# Last Laserdisc? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 10, 2004, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-laserdisc/233541 "2004-03-10T20:37:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-laserdisc/233541/1 "2004-03-10T20:37:58Z")
I’m guessing that Laserdiscs are no longer made, since DVDs are smaller and (presumably) cheaper. If I am correct… 1. In what year were they discontinued? 2. What was the last movie released on Laserdisc? ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-laserdisc/233541/2 "2004-03-10T21:22:53Z")
I’m not so sure that LD’s are not still being made. According to [this site](http://www.discountlaserdisc.com/read.php?list=4&sort=%201/8/04&sort3=name#addcart) movies like Braveheart, Goldeneye and Good Will Hunting are available on LD. All of these movies came out long after the LD platform was long dead. ---
**Author:** ![Lagged2Death](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ac8455/32.png) [@Lagged2Death](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lagged2Death)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-laserdisc/233541/3 "2004-03-10T22:40:07Z")
Gee, you’d think it would be fairly easy to dig up some authoritative answer to this, but I didn’t find one when I went digging. I was surprised to see that LDs were still being released into 2000, however. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-laserdisc/233541/4 "2004-03-10T23:08:23Z")
Geeze, is there _any_ advantage to the old LD formats over DVD? Beside not having to spend 50 bucks for a new player? ---
**Author:** ![summerjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@summerjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/summerjack)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-laserdisc/233541/5 "2004-03-10T23:48:25Z")
The only advantage I see is that you can still get Digitally Remastered versions of the ORIGINAL (not SE) Star Wars trilogy on LD and possibly may NEVER see them on DVD. BTW, adam yax, I only shifted to DVD in 2000. Still had and bought LDs until 2001. Tower Records didn’t even stock DVDs until well AFTER Braveheart, Forrest Gump and Goldeneye came out. That was back in '94/'95. LD didn’t even begin to start fading out until around '98. ---
**Author:** ![conczepts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e7dd6/32.png) [@conczepts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/conczepts)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-laserdisc/233541/6 "2004-03-11T00:02:18Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > Geeze, is there _any_ advantage to the old LD formats over DVD? Beside not having to spend 50 bucks for a new player? -campyness -size and coolness of the players themselves (my friend colinmarshall has a pioneer model that moves the entire LCD faceplate down to eject the LD tray) -The larger LD case sizes makes for more impressive cover art and info on the movie (lots of “mini-essays”). The picture is not quite as good as DVD, but way better than VHS. I just think they’re cooler. ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-laserdisc/233541/7 "2004-03-11T01:01:03Z")
I just like them for the vaguely-retro-yet-still-modern feel. People come over and say, “Wow, you still have records?” :😁: “Nope, not exactly…” ---
**Author:** ![StinkPop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@StinkPop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StinkPop)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-laserdisc/233541/8 "2004-03-11T03:52:57Z")
> [@Johnny L.A.](#): > > I’m guessing that Laserdiscs are no longer made, since DVDs are smaller and (presumably) cheaper. If I am correct… > > 1. In what year were they discontinued? They weren’t exactly discontinued. Rather, the publishers stopped publishing them and the replication companies shut down production because of the lack of orders. There was no grand alliance which decided that LD was dead. It died of natural causes. > [@](#): > > 1. What was the last movie released on Laserdisc? “Sleepy Hollow” and “Bringing Out the Dead” were the last 2 laserdiscs released in the U.S. - both on 10/03/2000. The format survived a bit longer in Japan - “Tokyo Raiders” was released on 09/21/2001. The last disc pressed anywhere in the world was not a movie; the “Dragon’s Lair” arcade disc had a final pressing in 2002. ---
**Author:** ![NTChrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e274bd/32.png) [@NTChrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NTChrist)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-laserdisc/233541/9 "2004-03-11T04:18:50Z")
Hmm, so LD is pretty much the 21st century version of Beta, huh? Came out slightly earlier than the dominant format, uses physically larger things (discs, in this case) for data storage, died early, sold fewer. Just random thoughts-I’ve never actually seen any LD aparatus. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-laserdisc/233541/10 "2004-03-11T06:56:07Z")
> [@NTChrist](#): > > Hmm, so LD is pretty much the 21st century version of Beta, huh? Came out slightly earlier than the dominant format, uses physically larger things (discs, in this case) for data storage, died early, sold fewer. > Just random thoughts-I’ve never actually seen any LD aparatus. \*Slightly \*earlier? Wasn’t LD out nearly 2 decades before DVD? ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-laserdisc/233541/11 "2004-03-11T07:09:38Z")
And beta tapes were smaller than VHS. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-laserdisc/233541/12 "2004-03-11T12:29:07Z")
> [@conczepts](#): > > The picture is not quite as good as DVD, but way better than VHS. I just think they’re cooler. I own a LD player and DVD player. There are tradeoffs between the two formats. DVD’s are much smaller than LDs, thus more convenient. They’re also less noisy than LDs, producing a crisp, “sharp” picture. This is why they’re more popular than LDs. But here’s the key: both formats _change_ the source material, albeit in different ways. LDs add noise. DVDs quantize and pigeon hole colors (thus modifying them) and add sharpness via digital filtering. So the real question is this: Would you rather have an authentic reproduction of the source material + noise, or would you rather have a sharp but heavily filtered & quantized version? I prefer the former. I don’t mind a little noise, but I really hate an over-sharpened, over-quantized, over-processed, computer-looking picture. ---
**Author:** ![aerodave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f08c70/32.png) [@aerodave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aerodave)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-laserdisc/233541/13 "2004-03-11T12:51:52Z")
Do you also like LPs because “pops and hisses are the way music is supposed to sound!” ? 😉 Myself, I prefer total (even artificial) clarity. But I’m just young enough to have most of my musical experience with CDs. They started to become dominant when I was a teenager. As far as movies, the only things I really have for comparison are VHS and DVD. Which is the obvious choice? 😛