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| mikechambers |
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Posted: 09 Mar 2020, 22:51
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I've got a Sharp Aquos 55" 4K smart TV from 2016, and whatever filtering it's doing to the signal from my LD-V2200 is actually quite good. It looks great!
I can see a huge difference versus plugging it into my computer, where I see a lot more noise that the Aquos effectively eliminates.
1 month later edit: I filmed this last night to show how it looks to a friend.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zt7b-NP5DjI
The phone camera does a bad job getting the right colors and exposure, but you can still see that the picture is very sharp and clear. In person, this isn't far off from DVD quality. |
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| mikechambers |
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Posted: 24 Apr 2020, 20:33
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Cool! I always wanted to see some of these. Got any Mustang discs?
Thanks for uploading. |
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| mikechambers |
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Posted: 25 Apr 2020, 16:40
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I just picked up The Matrix yesterday. It's a Pioneer USA pressing, not Kuraray but it looks great and I saw no signs of rot on it!
I've been wanting to add this to my collection for years, but was waiting for a semi-reasonable price.
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| mikechambers |
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Posted: 28 Feb 2021, 01:16
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| I picked up DTS Jurassic Park for $14.99 at HPB. I'm pretty impressed with the picture quality on this one. |
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| mikechambers |
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Posted: 28 Feb 2021, 01:21
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I have a Ford dealership disc where parts of it are unplayable due to rot.
Other than that, my copy of Awakenings is pretty bad for the first 10 minutes per side, but still watchable.
I've been lucky in that I've been able to largely avoid badly rotted ones. |
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| mikechambers |
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Posted: 28 Feb 2021, 20:22
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This is a good disc content-wise, despite being from my least favorite Genesis era. Phil is always quite the showman, and you could scream and he would be able to tell you what key it was in.
I have all of their LD releases other than a few Japanese versions of concerts I already have US copies of. I'm a huge fan of Genesis, especially pre-1980.
I disagree strongly about the disc quality though. I felt like the LD mastering produced a very noisy picture here. Maybe I have a bad copy? I don't know. There's definitely no rot on mine, it's just bad chroma noise. One of the worst in my collection. |
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| mikechambers |
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Posted: 02 Mar 2021, 04:40
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cplusplus wrote: I think the main hurdle would be the legal aspect.
The patents on AC-3 actually expired in 2017.
rein-o wrote: Please keep us posted if you can or can't do this, would love to know.
Will do. So far, I haven't been able to dig up anything useful. |
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| mikechambers |
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Posted: 02 Mar 2021, 07:13
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| I didn't forget about this thread. I'm uploading some videos so you guys can compare the Invisible Touch Tour LD with the DVD. They're large files, I'll probably end up posting links tomorrow. I'm using a different video codec, so hopefully you can see them laserfanhld-gb! But I'm still using lossless compression, which is why the files are huge. |
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| mikechambers |
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Posted: 02 Mar 2021, 20:30
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I collect and even make use of vintage computers. I also enjoy writing software emulators for various computers and game consoles. Add that to having a large collection of Laserdiscs and players, and some might even call me a nerd. 
I also grow unreasonably hot chili peppers. |
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| mikechambers |
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Posted: 09 Mar 2021, 02:29
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| I don't believe it! I just got a rot-free copy of Starship Troopers. I played all sides. There's a litte bit on side 4 with the extra features, but whatever. The main movie is all clean. Picture quality is actually really good, one of my better looking discs. |
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| mikechambers |
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Posted: 15 Mar 2021, 05:43
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I actually downgrade frequently. If I have a movie I really like on DVD/BD, I often pick up the LD. I used to just get big lots of LDs and most of them ended up being junk. Now I build my collection more slowly, for more money, but only with discs I actually like a lot and are likely to play frequently.
That's actually advice I'd give newbies. Don't buy huge LD lots unless you know it has a bunch of stuff you'd actually want. What good is having 500 LDs if they all suck?
