Criterion Laserdiscs

Discuss releases by Criterion and the films on them. Threads may contain spoilers!
Post Reply
Message
Author
Raymond Marble
Joined: Sat Mar 29, 2014 8:48 pm

Re: Criterion Laserdiscs

#201 Post by Raymond Marble » Sun Feb 22, 2015 11:34 am

Does anyone have opinions on the relative quality of the Criterion laserdiscs of The Woman Next Door, Two English Girls, or Tokyo Olympiad? I've been thinking about buying them, the Truffauts as an alternative to the likely-awful Fox Lorber DVDs (which are out of print anyway), and the Ichikawa because it's more affordable than the DVD.

User avatar
EddieLarkin
Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2012 10:25 am

Re: Criterion Laserdiscs

#202 Post by EddieLarkin » Sun Feb 22, 2015 11:58 am

The two Truffauts are available on Blu-ray in the UK, and you can get them both from Amazon.co.uk sellers for $10 each. Even if you're region locked, surely you'd be better off getting a multi region player instead of buying laserdiscs?

jp4151
Joined: Mon Jul 25, 2011 12:03 pm

Re: Criterion Laserdiscs

#203 Post by jp4151 » Mon Aug 31, 2015 3:27 pm

I just picked up the Criterion laserdisc of Monterey Pop. It's supposed to be spine #43 but my copy has it at #207, which supposedly is the Cries and Whispers spine number (I don't own that disc yet). I know Criterion LD spines can be a bit messy and unorganized (compared to their DVD/Blu catalog) but does anyone have more info regarding this release?

It's a first printing from 1988. Catalog #CC1320L.

Self
Joined: Thu Apr 24, 2014 9:36 pm

Re: Criterion Laserdiscs

#204 Post by Self » Mon Nov 30, 2015 1:50 pm

I'm currently undertaking a project for school regarding the catalogue practices of Criterion. Is there such a resource that has the release dates for all of the laserdiscs? I went through the main site and found liner notes for the releases with dates, but for those films that have DVD releases it becomes a bit murky. Much thanks

User avatar
Banasa
Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2015 12:35 am

Re: Criterion Laserdiscs

#205 Post by Banasa » Mon Nov 30, 2015 5:53 pm

Self wrote:I'm currently undertaking a project for school regarding the catalogue practices of Criterion. Is there such a resource that has the release dates for all of the laserdiscs? I went through the main site and found liner notes for the releases with dates, but for those films that have DVD releases it becomes a bit murky. Much thanks
I don't think they ever had them listed by release date, but they used to have an official list here of what was released.

http://web.archive.org/web/200705271033 ... browse.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Perhaps there were some catalogue orders that listed it by date, but I wouldn't know where to get them or if they even had the information you wanted.

User avatar
cdnchris
Site Admin
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 2:45 pm
Location: Washington
Contact:

Re: Criterion Laserdiscs

#206 Post by cdnchris » Mon Nov 30, 2015 6:01 pm

Lddb.com might have some, but most titles only seem to have the year of release, not the specific date.

User avatar
Brent Reid
Joined: Tue Mar 29, 2016 9:58 am
Location: UK
Contact:

Re: Criterion Laserdiscs

#207 Post by Brent Reid » Sat Apr 30, 2016 1:27 pm

There are around 50 Criterion LD commentaries currently MIA (http://forum.lddb.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=81). Sure, their scarcity helps keep the secondhand LD market afloat, but after all these years isn’t it about time they were more easily available? Why not make them available for paid (or even free!) streaming/download?

User avatar
Telstar
Joined: Mon Apr 10, 2006 12:35 pm

Re: Criterion Laserdiscs

#208 Post by Telstar » Sun Jul 17, 2016 11:13 am

Not sure of the interest here but thought I'd try listing my final four Criterion LDs on this forum first before putting them up on eBay. Listed The Player, The Killer, Hard Boiled and Bram Stoker's Dracula.

User avatar
jsteffe
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2007 9:00 am
Location: Atlanta, GA

Re: Criterion Laserdiscs

#209 Post by jsteffe » Sun Jul 17, 2016 1:10 pm

Brent Reid wrote:There are around 50 Criterion LD commentaries currently MIA (http://forum.lddb.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=81). Sure, their scarcity helps keep the secondhand LD market afloat, but after all these years isn’t it about time they were more easily available? Why not make them available for paid (or even free!) streaming/download?
I have a brilliant idea, but feel free to disagree... For the commentaries which they are quite sure won't be reused in forthcoming editions, they could simply sell the voice-only tracks to download on their website or via iTunes/Amazon.

