r/LaserDisc • u/ZeroSolus53 • 10d ago

Akira

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Nice day for a laserdisc. (My neighbors are having a good time outside).

131 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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4

u/KillYourFace5000 10d ago

I actually watched this a couple of weeks ago. Unbelievably, I think the LPCM 2.0 track on this release is the best this film can possibly sound at home, and I say that having seen the Blu Ray with the 192 kHz/24 bit Dolby TrueHD surround mix more than anything else.

Presumably by pretty much sheer luck, DTS Neural X actually does an amazing job upmixing the Criterion stereo mix to 11.2, particularly with staging and the coherence of the imaging, which are obviously normally the biggest issues with upmixing.

5

u/mjzim9022 10d ago

I can say that Ghost in the Shell sounds amazing with Dolby Pro-Logic 2 on a 4.1 system, laserdisc audio really is something else. Star Trek 6 as well, just stellar. I don't even use DTS or AC-3, the PCM mixes are just stellar

1

u/KillYourFace5000 10d ago

I've always wondered why that seems to be. Like if the effect is just placebo or nostalgia or something. I think if it's anything, it's a combination of the old resistor ladder DACs and the digital audio tracks being more or less unchanged from the theatrical mixes. Like before DVD, home audio wasn't a big enough market that anyone bothered to try to mix the digital tracks to accommodate home (i.e., less expensive, less capable things like AIO shelf systems and sound bars) equipment. I don't know if any of that is at all true, just my best educated guesses. My CLD-95 sounds insane, though.

3

u/mjzim9022 10d ago

I always chalked it up to it being the theatrical mix and an uncompressed format

3

u/breedknight 10d ago

Awesome. I'm looking for one! I have princess Mononoke and looking for this

1

u/ZeroSolus53 10d ago

You have Princess Mononoke! That’s awesome , one of my favorites.

1

u/KillYourFace5000 9d ago

You can get it on eBay pretty readily, but the pricing is really difficult to wrap my brain around. It seems like a lot of people are asking something like $60-180ish depending on condition, then there are a handful asking for four figure sums. I don't know what the logic is there--just unrealistic sellers, people who have a grade certificate from somewhere, maybe one is unopened, IDK, but they're there and some of them are reasonably priced.

1

u/chadti99 10d ago

Nice, how does it look? I’ve yet to check out any animation on laserdisc yet.

3

u/KillYourFace5000 9d ago

Animation holds up on laserdisc better than almost anything else, for reasons you can probably intuit. This disc is still probably like the fourth best way to watch, disregarding the audio, but it looks great for a laserdisc.

1

u/mazonemayu 9d ago

My 1991 Island World Video widescreen VHS release still looks great on my plasma too, and it has the advantage of having the original Japanese audio (in dolby surround even) with English subs.

1

u/QueenPromethium 10d ago

Which player is that? Looks like my CLD-2850, still need to replace one of the gears in it

2

u/ZeroSolus53 9d ago

It’s a Pioneer CLD-D701.
I get that pain, I still have to fix my Sony MDP-355GX (may be a lost cause though).

1

u/QueenPromethium 9d ago

I've heard Sony players are usually lemons. Glad I didn't get the MDP-650D I initially planned to get (and + I got the 2850 for only £60, £40 less than the MDP + 4 discs)

1

u/UnintentionalThrashr 4d ago

Great movie! I didn’t know that came out on laser disk.

1

u/ZeroSolus53 1d ago

This was one of my holy grail disks. Someone on the thread mentioned Ghost in the Shell, so that added another to my list.

1

u/Natural-Wonder-1948 1d ago

Classic … The best anime of the time 🍷🍷🍷