Wondering if anyone had any suggestions for improving picture quality on modern displays.

Laserdiscs look great on older CRTs but sometimes not so much on the plasma, LED, etc. Apart from upgrading the player I've found that maintaining a separate set of TV settings just for LD helps.

Anyone have experience with external line doublers? How about video upscalers or upscaling receivers?

That is a good question. I have a 62 inch HDTV and I am looking for a player that can deal with that. I have a decent player now I think. The dvl 909, but I really dont need 6 dvds hooked up to the tv. Xbox, Ps3, My DVD Ripper, the LD. Ok 4, which is still excessive.

http://www.mindspring.com/~laserguru/digitalage.html i found this artical recently for a freind of mine who just got an lcd for his birthday, he didn't even ask for it, his folks just gave it to him so he had to take it lol

You're down to "what kind of analog inputs do I have left on my display?".

Looks like the S-Video plugs are becoming extinct. That leaves you only with composite (the single, yellow plug, video output).

All LD players have a composite output (it's actually the internal format for LDs, S-Video needs a good comb filter and some extra circuitry) and some recent displays are using the green Y/PB/Pr connection as a share composite input.

You're then entirely left to depend on the quality of the internal scaler of the screen, bringing the 400+ line of the LDs to 1080. They might do a great job or not... But there's little that can be done before moving to the next expensive step of buying an external scaler (DVDO, Faroudja, etc.).

Julien

There is an interesting discussion over at AVS Forum regarding sending the composite signal from your LD player through a DVD recorder (to take advantage of the superior comb filter within the DVD recorder) and then on to your HDTV. Scroll down on this page till you see the Snell & Wilcox screen images:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1148195&page=5

...more here as well:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1276726

I can confirm results similar to those posted at AVS Forum when sending a composite LD signal through a Panasonic DMR-ES15 DVD recorder. I also use the DMR-ES15 to change the image from 480p interlaced to 480p progressive.

I am doing that now. I think I need a new player. I have a dvd ld combo and am just not happy with the quality. Thought I could connect component and thought wrong.

Besides a superior comb filter, another added benefit of many DVD recorders is the ability to output the video signal via component. This is how I'm set up...

LD player w/composite out => DVD recorder w/component out => HDTV.

Another thing to try: If your LD player has any digital noise reduction, then I recommend that you turn it off and instead use noise reduction within the DVD recorder and/or your HDTV. The later day video noise reduction technology in DVD recorders and HDTVs seems superior to that found in LD players (at least to my eyes).

Here is a short video posted by one of the AVS forum guys. This matches my results using the comb filter in the Panasonic DMR-ES15 DVD recorder:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2dL8Qd0loY

I was always nervous about moving away from my trusty CRT to newer HDTV technology - I feared the worst for old laserdisc. Other members of my family had taken the plunge before me and bought new TVs so I was able to test play my existing LD hardware through their TVs to see what I could expect. Results varied enormously and that was enough to convince me I'd have to repeat the exercise in a shop to make any sensible decision. The thing that surprised me was that with the right TV you could actually get better picture quality than from an analogue CRT. In the end I opted for JVC after testing almost every other brand available at the time. I found that even humble VHS looks fantastic through this TV. I have a large VHS collection so this was important to me. Adding a separate Denon surround sound receiver/upscaler got round the issue of running out of inputs on the TV as I only need 1 HDMI cable going to the TV. It also provided more flexible options for recording between various sources and improving upscaling for lower quality sources. Having seen how bad VHS can look on some modern TVs it is very clear that many TVs have absolutely zero upscaling capabilities built in. VHS can look very respectable if it is being scaled correctly and you don't need to spend a fortune to see a massive improvement.

being in the digital age now, i'm also trying to get the best picture towards a DLP projector...
many tests, many comparisons, many calibrations, yep its been a couple of hours but i can tell you that the DVDO iscan HD does a marvelous job in processing the LD picture towards almost DVD quality.
currently this connection scheme is for me the way to go:

McIntosh MLD7020 => s-video out towards s-video input on iScan HD => HDMI out 1080p

I switched a lot back / forward in comparing composite to svideo but the comb filter in the player seems to be a little bit better than in the DVDO unit, to my surprise.
I also compared the LD-S2 with the macintosh and this is a close call. The macintosh is a tiny bit sharper, the S2 is more film-like...

so my advise is, get a good scaler (can be found cheap nowadays) and some good s-video cables

Does anyone use the DVDO iScan Ultra? I am thinking about picking one of these up to run between my CLD-D703 and a 61in Samsung DLP and was hoping someone had some feedback on this unit.
Thanks.

i use the iscan hd myself and i know that even an iscan pro (entry level, composite to component only) already gives fascinating results...
so if you can pick up that iscan ultra for a good price then it will bring you a big ld picture improvement.

Many thanks.
Brian

I will have the same problem in a few years. Just now I'm using the (EU Models!) Pioneer CLD-2950 as LD player, going stright via composite to the Rear Projector Toshiba 51 WH-46P. The filters of my RP are quiet good and I'm pleased with my LD viewing, as well as with the DVD playback.

That's what I also look at. Maybe it will soon be a used Pioneer VSX-1019 AV receiver, which should be able to do the required conversion connecting to a new LCD panel only by one HDMI cable. And then I'm ready for BD too!

If I use the filters and scalers of the AV receiver, I don't have to panic about the analog input technology of a new LCD TV, right?

Yes - if the AV receiver has a decent upscaler you needn't worry about what scaling is built into the TV or indeed input sources as everything can be routed via the receiver.
I've all my equipment wired to the receiver which is far more convenient for switching between different sources and doesn't have lots of unnecessary cables going up to the TV.

You might have something here. I set up the TV and DVD recorder and LD player at my parents' place and when running the cable TV feed into the DVD recorder (a Toshiba model), it does do a good job of converting the cable's composite output to component (the Sony WEGA 32" TV has component input, but is not HD at all.)

I might see about connecting one of the LD Player's composite outputs to the DVD recorder while still leaving the other composite out directly to the TV (a Sony WEGA with 3D Comb Filter) and flip back and forth see what the differences are.

I found I got significantly better results simply digitizing my LD's composite output to HDMI through my Pioneer VSX 920 K's Anchor Bay upscaling chip. Having it upscale to anything above 480p broke my ability to zoom on letterboxed material. Even up-scaling to 480p looked worse then simply sending it through as 480i, simply just comb filtering and digitizing the signal to HDMI. Kurtis Bahr seems to think the problem is modern TVs are bad with NTSC video, but can actually deinterlace decently. He said:



My caveats are I used a D704 and a Samsung Plasma

I have a Pioneer Elite VSX-33 with the marvell and have found that I prefer the picture using the component outputs of the receiver set at 480p versus any resolution via HDMI

are you perhaps using a CRT?

Yeah I know it sounds weird, No I don't use a crt I have a Sony 52" Z5100. I hooked the LD player(CLD-79) up every way possible and liked the picture best with the player hooked up composite to receiver and component out from receiver to TV.