Alot of Libraries use laser turntables for archive use. The only issue I've heard with them is that they only play black colored vinyls. Any colored vinyls, picture disc records (things a collector has) won't play in them.

My first comment on this issue is that a good deal of the enjoyment of collecting LDs is actually in the packaging. I can browse through them for quite a while admiring the art and information.

Secondly, in about 20 or 30 years it is possible that the Singularity has occured and robots will rule the world. They will look at us LaserDisc enthusiasts with fondness and spare us due to our loving care of their great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfathers. They will then have the ability to repair our players and herd us in to a great facility all together so we can share in our passion until our mortal bodies fail us and the robotic implants no longer function.

Can't wait.

Either that or we will all be assimilated! Lol

I must admit I hope to back up my LDs on digital media as soon as I figure out how to keep the LPCM soundtracks and not have to convert them to DD2.0. I have heard it can be done but right now it is beyond my knowledge base...

amen, i have about as much interest in doing that as i have interest in basket weaving

I rip them as well as I can to my Hard Drive so I can have archival copies of the things in case something goes wrong with them or whatever. Sometimes I just pull them up on my xbox, it is pretty cool. But I usually just drag out the disc or my dvd copy of the disc and watch that. I will pull out the laserdisc look at the cover and play the dvd!

Thanks for backing up my opinion. I am collecting LDs and plan on continuing to do so but I do see a need for alternative storage as buying/repairing players becomes an issue, not to mention that before long display devices with analogue inputs will be a thing of the past...

I still need a work around the issue of maintaining the LPCM soundtracks instead of downgrading them to DD2.0. Also there is the issue of properly fitting the non-anamorphic image of LDs and some DVDs to modern 16:9 displays. Right now as far as I know the only way is through video processors that are currently out of my financial means, and that still does not solve the audio issue...

Just capture in 4:3, you can adjust the image while viewing, as far as audio, why can't you capture LPCM? Doesn't your capture card or device allow this option? There are options for PCM capture, which will work just as well. Are you capturing sound separate from video?

If there is one thing I know f**k all about it is computers so you are talking way over my head.
All I have right now is a laptop for daily use and an HTPC (component case) that is basically a big BD/DVD player. Right now I am in the process of converting the DVD files and the BD ISOs to MKVs and I had to have a friend help me with that...

As funds become available I plan to put together a desktop for gaming and to hopefully tackle this whole Laserdisc to digital storage issue but that is looking like months down the road and a LOT of research; h**l I don't even know what a 'capture card' is!! I can put together a basic PC but beyond that I have to depend on others for help...

Okay, no problem. Perfect time to acquire the proper mother board for gaming and capturing video. I would suggest the Black magic intensity hub, look it up online, there is a need for USB 3.0 to connect the hub to the motherboard. Only certain motherboards are guaranteed to work on their website. Get both of these for lossless capture, otherwise to compress and capture at the same time if that is your preference then their are many capture cards to install on the motherboard, the trick is to find one that captures in lossless sound which you want it sounds like. Obviously alot of research and reading will be required to bring you up to speed on the technicals. Call all your friends and tell them your going on vacation for a year.

Elvis

Elvis - the term lossless capture which you constantly refer to is very misleading. It is impossible to capture an analogue source and convert it to digital form without sampling which inevitably leads to degradation and loss of information.

and thats what makes analogue better elvis

Get a stand alone dvd ripper and attach your ld to it. Rip the DVDs at 2 hour speed, you get a good movie, and then rip the dvd to your computer. There are dirt cheap 2 terabyte hard drives out there that allow you to rip approximately 1000 movies.

Actually your statement is kind of absurd. Since analogue could be compared to an infinite amount of samples. Thus of course in digital you could never capture infinite. Luckily, their is a diminishing point where the sample rate does not contribute much in quality.

When I refer to lossless capture, I am referring to the use of a lossless codec (sampling width - 8bit NTSC) wrapper such as AVI (thus no codec with compression). Either way if your viewing your source on a digital T.V. , your going to have to make the transfer, choose your poison.
Also if a LD is created from a digital master source you could make the same argument. Every time you change the format, your bound to loose something. Since we don't have the access to the master source, we rely on the best available source in material. In this case, LD. But could very well be DVD or BR.

Obviously to view material in it's best possible quality, one would want to stay in the same format from master to screen. But with changing formats in all categories, this has become muddled at best.

That's a silly comment. Analogue is only better with analogue thru and out with great equipement (I'm not disputing that).
But digital is equally as good with digital thru and out with great equipement. Today, digital wins because it is more prevalent, cheaper and suitable to micro devices. Thus to bring our LD collections into the digital realm, I am willing to take an unnoticeable hit in quality to bring about a better quality of life with:
1. Less clutter
2. compatibility with the increasing prevalent digital world
3. save time (easier to access a digital library)
4. save $$$
5. more mobile

How do you save money? Wouldn't all the disks and/or discs you'd need to store that, not to mention the equipment to capture the video to begin with, be even more expensive then just watching the original LaserDisc?

Not really, because now the biggest expense of them all, the LD collection/player can be resold on the open market. Guess this could be different for each enthusiast depending on their situation. For myself, yes.

So you're saying reselling your disc(s) and player(s) covers all the costs of making digital copies of your LDs?

Easily (and made extra $$ above what I orginally committed for the LD's/player). In my case even more so since I already had in place the equipement for the digital transfer of other analogue sources such as VHS or Television recordings. I did this on the high end (I wanted the best quality transfers possible, also editing/remastering abilities came into play). You could go cheaper with a hit in quality like MikeyStoyz suggests and be even more money ahead. But if you go this route, I would just get a good cheap capture card to slide into your PC and record directly to hard drive, skip the waste of DVD's. All depends on your comfort level and learning curve.

I like having the hard copy as well as the hd copy, and you do get really good quality if you record it on very slow.