I sometimes upgrade too. I watched Total Recall for the first time a few weeks ago. It was on LD. Great movie, so I picked up the BD cheap the next day. |
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| mikechambers |
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Posted: 16 Mar 2021, 17:35
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| Blu Ray only exists because the general public wasn't ready for the uncompromising home theater experience of Laserdisc. |
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| mikechambers |
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Posted: 16 Mar 2021, 18:40
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DVD was tiny LD with worse sound. :)
It's too bad LD was subject to it's sunset coinciding with the very beginning of the rise of widescreen TV becoming a thing in the US. It would have been nice to get a lot more anamorphic 16:9 disc options to take full advantage of the resolution, which was such a major advantage for DVD. |
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| mikechambers |
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Posted: 17 Mar 2021, 01:24
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I get the appeal of both PCM stereo and AC-3 surround. My stereo system doesn't suck. If it's a movie that makes good use of effective discrete surround, I'd rather listen to the AC-3 track, otherwise PCM all day.
The AC-3 sound quality on Laserdisc is not that bad though. You'd think 384 kbit divided across 5 channels means 76 kbit per channel, minus whatever little amount is stolen for the LFE. That would definitely suck, but they actually allocate the bandwidth dynamically based on how much is going on in each channel. The only time you're going to have very low bandwidth all around in every channel is if all of them are going nuts at the same time. The majority of the time, the lion's share of the bandwidth is being given to the front and/or center data.
Plus AC-3 isn't so prone to those terrible, annoying warbly noise artifacts that you get with something like low-bitrate MP3. So, it's not awful. No, it doesn't have the perfect clarity of PCM, but a well-done surround mix really can enhance the enjoyment of some movies.
I don't have to have it, but it's a nice option sometimes.
IMO anyway, just my 2 cents. Some people do make too big a deal of it though, I agree! I used LD for 17 years before being able to listen to the AC-3 tracks, and I was perfectly happy with it! |
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| mikechambers |
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Posted: 24 Mar 2021, 03:12
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The only movie of his I can stand to watch now is T2 so that’s probably the peak.
Not a Total Recall fan?
I always liked the first Terminator best, I like the dark atmosphere and Arnold is actually terrifying in that one. He actually seems like a cold as ice cybernetic assassin from the future. It's more a horror film than action to me.
T2 is ok, but too much comic relief from Arnie when he's supposed to be a terminator and I'm with rein-o, can't stand the kid! The shape shifting T-1000 seems a little over the top, too. |
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| mikechambers |
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Posted: 25 Mar 2021, 18:59
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My 2 cents. I second signofzeta's general sentiments. There's no reason to fixate on being AC3 capable. It's not that big of a deal.
I went almost two decades coveting AC3-RF players and demodulators. When I finally got them, I almost felt like I wasted my money. It is a cool feature for films where the surround effects are really well done, but it isn't going to change your life. For many movies (like basically anything not an action or space flick), I'd rather listen to the stereo PCM tracks because the sound quality is better.
AC3 is a lossy compression codec similar to MP3 (though slightly better) and as such, introduces artifacts to the audio that can sometimes be heard. Sometimes it's pretty noticeable, and depending on the film, it can be worth the trade-off in pure audio quality or not. That isn't to say it sounds bad ... it doesn't. But sometimes you can tell.
As far as discrete digital surround goes, DTS discs are far superior. The quality is better, and there's no expensive demodulator required. Unfortunately, they're less common and considerably more expensive.
tl;dr: IMO, if you come across a player that can output AC3-RF and can find a demodulator at a reasonable price, definitely consider it. But don't be too concerned about it and feel like you're missing something essential to the LD experience. You're simply not. |
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| mikechambers |
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Posted: 29 Jan 2025, 05:35
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| mikechambers |
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Posted: 31 Jan 2025, 06:21
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dtsutil is a little utility I wrote to extract the raw DTS bitstreams from PCM WAV recordings taken from the LaserDisc SPDIF output.
I know a couple of utilities already exist, but I had issues reliability extracting the entire movie's stream with them. I capture my LDs as one audio/video file with all disc sides in it. This means there are blank pauses/gaps between the SPDIF data in the files. This sometimes seemed to cause issues with the existing utilities I tried, so I wanted to try to make my own that will (hopefully) handle this reliably.
Here's the GitHub link if anybody is interesting in trying it: https://github.com/mikechambers84/dtsutil
It's an alpha version right now. I haven't tried a lot of discs, but I did a couple and had no issues. I use an ESI U24 XL with ASIO to capture the SPDIF output.
I will probably add AC3 support as well, but am starting with DTS and just threw this together today. I hope it's useful to someone else out there!
