Aging Tech Gear

by Summer
February 8, 2006, 1:16 am | In Tech |

I guess it really was just a matter of time.

I finally bought a new video cable and spun up my old Sony MDP-605 laserdisc player to check out some old discs, and was met by an interesting surprise.

The sound was fine, but the picture didn’t work. Best description is that the vertical hold seemed off and the picture, what little there was of it, was distorted.

My first guess was a laser alignment problem, but I figured I’d do some Googling first. Alas, I was correct in that first assumption (scroll down about halfway if you’re even remotely curious).

I haven’t investigated how much it’d cost to get this tank fixed, but I do happen to have another laserdisc player. A Pioneer CLD-D406, which I believe was the very last consumer model sold in the US. I bought it, and haven’t used it… it’s been sitting “new in box” since December 1999.

I just have to go get it out of storage, and hope it still works, or I’m going to have to jump through some hoops to find a replacement.

And yes, I would find a replacement. Laserdisc is the only media I have left for the original Star Wars trilogy in it’s pristine original form.

update (14:00, 8 Feb): The “new” player works just fine. I’m currently watching the original version of the Babylon 5 pilot (before re-editing for TNT), in preparation for talking about it for the next Babylon Podcast. Wow, does the music change make a difference!

5 Comments

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  1. I have LD version of SW at work, or at least its in the library. Problem is, some bastard nicked Disc 2 :/ so its unusable. I have searched high and low for an LD version of SW. So I am rather envious of you summer.

    Comment by fourthof5 — February 8, 2006 #

  2. heh - I’ve got the original SW trilogy on VHS. I asked a friend to dupe them to DVD - and she couldn’t because the tapes were copy protected. Frack!!!

    Comment by tim callender — February 8, 2006 #

  3. You used to be able to buy a box that would remove the Macrovision signals from the VHS video so they could be copied to another tape or transferred to a DVD-R. May still be available on import.

    Comment by Vanamonde — February 8, 2006 #

  4. The contents of my laserdisc collection, especially before I sold a bunch of them on eBay back in 2000, might both impress and frighten at the same time.

    At the same time, it also now makes me wonder what I can do with them once everything’s been replaced by DVDs.

    I do have a few items that haven’t shown up on DVD yet (some anime, some music). I should ask Aaron at Weekly Anime Review if Iczer-One is the same as the “Fight! Iczer One” DVD… I’ve only seen it online, never in stores.

    Comment by Summer — February 8, 2006 #

  5. I aways liked the original music.

    Comment by fourthof5 — February 9, 2006 #

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