Laser Disc

• is a composite video format
• the luminance (black and white) and
chrominance (color) information are
transmitted in one signal and it is the
responsibility of the receiver to separate them
• use only analog video
• is not digitally encoded and does not make
use of compression techniques
• were encoded with stereo (often Dolby
Surround) CD quality audio
 DVD (Digital Video Disc)
• data is stored in the form of blocks which make
up each independent frame
• Depending upon which format is used, this can
result in far higher fidelity, particularly at strong
color borders or regions of high detail
• In terms of audio quality, DVDs use compressed
audio formats such as Dolby Digital and DTS for
multichannel sound
• MPEG-2 format information used on DVD discs
has built-in error correction which ensures that
the signal from a damaged disc will remain
identical to that from a perfect disc
Disadvantages of Laserdiscs
• The analog information encoded on Laserdiscs
does not include any form of built-in checksum
or error correction
• slight dust and scratches on the disc surface can
result in read-errors which cause various video
quality problems
• "crosstalk“- An issue can arise if it is out of
alignment or because the disc is damaged or
excessively warped, but it can also occur even
with a properly functioning player and a factory-
new disc.
• involving the inconsistency of playback quality
between different makes and models of player
 Advantages
• Laserdisc players, when working in full analog,
recover from such errors faster than DVD players
• Another advantage of Laserdisc is that damaged
spots can be skipped, while a DVD will become
unplayable
• With CAV Laserdiscs the user can jump directly to
any individual frame of a video simply by entering
the frame number on the remote keypad, a feature
not common among DVD players
 DVD Laserdisc
Features DVD has the same Constant Linear
basic features as CLV Velocity LD
LD (scan, pause, (scan, pause,
search) and CAV LD search) and
(freeze, slow) and Constant
adds branching, Angular Velocity
multiple camera LD (freeze, slow)
angles, parental
control, video menus,
interactivity, etc.,
although some of
these features are not
 DVD Laserdisc

Capacity Single-layer DVD CLV LD holds

holds over 2 hours, one hour per
dual-layer holds side, CAV
over 4 hours. holds half an
DVD can hold hour. A CAV
thousands of still laserdisc can
pictures hold 104,000
accompanied by still images.
hundreds of hours of
audio and text.
Convenien An entire movie fits On the
ce on one side of a other hand,
DVD, so there's no
laserdiscs
need to flip the disc
have larger
or wait for the
player to do it. covers for
DVDs are smaller better art
and easier to and text.
handle. DVD players
can be portable,
similar to CD
players. Discs can
be easily and
cheaply sent
Noise Most DVD players Most LD players
are as quiet as make a whirring
CD players. noise that can
be heard during
quiet segments
of a movie.
 DVD Laserdisc

Audi DVD has better quality LD can have better

on Dolby Digital or quality on Dolby
o music only (PCM). Surround soundtracks
DVD uses the same stored in
Dolby Digital surround uncompressed PCM
sound, usually at a format.
higher data rate of 448 LD has 2 audio tracks:
kbps, and can optionally analog and digital
include DTS (at data LD uses PCM audio
rates up to 1536 kbps sampled with 16 bits
compared to LD's 1411 at 44.1 kHz. DVD LPCM
kbps, but in practice audio can use 16, 20,
DTS data rates are often or 24 bit samples at 48
768 kbps). or 96 kHz (although
PCM is not used with
most movies).
 DVD Laserdisc

Audio DVD players convert LD has surround audio

Dolby Digital to Dolby in Dolby Surround,
Surround. The Dolby Digital (AC-3),
downmixing, combined and DTS formats. 5.1-
with the effects of channel surround
compression, often sound is available by
results in lower-quality using one channel of
sound than from LD the analog track for
Dolby Surround tracks. AC-3 or both channels
of the digital track for
DTS.
Vide DVD usually has LD suffers from
degradation inherent in
better video.
o DVD uses digital analog storage and in the
video, and even composite NTSC or PAL
video signal.
though it's heavily
This doesn't mean that the
compressed, most
video quality of DVD is
professionals agree always better than LD.
that when properly Only that it can be better.
and carefully Also keep in mind that the
encoded it's virtuallyaverage television is of
indistinguishable insufficient quality to show
from studio masters. much difference between
LD and DVD. Home theater
systems or HDTVs are
needed to take full
advantage of the improved
Resolutio In numerical terms LD's approximately
DVD has 345,600 272,160 pixels
n pixels (720x480), (567x480).
which is 1.3 times Laserdisc
LD's frequency
Widescreen DVD response usually
has 1.7 times the begins to fall off at
pixels of 3 MHz. (All figures
letterboxed LD (or are for NTSC, not
1.3 times PAL.)
anamorphic LD).
Legacy Up to date movies Some movies on
laserdisc will probably
titles
never appear on DVD

Availabili DVD players and LD players and discs

discs are available are becoming hard to
ty
for purchase and find.
rental in thousands
of outlets and on
the Internet

Price Low-cost DVD Costs high compared

players are cheaper with DVD
than the cheapest
Restrictions For those outside Laserdisc has no
the US, regional copy protection
coding is a definite and does not have
drawback of DVD. regional
For some people differences other
Macrovision copy than PAL vs. NTSC.
protection is an
annoyance

Recordable DVD recorders are Laserdisc

increasingly recording, at a low
affordable of $250 per disc,
was never
available to