Optical Media

Decide what type of Optical Media format you want to dedicate your life to. You can choose CD, DVD and Blu Ray all together, but LaserDisc and MiniDisc, they are separate. You dedicate your life to one of them, or none of them.

Decide your budget. With CD, DVD and Blu Ray, players are fairly inexpensive and are even still manufactured. You can get away with just a Blu Ray Player for all 3 discs, a DVD Player for CD and DVD or a CD Player just for CD. LaserDisc or MiniDisc? Your budget is determined by quality. Expect at least 3x that of buying into CD, DVD AND Blu Ray for both LaserDisc and MiniDisc. MiniDisc look like PSP Games when taken out of the case, but DONT TAKE THEM OUT OF THE CASE. THEY ARE NOT THE SAME.

Wait for them to arrive. Oh no, no next day shipping on your pristine quality, LaserDisc Player you spent 2,000 on (excl tax, excl shipping, excl import). MiniDisc, being significantly smaller, shouldn't take as long, and you can just go on Amazon for a CD, DVD or Blu Ray Player.

Buy some media in the meantime. CDs are around £4 used, or £17 new, DVDs can be got for around £2 used (good luck finding new movies on DVD), and Blu Ray is also Inexpensive. LaserDisc, weirdly enough is also Inexpensive for media despite the fact you spent a fortune on the player, and MiniDisc, also extremely affordable after you spent 500 on your working Sony MZRH10

Scrap the crap, get some decent WIRED headphones or speakers, maybe even an external DAC if what you got has a line-out. Want to watch Dolby Atmos Blu Ray? Your in for a world of audio pain and expense, get something like a 5.1 surround sound system to go with your out-of-the-way player. Make sure the speakers are as obvious as possible to make everything seem irrational and unreasonable. DVD? Yea, stereo or 3.1 is probably enough as not many DVD stuff bothered with too many, now, advanced features. CD? Stereo, maybe surround sound of your music benefits from it, but not the budget crap, and BUY A DAC WORTH YOUR HOUSE. You'll thank me later when you get evicted, but have quality audio to listen to while depressed. MiniDisc and LaserDisc. Idk, never had them so can't quite say what outputs they have, but LaserDisc should be fine with quality Stereo, and MiniDisc with quality IEMs.
Quality ≠ Expensive, but most the time they are. Quality is subjective, you are going to have to find your "quality". Though, I and a community I like to make fun of, Audiophiles, will judge you regardless which audio output/speakers you use. Video output? Idgaf, no one does and you are mostly stuck with HDMI anyways.

READ THE MANUALS. You aren't better than me. Wire crap up properly so as to not reduce 1500 off your purchase. *Oh no! Manuals are made of dead trees*, did you expect pig skin? Deal with it or maybe your scared the tree will come back to bite you?

If you scratch it, don't. Things are fragile. Too many scratches and you have yourself a small, "average" or even a large coaster. Sony is still selling blank MiniDisc (not Hi-MD though), and CF, DVD and Blu Ray aren't going away any time soon, but LaserDisc? Whatever's available is all that ever will remain to exist. DON'T YOU DARE SCRATCH LASERDISC.

Enjoy (if you can still afford to!)

Part 2 is made on a pre-order basis. You can contact me at "marnie_contact+ifellforthis+proton.me" for more details on pricing, shipping details and more..