Looking at my DVD library, I currently have a grand total of 78 titles. I was buying DVDs for months prior to even owning a DVD player, in anticipation of someday getting a player.
I never got a laserdisc player. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I even saw a laserdisc player in action. Only once did I ever see an entire movie on laserdisc, and that was only because a cousin of mine had a laserdisc player.
Now, with DVDs becoming quite successful in the market, I’m wondering why the laserdisc technology never seemed to catch on so strongly. Where did DVDs succeed that laserdiscs fail? Granted, DVDs do apparently have superior video and sound quality compared to laserdisc, but laserdisc is supposedly a step above VHS. Given that laserdisc was an improvement over VHS, why did it never catch on to the extent that DVD has?
I would say that laserdisc was a fairly successful, niche, technology. There were an awful lot of titles for laserdisc, though DVD has gone way past that. The biggest problem with LD is that you had to flip the disk every hour, and a long movie needed 2 disks. You rarely get a movie long enough to require 2 DVDs, and it never needs to be flipped. Add to that the fact that LDs are big and heavy, my parents have a library of well over 200 titles, moving and storing them is a major job.
I’ve heard it said that DVD was perhaps the most successful consumer technology rollout in history, no shame in being overshadowed by it.
Laserdisks (and Videodisks) came along very shortly before VCRs came out. The inability to record was considered the major drawback. That forced them into “niche mode” where players and movies became expensive and not available at the corner electronics store.
DVD had the advantage of several years of CD technology preceding it. That gave the manufacturers a lot of experience in making virtually identical products. The initial cost of DVD players and movies was significantly lower. So when the videophiles started buying them, it didn’t take long for the “drop the price cause we’re making millions of them which drops the price …” mode to kick in.
TVs have also advanced a lot and people were sick of the crappy VHS quality. Not being able to record is also less an issue since people were in the habit of renting movies. (Being able to take advantage of such habits is huge in consumer marketing.)
Can anyone supply a timeline as to when Laserdiscs and DVDs were introduced? DVD has to be much newer than I think–on the commentary for Chasing Amy (1997, IIRC), Kevin Smith says “Fuck DVD!” (it was originally recorded for Laserdisc).
I bought a laserdisc player (Realistic MD-1000, don’t laugh, despite the Radio Shack label, it was built by Pioneer) in 1991. At the time, Pioneer made a player that played both sides without having to flip the disc. It had two lasers and there was a brief pause while the second laser started on the second side. A minor problem compared to stopping the player, ejecting the disc and flipping it. I joined the Columbia House Laserdisc Club (now the DVD Club) and got the Star Wars trilogy (widescreen version) for about $10! Ha! take that Lucas! I have about 50 discs. I got a DVD player about 2 years ago and have embraced the format fully. I’m eagerly awaiting the recorders and blanks to come down in price.
Some titles I have that haven’t made it to DVD (yet):
The Beatles Anthology
Bladerunner (Criterion version)
Star Trek Animated Series
Looney Tunes 1933-1948 (70 uncut toons!) one of 5 or 6 sets made
