Tag: technology

My only memory of the defunct laserdisc video format is the player my uncle Ramiro owned sometime in the early nineties. I remember noticing the device sitting on a high shelf of his classic wood and lacquer entertainment center, the type frequently seen in the homes of my Mexican uncles and friends of my dad. Someone always knew a wood-working friend or uncle who could whip one of these things up in no time.

I didn’t know what a laserdisc was, of course, since my parents would never spring for such a frivolous device when a VCR and VHS tapes were far cheaper. My uncle explained its purpose, showed me an actual laserdisc (like a CD the size of a 12″ vinyl record), and then demonstrated that his particular player included two disc trays. I recently learned that laserdiscs could only fit about fifty-five minutes of video on one side, so the early players required one to get up and manually flip the disc. Later players introduced automatic flipping and that multi-disc support my uncle showed me.

It was most likely the Pioneer LD-W1.

We didn’t even watch a movie on laserdisc that day. He just showed it off. I never thought about laserdiscs again except as a Betamax-like curiosity.

Then there’s this past month, and Star Wars. I was a huge Star Wars fan in the late nineties and early aughts. In addition to watching the movies, I played all the video games, read all the novels, collected many toys. Star Wars was a big part of my life. I first ventured into chat rooms to discuss Star Wars with strangers, and had my first online crush when I chatted with a girl from San Diego who loved Star Wars enough to write her own songs about the series. Later, I joined Star Wars video game forums and participated in my first collaboration with online strangers when we worked together to discover the requirements for the most challenging medals in Star Wars: Episode I Battle for Naboo, a game for the Nintendo 64. I officially credit this as the beginning of my career in video games.

So I loved Star Wars, and still care about that universe and its stories. An appreciation for Star Wars got passed along to my brothers.

They were there with me when I was in the mood to watch the films on our VCR and they know the stories of the myriad film characters as well as I do. They always join me to watch the latest installment of the franchise. It’s become a treasured tradition for me.

Now those VHS copies from the nineties, they were the 1997 Special Edition versions of the films. They were released on VHS, naturally, and laserdisc, but by the time Lucasfilm got around to DVD releases in 2004, they’d made additional changes to make Specialer Special Editions. These were different from the versions I loved and it left my beloved Special Editions in a limbo between the CG-free originals that most grumblers prefer and the constantly tweaked releases of today. No one cared enough about these versions of the films with their nineties CG to create digital copies and share them online. I grudgingly watched other versions of the original trilogy until this past December when I could no longer carry on. I needed to find copies of my Star Wars films that I could hold onto and share for years to come. VHS copies were available but any VHS film would look pretty poor on a modern television or monitor. 

Laserdisc was my best chance of finding those films in the best possible quality.

What a cluster. Unlike DVD or even VHS, laserdisc player quality seemed to vary greatly between players and from year to year. I wasn’t willing to shell out the money for the high-end holy grail players. So I bought the Star Wars 1997 Special Editions on laserdisc and

a Pioneer CLD-D701

from ebay. The motor sounded a bit rough but it still played the discs well. I managed to get through two of the films before the player’s motor crapped out at the start of the third. I can’t get it to budge and fixing it is a project for another day.

Then I checked Craiglist. (Last ditch is when Craigslist is most useful.) That’s where I found a Pioneer CLD-S201 from an electronics recycler. The forums I checked said it’s a low-end player (and it’s missing the disc flip feature), but I was ready to wrap up this project. I needed it to literally play one more movie. I drove there and they confirmed it worked with one of their discs, so I bought it. The motor on this one sounds fine and I’m just now getting through the final side of the final disc.

There’s going to be a new Star Wars film each year for the foreseeable future. It’s not just my brothers and I who get to watch them, but our girlfriends and kids join us as well. Technology, entertainment, film… All elements of our lives that seem to fly by inconsequentially but leave indelible memories of the times when we enjoyed them together.

My only memory of the defunct laserdisc video format is the player my uncle Ramiro owned sometime in the early nineties. I remember noticing the device sitting on a high shelf of his classic wood and lacquer entertainment center, the type frequently seen in the homes of my Mexican uncles and friends of my dad. Someone always knew a wood-working friend or uncle who could whip one of these things up in no time.

I didn’t know what a laserdisc was, of course, since my parents would never spring for such a frivolous device when a VCR and VHS tapes were far cheaper. My uncle explained its purpose, showed me an actual laserdisc (like a CD the size of a 12″ vinyl record), and then demonstrated that his particular player included two disc trays. I recently learned that laserdiscs could only fit about fifty-five minutes of video on one side, so the early players required one to get up and manually flip the disc. Later players introduced automatic flipping and that multi-disc support my uncle showed me.

It was most likely the Pioneer LD-W1.

We didn’t even watch a movie on laserdisc that day. He just showed it off. I never thought about laserdiscs again except as a Betamax-like curiosity.

Then there’s this past month, and Star Wars. I was a huge Star Wars fan in the late nineties and early aughts. In addition to watching the movies, I played all the video games, read all the novels, collected many toys. Star Wars was a big part of my life. I first ventured into chat rooms to discuss Star Wars with strangers, and had my first online crush when I chatted with a girl from San Diego who loved Star Wars enough to write her own songs about the series. Later, I joined Star Wars video game forums and participated in my first collaboration with online strangers when we worked together to discover the requirements for the most challenging medals in Star Wars: Episode I Battle for Naboo, a game for the Nintendo 64. I officially credit this as the beginning of my career in video games.

So I loved Star Wars, and still care about that universe and its stories. An appreciation for Star Wars got passed along to my brothers.

They were there with me when I was in the mood to watch the films on our VCR and they know the stories of the myriad film characters as well as I do. They always join me to watch the latest installment of the franchise. It’s become a treasured tradition for me.

Now those VHS copies from the nineties, they were the 1997 Special Edition versions of the films. They were released on VHS, naturally, and laserdisc, but by the time Lucasfilm got around to DVD releases in 2004, they’d made additional changes to make Specialer Special Editions. These were different from the versions I loved and it left my beloved Special Editions in a limbo between the CG-free originals that most grumblers prefer and the constantly tweaked releases of today. No one cared enough about these versions of the films with their nineties CG to create digital copies and share them online. I grudgingly watched other versions of the original trilogy until this past December when I could no longer carry on. I needed to find copies of my Star Wars films that I could hold onto and share for years to come. VHS copies were available but any VHS film would look pretty poor on a modern television or monitor. 

Laserdisc was my best chance of finding those films in the best possible quality.

What a cluster. Unlike DVD or even VHS, laserdisc player quality seemed to vary greatly between players and from year to year. I wasn’t willing to shell out the money for the high-end holy grail players. So I bought the Star Wars 1997 Special Editions on laserdisc and

a Pioneer CLD-D701

from ebay. The motor sounded a bit rough but it still played the discs well. I managed to get through two of the films before the player’s motor crapped out at the start of the third. I can’t get it to budge and fixing it is a project for another day.

Then I checked Craiglist. (Last ditch is when Craigslist is most useful.) That’s where I found a Pioneer CLD-S201 from an electronics recycler. The forums I checked said it’s a low-end player (and it’s missing the disc flip feature), but I was ready to wrap up this project. I needed it to literally play one more movie. I drove there and they confirmed it worked with one of their discs, so I bought it. The motor on this one sounds fine and I’m just now getting through the final side of the final disc.

There’s going to be a new Star Wars film each year for the foreseeable future. It’s not just my brothers and I who get to watch them, but our girlfriends and kids join us as well. Technology, entertainment, film… All elements of our lives that seem to fly by inconsequentially but leave indelible memories of the times when we enjoyed them together.