Laser Disc Officially Reborn

[MISFITZ]

Thought i'd drop some 'comments' in here before the boss sees no action in here and this section gets merged with FREAKS and GEEKS :p ;)

Over the holidays, i got a sweet set of POLK AUDIO speakers. I had to turn in a REPLAY TV that my GF's parents bought me and I saw they bought these speakers on the same receipt. The spent a pretty penny on these POLKS. ($799)

Well, i was pretty hyped to test drive them, but I had taken down my surround sound a year or so ago. I had a SONY RECEIVER and was not too pleased with it. SO i was on the prowl for a new receiver. Due to budget, I had a few models in mind.

But as things happen, i did something I never would have NORMALLY done. I saw an open box item on display and it was a PIONEER. I haven't heard much on PIONEER's reputation on receivers, but i had seen this receiver on 2 store shelves priced at $349. The open box was $199. I talked to the sales guy and he said it was just a return, and they are trying to dump all the extra stuff they have in the back due to so many returns and exchanges. I told him, if he would go $170 i'd buy it from him RIGHT NOW and get a 4 year warranty. So we did it.

Like I said, I normally would not have bought this receiver, but I figured at this price, if i don't like it, i'll sell it or whatever.



I wired it up this past weekend. And i'm sorry, but my LASER DISC are out of control. The sound is sooooo good. I can't tell you if it's the receiver or the speakers, but damn, i have never heard my LDs sound like this. I usually get my EMPIRE STRIKES BACK LD and test the sound. HOLY COW!!! The battle of hoth was making me grin ear to ear. Great panning, and the sub was not trying to bully everyone. WAS SOOOOOO GOOD! I tried a few other LDs including playing my CDs through my LD player. Man! I felt like i got a new LD player. I can't stress enough how happy I am with the sound.

DVD on the other hand is still a mixed bag. Some DVDs sounded good. Others didn't. And the ones that didn't here was my complaint. THE VOICES ARE LOST!!! You can't hear shit! I mean, you can, but it gets lost a few times. Maybe by nature of that specific DVD, but still. I adjusted the output for the fronts and surround too. But that center... i dunno. Even when i do hear it, it sounds weak. BUt on the other DVDs, they sound pretty good.


I'm pretty pleased, SO FAR with my set up. I found a few things about the receiver that are soooo misleading and almost made me want to return the item. But i'm ok with it. Esp for the price i paid.

If anyone can point me to some reviews on the receiver that'd be great. I couldn't find any. But man, my LDs are sounding sexy right now. DVD sounds 'good and great at times', but it didn't floor me like the LD did. Mainly cuz I've never heard LD sound so good at my house.

But it could just be the speakers for all i know. That's why I was looking for any 'comments' or reviews. I don't care if they are negative. At around $200, i'm not gonna cry about it now, believe me! ahahahah

PIONEER VSXD711

[Paff]

I don't know much about that particular Pioneer receiver, but a good friend of mine also has an entry-level Pioneer and it sounds just fine.

I don't think any decently priced name-brand receivers would actually sound BAD. I have a preference for Yamaha, but the improvement it gave me over my Sony was very slight. I noticed the difference but I bet no one else did.

Even I forget just how good some old Pro-Logic laserdiscs sound. Now that you're back on the LD horse, I highly recommend a copy of Dazed and Confused. The soundtrack on that LD rocks, in full surround, much better than the DVD.

Now, the way to get the sound right with all formats would be to get a test DVD (like Video Essentials or AVIA) and a sound meter. Calibrating your sound system makes a nice difference. What you might want to do, if you have buddies with Home Theaters, is to split the costs on buying calibration equipment, then you all can use it.

[MISFITZ]

Yeah, I got Dazed and CORNfused on LD. ahahaha! I remember you talking about it on LD before. I'm gonna slap it in tonight and check it out.

I've always heard 'YAMAHA" too mentioned in 'reliable circles, but as i mentioned, this receiver just sorta popped up on me. I had bought it for the INPUTS it carries, but they jiff you. :mad:

For example, if you go into COMPONET IN on the receiver, it kills your DVD S-VIDEO input. They don't tell you you hafta chose one or the other. They make it seem like you have a a seperate compont and a seperate S-video. But if you look under all of that, (shame on me i guess) it says ASSIGNABLE. Which is BUSH!!!

It's ok. I got my stuff hooked up and it's so much cleaner behind my TV set now. Before there were tons fo wires, connecting all the devices, now you just see one small tube. (encasing the monitor outs)

[betterdan]

I have a Pioneer receiver and it was much better than the Sony I had before. Just wish I could get some nice speakers like you have but for now my speakers sound pretty damn good. Congrats!

[jscott]

Originally posted by MISFITZ

It's ok. I got my stuff hooked up and it's so much cleaner behind my TV set now. Before there were tons fo wires, connecting all the devices, now you just see one small tube. (encasing the monitor outs)

I've always wanted to hook up my equipment like this (feed all AV to the receiver) just for the convienience, and to get rid of the criss-cross bundles of wiring. However, I was always under the impression that running my receiver constantly would put more wear & tear on it, shortening it's lifespan, not to mention any video signal degeneration from hooking up a device to the receiver, then to the television. Am I making a correct assumption? Has anyone ran their equipment like this for an extended period of time? Had any problems from it?

[MISFITZ]

I've actually continued to hook my DVD's componet OUT directly to the TV itself rather than route it through my receiver. Specifically for that reason. Right now, i've cleaned up so much that I just had 3 wires going to my set for all my devices.

1 - S-VIdeo (for digital cable, Laser Disc and VCR)
2 - the audio cables, 1 - left and 2 - right

So i still had a bit of 'room' in that tube encasing those wires. I ran the set from the DVD player using the componet and audio wires. This way I still have the option of listening to DVD without the suround sound. But also coming out of my DVD player into the receiver is my digital outputs.

I can't give you an answer on loss of quality by going in a device like the receiver. My LD looks great. I've got monster cables keeping the S-video and audio cables throught the whole path. I'm not sure what's going on 'in' the receiver. But the image still looks great.

But for the DVD, it made no sense to go to the receiver having only ONE device that uses COMPONET. So i connected it directly to the TV, and in the back of my mind, it sorta ensured i was getting the 'best' connection possible in my set up.

Sorry to not have an answer, but I was thinking the same thing. I'd assume you don't lose quality, and with the higher end receiver's i'd feel even more comfortable about saying that. Their inputs are probably lined with better quality conductors than these entry level receivers. But i dunno fo sure?