTS laserdiscs were pressed
separately from standard non-DTS LDs. They contained only the DTS 5.1 and stereo analog
tracks and did not have any digital PCM tracks. However, due to concerns over
compatibility with all LD players (including those with only analog audio capability), and
the desire to retain the digital PCM tracks, Dolby Digital soundtracks were actually
recorded onto one of the analog channels. How was this accomplished? Well, the digital
signal is converted into an analog signal and then converted back again prior to decoding
by the processor, similar to the manner in which modems convert digital information into
analog signals for transmission over phone lines. And as with modems, this analog signal,
referred to as AC-3 RF, requires an outboard demodulator (a device used to convert the
analog signal back into a digital signal) if the processor does not have one built-in
(which most do not). Thus, many people with LD players today cannot access the Dolby
Digital signal on their discs because they do not have a processor with an AC-3 RF input
or an outboard RF demodulator. However, the DTS signal from an LD player is accessible to
any DTS compatible processor or receiver through the optical or coaxial outputs.
I enjoyed watching laserdiscs when they were in their
heyday, and I still enjoy watching them today. I fondly remember my excitement as I played
my first DTS disc, The Mask, or watching Saving Private Ryan in Dolby
Digital months before it was available on DVD. The picture quality was very good and the
audio quality was indistinguishable from that of DVD. So if the laserdisc was such a good
format, why did DVD replace it so quickly?
For one thing, laserdiscs are large (12" in diameter
versus 5" for DVDs) and difficult to manufacture. DVDs, on the other hand, are much
cheaper to produce and can be manufactured in a fashion similar to that of CDs. Being so
large and relatively heavy, laserdiscs are also expensive to ship and inconvenient to
store and display. Because of these drawbacks, software and hardware manufacturers never
really embraced the format and concentrated on VHS tape, which dominated the video market
and was thus much more profitable. Consumers other than videophiles were reluctant to
invest in laserdiscs because players were relatively expensive and, although software was
being produced, few stores sold or rented laserdiscs. Thus we had the dilemma where
manufacturers were not willing to fully commit to the laserdisc, which prevented consumers
from embracing it. As a result, LD limped along as a consumer format for some twenty years
(it was actually introduced back in 1978 by Phillips and Pioneer), and was relegated to
the videophile niche market.
So in the nineties, when sales of VCRs and CD players had
leveled off, the electronics manufacturers and movie studios saw an opportunity to
introduce a new video format called DVD, which they hoped would spark a renewed interest
in home theater. With the promise of high-quality digital video and discrete digital
sound, DVD was touted as the next big consumer electronics format. Even before DVD players
began hitting the market in 1997, laserdisc players disappeared from dealers’ shelves
as manufacturers stopped producing them. Laserdiscs continued to be pressed by a few
companies such as Image and Pioneer, but even this would only last for a year or two. By
then, prices of DVD players had dropped to only a few hundred dollars, movie studios were
releasing most films on DVD concurrently with VHS, and many DVDs were selling for as
little as $20. With manufacturers fully supporting the new format and then some,
DVD’s success was almost guaranteed and LD’s fate was sealed.
So now you know the story of the laserdisc. While it was
and still is an excellent medium, it is a technology that was ahead of its time, and was
therefore never really given a chance to succeed. Thankfully, its successor, DVD, offers
the same discrete digital sound in the form of Dolby Digital and DTS that were available
on LD and an even better digital picture. More importantly, it offers the convenience of a
CD-sized media at a very economical price point that consumers are quickly adopting.
Players are now available for sale at just about every retail store that has an
electronics department and discs can be rented at most video rental outlets. In just four
short years, the DVD format has achieved a level of success that laserdisc could not equal
in twenty.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I am going to go watch Forrest
Gump on LD in Dolby Digital, whose release date of August 28th as a Paramount
Collector’s Edition has just been announced...sigh.
...Roger Kanno
roger@hometheatersound.com
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