So I finally received the AC3 mod from benedictus in Germany and finished installing it for my CLD-97. The instructions that came with the mod were pretty hard to follow and I find visual instructions much better. I took a bunch of pictures and assembled them into a DIY instruction guide. If you want to download the PDF file of this, you can do that here:

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B3Or4a ... E9KVTVzRFk

Glad to see you got it working. My only suggestion is that you attach the board to the audio board as many people mount it to the frame and it you ever need to work on the player you have to free this and it dangles separately and can be a pain to deal with during repairs.

I don't own a CLD-97 but that is an excellent guide you've produced!!!

It seems like most people have mounted the mod board to the corner of the player board with the screw. However, I found that the boards would come into physical contact like this which scared me a bit. I tried putting insulation material between the two boards but then the small screw was not long enough to secure both of them. Also, the screw head is so wide that it covers one of the resistors on the mod board. I didn't want the chassis ground (through the screw) to come in contact with any board components. I placed dampening material on both sides of the mod board, and even though technically it's "free floating", it's gently squeezed between the player board and the cover so it doesn't really move. The dampening material is a non-conductive approximately 1/8" thick piece so it provides a nice barrier between the boards and any other possible contacts. My guide is just a suggestion so of course anybody can do it their own way.

Wow, impressive. Great job Invenio!

Wow, i didn´t know that a german store sells these parts. Can you tell me the price for the AC-3 mod ? I have an CLD-97, unfortunately without the AC3 output, so thats maybe an option.

With shipping to the US, it's about 60 EUR. So I am guessing it will be even less for you as you live in Germany.

Thats a very good instruction, thanks for helping the community! Though, I´m not sure if I want to try this... Thanks also for the fast answer, the price is ok for the mod...

I can understand your reservations. I had quite a few myself. If this is the first time working with a soldering iron I wouldn't recommend doing this mod by yourself. However, if you have some experience then I think it's very doable. I can however say that it's "fun" to do and nothing beats the feeling of playing that first AC3 laserdisc on your modded player! As for the price, I think it's pretty darn fare as they are the only place in the entire world that sells this thing, and it will certainly add a lot more to the selling price of the unit than the cost of the mod if you ever do decide to sell the CLD-97.

I hope my illustrated instruction guide accurately shows what is involved. I found the text instructions provided with the mod pretty bland and difficult to follow if you have never done a LD mod before.

Why do I need to log in to read this?

Anyway, can this chip be fitted to anything?

1. What did you have to log in for? I posted the instruction guide on my google account but it's open to public viewing so it should not require any kind of log in for viewing or downloading as a PDF file. I haven't heard anybody have to log in to view the document. Let me know if there is a problem as my intention is for anybody to have access to that file. Thanks.

2. I think the AC3 board is generic and can be fitted to any laserdisc player. However, the soldering points will be different so that is important to note. The sellers of the mod chip have a list of players that they have instruction sets to.

Hope that helps.

I had to log into Google in order to see it. This probably doesn't effect most people since most people just let Google data mine every aspect of their life. I'm usually logged out.

This is a good guide. I hope to install one of these in a Laseractive, if possible. Is there a webpage where I can buy the chip?

I don't know why you have to log in to see this. I just opened the page up in another browser that does not log me into google automatically and it loaded fine. Even the "Sign In" link is in the upper right hand corner of the screen. I just double checked and the "sharing" is set to public meaning anybody can view it. Try with a different computer or browser and if you want me to email you the file directly you can PM me your email address. I don't have the webpage address off the top of my head, I did put the link for purchasing the mod on page 1 of the instruction guide.

I got an immediate (1 hour) response from Mr. Dohmen (Benedictus), all the hardware is available for 60 Euros here in Germany, just as invenio told. Thanks man for this hint, I´m really thinking about ordering the mod. In another life (aka many, many years ago) I learned being an electrician, so I basically know how to solder, but what I´m concerned is that I find the right points to solder. You triggered the curious child in me, I can really imagine the fun, when you have the "Dolby Digital" sign appearing on your receiver , thats cool.
Maybe one or two post more of you, encouraging me, I will order the set right away. And reading that this guy is the only one selling this mod worldwide makes it even more interesting. Did you know that they also offer to make an Upgrade to Dolby Digital Out without the RF-Signal? Thats very interessting for people without AC-3 RF equipped Receivers.

Very cool. So the reasons why I would recommend you do the mod is that with only one place selling in the entire world, if they go out of business or decide not to carry the part anymore then the game is up and you'll never be able to do the mod. Hell, you may want to buy it now, even if you decide that you only want to do the mod in the future. If you have soldering experience then the mod should not be a major challenge. I think for people that have never held a soldering iron it could be daunting, but otherwise very doable. If you follow the pictures on the step by step guide I made the soldering points are clearly marked, you don't even have to remove the circuit board to find the pin designations (my guide shows you pictures of what you would see on the underside of the board to find the pins). As for dolby digital out, I saw that as well. I had a AC3 demodulator already so I really didn't need that, but go ahead if that's what you want. I think these mods add more to the player value than the cost of buying them so it's not a bad investment either way.

And last but not least, the feeling you get when you put in that LD, jack up the volume, and hear that glorious 5.1 soundtrack is unbeatable!

Dolby digital on laserdisc is 384kbps and dvds are generaly the same or 448kbps(therefor higher than ld) . It is 640 kbps on bluray and 640kbps to 3 mbps on hddvd(dolby digital plus). Although lower bitrate I feel dolby digital on laserdisc sound more like DD on blu or hddvd. And I mean this fidelity and depth, not the more aggresive theatrical soundtrack they use for lds.

Dolby Digital for LD was designed for people with home theaters and expensive systems that can handle the dynamics and a quiet room to also hear the soft passages. DVD was design to be able to use TV or cheap sound systems in noisy living rooms so less dynamics so the system can handle it and you can hear everything. DTS sound on DVD was much better mastered than many DD tracks.

So the bit-rate is only have the story, you can have higher bit-rate but if you master with less dynamics then it will not sound as impressive. Many are starting to use LD again as they find the sound tracks much more dynamic.

I can't it explain it technically but I agree with krbahr, I find that many of my laserdisc soundtracks are superior to the equivalent DVD release of the film. Your comments make sense. This may be a similar thing as in new CD's have no dynamic range and thus LP's sounding more dynamic and full. It would be interesting to compare the actual audio streams of a DD laserdisc and DVD equivalent.

Agree but I meant to say ld sound higher fidelity. On dvd or even on blu when you switch to DD you can immidiately tell its lossy.all of a sudden it sound like a youtube video but on ld digital stereo and DD are closer

I wounder if they just mixed the soundtracks better for LD or if the sound encoding is superior to modern media. The bitrate on blu-ray should be much higher than LD, yet I agree with you that some LD soundtracks simply sound better.