As Hi-Vision LaserDisc owners know, there is a lot of cabling required to properly connect a Hi-Vision LaserDisc player and MUSE decoder to a modern receiver, plus the standard connections for NTSC LaserDisc playback. Since MUSE's DANCE audio in A-Mode outputs only 3+1 channels (3 front and 1 mono surround) its kind of 'messy' to hook up a MUSE decoders audio outputs to the discrete 5.1 (or 7.1) channel inputs of a modern receiver - you have to use one or more Y-Cables for the surrounds and either ignore the subwoofer input (if your receiver does bass management on the discrete inputs) or, again, use a Y-cable and split the center front or surrounds off to feed the LFE input. Then there is the B-Mode stereo which is usually Dolby Surround encoded and the AC-3/PCM/FM tracks of standard LD's.

In Japan, Pioneer saw the problem all the outputs created and released the SP-D07 processor/decoder - it has analog inputs for A-Mode 3+1 audio, B-Mode 2 Channel, an AC-3 RF demodulator and decoder, coax and Toslink digital inputs and a 2 channel analog input for the FM audio tracks of NTSC discs. The only format it doesn't decode is DTS, but the X0 and X9 have dual PCM outputs so you can work around that. The Pioneer decodes/translates all the audio formats to 5.1 and allows its 'theater' modes to be applied or Pro-Logic processing to B-Mode inputs, etc, all with bass management and outputs them on 5.1 RCA jacks to be input to your receiver's discrete inputs - it also does volume control and has a remote. So, it acts as a "hub" for all your LaserDisc audio - it does no video switching.

When I first found out about the SP-D07, I was thrilled, then kinda bummed due to the cost of shipping gear from Japan - but I did some searching and discovered that Pioneer released the same decoder/processor in the US; it's the Pioneer Elite SP-99D. It's basically exactly the same as the SP-D07, right down to the 3+1 inputs - and they are cheap on eBay - from $25 to $200 - the one I bought was $75 total with shipping.

You guys might already know about this processor, but just in case you didn't, I thought I'd post the info - I hope it helps.

Oh, and Publius, thanks so much for your guide to the Victor MD2 - I was figuring it out slowly, but your guide really helped and now I've made labels, with one of those hand-held labelers, so all the buttons, lights and jacks are labeled in English. It doesn't look so nice, but who cares because I know what everything is and does now. And luckily, I haven't seen ANY hint of greenish flesh tones from any of my MUSE discs, nor have I had any problems with detail being washed out in dark areas of the image.

Msb tech offers dts upgrade for $600 for this unit. For an additional $1000 they offer 3 digital coax outputs so you can pass 5.1 information digitally to outboard dacs.

Im trying to figure a way utilize 2 digital outputs from msc-4000 so I can keep the signal in digital domain. I am afraids dacs in msc-4000 and this pioneer unit are very dated.

I think I am going to build something myself this summer. Two optical in for muse 3+1 then either output 4.0 pcm via hdmi or re-encode into 4.0 full bitrate dts via optical or coax out. Any avr should be able to up mix it to 5.0 and derive bass from it.

If you get an upgrade working on your SP-99D, I will pay you to upgrade mine. I'm no EE - not even close - but from what I've read, I think HDMI for audio only is tough to engineer because HDMI always requires a video signal along with the audio. In terms of upgrades, I've had the DA chips in my Runco LJR-1 and LJR-2 upgraded by Mark S. Brasfield, the original founder of MSB and the person who designed the Runco's and Dolby Digital RF output for Pioneer and Dolby. He also put in better caps and such and new relays in my Runco's - it made a huge difference. I had an extra LJR-2 but I didn't have it modified - I gave it to a good friend who is working on a Star Wars capture and designing his own 3D Adaptive & Averaging Comb Filter in computer code. The Panasonic LX-900 that Mark Brasfield modded for me - he fixed the APL error and put in the small version of the Runco mod board - I'm giving to another friend. That way we all have basically the same player to do reviews for LaserVision Landmarks and readers will know we are consistent in what we are seeing.

Anyway, If I had the money I'd ask Mark to modify my XO's DA section with SABRE32 converters and install an AC-3 demodulator so that no external unit would be required.

Also, we need a 'black box' type converter for video that would take composite and decode it with one of the state-of-the-art 3D Motion Adaptive Comb Filters, and also have S-Video inputs with luminance decoding out to at least 7 MHz and chroma decoding to 2 MHz - and the chroma decoding should be switchable between true NTSC I/Q decoding where the I component has a bandwidth of 1.5 MHz and the Q component has a bandwidth of 500 kHz. It would have another setting for full 2 MHz decoding on both I/Q axis and a Faroudja SuperNTSC mode that decodes on the B-Y/R-Y axis and applies Faroudja's patented Chroma Bandwidth Expansion, which can give chroma the "look" of 5-6 MHz of color bandwidth. The box would also have component inputs and all inputs would be converted to HDMI signals so they could be fed to an HDTV or receiver or box that does further processing, like the Darbee Darblet.

