For those who don't know, Laserdiscs are like a DVD but they are about the size of a vinyl record. Laserdiscs were the big thing back in the 80s and 90s but by the 2000s they faded out and movies weren't released on Laserdiscs anymore.
I have known about Laserdiscs for as long as I can remember. My great-grandpa and grandpa both had Laserdisc players and I have many fond memories of live Barry Manilow concerts or operas playing on the TV through a Laserdisc.
My grandpa had a collection of about fifty Laserdiscs, maybe more. A few of my favorites were Beauty and the Beast, Blue Hawaii, and West Side Story. I distinctly remember being at my grandparents old house on Cariz Drive, watching Blue Hawaii and singing along with all the songs as it played on their huge, old, seventy inch TV.
I was drawn to Laserdiscs ever since I was a little girl but since I never saw them in stores I just assumed that they were "old" and they didn't make them anymore.
Before I continue on to how this new hobby of mine started you should know why Laserdiscs are special. Let's use one of my favorite movies, Beauty and the Beast, as an example. If we were going to sit down and watch Beauty and the Beast and you gave me the option to choose the Blu-ray or the Laserdisc to pick from I would pick the Laserdisc. I will ALWAYS pick the Laserdisc. There is just something about the Laserdiscs that make the movie look so clean and sound fantastic. I actually watched Beauty and the Beast on Blu-ray the other day (the Laserdisc player wasn't hooked up) and it really was different! Maybe that is just me being snobby, but it's true! The Laserdiscs just give the movie a better look and sound!
I have known about Laserdiscs for as long as I can remember. My great-grandpa and grandpa both had Laserdisc players and I have many fond memories of live Barry Manilow concerts or operas playing on the TV through a Laserdisc.
My grandpa had a collection of about fifty Laserdiscs, maybe more. A few of my favorites were Beauty and the Beast, Blue Hawaii, and West Side Story. I distinctly remember being at my grandparents old house on Cariz Drive, watching Blue Hawaii and singing along with all the songs as it played on their huge, old, seventy inch TV.
I was drawn to Laserdiscs ever since I was a little girl but since I never saw them in stores I just assumed that they were "old" and they didn't make them anymore.
Before I continue on to how this new hobby of mine started you should know why Laserdiscs are special. Let's use one of my favorite movies, Beauty and the Beast, as an example. If we were going to sit down and watch Beauty and the Beast and you gave me the option to choose the Blu-ray or the Laserdisc to pick from I would pick the Laserdisc. I will ALWAYS pick the Laserdisc. There is just something about the Laserdiscs that make the movie look so clean and sound fantastic. I actually watched Beauty and the Beast on Blu-ray the other day (the Laserdisc player wasn't hooked up) and it really was different! Maybe that is just me being snobby, but it's true! The Laserdiscs just give the movie a better look and sound!
Okay, now onto how this obsession really got going.
Until I started dating Shawn I had no idea what Amoeba was, maybe that was for the best. We had been dating for a few months and we went to The Arclight in Hollywood and Shawn mentioned going over to Amoeba. I had no clue what it was but I agreed to go. Once I realized what Amoeba was I was thrilled. I immediately jumped to asking an employee if they sold Laserdiscs and they showed me the way.
From then on, every time we went to Amoeba I spend anywhere from $30-$100 on Laserdiscs and it has since become a huge collection. Now, keep in mind that since they stopped releasing movies on Laserdisc in 2000 the prices have dropped dramatically. So most of the discs that I have bought over the past two and a half years are anywhere from $1-$10. Although every once in awhile I will splurge and buy the $30 box sets, just because they are collector items...at least to me they are. Every now and then when I'm at Amoeba there will actually be someone else at the Laserdisc section, but that doesn't happen very often. There was one time when an employee saw me looking through all the discs and he asked me if I had a player and he was so excited to hear about someone else who had a collection of Laserdiscs!
Now, with my grandpas collection, my greatgrandpas collection and my growing collection, I have about 260+ Laserdiscs, and that's actually not including all of the live concerts or operas that were passed down to me from my grandpa. Sometimes I got ahead of myself at Amoeba and I bought something I already had so I have about five movies where I have duplicate copies.
Here are some pictures of my favorite Laserdiscs! My grandpa was nice enough to give me his Laserdisc player recently and when my great-grandpa passed away I also got his Laserdisc player! So now I have two Laserdisc players!
Until I started dating Shawn I had no idea what Amoeba was, maybe that was for the best. We had been dating for a few months and we went to The Arclight in Hollywood and Shawn mentioned going over to Amoeba. I had no clue what it was but I agreed to go. Once I realized what Amoeba was I was thrilled. I immediately jumped to asking an employee if they sold Laserdiscs and they showed me the way.
From then on, every time we went to Amoeba I spend anywhere from $30-$100 on Laserdiscs and it has since become a huge collection. Now, keep in mind that since they stopped releasing movies on Laserdisc in 2000 the prices have dropped dramatically. So most of the discs that I have bought over the past two and a half years are anywhere from $1-$10. Although every once in awhile I will splurge and buy the $30 box sets, just because they are collector items...at least to me they are. Every now and then when I'm at Amoeba there will actually be someone else at the Laserdisc section, but that doesn't happen very often. There was one time when an employee saw me looking through all the discs and he asked me if I had a player and he was so excited to hear about someone else who had a collection of Laserdiscs!
Now, with my grandpas collection, my greatgrandpas collection and my growing collection, I have about 260+ Laserdiscs, and that's actually not including all of the live concerts or operas that were passed down to me from my grandpa. Sometimes I got ahead of myself at Amoeba and I bought something I already had so I have about five movies where I have duplicate copies.
Here are some pictures of my favorite Laserdiscs! My grandpa was nice enough to give me his Laserdisc player recently and when my great-grandpa passed away I also got his Laserdisc player! So now I have two Laserdisc players!
Here in Arkansas of course there is no Amoeba, but we have Hastings! We have yet to go to a Hastings because I'm afraid of the damage I will do. I will eventually go. I just need to mentally prepare myself first to not go too crazy. But now that we are in a bigger apartment I do want to set up the Laserdisc players in the guest bedroom but because it is older technology it won't hook up to our TVs. So I do need to go into Best Buy to ask them what I need to get these players set up.
Have you ever heard of Laserdiscs before? Or do you have a collection like me??? Let me know in the comments below or on Instagram (@thrucaitseyes).