Is S-VHS comparable to Laser Disc?
kst...@qni.com
I was considering purchasing a LD player, but with DVD around the
corner I was thinking about just getting a Super-VHS VCR.
Regular VHS displays somewhere around 250-300 lines of resolution,
while S-VHS displays around 425 (or more). My question is, will the
VHS tapes that you rent/buy produce the high-resolution picture, or
are they just the plain old "standard VHS" resolution?
Thanks a lot
Steve
Teknix Specialist
NO the tapes you buy are standard VHS (although they can be better
quality recordings because of the equipment used). So even if you have a
400 line resolution SVHS, you will have 240 line video quality of
standard VHS from the rentals. However, if you record a lot, you will
benefit from this higher quality (such as retaining the 330 lines
broadcast video or 500 lines DSS S-video or for doing dubs from a hi8 or
SVHS camcorder.
Espen Braathen
kst...@qni.com wrote:
: I was considering purchasing a LD player, but with DVD around the
----
S-VHS is not comparable to LD picture quality even if the horizontal
reslolution figure comes close. The main problem is tape drop-outs,
worse S/N ratio and most important the resolution of the color info
is not improved over regular VHS. LD provides at least twice the detail
in the color channel which makes the picture much better.
EspenB
"High Quality VHS does not exist."
Gareth Randall
>I was considering purchasing a LD player, but with DVD around the
>corner I was thinking about just getting a Super-VHS VCR.
>Regular VHS displays somewhere around 250-300 lines of resolution,
>while S-VHS displays around 425 (or more).
If you've got the money, it would be worth your while considering
Sony's new domestic digital VCR. It's expensive (and so are the
tapes), but the performance is well ahead of S-VHS.
As an example, a leading audio/video magazine here in the UK recently
reviewed the machine. One of their tests involved dubbing a laserdisc
onto tape, and then dubbing that recording for a further four
generations.
The fifth-generation copy was shown in a blind A/B test with the
original LD. The testers, all experienced video veterans, could not
tell the difference between the original and the copy, and in fact
some of them thought they were watching the LD when they were actually
watching the tape.
The big downside is the price; here in the UK the machine costs about
3000 pounds ($4500?) and the tapes are 45 pounds each ($70?), but then
again it's the first full-size domestic digital VCR and so high prices
were always inevitable. It's to be hoped that they'll drop with time,
but there's the real danger that digital VCRs will be embraced by the
low-end pro video industry in the same way that they embraced S-VHS,
which effectively helped to keep prices high enough to discourage mass
domestic purchase.
Gareth
John White
>
> S-VHS is not comparable to LD picture quality even if the horizontal
> reslolution figure comes close. The main problem is tape drop-outs,
> worse S/N ratio and most important the resolution of the color info
> is not improved over regular VHS. LD provides at least twice the detail
> in the color channel which makes the picture much better.
>
> EspenB
> "High Quality VHS does not exist."
Agreed. In the old days when companies such as JVC produced state of the
art consumer S-VHS decks performance was VERY close. Today S-VHS
(especially JVC) offers poor picture quality. Fortunately Laserdisc
players are not produced by uncaring companies like JVC so their
performance has not degraded over the years.
Glenn Starnes
> Agreed. In the old days when companies such as JVC produced state of
> (especially JVC) offers poor picture quality. Fortunately Laserdisc
> players are not produced by uncaring companies like JVC so their
> performance has not degraded over the years.
>
>
JVC never produced state-of-the-art anything. I've seen all S-VHS
JVC machines since 1988, and the most recent JVC 7300 is as good as JVC
has ever done for the consumer market. Laserdisc players do not have to
record! You're comparing apples and oranges.
GS
Charles Ingalz [CONTRACTOR]
John White <jwh...@west.net> writes:
>>
>> S-VHS is not comparable to LD picture quality even if the horizontal
>> reslolution figure comes close. The main problem is tape drop-outs,
>> worse S/N ratio and most important the resolution of the color info
>> is not improved over regular VHS. LD provides at least twice the detail
>> in the color channel which makes the picture much better.
>>
>> EspenB
>> "High Quality VHS does not exist."