User avatar
jedgeco
Joined: Tue Nov 23, 2004 11:28 am

Re: Criterion Laserdiscs

#210 Post by jedgeco » Mon Jul 25, 2016 2:09 pm

jsteffe wrote:
Brent Reid wrote:There are around 50 Criterion LD commentaries currently MIA (http://forum.lddb.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=81). Sure, their scarcity helps keep the secondhand LD market afloat, but after all these years isn’t it about time they were more easily available? Why not make them available for paid (or even free!) streaming/download?
I have a brilliant idea, but feel free to disagree... For the commentaries which they are quite sure won't be reused in forthcoming editions, they could simply sell the voice-only tracks to download on their website or via iTunes/Amazon.
Given the number of LD titles that I thought would never come back to the collection, yet somehow here they are (e.g., Graduate, Strangelove, Tootsie, etc.), I would bet that Criterion is thinking that these old commentaries have some value in being kept exclusive "just in case."

User avatar
PfR73
Joined: Sun Mar 27, 2005 6:07 pm

Re: Criterion Laserdiscs

#211 Post by PfR73 » Mon Jul 25, 2016 2:44 pm

jedgeco wrote:
jsteffe wrote:
Brent Reid wrote:There are around 50 Criterion LD commentaries currently MIA (http://forum.lddb.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=81). Sure, their scarcity helps keep the secondhand LD market afloat, but after all these years isn’t it about time they were more easily available? Why not make them available for paid (or even free!) streaming/download?
I have a brilliant idea, but feel free to disagree... For the commentaries which they are quite sure won't be reused in forthcoming editions, they could simply sell the voice-only tracks to download on their website or via iTunes/Amazon.
Given the number of LD titles that I thought would never come back to the collection, yet somehow here they are (e.g., Graduate, Strangelove, Tootsie, etc.), I would bet that Criterion is thinking that these old commentaries have some value in being kept exclusive "just in case."
I took him to mean LD commentaries Criterion has chosen to willfully drop from DVD/BD reissues, such as:

-Sansho The Bailiff: Commentary by Thomas Gunning
-Ugetsu: Commentary by Norman Yonemoto & Keiko MacDonald
-Cat People: Commentary by Bruce Eder

User avatar
jedgeco
Joined: Tue Nov 23, 2004 11:28 am

Re: Criterion Laserdiscs

#212 Post by jedgeco » Mon Jul 25, 2016 2:52 pm

Ah - I had no idea that there even was such a group of titles. I wonder what possible rationale CC had for not including them on the DVD/BD reissues?

User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: Criterion Laserdiscs

#213 Post by swo17 » Mon Jul 25, 2016 3:00 pm


User avatar
copen
Joined: Fri Feb 06, 2015 5:43 pm

Re: Criterion Laserdiscs

#214 Post by copen » Mon Jul 25, 2016 7:02 pm

In case someone can help me out, i need an .srt file of the english subtitles from La dentellière "The Lacemaker" (1977) laserdisc. thanks

User avatar
Moe Dickstein
Joined: Fri Aug 24, 2012 11:19 pm

Re: Criterion Laserdiscs

#215 Post by Moe Dickstein » Fri Jul 29, 2016 3:45 pm

Considering space, it wouldn't be a big deal to just include multiple tracks - there's tons of overlap in the two Last Picture Show tracks for example.

They also dropped a possible track from The Graduate that was on the MGM discs, so it seems to be a bit erratic. They may have felt the interviews covered that content.

User avatar
LightBulbFilm
Joined: Wed Nov 16, 2005 5:11 pm
Location: Florida
Contact:

Re: Criterion Laserdiscs

#216 Post by LightBulbFilm » Sun Mar 26, 2017 2:23 pm

Recently came upon a copy of 'She's Gotta Have It' (which I'd long wanted, but desire low without a player) and found it interesting that in all the years of discussion, an internet archive of sorts for the laserdisc extras that aren't available easily doesn't exist yet. Has something sprung up that I'm missing? Would this be a venture anyone would be interested in pursuing? It would be great to have a repository, and perhaps it could be a massive CriterionForum venture? Between everyone here, perhaps we have all the laserdiscs or many, and the ability to transfer the data? Just a thought, and would love to help!

