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Monday, April 7, 2008

A Big Box of Animator Crack!

Arrived Wednesday, but didn't get a chance to pick it up until Saturday:



Oh! Could this be that box of animator crack I ordered?



Could be! What's inside?





Flawless performances!





Fifteen films (actually 14, with one supplemental disc, for a total of seventeen discs)!







Yes, DVDs can suck it. I really like LaserDisc.

4 comments:

Moro Rogers said...

I didn't know they still made laserdiscs...Are they better? (And I didn't know you were a Ghibli fan, that's cool.^^)

Dicing with Dragons said...

Yes, ma'am, I am a fan. At some point I should write a about how Porco Rosso, Mononoke Hime, Spirited Away, and Laputa kept me alive between 2000 and 2003...

To the best of my knowledge, I believe 2001 was the swan song for LD releases.

Are LaserDiscs better? It kind of depends, honestly. All things being equal, black and white films fare better on LD, though remastering in the digital age can change things somewhat (check stores for availability sort of thing).

For films that are not in widescreen formats, LD will have an edge in resolution (there is no benefit to remastering a movie like The Thin Man at BluRay or HD-DVD optimal resolutions). Therefore, I do favor my Val Lewton collection on LD more than the DVD version.

But even some color films are better on LD, like the classic George Pal War of the Worlds, the DVD version for which suffered from a comparatively poor remaster.

As it turns out, better is determined on a case-by-case basis. Some movies can't be found on DVD (or VHS), rendering the question moot. Some "special editions" on LD contain material unavailable in any other format as well--I concede that's iffy; it depends on how much a compleatist one is.

Then there's all that hideous compression noise on DVDs or macroblocking. Some LDs do have a sort of "dot crawl" that can be slightly distracting, so perhaps that's a matter of preference.

Much of my disklike for the DVD format comes from having to master them or produce DVDRs that would play in a variety of typical players--or the fact that some commercially produced DVDs don't always play in my Pioneer player (grrrr).

The Studio Ghibli Collection (pictured above!) is covered in some detail here.

I've been watching the discs without any english (no voiceover or subtitles); I remain in awe by how compelling the work is.

Bla said...

BlueRay is here to stay.

Dicing with Dragons said...

@Bla: Yeah, sure it will.

Until its replacement arrives.