In regards to my Hi-Vision LaserDisc setup, both the S-Video from the HLD-XO and the component outputs from the Victor MD2 MUSE decoder are fed into my Denon 3808 receiver and turned into HDMI - the receiver has Faroudja scaling and other processing, but my Oppo BD-1050 Blu-ray player has Marvell's Kyoto-G2H video processor with Qdeo technology and does a superb job of converting 1080i to 1080P and inverse telecine to convert Hi-Def and MUSE signals that are film-based into 24P. It also has mosquito processing which removes basically all of the artifacts that the sub-sampled MUSE image can have. So, all LD's, be they SD or HD, get run through the Oppo.

Since my receiver doesn't do great bass management through the discrete inputs or allow the Audyssey to be applied, the audio outputs of my MD2 MUSE decoder are sent into a DTS encoder and then the DTS bitstream is sent to the receiver where I can process it and re-eq it to my hearts content.

I've noticed that while B-Mode audio - which is basically lossless PCM in its quality - sounds wonderful, the 3+1 A-Mode has a real lack of dynamic range to it - and while the sample rate of 32kHz means that the high-end is restricted to 15kHz, it has a rough and ragged high end on many films. My DAT deck has a 32kHz mode which was designed for recording A-Mode stereo sattelite broadcasts (9 A-Mode stereo programs can 'fit' into the space that a single frame of MUSE requires) I've recorded a lot of stuff in the 32 kHz mode and have never heard it sound like MUSe does - so I have to assume it's either my Victor decoder or the system really does sound like that.

Sorry to run on here but regardless of my complaints, Hi-Vision MUSE is really exciting. No, it doesn't look like the HD we get from Blu-ray, but I love its 'film like' look - film is not a super-sharp medium and, for example, the MUSE LaserDisc of Lawrence Of Arabia looks much, much closer to the 35mm print I projected back in 2001 or so than the super clean and sharp BD release. Same with Close Encounters and Silence Of The Lambs.

Since MUSE is a Quasi-Constant Luminance System, I've found that my LCD/LED TV's standard gamma setting of 2.2 doesn't look quite right, but a gamma setting of 2.9 makes everything 'pop' into place and I suddenly see correct shadow detail, extended color detail, total lack of MUSE artifacts, etc. Plus, with the 2.9 gamma setting, the color bars and gray/black adjustments provided on the Sony Hi-Vision Test Disc are easy to set. Before I changed the gamma, I couldn't seem to get the black level set right and the white level was off too, leading to a really screwed up looking gray scale ramp pattern. The color bars had similar problems, but at 2.9 all the problems went away and I found it a cinch to set up.

It's a shame the pricing was/is so high for discs and the selection of titles so low - there are many I want, like E.T., Bugsy, Dances With Wolves, etc... but I'm afraid to buy them, sight unseen. Many of the reviews I've found of MUSE titles talk about the greenish flesh tones, but that is something that I simply am not having happen with the XO/MD2 combination - nor am I seeing a lack of shadow details or severe mosquito artifacting. I guess I'll just have to take my chances on discs.

BTW, with the Sony MUSE test disc and running it through the Oppo for deinterlacing, on the Tektronix resolution pattern, I'm getting about 700 lines of vertical resolution (I assume the pattern has been pre-filtered to the Kell factor to avoid serious flickering) and horizontally I'm getting about 500 lines of resolution. The lines per MHz for 1125 Line HD is 29.9 lines per MHz and MUSE has, theoretically, 20 MHz of bandwidth which equals 598 lines, so I assume that my receiver is rolling off the extreme high end of the component HD signal - which has always been a problem with HD via component. I wish there was a color resolution test on the Sony disc and luma/chroma resolution tests for both still frames and moving frames. I'd like to see actual diagonal resolution too.

I heard the green tint was caused by bad player/decoder combinations, and the X0 was much less likely to have it. Glad you've got a good setup!

How is that 3D comb filter coming along? (After I figure out better analog audio filtering, I've been planning to move onto that in my decoder work. My TBC and comb filtering are separated from the LD decoding, and I just wrote adapter code that takes 4fsc/16bit data and can do NTSC decoding on it, allowing me to compare my LD decoder to the player's output. Note that none of this is anywhere near real time right now...)

Know of any good SuperNTSC test patterns on LD (VE maybe, since it's a Kuraray pressing from a component master?) I just got THX WOW! (such demo) but I doubt that's SuperNTSC.

It's a pity MUSE wasn't more widespread and cheaper, it sounds interesting.

Yes you feed blank video for hdmi to work. It might even be easier to get hd-sdi out with embedded audio from the muse decoder.

The black box you described already exist. Its called crystalio II. Ti tvp5160 3d/2d adaptive comb filter + faroudja fli2310 for sd processing + gennum vxp for hd processing/upscaling. Full cms before and after processing. It has more adjustments for faroudja then faroudja nrs. It is difficult to fine tune as it has so many adjustments but it is the best for laserdisc by far.