>Agreed. In the old days when companies such as JVC produced state of the
>art consumer S-VHS decks performance was VERY close. Today S-VHS
>(especially JVC) offers poor picture quality. Fortunately Laserdisc
>players are not produced by uncaring companies like JVC so their
>performance has not degraded over the years.
They did make the $3000 HRS-10,000U. It has long been considered the
best of consumer VHS and had about the best quality one could expect
from the format. They discontinued it a long time ago because of the
possible competition with their $6000 pro machines. I agree that
most consumer decks of today are junk.
No SVHS deck can compare to LD in terms of quality. LD has better
characteristics in the departments of color resolution, color noise,
color phase, luma noise, luma resolution, dropouts, time base error,
playback consistancy...
-Charles
John White
Glenn Starnes wrote:
>
> > Agreed. In the old days when companies such as JVC produced state of
> > (especially JVC) offers poor picture quality. Fortunately Laserdisc
> > players are not produced by uncaring companies like JVC so their
> > performance has not degraded over the years.
> >
> >
>
> JVC machines since 1988, and the most recent JVC 7300 is as good as JVC
> has ever done for the consumer market. Laserdisc players do not have to
> record! You're comparing apples and oranges.
>
You state you have seen the 7300 and it is as good as anything that
JVC has produced. NOT!!!!! You must not have spent a lot of time with
the 6700 or 6800 or you would know that you are the one comparing apples
and oranges. The bottom line is that I can't make an almost exact
replica of a laserdisc with the 6700. With the later decks things aren't
even close.
Bill Gibson
Not to mention that every time you play the tape, it will deteriorate a
little.
Wilson
Bill Gibson <BCG...@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
>Not to mention that every time you play the tape, it will deteriorate a
>little.
Agreed, but in commercial reality, videodisc looks close to dead. I
use videodisc for training ( having custom discs pressed for me from
time to time ) and other options are getting cheaper and better.
John Wilson
jwi...@asiaonline.net
Mark
Laserdisc does have superior colour reproduction to any of the magnetic tape systems
(although I can't speak for Betacam). The deep Reds and Blues are better reproduced by
laser. On milder colours it S-VHS and Hi-8 are comparable.
Bill Gibson
How do you define "commercial reality"? I dont see it as close to dead at
all for home theatre applications. More good titles are being released
than ever before, and I'm still sceptical about dvd as a home theatre
medium. DVD may well be a great domputer medium, but I believe it will be
about as popular as dat for other applications.
Bill Davidson
In article <53k79j$m...@news.asiaonline.net>, Wilson <wila...@asiaonline.net> wrote:
>[...] in commercial reality, videodisc looks close to dead.
I know of nearly 40 places in the San Diego area alone where you can
buy, rent or trade laserdiscs. Several have stock on hand on the order
of thousands of discs and most of the rest are at least in the
hundreds. I assume that most other major population centers around the
country have similar availablility.
That doesn't seem like "close to dead" to me.
It is true that some retailers are dropping laserdisc anticipating that
DVD will kill LD. Locally, I only know of one that has done this and
that's the Wherehouse music/video store chain. One other store, Fedco,
also dropped LD's but I think that's because they couldn't sell them
due to having one of the best LD stores in the county right across the
street from them.
--Bill Davidson
Paul Dossett
Platinum B (Platinum B...@brown.edu) said:
>My blockbuster video dumped the ~1000 discs they rented, several months ago.
> Official word is they would return after remodleing, but that was finished
>less than a week after the discs left, and guess what they haven't returned
>yet...
Have you complained?
--
Paul Dossett | Sony STR-665 receiver, Pioneer CLD-D925 laserdisc,
-------------| Sony SLV-X822 VCR, Mitsubishi DIVA 33" TV, Rambler
Melbourne OZ | L/R speakers, Richter Hydra surrounds, Monster Cable.
Amiga 2000 | ObWebSite : http://netspace.net.au/~astroboy/
Thuvan Le
> My understanding is that there are a few places in SF to rent/buy LDs but
> it is nowhere near 40 places. This situation seems ridiculous for a major
> metropolitan area and doesn't bode well for LDs future.
>
> Anthony
Hmm, this is strange. Laser Discovery chain has just opened another store in
Milpitas. I guess they have up to 10 stores or more in the Bay Area now. They are
planning to open another one in Hercules if the lease deal is right. If you can, go
to http://www.slip.net/~redbean/video.html to see a list of Hong Kong Video Stores in
the Bay Area, which include stores that rent LDs. Note that this list does not
include stores that rent English LDs only. As far as I know LDs are alive and well in
the Bay Area.
