I have had some luck with ripping laserdiscs to the computer and I was just wondering if anyone else did the same? I am paranoid about some of my more expensive discs and having a dvd backup as well as the option of watching them anytime I want with my xbox 360 hookup is pretty nice. I have a Phillips DVD recorder that does a nice job and then software on the computer to rip.

A while back I decided to make a movie for my family of our family tree. I got all the photos and 8mm film and VHS takes and family documents and Bibles together and wrote a script, and when I needed footage to illustrate scenes of migrating west or feeling threatened, I inserted clips taken off laser discs. It worked great. I love LD's flexibility and openness to other platforms. LD is liberty!

J

On one occasion, I made a DVD incorporating straight copies of two LDs, & another time I made a couple of SVCDs out of one LD. When making the DVD, I wanted the best possible quality, which meant direct digital recording from the soundtrack, but unfortunately, my various hardware drivers had a conflict so that I couldn't record video & digital audio simultaneously. Syncing the two was a hassle & a half. Not something I plan to do again any time soon! (With the SVCDs, the analog soundtrack was the one I wanted anyway.)

LaserDiscs are not "ripped." They have no copy-protection scheme to them in the first place.

I routinely transfer LD to DVD. I can even transfer AC-3 to DD 5.1 (384 kbps) and letterbox to anamorphic ws.

TLK

I just refer to ripping as everything that comes off one thing and onto another. It is cool they arent protected though. My software would just strip it off anyway. Regardless. It is fun and for some reason my sound is always pretty good just going from LD to DVD to computer. I do copy at the best possible point though.

Fill us in on the way to do so.
Thanks!

Easiest way is to get a stand alone dvd -r or dvd +r dvd writer dvd player. I have a phillips. They are pretty cheap. You can then connect the laserdisc to the dvd writer.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Philips-DVDR350 ... 19c94d8701

is an example. Then run the hdmi out to the tv or whatever. It looks nice. You copy the laserdisc to dvd, and then from there you use whatever and put it on your computer. Make sure it comes with a remote. You do not what to have to buy the dvd remote afterwards.

Chris

Thanks for the info!
How do you make a 4:3 letterboxed LD into 16:9 anamorphic WS though?
Thanks again!

I just do a straight copy, you can always mess with that in the dvd copy program.

I'm about to try a couple different routes to get to that.

One way is with the video capture program I have, you can stretch and contort the video picture to your liking, but it's not a complete science as you have to reshape the video yourself. Meaning, you have to figure out how much screen to leave black in the anamorphic squeezed 4:3 picture in order to make it the proper unsqueezed AR.

Another way which I haven't tried yet, is I have a Digital8 camcorder with a "squeeze" function for anamorphically recording video, and it has a function to record from a video input. Going to give that a try and see how it turns out.

Thanks.
Let me know how it turns out; I am looking for the most cost effective route and am thinking of picking up a DVD recorder as well to try. I can pick one up at Best Buy or somewhere like that as they have a return policy...
Brian

Just pick up a phillips off ebay, you can get them for cheap and they are pretty bulletproof. I have had mine for close to a year and have copied about 100 movies. Make sure you get the remote though. That is important.

Thanks mate,
I read through the manual for the DVDR3506 and it looked to be a fine unit for the price like you said but I still did not see any option to morph or zoom incoming images from 4:3 LBX to 16:9 like you described. Did I miss it in the manual or are you using a zoom feature on your display device?
Thanks again,
Brian

I do it when I copy the disk to my computer. The dvd copier wont do it.

What software allows you to do this?
This could help a LOT as I use an HTPC for DVD and Blu ray playback.
Thanks,
Brian

I use Pinnacle Studio. It's not the most powerful video editor (its deinterlacing capabilities are crap), but it is easy to use. They may have improved its performance with the later versions (I use 11 and they're up to 15 now.)

I believe Adobe Premiere can do the same and is more powerful, but it's harder to use.

Of course, these are all for Windows.

I dont have a mac so I have windows stuff. As stated above, if you want to change it you have to use software. However, a lot of tvs allow you to stretch and mess with the stuff you are watching as well. I am just into the copying and putting on a harddrive stage for the most part. I mess with the stuff but am not as good at changing stuff in the actual video yet.

Laserdisc player (composite output, stereo sound) to Blackmagic Intensity Shuttle via USB 3.0 to motherboard using Adobe Premiere CS5.
I use this for laserdisc music transfer. Note: Need a compatible motherboard for the Blackmagic Intensity Shuttle (refer to BM website for list).
With this setup I can do lossless transfers which allows me more flexability for remastering capabilities.

Elvis

I've copied some LaserDiscs to a DVD-R (settop recorder box) and through the computer (via an analog to digital FireWire converter). The DVD-R setup worked quite well. I did that with my 'Making of Star Wars' disc [before this was announced as an extra on the Blu-Ray]. It came out pretty well. One flaw with recording directly to DVD however is duplicating or ripping that DVD. My Samsung DVDR120 recorder is pretty picky. If I rip the disc on my Mac or PC it will complain about errors in the format. I think this is because the way the discs are written, they're probably not exactly on the DVD spec. However I've been able to duplicate the discs with AnyDVD (Windows) and MacTheRipper 4 (Mac OS X). It's just more difficult then you would think.

I recently recorded all the Star Wars Definitive Edition LaserDisc extras to DVD. I did this through my converter box & iMovie since I wanted to do some editing . The final output was three QuickTime files about 1.5GB in total. They came out pretty well and I was able to add chapters to the video files and everything. I wanted to preserve the content since a lot of that material was never re-released or show elsewhere! If you're interested I'd be happy to share.

Not putting you down or anything, just using your experience as an example. Why would you want to make a DVD once your digital? I can only think of one reason. To give someone else a copy with inferior technology so they can watch it on an old set top DVD box. Otherwise, once your digital and on a hard drive, your home free. Never need another DVD.

You say, " I've copied some LaserDiscs to the computer (via an analog to digital FireWire converter). " I take it you we're unsuccessful with this method otherwise why copy to a DVD recorder?

Yes, authoring can be tricky when using different systems for copy. Best to stick with the PC only DVD recorder. I never liked the DVD recorder stand alones, for many reasons, biggest is choice of quality settings for recording.