Oppo im afraid misadvertises the use of qdeo chip. It is only used for dvnr, ee, ce on hdmi 1 only. Hdmi 2 is by passed. All deinterlacing and scaling upto 1080p is done by a system on chip designed by mediatek. Qdeo is also used to upscale from 1080p to 4k on hdmi1. A bug on qdeo chip is that you cant defeat vdnr. Even at setting 0 dnr is applied on hdmi 1. From my test dnr set to 1 and on there is loss of detail. Hdmi 2 is sharper/purer.

I use my oppo 105 in source direct into outboard video processor.

X0 has very good dacs. I dont think it would benefit from ess sabre chips.
Modding 99d is a lost cause. Get a crystalio 2, all issues you mdntioned will solved.

I have a SP-99D which does not produce any sound when hooked up to my VSX1019AHK. I am tempted to buy a remote but since I can't get sound from it I don't think I should waste money. Everything works otherwise. Do you have any ideas why I can't get any sound?

i had the SP-D07 with no remote and it worked fine as it has tons of buttons on the front.
only thing i can say is try to connect it straight to the speakers without the VSX to make sure it works.


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the rein-o official signature:

I had a broken SP-D07 at some point. Everything worked as you would expect.
Display, etc.. but no sound came out at all.
So I sent it back to the seller and got refunded.
Then I bought a second one elsewhere, and everything was fine.
What you cannot do without the remote, is set up the dB levels of the speakers.
Everything else can be done without the remote using buttons on the machine itself (iirc).
Couple years ago the remote was still available from Pioneer, but it was around 70 Euro.

there isn't a way to directly hook up the speakers. I can try another receiver but it will only be the right and left channels as the VSX1019AHK is the only one I have for 5.1

Can you defeat the volume knob? In other words can you set 5.1 output to be fixed output?

I can do everything except for having sound so changing inputs and setting it does work just no sound. I decided to keep it but that was months ago so I can't return it. It could have been bought last year.

i thought i did with mine when i had it.
since it does have a volume you should be able to get an RCA plug and strip the ends to attach to a speaker.
or just press one to the center which would be the + and one to the outter ring which would be the -

i would try that and test one spekaer with one out, possibly the center or front L-R
if you get sound then you know its working, if not then you know something is really wrong.

i know i've stripped the RCA ends in the past to test another amp and it worked but is not the best way to do it.


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the rein-o official signature:

I hooked it up to a Laserdisc player (CLD-V2400) since it was at my computer desk. I also hooked up a Pioneer HTP300-F speaker using an RCA wire cut with the white wrapped wire as the negative and the outer wire as the postive. I have it connected to the Left jack in for front and center.

Can I take it to a shop to get repaired?

disclord, I'm glad you finally got MUSE capability, & that my HV-MD2 guide is useful for you. I'm using an imported SP-D07 myself, hooked up to my TU-AHD100N, HIL-C2EX, and CLD-D704.

xtempo, since the D07 is the same as an American D99 aside from details of the power supply, any good stereo repair shop that handles Pioneer components should be able to fix it for you. I'm going to take mine in to get it cleaned up at some point.

So this thing can turn the 4 channel into 5 channel, I expect with the rear channels duplicated (rear mono)? Interesting. I have been wondering if it was possible to do that on a computer but it seemed a big challenge.

I should have brought it when I first got it in the mail so I could get a refund. I am keeping it for the guy to repair sometime in the future when I have more money for repairs. the board was cracked in several places which is why there was no sound outputed. I wish people would ship there items better.

The SP-99D and Japanese equivalent can take the decoded 32kHz 4-channel A-Mode MUSE audio and output it as 5.1. It creates a .1 LFE/sub output and splits the single surround channel into two - it will let you add theater processing and such to that if desired. I feed the output of my SP-99D into my Denon receiver and engage the surround back processing in the non-matrix mode so all 4 surrounds get the same signal which creates a very theater-like spread of the mono surround. I have all channels from the 99 set to high-pass at 80 Hz to create the subwoofer channel.

For 48 kHz sampled 2-channel Dolby Surround encoded MUSE titles the 99 will let you apply its superb Pro-Logic processing - although Pioneer used the standard Sanyo PL chip at the time, they implemented it better than anyone else, including Dolby in their CP-65 cinema processor. It sounds truly discrete with no logic artifacts.

So, if you have a Hi-Vision MUSE setup, the SP-99D is essential - it also demodulates and decodes AC-3 RF from LaserDisc - the only thing it doesn't do is DTS or PCM bitstream pass through - its outputs are analog only.

Sadly I don't own that.
Related question about this matrixed 4.0 audio in general: The LD output is still just 2 cinch (RCA) cables? If my pioneer amplifier / receiver says "Dolby Surround", is that enough? (Strangely it has 2 rear speakers after all??)

Virtually all "Dolby Surround" & similar type systems have duplicated rears. In other words, it's four-channels with five-speakers. The purpose of that is simply that the rear/"surround" channel is supposed to sort of fill the back of the room, rather than coming from directly behind you.

Yeah so the icon is no meant to be taken literally.
But at the back of the players, were these 4 channels somehow disguised as just plain stereo (L+R cinch cables)?