Thuvan
Bill Davidson
In article <jettaiiile-15...@stefanini.hip.berkeley.edu>, Anthony Siino <jetta...@aol.com> wrote:
>My understanding is that there are a few places in SF to rent/buy LDs but
>it is nowhere near 40 places. This situation seems ridiculous for a major
>metropolitan area and doesn't bode well for LDs future.
It may also just be that there are places that you don't know about.
I started my San Diego Laserdisc Resources monthly posting in July of
1995. I only had about 4-5 places in the first edition. As a result
of the posting, people who knew about other places emailed me and I
built up this big list over the past year. I've found three new ones
just in the last three months; two of which had been around for years
and one which was six months old when I found it.
Finding LD renters/sellers/traders is difficult. Very few of them
advertise that they have LD's in the Yellow Pages (three in San
Diego). It's a cooperative effort and sometimes it's just luck. Of
those recent three, I found two simply because I passed by them while
going somewhere else. I have no doubt that there are several stores
that have LD's in San Diego that I have yet to find.
The only other regional list that I know of is for the Portland Oregon
area and I think that one has at least 20 or so listings.
It's probably overdue for someone to compile and maintain such a list
for the Bay Area. They'd probably find more providers than they
thought. They'd also receive the gratitude of their fellow Bay Area
LD consumers. I've gotten many thanks from many people and even a few
people who told me that they bought their first LD player because they
now knew where to get discs.
--Bill Davidson
Bob Niland
Charles Ingalz [CONTRACTOR] (ing...@Eng.Sun.COM) wrote:
> No SVHS deck can compare to LD in terms of quality. LD has better
> characteristics in the departments of color resolution, color noise,
> color phase, luma noise, luma resolution, dropouts, time base error,
> playback consistancy...
S-VHS decks record much better than LD players :-)
The main reason to own an S-VHS deck is to record in 6-hour mode.
S-VHS EP is still a far more satisfactory experience than VHS SP.
. S-VHS luma res could be comparable to LD, but rarely is.
. S-VHS chroma res is the exact same color-under as VHS, and at VHS res.
. All xVHS tapes have more stable time-base than raw LD (esp CLV), but
LD time-base error is so high (like 100x worse than tape) that all LD
players have some kind of time-base-correction, so on-screen, LD is
much more stable. Very few semi-pro S-VHS decks have TBC.
. The TBC situation also makes LD color decoding much more stable.
Regards, 1001-A East Harmony Road
Bob Niland Suite 503
Internet: r...@csn.net Fort Collins
Unless otherwise specifically stated, Colorado 80525 USA
expressing personal opinions and NOT
speaking for any employer, client or
Internet Service Provider.
Jesse Skeen
42F....@ucop.edu>:
Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access (415) 705-6060 [Login: guest]
Distribution:
Thuvan Le (thuv...@ucop.edu) wrote:
: > My understanding is that there are a few places in SF to rent/buy LDs but
: > it is nowhere near 40 places. This situation seems ridiculous for a major
: > metropolitan area and doesn't bode well for LDs future.
: >
: > Anthony
: Hmm, this is strange. Laser Discovery chain has just opened another store in
: Milpitas. I guess they have up to 10 stores or more in the Bay Area now. They are
: planning to open another one in Hercules if the lease deal is right. If you can, go
: to http://www.slip.net/~redbean/video.html to see a list of Hong Kong Video Stores in
: the Bay Area, which include stores that rent LDs. Note that this list does not
: include stores that rent English LDs only. As far as I know LDs are alive and well in
: the Bay Area.
When is that chain gonna come to Sacramento???? We just lost our best
store a while ago, and I'm gonna move if something big doesn't happen
soon! (And I'll firebomb every Blockbuster and Hollywood Video on the way
out!)
Bill Davidson
In article <540su5$n...@shellx.best.com>, alex c. lau <a...@best.com> wrote:
>[...] at least 30 places off the top of my head that sell LDs,
>including all the Tower Records and Wherehouse outlets; again, I'm sure
>there are more.
