Replacing Laserdiscs with bargain priced dvds

[George Bellefontaine]

I was at Walmart Saturday and in the $6.88 bargain bin I saw MARS ATTACKS, which I had on Laserdisc, so it was a great chance to replace an LD with a bargain priced DVD. And a bargain it was, when you consider I paid $55. for the Mars Attacks Laserdisc. THE PEACEMAKER, with George Clooney and Nicole Kidman was also in the bin, so I picked it up,too. For some reason or other, I didn't get around to seeing this film.

I also picked up SCARY MOVIE 3, but not for $6.88. Scary Movie 3 looks to be funnier than SM2, and not as gross.

[Glen]

Yep, I'll have to replace my laser discs someday. My player doesn't like to work anymore ( its shuts down when it goes to switch sides ). I forgot how much we used to pay for the dics ( even in the bargain bin ).

It'll be cheaper to replace my discs ( I don't have that many ) than pay to repair the player.

[Burke Strickland]

I can relate to that:

1) I still have about 400 LD titles that have:

a) not come out on DVD yet or

b) the DVD didn't offer enough of a step forward in audio or video presentation quality to tempt me to spend more money on another copy or

c) I consider the title "marginal" -- nice to have in my collection, but not one I need to chase after the "latest and greatest" rendition on home video.

That said, I have replaced about 100 titles with DVD which I also have on LD. By "replace", I mean that I now have a DVD of the same title in addition to the LD, since I haven't sold off any of the LDs. In some cases, like "The Sound of Music" and "Amadeus", the LD Collector's Box Sets included many "extras" including memorabilia, posters, special edition soundtrack CDs, and etcetera, not offered again in any form, so I wouldn't want to sell them even if there were a real market for LDs any more.

As examples of titles I have "replaced", over the years I bought several editions of "Lawrence of Arabia" on both LD and DVD, until they finally got it right with the latest DVD "Superbit" edition (which I just watched again last night). When I saw a DVD for $9.99 with the correct aspect ratio and DD 5.1 soundtrack (derived from the multiple channel soundtrack of the "road show print") of "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines", I took the leap and added that to my collection, even though I have a pricey LD of that movie still sitting on the shelf.

2) "Scary Movie 3" is one funny flick! Many of the critics panned it, but what do they know? :>) As you noted, it is not as gross as the previous "Scary Movie" and "Scary Movie 2", and admittedly, it is not quite in the class of great satirical comedies like "Young Frankenstein" or even "Airplane" (also directed by David Zucker). But I thought with its topical humor and effective satire of other fairly recent movies, it had enough clever gags (both visual and verbal) to make it worth the time it takes to laugh through it. I enjoyed it in a commercial theater and am glad to be able to enjoy the jokes again at home on DVD.

[Lex]

Well, I missed the laser disc era myself. I went straight from VHS to DVD. I was of course, one of the earliest adopters of DVD with the first real player, the Sony S7000.

I do agree though, if you have titles to replace and you find em', jump on them! Besides, there's little good porn coming out on laser disc now anyway. :lol:

Lex