Has anyone on here tapped the composite video from their player before the A/D?

I'm considering it at the moment; I'm not afraid to do the work of building an op amp circuit or whatever else is needed, but would probably need a little hand-holding on some of the steps.

I have an external full-frame broadcast TBC that I can feed the composite into which also has luma and chroma DNR.

My main questions are:
Will this improve issues such as ringing/false outlines? (I don't know if they're introduced in the analog or digital stage)

Is it worth it to try this on a unit with good build quality (i.e. LD-S2) or would the results be similar if I went for an analog-only lower quality machine like the s201 or s104?

There was another thread where Publius stated that there was some tech-savvy enthusiast was trying to install a digital output from the TBC of an LD player to get the pure composite video in digital form. Can't remember which thread though.

I thought the connection was going to be an SDI connection, but actually turned out to be a parallel connection.

Here's that thread . . .

viewtopic.php?f=23&t=402

. . . plus for the players you mentioned, you probably wouldn't need any mod for the LD-S2 since that one is almost a pure composite signal already, unless you really, REALLY want to bypass the internal TBC of that player.

Why not buy a CLD-S104 or CLD-S201 and give it a try, they are cheap. They will have a higher noise level than the LD-S2 but the LD-S2 even going thru the A/D and D/A process is still lower noise than the S104 and S201.

My real recommendation is just use the BNC output on the S2 to avoid the on-screen graphics chip and that should be good. Doubt you would see much if any benefit modifying it for an output before the A/D IC. It can be done but I have never bothered. You would have to correct the voltage level and then drive the signal properly with a buffer circuit or op amp. You have to select the proper parts to keep the noise low.

Would be interesting if it would correct the ghosting or ringing/false outlines seen in players but that has never bothered me enough to design a circuit and test. This issue is not too bad on the S2 or 97. The worst I've seen for this is the LD-V8000.

Are there any other analog units besides the s104 and s201 to consider? Build quality and inherent noise levels being one of the biggest factors. The late 80's players I've seen seem solid to me while the lesser 90's players seem pretty cheap.

Noise is low enough on the LD-S2 and HLD-X0 that they look better than pure analog players.