The Wherehouse? Are you sure? They dumped all their LD's in San Diego
last winter and I was told that it was because they are anticipating
DVD. Could it be that they're keeping them for the Bay area or is it
just that you haven't been into a Wherehouse store for a while?
--Bill Davidson
Jim Davidson
On <Tue, 15 Oct 1996 09:28:51 -0800>, jetta...@aol.com (Anthony Siino) writes:
> San Diego must be the exception. I live in the SF Bay Area
> (Oakland/Berkeley side of the bay) and there are only two places on this
> side that rent LDs and one has just discontinued renting them and is selling
> off their inventory. That leaves me one place to rent which is 30-40
> minutes from home more if I hit traffic. There are several Tower Records
> that sell LDs and there is one used CD store in Berkeley that has a very
> small selection of used LDs.
> My understanding is that there are a few places in SF to rent/buy LDs but it
> is nowhere near 40 places. This situation seems ridiculous for a major
> metropolitan area and doesn't bode well for LDs future.
Seems to be very localized.
Here on the SF Peninsula, I can think of about half a dozen places within 15
minutes that I've personally rented from. There are no doubt others, but I
tend to stick to the ones that I've tried.
There are various other places that sell LD's, including a few places that
deal in used discs. Again, I've tended to focus on the laser-oriented places
that have the best selection, so I've rarely had occasion to explore
additional sources.
Maybe it's because Silicon Valley has a higher percentage of techies, but LD
is sort of ubiquitous on this side of the Bay.
--
Jim Davidson Teknowledge Corp
jdav...@teknowledge.com 1810 Embarcadero Rd, Palo Alto, CA 94303
(415) 424-0500 http://www.teknowledge.com
Bill Davidson
In article <3263D4...@ucop.edu>, Thuvan Le <thuv...@ucop.edu> wrote:
>Hmm, this is strange. Laser Discovery chain has just opened another
>store in Milpitas. I guess they have up to 10 stores or more in the
>Bay Area now. They are planning to open another one in Hercules if the
>lease deal is right.
They're even in San Diego. Oddly, they're probably less than a mile
from the only other local store that has a signficant stock of Hong
Kong movies (and that store, Sing Young, has a bigger stock).
Check out their URL: http://www.laserdiscovery.com/
It does have one of those *STUPID* infinite loop reloading animated
banners. Every time I see one I want to kick the web page author in
the stomach.
Their WEB page also lists places in Fremont, Pleasanton and Walnut
Creek. That and Milpitas should cover a large percentage of the
Eastern side of the Bay.
Their web page does not list their San Diego store. I wonder if there
are other stores not listed (say further South like Santa Cruz or San
Jose).
>If you can, go to http://www.slip.net/~redbean/video.html to see a list
>of Hong Kong Video Stores in the Bay Area, which include stores that
>rent LDs. Note that this list does not include stores that rent English
>LDs only. As far as I know LDs are alive and well in the Bay Area.
I count about 40 places just in this list...and it doesn't even include
English language only stores! 12 of them are in the Berkeley/East Bay
section and many of the stores have names that seem to indicate that
they carry a wide variety of movies and not just Hong Kong movies.
I think that the original assertion that there's not much LD availability
in the SF Bay area is a mistake.
--Bill Davidson
Bill Gibson
I suggest people who are looking for ld rentals talk to the vendors who
sell home theatre equipment in their area. Its in their best interest to
promote ld and they usually are aware of what's available. I've even
found that at times the equipment vendors have coupons allowing for
discounts of free rentals.
If any ld rental store people are reading this, I suggest you talk to the
equipment vendors. Its in everyone's best interest to work together.
Good luck!!
Bill Gibson
S-VHS may record better that ld, but if you play an ld backward, you can
here John Lennon singing, "dvd is dead".
Bill Gibson
I live in the Tampa Bay area. I would say we are a typical larger metro
area (about 2.5 million) in that we are neither cutting edge or a
backwater. There are 3 locations within 10 minutes of my house that rent
a good selection of laser discs. They are all video stores that have
added laser to give them an edge ofer the superstores. There is also a
large specialty store (laser only) about 20 minutes away. The owner
stocks a huge selection for rent keeps a nice supply of domestic and
import titles for sale. My impression is this is typical for a fairly
large population center.
