Hi, newbie here, from Canada. I was wondering what would be the best hardware to go with LD capture to DVD (or even Blu Ray, if possible) ? I'm slowly starting a LD collection of Disney animation features (since the asses of the owning company like butchring their products) and shorts, and rarer materials.

So what would be the best LD player to do transfers and the softwares to go with (I already have the Adobe Creative Suite Set, but I know that I'm missing something). I already have a good computer with which I do good vhs tranfer (I don't have proc amp or time base corrector at the moment).

So, any ideas ?

Thanks to answer

PS: please delete my other post about this, sice this one have more informations in it.

you have to delete your own post.

buy a DVD recorder and copy that way, best, cheapest and easiest way 100%
i had some great program for my computer but it took 6 hours to copy a 2 hour film.

you buy a stand alone DVD recorder and then it takes you the time of the film etc.
1 hour LD copy to DVD = 1 hour and 2 minutes to finalize. that's what it takes for me.

now if you are asking about what DVD recorder to get, then you will have to do some searching
on the internet for what they say is best.

good luck.

Get the best Laserdisc player you can afford. I would go with the Pioneer Elite CLD 99. Has a good 3 comb filter and DNR. Since Laserdisc is very stable, you will not need a TBC and probably not a proc amp.
Sound is another story. For analog only Laserdiscs you could capture the stereo sound on your capture card. But I also like to capture the LPCM sound and or analog on a separate capture to a DAC via your favorite software. Then I match up the sound from the DAC capture to the video/analog capture, replace.
I also like Neat Video plug in/Adobe Premiere for the captures that have some noise, but then I capture lossless in 8bit. Makes the remaster more effective. I use the Black Magic Intensity hub. Make sure your mother board is compliant if you choose one of their capture cards. My 2 cents.

Elvis

I've used my Samsung DVD-R (120 model) to record LaserDiscs and usually it works out fine. However sometimes I get odd artifacts or the DVD can not be read on my Computer easily (no matter if it's a Mac, PC, external DVD drive, internal, etc). So what I usually end up doing is importing the video to my computer, then making a DVD out of it. It's a bit more time consuming, but then at least I have a digital master file on my computer (which is good if something goes wrong or needs to be edited), and then a final DVD of the disc with custom chapters and menus, etc.

I've imported extras from the Star Wars Trilogy set and The Beatles: Help! (Criterion) disc and they came out pretty good. Good luck and have fun!

I've also started capturing/collecting a lot of the Disney animated films and shorts. If you're ever missing a disc and want a peek let me know.

or go with the DVD recorder as others have suggested here. Then you only need a good DVD recorder with a 3D comb filter and some DNR if using the composite input. Also you then can buy a cheaper laserdisc player with good composite picture and sound.
Downfall: You are limited to a compressed capture with fewer effective means to remaster. You are stuck with what you get, less variables.
Positive: It's much easier.

Hey there my fellow Canuck,

What I find easiest to do, if I really want to preserve the audio of a Laserdisc, because I know the video will never look as good as a good DVD, is I record on the highest quality setting on my DVD recorder, which is 1 hour per disc. When I do this, it records the audio as LPCM at 1.5 Mbps, which is perfect for LD sound. So if it's a 2 hour-ish movie on one Laserdisc, I record one side on one DVD, and the other side on another DVD. Then I rip them both to my laptop as uncompressed video files, combine them into one file, making sure to keep the audio at the highest possible quality, and then I burn them to a new DVD, because I've had a hard time saving them as a usable video file while still keeping the PCM audio in tact. In the end, it costs you 3 DVD-Rs, or 2 DVD-Rs and one DVD+R Dual Layer if you have one, to help keep the video from compressing too much.

Just to clarify, I know your referring to the audio only, but
You must mean, don't further compress them. Keep them in the MPEG 2 compressed vob files with PCM (lossless) sound as recorded by the DVD recorder. Also, how do you capture LPCM with the DVD recorder? Is there an input for digital sound? Is there such a DVD recorder made to record digital sound, other than analog stereo sound?

