Hello everybody. Please help me with the choice of a ld-player for ripping.

I am going to buy it in Japan. I don't want to spend a lot of money. I will not watch movies on it. I want to capture a composite signal. Filters (deinterlacing) don't interest me, I will use software filters. If possible, I want to capture a digital audio signal.

I read the forum and realized that the best choice is CLD-959 / CLD-939. It's right? What about other models or manufacturers?

Probably DVL-H9.

Doesn't the H9 have worse pq than the cld-97? And it costs more.

Why do you even ask if you question the answers.

I need to know what this player is better at. That dude didn't write anything other than the model, so I doubt it.

HLD-X0 or HLD- X9 if on a budget

jakeheke, thanks, but I think it's too expensive for me.

What is the recommended price for X9?
Is the pq much better than the cld-97?

Use the svideo on h9 for the setup you described. 959 has lower noise but needs a good 3D filter to realize its potential.

Isn't there a composite signal on the LD? As far as I know, s-video should be used only if deinterlacing is used. It's right?


Are you talking about a deinterlacing filter? I want to use a software filter. I'm pretty sure modern filters are much better than old hardware filters.

Do you just want digital audio ripping?

jakeheke, interlased composite video and digital audio (or analog if there is no pcm on the disk).

You are new that dude isn't, don't ask if you can't take the answer.
That dude forgot more than others here will ever know.

rein-o, okay, I understand you. I apologize if I did something wrong.

Different filters. It’s the comb filter aka y/c separator. It can’t be done in software.

LD is indeed composite but the modern hardware in capture cards is optimized for VHS. Good external comb filters are very expensive, more so than the players themselves.

Pioneer CLD-R7G and DVL-H9 has the best built in comb filters. H9 has a little less noise from the user feedback here. CLD-97 would beat these in picture quality if it ran through a good external comb filter because it has even lesser noise than those two.

I would do H9 svideo into capture card and do deinterlacing, noise reduction and scaling in software.

The interlaced fields on the LDs don’t have the progressive markers like in the DVDs. Software deinterlacing struggles sometimes. You might need to add a DVDO VP 50 or something for hardware deinterlacing. Start with the software filtering and see if you like the results.

One would think the newer filtering in the software would do much better but it is not always the case. LD made up about %3 of the market in its day and now it’s much less. No one cares to optimize for it for a handful of sales.

substance, thanks for the detailed answer. But I seem to be confused.

Can you briefly describe how the comb filter works? What is it used for?
I understand correctly that r7g / h9 is better through s-video than cld-97 through composite?
Why do many people on the forum write that cld-97 is better than r7g? Do they use an external comb filter?

Y = Luminance aka luma= Brightness (makes up the black and white image)
C = Chrominance aka chroma = Colors ( later further separated into primary colors and secondary colors in component video)

NTSC signal carries Y+C composited on the same frequency band hence the name composite video. I don’t know the exact figures but these are some ballpark numbers. Single NTSC band is something like 7-8 MHz, it’s roughly 6.5 MHz on Laserdiscs. Luma makes up about 5 MHz of it and chroma is around 1.5Mhz. Audio information and other non-visible scan lines also makes up another 0.5 MHz or so. If you add all up, they exceed the practical 6.5 MHz bandwidth of the NTSC signal therefor the lower spectrum of Luma and the higher spectrum of Chroma overlaps. Mathematically it is impossible to separate the two without loss. Most Y/C separation filters compare the previous and next scan line to make an educated guess on how to separate the two overlapping signal. These are called 2D filters. More advance filters compare the same scan line from the previous field to next field while also comparing the previous and next scan line on the current field. These are called 3D filters. 3D filter works only if the image is static (or works only on the static parts of the image) therefore the same scan line on the previous and the next field must be the same. If there is a difference then the difference is interpreted as noise or artifact and removed. If there is motion, two consecutive fields will not have the same signal therefore the 3D filtering must not be employed. Since NTSC signal is noisy, the film grain or the signal noise is often incorrectly interpreted as motion. For example clouds and water is though to process on the Y/C separators. Incorrect detection of motion or slow switching between 2D and 3D creates other artifacts. Because of this, not all 3D filters are superior to 2D ones however a good 3D filter can create significantly better image. All LD players except a handful included 3D comb filters. R7G and H9 have these good filters. CLD-97 has 2D only. CLD-97 has much less noise injected to its video output from its electronics therefore has a better composite output but you need a good 3D comb filter to take advantage of this.

All capture cards in existence use 2D filters (will explain why in a bit) with few exceptions but those use older 3D filters that aren’t good. You can use external 3D filters but they are expensive and super rare to find (highly sought after). VHS has the same limitations however the Luma on VHS is much less than 3MHz and the chroma is much less than 1MHz therefore the two never overlaps on the same NTSC band. A very simple 1D notch filter can separate the two without loss. Most capture cards expect VHS as your capture source. Because of this, they never include a killer 3D filter on these.

I think I understand. I will try to buy h9.
Thank you very much!

H9 is too expensive for me
I bought R7G

R7G is a great player, I do hope you enjoy it.
I had one and was very happy for the longest time, would still be if I had it now.

Edit: Sold it years ago.

What happened to your R7? Failed or?