Kimberly Nish
Another great place is Vacaville Music & TV. A bit far from Downtown SF,
but alot closer to Sacramento!
Kim
Louis A. Carliner
a...@best.com (alex c. lau) wrote:
>In article <jettaiiile-15...@stefanini.hip.berkeley.edu>,
>Anthony Siino <jetta...@aol.com> wrote:
>>My understanding is that there are a few places in SF to rent/buy LDs but
>>it is nowhere near 40 places. This situation seems ridiculous for a major
>>metropolitan area and doesn't bode well for LDs future.
Some of the places that rent laser discs are the independent ma and pa
rental places. One of these has told me that it is very profitable and
wished he had started sooner.
1. Providing rental stock is far cheaper than VHS rental tapes.
2. Rental turnover is better than VHS tapes.
Louis A. Carliner
Your source for video calibration expertise for
Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia and West Virgina
as well as Southern Delaware UNTIL LATE 1997
in transistion to West Central Florida
by an ISF/Joe Kane trained specialist equipped with both
the Philips color analyser and ISF optical comparator.
Phone: (301) 340-6120
email: lcar...@idsonline.com
Curtis Cade
Jesse Skeen wrote:
>
> 42F....@ucop.edu>:
> Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access (415) 705-6060 [Login: guest]
> Distribution:
>
> : > My understanding is that there are a few places in SF to rent/buy LDs but
> : > it is nowhere near 40 places. This situation seems ridiculous for a major
> : > metropolitan area and doesn't bode well for LDs future.
> : > Anthony
>
I use the following to rent LDs:
LaserLand, Cupertino
Laser Source, Sunnyvale
Laser Discovery, Mountain View & Cupertino
Sound Perfection, Menlo Park
Hermary's, San Carlos
West Coast Video, Redwood City
VideoScope, Mountain View
All of these are within a few blocks of my commute from Woodside to
Sunnyvale. LaserLand is great, they opened a larger store with lots of
good hardware. VideoScope has been around for ages and has an incredible
collection of opera, special interest and foreign LDs. Sound Perfection
and Hermary's are higher end A/V dealers who maintain rental libraries
to show off their HTs. Don't forget to buy as well as rent at these
places. They're usually competitive with the mail order outfits and the
sales revenue really helps keep them going.
Curtis Cade
Louis A. Carliner
>They missed the boat however by not aggressively promoting its
>advantages to a much larger market - that of off air time-shifters.
> I use S-VHS for this every day and there is very little
>difference in picture quality between live and taped broadcasts (using
>a JVC HR-S5000U and a 33" GAOO). Because S-VHS is backwards compatible
>I've tried this using regular VHS and the difference in this area is
>truly noticeable - much more than that between LD and S-VHS.
> For a machine that will tape off-air (where minimal picture loss
>is truly desirable) and also play VHS rental tapes, S-VHS is the only
>way to go. I think that anyone who has a LD player and has seen the
>best to date of what a good TV screen can reproduce should try a demo
>of what S-VHS can do for them; not as a replacement for LD but as an
>adjunct to it.
> Fleabus........................
>
Now, if someone with connections only can get to the numbskulls at
Columbia House to issue EP S-VHS versions of their Re-TV collections,
and maybe have a co-promotional offer of S-VHS playback machines, they
would really have a market! Just try storing all the bulky cassettes
of Start Trek The Next Generation. The length of time it takes to
build the collection, and moreover, the SHEAR BULK is enough to cause
a very high dropout rate!
Jesse Skeen
Bill Davidson (bil...@billd.West.Sun.COM) wrote:
Those bastards deserve to be in all the financial trouble they're in
right now. They closed a lot of stores in the Sacramento area; one of
them sold a small selection of discs; none of them rented any, just VHS
crapvision, although they rented video game cartridges and
books-on-cassette! I just love listening to those through my THX home
theater system ;)
Thad Floryan
In article <jettaiiile-15...@stefanini.hip.berkeley.edu>
jetta...@aol.com (Anthony Siino) wrote:
|
| San Diego must be the exception. I live in the SF Bay Area
| (Oakland/Berkeley side of the bay) and there are only two places on this
| side that rent LDs and one has just discontinued renting them and is
| selling off their inventory. That leaves me one place to rent which is
| 30-40 minutes from home more if I hit traffic. There are several Tower
| Records that sell LDs and there is one used CD store in Berkeley that has
| a very small selection of used LDs.
|
| it is nowhere near 40 places. This situation seems ridiculous for a major
| metropolitan area and doesn't bode well for LDs future.