On another note, anyone got a copy of Boogie Nights they want to part with to satiate my temporary LD lust?

User avatar
DRW.mov
Joined: Thu Sep 15, 2016 2:43 pm
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Re: Criterion Laserdiscs

#217 Post by DRW.mov » Sun Mar 26, 2017 2:41 pm

LightBulbFilm wrote:Recently came upon a copy of 'She's Gotta Have It' (which I'd long wanted, but desire low without a player) and found it interesting that in all the years of discussion, an internet archive of sorts for the laserdisc extras that aren't available easily doesn't exist yet. Has something sprung up that I'm missing? Would this be a venture anyone would be interested in pursuing? It would be great to have a repository, and perhaps it could be a massive CriterionForum venture? Between everyone here, perhaps we have all the laserdiscs or many, and the ability to transfer the data? Just a thought, and would love to help!

On another note, anyone got a copy of Boogie Nights they want to part with to satiate my temporary LD lust?

Thats actually been a very intruiging undertaking that I've been considering working on for some time now. I get a lot spin out of my Criterion laserdiscs still and have recently captured all the supplements, including the commentary teack off of my two disc laser of The Magnificent Ambersons and have been trying to find the best way to present such information. It's quite easy for me to rip said footage off of the discs with a capture card I have and I've found some interesting ways of modernizing some of the more dated supplements using modern editing techniques but I don't have the technical or computer knowledge to create a site or space in which to host and curate such content without spending loads of time and money I don't have. Doing something like that through Criterionforum may be a valued solution. I habe a great deal of rare, supplement heavy CC laserdiscs including She's Gotta Have It, Bad Day at Black Rock, Help!, Baron Munchausen, It's a Wonderful Life, Blackmail, Crash, Halloween, Sex Lies and Videotape, Se7en, Othello, Citizen Kane, the banned Bond discs, and even the laserdisc of Short Cuts that allows you to re-cut the film to follow the linear character narratives. It's definitely something I would love to get involved with.

User avatar
LightBulbFilm
Joined: Wed Nov 16, 2005 5:11 pm
Location: Florida
Contact:

Re: Criterion Laserdiscs

#218 Post by LightBulbFilm » Sun Mar 26, 2017 8:09 pm

DRW.mov wrote:
LightBulbFilm wrote:Recently came upon a copy of 'She's Gotta Have It' (which I'd long wanted, but desire low without a player) and found it interesting that in all the years of discussion, an internet archive of sorts for the laserdisc extras that aren't available easily doesn't exist yet. Has something sprung up that I'm missing? Would this be a venture anyone would be interested in pursuing? It would be great to have a repository, and perhaps it could be a massive CriterionForum venture? Between everyone here, perhaps we have all the laserdiscs or many, and the ability to transfer the data? Just a thought, and would love to help!

On another note, anyone got a copy of Boogie Nights they want to part with to satiate my temporary LD lust?

Thats actually been a very intruiging undertaking that I've been considering working on for some time now. I get a lot spin out of my Criterion laserdiscs still and have recently captured all the supplements, including the commentary teack off of my two disc laser of The Magnificent Ambersons and have been trying to find the best way to present such information. It's quite easy for me to rip said footage off of the discs with a capture card I have and I've found some interesting ways of modernizing some of the more dated supplements using modern editing techniques but I don't have the technical or computer knowledge to create a site or space in which to host and curate such content without spending loads of time and money I don't have. Doing something like that through Criterionforum may be a valued solution. I habe a great deal of rare, supplement heavy CC laserdiscs including She's Gotta Have It, Bad Day at Black Rock, Help!, Baron Munchausen, It's a Wonderful Life, Blackmail, Crash, Halloween, Sex Lies and Videotape, Se7en, Othello, Citizen Kane, the banned Bond discs, and even the laserdisc of Short Cuts that allows you to re-cut the film to follow the linear character narratives. It's definitely something I would love to get involved with.
This is the most perfect reply I could've ever hoped for.

Perhaps I should PM cdnchris, or maybe he'll come across this first?

Just thinking, it seems to be that CC doesn't mind the sharing of their laserdisc supplements, as they shared a link on their official pages in the past of Bond commentaries I see. If CriterionForum would be willing to be the site to host the files, or at least a directory page to another server containing the files and presented them free, and would remove if there were any problems or complications commercially, I think that would be fantastic, and an endeavor I think right up this forum's alley.