Another problem, even if you can capture digital sound with the DVD recorder, your capturing in PCM to DVD, when the laserdisc digital audio is really LPCM 44.1, not PCM 48. You would be much better off quality wise to capture to a separate DAC/sound card, ideally ASIO compliant, direct to CD quality digital sound. The quality is significant to the audio die hards. Otherwise if capturing the analog stereo sound, then PCM works, a bit overkill, but doesn't hurt. Still, I find that a separate DAC/soundcard capture can improve these captures.

Thus the downfall for the DVD recorder as I outlined earlier. Limited options, which limit your remastering abilities if you choose to go this route. Once you gain some remastering abilities you would be surprised how good your captures look as oppossed to the DVD release (depends on the quality of the remaster, DVD). Sometimes better, especially in the audio department, LPCM. Mostly your doing the captures because there is no DVD/BR release or very poor quality.

Elvis

I use a Blackmagic design Intensity Pro HD Capture Card so that i can get raw captures without MPEG or DV artifacts, then i use some avisynth scripts to encode to xvid, but you can use avisynth for DVD too. its really important to do a good post processing with deinterlacing and ivtc, GOOD temporal denoising and the works. The best LD player would obviously be THE best player =) (X0 would be the best.)i have upgraded my machines in a steady rate the last few years to get good LD captures and are now using a X9, you do get a tiny amount more detail with it than a S9 which i used for capture earlier. I can upload some results if you want to.

- pix

Welcome Monks19, I hope you enjoy your stay, you will find a nice group of people on here.

Hi, what are the other good laserdisc player models that you can suggest me, elviscaprice ? Like I said earlyer, I'm a total newb to this and I woul like to know what are the other good possibilities than just one model only (Pioneer Elite CLD 99).

Thanks to answer

How much you want to spend? How good of a deal comes along might be your ticket or how long you are willing to shop around. I personally would not spend the big bucks on the few very expensive models. Also what do you want to transfer? If it's music performances or promo videos then all you need is a digital sound output for LPCM capture. If it's the last issued movies with AC3 sound then your going to need an AC3 output and converter. You mentioned that your interested in Disney animation. Don't think there is any AC3 releases in this material, so PCM, analog outputs on sound will more than suffice.
Myself, I'm not interested in movies, DVD and BR are more than sufficient mediums for my needs. But for rare or quality music performance and promos, yeah, there is some great material on LD.
I would go with a Pioneer CLD D702, can get one for under $100 with shipping, has great composite output that I would pass thru or into a DVD recorder with a 3D comb filter. You get a LPCM output in addition for digital sound. If your patient you can find one on EBAY.
Even better models but if cheap enough, Pioneer Elite CLD 95, Pioneer CLD D703, Pioneer CLD D704, Pioneer Elite CLD 97.

Get the cheapest of these models available in good working condition, be patient and you can score one of these models for cheap. They will get you as good of a capture as the more expensive models. Basically it will come down to post capture mastering for futher enhancements no matter how good your capture is. But is you capture lossless or as big of a sampling rate as possible, save them, then you can always go back and do remastering as your capabilities become better with the Adobe software. Resell the titles back on EBAY. When done capturing, sell the LD player and bid farewell to the LD medium.

Depending on the disc I use either my LD-1100, Panasonic LX-900u or EAD TheaterVision (which is a CLD-99 internally with upgraded audio and slightly better 2nd generation NEC 3D Comb Filter). I record either directly into my Sony Vaio, which has a 3D motion adaptive comb filter or into my Panasonic DMR-E20 recorder in the XP 60 minute mode (it also has a 3D comb filter) - then import the discs to my Vaio and edit in Sony Vegas Professional to deinterlace, etc and make DVD menus and such.

I just got my CLD-1010 back from my parents house, and its still working perfectly, so that will become an option for playback/recording now too. Once Duncan has more free time I'm going to have him add an AC-3 RF output and coax PCM digital out to the 1010. His work on my Panasonic 900 was superb as was his refurbishment of the EAD TheaterVision, both of which perform superbly.