Are the demographics of San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley _that_ different
from Silicon Valley, LA and San Diego?
Just picking up my local phone book (Los Altos/Mountain View/Sunnyvale)
representing just three moderate-sized communities between Palo Alto and San
Jose, I turned to the index pages of the Yellow Pages and looked under
"Laserdiscs" and found:
Laser Discs & Players -- See
Home Theater Systems . . . . . . . 455
Stereo & Hi-Fi Dlrs and Serv . . . 834
Video Equip -- Dlrs. . . . . . . . 922
Video Equip -- Rent & Lease. . . . 922
Video Discs -- Sales & Rental. . . 927
Those reference numbers are categories, not page numbers. Just for fun, I
went to each one and was amazed at the sheer quantity and variety of places
available (far more than the 7 LD places I've been frequenting within seven
miles (or 15 minutes) of my home.
OK, let's start a SF Bay Area LD dealer list. From the Yellow Pages ads in
which LDs are explicitly mentioned (and Suncoast which didn't advertise) and
noting that many, many others not listed here might also carry LDs and noting
this list is not arranged in any specific order:
Suncoast; Vallco Fashion Park, Cupertino 408/255-6098
Contemporary Book Shops; 942 W. El Camino Real Sunnyvale 408/730-9828
Specializes in X-rated LDs; open 24 hrs
Contemporary Book Shops; 2339 El Camino Real Santa Clara 408/244-6414
Specializes in X-rated LDs; open 24 hrs
Laser Disc Exchange; 1404 Old Country Rd Belmont 415/591-4268
FAX: 415/591-8144
lase...@aol.com
http://www.laserdiscs.com/
Laser Discovery; 75 W. El Camino Real Mountain View 415/428-0800
see also http://www.laserdiscovery.com/
LaserLand Home Theater; 1035 S. De Anza Blvd San Jose/Cupertino 408/253-3733
10,000+ in stock
Laser Source; 189 W. El Camino Real Sunnyvale 408/749-1122
This is where I found a rental but never
rented copy of "THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING"
Tower Video; 630 San Antonio Rd (at El Camino) Mountain View 415/941-7907
Videoscope; 3731 El Camino Real Palo Alto 415/493-0500
Hermary's Audio Video Designs; 386 El Camino San Carlos 415/592-9480
Theatron; 2350 So. Bascom Ave San Jose/Campbell 408/371-9177
Century Stereo; 620 So. Bascom Ave San Jose 408/998-7474
EISI; 140 E. Dana Ave Mountain View 415/969-5212
Sound Perfection; 700 El Camino Real Menlo Park 415/323-1000
5000 sq ft of LD rental/sale area
Laser Experience; 1659 Branham Lane San Jose 408/266-5910
Anderson's; 999 E. El Camino Real Sunnyvale 408/733-9823
Anderson's; 606 Saratoga Ave San Jose 408/554-1617
Anderson's; 901 El Camino Real Redwood City 415/367-9400
The Audible Difference; 805 El Camino Real Palo Alto 415/328-1081
FAX: 415/328-6931
Laser Tower; 32 S. Abbott Ave Milpitas 408/263-3372
Laser King; ????? Stevens Creek Blvd Santa Clara ???/???-????
Specializes in HK movies
Plus a large number of home theater and A/V design companies such as the
following which had large display ads (among the many others which didn't):
Advanced Audio Video 408/453-4011
Century Stereo; 620 S. Bascom Ave San Jose 408/998-7474
The Audible Difference; 805 El Camino Real Palo Alto 415/328-1081
R&B Electronics Big Screen; 1755 E. Bayshore Redwood City 415/363-8691
Future Sound; 851 California Drive Burlingame 415/342-1476
Sounds Unique; 2280 Stevens Crk Blvd San Jose 408/287-3002
LaserLand Home Theatre; 1035 S. DeAnza Blvd San Jose 408/253-3733
Bang & Olufsen; Stanford Shopping Center Stanford 415/322-2264
Bang & Olufsen; 345 Powell San Francisco 415/274-3320
Bay Area Audio; 1362 S. DeAnza Blvd San Jose 408/255-0735
Stereo Habitat; 391 San Antonio Mountain View 415/917-8125
Stereo Habitat; 1450 Camden Ave Campbell 408/377-7636
Stereo Habitat; 3896 Stevens Crk Blvd San Jose 408/984-8004
Hermary's Audio Video Designs; 386 El Camino San Carlos 415/592-9480
Theatron Hi-Res Home Theater; 2350 S. Bascom AvCampbell 408/371-9177
Hmmm, just noticed that Faroudja and Velodyne are local companies, too.
