>>The OT of SW for one has actually caused a surge in the format.<<
How do you define "surge?" Who ramped up LV PLAYER production recently?
It is a collectors item, and all that that implies.
I was one of the biggest proponents and I still think they had a lot to offer before being trumped by technology, as always happens...
They were great in their time.
BTW, I had a friend in the seventies that made a part of his living repairing and restoring old acoustic 78 record players.
They were still dead....
No one is "making" new laserdisc players (although I hear that the final ones produced in Japan were really something).
There were around 1,000,000 machines in America. Now it seems that other movie geeks are slowly getting into the format in part because of their exposure to letterboxing and supplemental features through DVD.
I doubt that there are many people buying into old laserdisc for commonly available films but where there is an alternate edit, letterboxing, an out of print or never released title, better commentary, etc. I could see some of the fans buying into the format.
Some OOP DVDs are selling for hundreds of dollars. It can make LD seem cheap by comparison.
My Pioneer player was purchased new in 1988 and it is still humming along fine. I use it for CD playback daily and watch LDs on it several times a month. It has no problems with CD-Rs unlike my newer clock radio/CD player, my in-dash factory car CD player, etc. It can't play CD-RWs but then neither can my car or clock.
Durability. Something missing in the disposable technology of today.
78s may be an outmoded technology but there are plenty of new 33/45 turntables coming onto the market every year and new vinyl is still being pressed (better quality than ever before with some LPs, nice 180-220gram records). My turntable was modified to play 8 speeds of 78 in addition to LPs and singles (it has a separate stylus for 78s).
Combi-players are great, regardless of what they can play back.
One reason why I like what APEX does. Whatever the format, include it in there. Why should you have a DVD player, SACD player, and DVD-A player just so that you can have "the best performance" system for each format?
They are just going to sell you Sgt. Pepper's again when the NEXT technology (chip based playback?) comes along.
I'm glad you have other hobbies like riding motorcycles rather than watching movies.
I have a husband who is seriously ill and lives in a wheelchair and oxygen 24 hours a day. We seek enjoyment wherever we can get it... and that includes our library of LD movies.
The world is big..