If anybody has problems getting it to work properly, please create an issue on the GitHub page so that I can look into it.
Usage example:
https://camo.githubusercontent.com/6a27c5e6b4044a8de0359faad1c12b769242f3881309129adf97b16b1ba55d29/68747470733a2f2f692e696d6775722e636f6d2f325439617047422e706e67 |
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| mikechambers |
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Posted: 06 Feb 2025, 17:32
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What is the recommended FPS for an NTSC Laserdisc? Does it matter? Set it 60fps, 30fps, 29.9fps, or another fps?
I capture LDs through VirtualDub all the time. VirtualDub 2 actually, use that if you're not. It's got a lot of improvements.
Capture at 720x480 29.97 FPS, then clip out all blue screen frames between disc sides.
If your LD is a film, use the inverse telecine (IVTC) filter on it after capture. Settings: Reduce frame rate, Top field first, Adaptive. This will restore the video to the film's original 23.976 FPS progressive picture the correct way.
If the original video source is actual NTSC like a TV show, use a normal deinterlace filter. I like yadif. Or if you use yadif 2x, it'll do a pretty nice job of giving you 60 FPS progressive output from the interlaced fields.
If my captured movie is widescreen, I also crop 60 lines off the top and 60 off the bottom. Then when I encode the final h264 mkv in ffmpeg, I pass the flag "-aspect 16:9". This makes the output much friendlier to modern widescreen displays. |
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| mikechambers |
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Posted: 10 Feb 2025, 16:42
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Similarly typed in another thread recapped thus -
I rotate five DVL-919's and with a misc Sony and Mitsubishi just because they were purchased early in the collecting venture.
The 919's are holding up nicely, rotating two remotes as well.
I do not utilize the dvd function as it is extremely subpar, however for the record I really enjoy the visual and audio output on really thick stereo cables and higher end rca cables. I know the DVL-919 is scoffed at by many peeps however they all work well for my purposes.
When family and friends are over it is a blast to show them how analog sounds compared with digital.
Since I have no neighbors in earshot, we give the Pioneer speakers and JVC receiver a good stretch amping the decibel range !
FUN STUFF WITH GOOD MUSIC AND BATTLE SCENES !
I agree with most of the tenets of this thread,
If you have one, you have NONE.
If you have two, you have ONE.
If you have three, you have TWO !
Was told this about flashlights at depth scuba diving, seems to fit for LD hobby as well !
Keep em spinning kids !
Cheers to the membership !
The DVL-919 is a solid player. I've got one. I get some noticeable crosstalk on some images, needs a calibration but otherwise that thing is a good player. Decent to good PQ, and has absolutely every single feature and output you'll ever need to handle any disc. A beast, and I think it would be a great starter player for anyone just because of the feature set.
Only thing to beware of is they are a mechanical nightmare. Lots of moving parts that can fail. If you're going to buy one, make sure it's in top shape with no sign of issues. Test everything thoroughly. Disc loading, A-B side switch, etc. Test the CD/DVD feature.
Make sure it comes with the remote too, because the DVL models aren't compatible with the standard Pioneer LD remotes like all the others. |
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| mikechambers |
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Posted: 11 Feb 2025, 16:20
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First one's decent to good, not amazing. I don't think it aged well, it's a very 1999 movie in every way. I haven't really watched it in years, I might lower my opinion of it rewatching now that I'm older. I thought it was SUPER COOL when I was 16 and it just came out.
All of the sequels are an absolute dumpster fire and should be purged from film history. |
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| mikechambers |
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Posted: 13 Feb 2025, 22:29
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Clearly some players trust fully the headers while other try to figure out the contents regardless of headers.
dtsutil header is 0x7FFE8001FC7C E00263A 0.
wav2dts header is 0x7FFE8001FC7C DFF262C 0.
Julien
Thanks for experimenting! That's interesting, I'll need to dig deeper into the header and see .
While BeSplit outputs a dts with the exact same file size as mine, I also see a few differences in the header. I wonder what's going on there. So yeah, these other extractors are making some mods to the header.
But again, BeSplit's output also acts funny for me in anything other than VLC for me as well. I'm going to give wav2dts a try too and see how that does.
I'm going to figure out what changes I need to make and then hopefully upload a fixed version that also includes AC3 support some time in the next few days. |
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Thanks list