Andy Doolittle
In article <326CF8...@pplus.best.com>,
Curtis Cade <cur...@polo.com> wrote:
>Thad Floryan wrote:
>>
>> In article <jettaiiile-15...@stefanini.hip.berkeley.edu>
>> jetta...@aol.com (Anthony Siino) wrote:
>> |
>> | My understanding is that there are a few places in SF to rent/buy LDs but
>> | it is nowhere near 40 places. This situation seems ridiculous for a major
>> | metropolitan area and doesn't bode well for LDs future.
>> Are the demographics of San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley _that_ different
>> from Silicon Valley, LA and San Diego?
>>
>
>visited Sound Perfection I would estimate their LD section at more like
>250 square feet rather than 5,000. (they are an audio/ video hardware
>dealer that stocks perhaps 50 LDs). Same goes for the Anderson's stores
>- they sell Mits big screens mostly. Tower Video used to rent LDs ages
>ago, but no longer do. Contemporary Bookshops x-rated specialist? I
>could care less. I recognize some of the others as very small mom & pop
>stores that have mostly HK/ Japaneese/ wherever (non-english
>soundtracks) action material. They stock a few english Arnold-type
>blockbuster LDs for the occasional yuppies that wander in. Almost all
>the outfits at the end of your post are strictly hardware dealers.
>Stereo Habitit sells car stereos cell phones and pagers, I believe. The
>truth is that even with all these choices I often can't find a LD I want
>to rent in the area - particularly from Friday through Sunday. If a
>store 15 minutes away has it, I don't usually feel like making the 30
>minute round trip to get it.
>
>But it is true that the demographics around Silicon Valley and the
>Peninsula are quite different than in Berkeley/ Oakland, and to a lesser
>extent, SF. Per capita income is somewhat higher in the valley, we all
>live in our cars and don't mind driving all over the map, and tend to be
>early adoptors of new technologies. There is also much more happening in
>the city entertainment wise than here. Why see a recorded performance
>when there are so many good live ones to see? The Laser Disc market has
>always been small here and in the rest of the country.
>
>My $0.02
>
>Curtis Cade
>
>cur...@polo.com
The Anderson rental store at El Camino and Jefferson has a decent
collection of LDs for rent and sale - off the top of my head I'd say at
least 50-75 titles. Probably quite a bit more - at least a dozen bins
with 8-10 capacity each. There's also West Coast video on Woodside Road
in RWC with similar capacity.
andy
--
Curtis Cade
It's not as massive a list as it appears in your post. The last time I
Curtis Cade
Anthony Siino wrote:
>
> In article <thadDzo...@netcom.com>, th...@netcom.com (Thad Floryan) wrote:
>
> > Are the demographics of San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley _that_ different
> > from Silicon Valley, LA and San Diego?
> >
>
> have the largest concentration of LD resources. My post was concerned
> primarily with rental places rather that places to purchase.
>
> Berkeley, surprisingly, has just lost one of its two LD rental stores.
> The owner told me that the discs just weren't paying for their floor
> space. This place was expensive but it was a 3 minute walk from work. I
> live 10 miles north of Berkeley and there are zero store North and farther
> until you get to Vacaville. I'm compiling a list and if you look at it
> there are pockets all over the Bay Area where the closest LD rental store
> is going to be 30-40 minutes away.
>
> Anthony
Hmmm ... it sounds like you should open up a Laser Land in your area to
me.
Curtis
Jesse Skeen
So they've got 2 stores in the Bay Area that _specialize_ in X-rated
laserdiscs? Now I know I've gotta move there! You haven't seen anything
if you've never seen porno on laserdisc!