Thanks for the in-depth answers.
There’s no way my wife will justify me upgrading my TV to run 30-year old tech so I will have to stick with the LG (which I do love).
My understanding was that s-video would be the best option, but I don’t think my Pioneer VSX-930 has a s-video port.
I’ve now pressed a button on the amp and the dolby surround symbol is showing so I guess my amp is converting everything. There’s certainly sound in the rear speakers now.

What about downgrading?

Sounds like a bit of progress has been made already then is the audio now beginning to sound more like what you were hoping for? tbh if it were me I really wouldn’t worry to much about the lack of AC3/DD5.1 support on your player as even though DD5.1 LDs generally sound superior to their 5.1 DVD counterparts the sound quality absolutely pails in comparison to the regular LD PCM digital audio, especially so on a decent sound system - save your money and put it towards that DVDO video processor I mentioned above and then you’ll see a huge improvement in PQ - Good Luck!

If I got an upscaler I’d imagine I’d get an XRGB or something similar as I do a lot of retro gaming and they’re great systems to upscale old systems.
Checked the amp and it has a composite in and component in but no s-video so that option is out.

I’m afraid that type of upscaler although probably fine for retro gaming wouldn’t do much for LD tbh, the only way to go is as mentioned a few posts back i.e. something with a good quality comb filter. DVDO Edge occasionally show on eBay for a bit less than 200 if you’re lucky and this will really make a major difference in PQ especially so on PAL discs.

Micomsoft is overrated and yes it would do nothing for LD. Their products are entirely game-centric.

Yep, not designed for composite video.

Fair enough.
Overall I find the picture perfectly watchable but I’ve become very used to 4K films over the last couple of years. I do notice a lot of shimmering on edges and the frames sometimes wobble but I’m guessing that’s down to composite output and the format in general.

Yeah nothing you do will get LD to the level of 4K or BD.

Don’t worry I know that.
I certainly don’t feel I’ve wasted my money.

So why was the reason you really wanted to get an LD player and why now???
I've had LD since my father bought a player in the late 80s, 89 and don't know if I would even bother with LD at this day and age
if I didn't grow up with it, know how it worked and enjoyed it for all these years.

I remember I thought I wanted to get into CED as I had thought about it for about 10 years, I took the plunge and sold it within
2 weeks of getting it, didn't make any money and the money I lost was from fees for selling, but was able to sell it off pretty fast at the time.

If that were me now with LD I don't know if I could or would do it even now.

One of the guys at work had one and I'd go around his house to watch movies. He was a manager where I worked and I could never afford one. Due to lockdown I've been saving money like crazy and felt it was time to scratch that itch. I've got lots of CRTs in my gaming shed (I edit a popular retro magazine) so I bought it on the basis that if it looked terrible on my 65 inch OLED I could simply move it to the shed.
Aside from the 30-disc collection that came with my player (and I'll probably sell) I'm focusing on simply getting films that either mean something to me, aren't easily available to buy on Blu-Ray or just look lovely.
It's not going to replace the way I watch films, it's just an indulgent way to grant a desire I held 30-odd years ago and never accomplished.

I suppose that is a good enough reason to want to get in on the hobby.

However, I am more on the side of rein-o in that I feel it makes more sense for people who have already been entrenched in the hobby to stick to it as it would obviously cost more for us to get rid of the stuff and then re-buy the same movies in a different format. And of course, since we know some movies aren't available or altered on DVD/Blu ray, I guess that is another reason to stick with LD.

Yeah, I love anime and hate the deal with some that are just copies from the LD but if I didn't personally own an anime for the past 20+ years I doubt I could
buy it now because it has unaltered stereo.

I even had the Bruce Lee films on LD but decided to sell them off and pickup a DVD box which is fine by me, even with some oddball audio alterations.
but you can't get the theatrical version of some films on DVD so that's another reason to keep LD for me as I like to think I can see what someone may have
seen in the theaters back in the day as close as possible.

I’m not sure I’ve ever done anything “retro”.

If I’m into something current I usually stick with it forever. I give up on very few hobbies. I may take long breaks but I never sell my record collection and then buy it again. I still fly model rockets, play paintball, drive on race tracks, DJ, watch Laserdiscs, draw, record music, read comics, practice combos in Neo Geo games, watch anime...the only thing I was once really into that I eventually quit totally is Dungeons and Dragons. I’ve also never “discovered” something on YouTube that came and went before I was born and then for some insane reason blew a ton of cash on it. I may moan a lot but I don’t Techmoan.

So in a way I’m a sucker for new things. LD was current when I got into it, records were the #1 format in the world when I got into that, I was an SNK fan before they made the Neo, etc, but once I let them in they are here forever and eventually they are classified by externalities as “retro”... I’ve never just thought, “Oh, I’ll learn to make chainmail!” because a Youtuber did it.

Does being this stubborn make it hard for new hobbies to work their way in? Probably, but I don’t miss them and as far as I can tell many of the new hobbies are just the old hobbies I never stopped doing.

Vast majority of people I sell to are either completely new to LD or are getting back into it. I never really ask them why, but I'm just glad there is enough demand to make rebuilding/refurbishing/servicing worthwhile since that is what I enjoy the most.

You’re very lucky then.
I’m 47 and for various reasons couldn’t keep all the stuff I owned when it was new. I remember SNK before Neo and everything else you mentioned, but laserdisc was always my blindspot. I am more than happy to discover old tech, partly because it’s my job and partly because I’m just fascinated by older hardware (more so if it’s game related). No one uses the term retro properly when it comes to gaming but that’s what I do and I enjoy it. Laser disc is a retro medium for me and one I am finally gettibg to enjoy.

This is true by the definition of the word but language changes and is contextual. People definitely say retro when they mean vintage because it just kind of became the word of choice.

Most things I was into when they were new but like most people my family went from VHS to DVD. NES is another one I didn't have at the time because of financial reasons and is one of my favorite consoles now. Well TECHNICALLY Famicom is since the only thing I really play on NES is NES Tetris otherwise I buy Famicom carts. Still a great bastion of good cheap gaming, if you are into that era.

I was an arcade snob during the NES era, basically going from Colecovision to Genesis. “You cannot seriously tell me this is supposed to be Rygar/Strider/Renegade/Ikari...”

The NES’s earliest games are in fact my favorites, Donkey Kong 3, City Connection, Golf, Excitebike, because when it runs those games it isn’t flickering and slowing down and falling to pieces, barely running the game like it does with Turtles or Mighty Final Fight.

My favorite way of describing the PC Engine is that it’s like a NES with no flicker, especially the earlier stuff. The games are very much from the 8-bit era but clearly the system was designed by people who were familiar with the frustrations of the Famicom.

I sort of do this but without seeing it on youtube first.
One day I had an idea to make paper out of all the scrap I had left over from packing, printing labels etc.
So I had to look on youtube to find out what I needed but then I made it and made some cool paper, now I need to figure out how
to sell it