The other day, we dusted the laserdisc player off and connected it to the receiver because we have a bunch of laserdiscs that we would like to include in our "library." The player only has composite or s-video out. I figured going through the reciever that the upconversion to hdmi would be fine since our Plasma does not have an S-Video in. Needless to say, the upconversion works but is not the best in quality. Going from the player directly to the composite in on the TV does not look any better. Any cheap suggestions to fixing the picture quality? I realize that this is probably an exercise in futility, but before I ditch the player, I thought I would ask. Thank you in advance for any suggestions.

Without some other product (such as a different player, comb filter, line doubler, calibration disc, scaler, etc.), not really.

What player do you have?

EDIT:I second the Hitachi scaler (though what do you call "cheap"?)

I use an upconverter made by Hitachi that I like really well. It also can handle any other device like VCR, DVD, RF input, and has a built in analog/digital/cable/satellite tuner as well.

http://www.epage.com/js/mi/c1064/b1064/ ... 90275.html

I also like the DVDO upscalers, but they are pricier.

This is an article by Josh Zyber, an LD enthusiast during the heyday of the format. It's a bit dated, but the general points stated in the article are still sound advice today:

http://www.mindspring.com/~laserguru/digitalage.html

TLK

I have a Pioneer CLD-D606. Cheap in my mind would be $100 or less.

I have gone to Ebay to look at the DVDO devices, and I have seen some that take an s-video in and convert it to an RGB out. My TV has an RGB in, would that work?

You should ask rixrex about the players he's selling, I think he has some 701s, 702s and a Panny lx-1000-u in the 75-85 range (before shipping charges)

If you haven't already, try getting a copy of Video Essentials or A Video Standard for calibration, I got my copy of VE for $14 used.

Also, if you happen to have a DVD recorder or something similar, try seeing if it has a better comb filter (which you can test with one of the calibration discs). If not, I'd recommend the RCA DRC8335, I got one for about $60 used.

By RGB do you mean VGA or DVI(/HDMI)?
Remember not to use the s-video output from your player (they all have worse comb filters then what is available today). The DVDOs also tend to have pretty bad comb filters. So if you do go for a DVDO, put a comb filter in between them.

Something like this is an absolute necessity. I suspect that, unless there's something really wrong, a calibration done on the composite input of your TV will make the picture look significantly better without any additional processing.

Lots of good tips already. I agree with the suggestion of adding a dvd recorder to take advantage of the superior comb filter. I use a Sony model which outputs component video to my TV.

Yes, that would work. They also take composite video in. I currently have my DVDO HD+ connected to the set via RGB input. The DVDO allows you to choose either RGB or YPbPr Component. I would suggest the DVDO HD at a minimum since it allows you several different output configurations, ie, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p, including PC standards. It also will accept PAL signals and convert to HD to suit your set. It has several diffent aspect ratio choices, including a choice that converts LD letterboxing to anamorphic widescreen as seen in DVDs. It does have DVI but not HDMI.

Just below that is the DVDO Ultra models that are pretty inexpensive, and do output RGB, however it will not go beyond 480p resolution. That might suit you fine, and I like that model as well, it does look good even on HD sets, and it also has different aspect ratio choices and DVI output.

For HDMI, I find nothing better than the Hitachi AVC08U for the price. But they are made only to output HD through HDMI, and no other type output. They do process the audio into the HDMI output, or you can use the provided optical audio out.

I've been using a Panasonic plasma 37" HD ready display for about two years now. For LD playback I do use two types of upscaling units, a DVDO VP50Pro and a Pioneer PDA-V100HD. LD picture is upscaled to 720p resolution as my display always prefers progressive instead of interlaced signals. Like publius already mentioned before a recalibration of the display using a Video Essentials disc is highly recommended. I discovered huge differences between the predefined and my own user modified profiles as we got PAL based tv in Europe but most of my LD stuff is NTSC based material. I also used a Spyder3TV to adjust depth / black levels.

The Pioneer unit was a real bang for the buck, it's mainly a HMDI switch but it also offers basic upscaling functions for old analog sources offering S-Video, Component and SCART connections for incoming signals. One of my players is currently connected to the Pioneer unit and I'm really satisfied with the results. Picture is all sharp and clear, no ghosting or other image interferences I had when using interlaced signals. It offers different upscaling resolutions as well as color modes like RGB or YPbPr. From what I know it's no longer available from Pioneer but you may easily find a used one for a few bucks. Of course the DVDO offers far more options concerning picture control but it's a pricy toy...