Anecdotally, I've been coming here since high school and it's been a resource for me, as much as the films in the collection themselves. Like it or not, this forum is a learning hub, and might as well be categorized as an academic reference of sorts.

I'd be willing to fill out missing pieces by sending my discs your way to rip, if you don't already have them, and I'm sure if we had a trustworthy system worked out via CF, that more users would be willing to do the same.

User avatar
dekadetia
was Born Innocent
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 11:57 pm
Location: Pennsylvania, USA

Re: Criterion Laserdiscs

#219 Post by dekadetia » Sun Mar 26, 2017 9:06 pm

LightBulbFilm wrote:On another note, anyone got a copy of Boogie Nights they want to part with to satiate my temporary LD lust?
Just got me wondering whether the only unported supplement from this disc (Anderson's commentary on the John Holmes Exhausted documentary) had made it onto the internet, and indeed, it's on YouTube: https://youtu.be/HpjtQ0D_wB8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

User avatar
LightBulbFilm
Joined: Wed Nov 16, 2005 5:11 pm
Location: Florida
Contact:

Re: Criterion Laserdiscs

#220 Post by LightBulbFilm » Sun Mar 26, 2017 9:20 pm

dekadetia wrote:
LightBulbFilm wrote:On another note, anyone got a copy of Boogie Nights they want to part with to satiate my temporary LD lust?
Just got me wondering whether the only unported supplement from this disc (Anderson's commentary on the John Holmes Exhausted documentary) had made it onto the internet, and indeed, it's on YouTube: https://youtu.be/HpjtQ0D_wB8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Dude I have been looking for this! Thank you!

al4504
Joined: Tue May 02, 2017 1:31 pm

Re: Criterion Laserdiscs

#221 Post by al4504 » Tue May 02, 2017 1:40 pm

Hopefully this thread is still being looked at - I'm a film librarian's research assistant in an academic library, and my current project is laserdisc preservation. I have to make an argument for why a laserdisc should be digitized (bc of copyright, etc). We have a copy of the Criterion release of The Magnificent Ambersons, which I've made a case for because of its special features/commentary. We also have the Warner 2011 DVD release, and from what I'm reading, people were generally dissatisfied with that "remaster". I'm wondering if anyone on here would agree or not agree that there needs to be a digitization of the LD based on TRANSFER QUALITY (picture, audio, etc), as opposed to just because of the special features?

User avatar
motefuzz
Joined: Sun Mar 01, 2015 5:04 pm

Re: Criterion Laserdiscs

#222 Post by motefuzz » Wed Jul 19, 2017 5:21 pm

Just gonna chime in here and say, as a Laserdisc head, attempting to assess the transfer quality off of these things via digital captures is going to be hard for a variety of reasons. The quality of playback varies player to player. On top of that, the capping method invites all sorts of other variables. What sort of color space is the codec you're capping with using, and how lossy is that capture codec? even the sources used to create the discs in the first place are inconsistent. So expecting a direct unmanipulatec DVDBeaver style comparison between laserdiscs and dvds is a fools errand. These things look alright played directly into a nice-ish tv, sometimes with some luma-extending, color enhancement and noise reduction settings turned on. The amount of tech based effort needed to bring them up to modern standards to do AV comparisons simply isn't worth it most of the time. But they're fun to play with!

User avatar
tholly
Joined: Sat Sep 15, 2007 3:51 pm
Location: Folsom, CA

Re: Criterion Laserdiscs

#223 Post by tholly » Thu Jul 20, 2017 4:35 pm

I just got the one on the right........for well under what I was willing to spend on it. Very excited!

Image

User avatar
The Elegant Dandy Fop
Joined: Thu Dec 09, 2004 3:25 am
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Re: Criterion Laserdiscs

#224 Post by The Elegant Dandy Fop » Thu Jul 20, 2017 4:43 pm

What are the differences between the two editions?

User avatar
tholly
Joined: Sat Sep 15, 2007 3:51 pm
Location: Folsom, CA

Re: Criterion Laserdiscs

#225 Post by tholly » Thu Jul 20, 2017 4:49 pm

The Elegant Dandy Fop wrote:What are the differences between the two editions?
Besides the price, just typos and some commentary comments, along with the basic image style of the disc jacket. Not too much actually.

Post Reply