Blu-ray vs. Laserdisc DTS (Yes... Laserdisc)

[timcat4843]

Originally Posted by IvenFaint

Do Blu-Ray discs sound better than these LDs, or are they about the same? Thoughts? Opinions?

I had Independence Day on laserdisc and the sound quality rocked!

However, I picked up ID4 on Blu-ray and the sound quality, totally blows away what was on the LD.

That opening scene, where

[Show spoiler]the massive alien spaceship roars over the moon, on its way
to earth,

just shakes my enter room and rattles the windows.

The LD version never did that.

[Brett C]

Originally Posted by timcat4843

I had Independence Day on laserdisc and the sound quality rocked!

However, I picked up ID4 on Blu-ray and the sound quality, totally blows away what was on the LD.

That opening scene, where

[Show spoiler]the massive alien spaceship roars over the moon, on its way
to earth,

just shakes my enter room and rattles the windows.

The LD version never did that.

Agreed the BD is a lot better, but the LD was no slouch in its day, it most certainly crushed the DD track on the DVD which sounded overly compressed by comparison. The best A-B comparison for this was the canyon scene.

[Pondosinatra]

Originally Posted by Brett C

Agreed the BD is a lot better, but the LD was no slouch in its day, it most certainly crushed the DD track on the DVD which sounded overly compressed by comparison. The best A-B comparison for this was the canyon scene.

I prefer the LD version of Talking Heads Stop Making Sense. I run it over my analog outs through my stereo amp.

For comparison I did the theatrical soundtrack from the Blu-ray which is the closest comparison you can have.

The Blu-ray sounds perfect. Too perfect. To me the LD sounds much more natural and like I'm actually at the concert.

[slimdude]

Originally Posted by Pondosinatra

The Blu-ray sounds perfect. Too perfect. To me the LD sounds much more natural and like I'm actually at the concert.

This doesn't make sense.

[mywhitenoise]

Originally Posted by slimdude

This doesn't make sense.

Yes it does. Think of it like this. Someone could have the greatest plastic surgery every, their perfectly symmetrical face would look weird to most people, because everyone of our faces have natural imperfections.

[zahne]

I only own LDs that don't yet exist on BluRay. I've never been happy with the sound on DVDs and I can't stand MPEG2 artifacts. They make me cringe. I'll take analog imperfections over them any day.

I've heard some die hard LD owners say that LD has better mixes on their soundtracks despite being lossy. Mostly because LD was always an elitist home theater consumer base and not a rush to market for mass appeal kind of group. So, many studios put more care into film transfers for color, contrast, and sound mixing. Sounds plausible. And I think BluRay has lost many viewers to streaming, DVR, and DVD stragglers so BluRay has become a format for more cared for releases.

But we still get some pretty crummy releases on BluRay at times

In my experience LD is always preferable to DVD. And is only preferable to BluRay when the BluRay release doesn't exist.

[timcat4843]

Originally Posted by zahne

But we still get some pretty crummy releases on BluRay at times: (

And that's killing the Blu-ray format.
Inconsistent picture and sound quality.
Some releases get the top tier treatment, while many others don't.
The average Joe can't see or hear any difference, between DVD's and Blu-ray's.
So why the need to upgrade to Blu-ray?

Case in point, the James Bond movie Goldeneye.
I have this flick on laserdisc, DVD and Blu-ray.
The picture quality is good on all three formats.
However, the audio quality is fabulous on laserdisc, good on DVD, but terrible on Blu-ray.
The audio on Blu-ray sounds muffled, constricted and just plain lousy.