I have LaserDisc question.

[Bob W]

What would cause the video out to have a lot of noise? Do I need to clean the laser diode (assuming it has such a thing) and if so how do I do that? Is it possible for a disc to be noisey (I don't recall seeing all this noise on other discs)?

[Roundabout]

I gave a friend of mine an old Sony Laserdisc player a few years ago, and it stopped reading discs completly. Since I used to fix these, I knew that many times dust gets inside and settles on the lens, preventing it from reading the disc properly. In his case, there was a ton of dust inside, so I wasn't surprised when it didn't read (they never were very good at keeping dust out, lots of gaps between drawer and cabinet of the unit, letting in a lot of dust).
You could try it, use a q-tip and denatured alcohol (preferably not isopropyl "rubbing" alcohol, it leaves residue) and clean the objective lens, it will look similar to that in the photo (see the lens on the left side of the picture). Clean it gently wiping across the lens and turn the q-tip as you wipe to get all the dust off. If you can't find denatured alcohol, it's better just to use a dry q-tip than the other alcohol. You don't clean the laser diode itself, only the objective lens that focuses the beam onto the disc.
If that doesn't cure your problem, try another output on the player, if you have one and see if you are having the same issues (does it have only composite out, or component output too?). If it has the same problem from all outputs, there may be a real problem in the player which will be harder to cure. Good luck.

[Bob W]

Wow good stuff. So to get to this lens I need to take the cover off right?

[Roundabout]

Yes, and it would probably be a good idea to unplug the unit first
You should be able to see the FOP (pickup assembly) - it will be within where the disc sits (tray area), closer to the inside part of the spindle assembly that holds the disc (because it starts reading from the inside TOC area of the disc first). After cleaning, try to blow out any other dust you can from inside the unit before putting it back together.

[Bob W]

OK I tried the other output (composite) and there is no difference in the noise from the s-video out. The noise sort of looks like a "star-field" effect annoying yes, however the movie is still very viewable. When I use another disc the star-field is pretty much gone but I do get some faint random horizontal glitches or lines like it's loosing sync. I wonder if the AVT-3700 TBC unit I have on order will fix some of this?

[Roundabout]

Hmmm. Kinda hard to say, but you could still try the cleaning and see what happens, can't hurt. If it is happening on all discs even after cleaning, you probably have a problem somewhere in the electronics of the player itself. Not a good sign
I don't think a TBC is going to correct problems with noise, only sync problems. If it's possible, probably would be a good idea to borrow a laser disc player if you know someone that has one, and convert all your LD's to DVDs before you can't find a player anymore (they are more scarce than they used to be).

[Bob W]

I cleaned the lens and the playback is somewhat improved. Now I tried a third disc which I bought new and the playback is much better on that disc. Perhaps what I'm seeing is what some refer to as "Laser Rot".

Well I did a little research online tonight and the problem I'm seeing on some of my laserdiscs is indeed laser rot. Also there is nothing I can do to fix the discs. There may be a player out there that handles this problem better than my player but it's not worth it to me to spend more money on a very dead format.

[Roundabout]

How old are the discs you were trying to play? The friend I was talking about has some going back around 10 years or so, and they all still play fine. Could it have something to do with how/where they are stored? He always kept his in a cool, dry place and there are no issues with playback. He still plays them from time to time. I'd heard of "laser rot" (actually, corrosion of the aluminum layer inside the disc) but I've never seen a case of it. You say you have several with that problem? Yikes, makes you wonder. Hope it doesn't happen to all your discs. Some of them can't easily be replaced, or never were released on DVD.

[quoth09]

first off, just a random question, which movies/discs are you having problems with?

only in rare occasions is cleaning the laser going to fix snow from laserdiscs...

it is definitely laser rot, if you cleaned the laser. and no player, no matter how advanced it is, is going to fix the problem. some may read it better, but by the time you get a different player, the problem will have gotten worse. and it is 100% the laser or laser rot if you tried multiple connections (s-video,composite,rgb, or component).
if you have scratches on the disc, it should have lines or blocky break up somewhere in the picture (not digital break-up, like with dvds).

my suggestion - get rid of the disc while you still can, or give it away, and think of it as information on what to look for when it comes to laser rot, and avoid it like the plague.

rotting has EVERYTHING to do with how the discs are made, rather than care, even though care is a significant part of every type of disc problem, and in this case it can help make a descent grade disc rot. most discs from japan are of superior quality compared to the US counterparts. all pioneer discs are of good quality.

a lot of discs made by Image have started rotting, as well as several others. if you know of a disc that is rotting, and it is a US copy, try obtaining a import copy - an extremely fine example of this is David Lynch's "Lost Highway". all the US copies are rotting. it is a pricey import (i paid 60$ for mine), but better than spending any amount on a US version and having it rot when you get it or a year later. any GOLD disc, like "Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace" from japan - the gold collectors edition - will probably never rot, b/c gold does not corrode easy, if at all. the only way that could happen is if the disc got cracked.

all 5", and 7" (cd and 78" record size discs) will most likely never rot, b/c a lot of the 5" cd video discs from europe and the US were gold, and i have never heard of a 7" ld rotting, just b/c of how they made them. most 7" discs were music video/band/performance oriented, and were lucky if they held 30 minutes of material. 5" could hold around 10 minutes max, but most were just about 30 minutes of music, and then a 5 minute video.

look around on ebay for players and discs - they are not THAT rare.

better yet, go to california - mainly san francisco, and los angeles - a lot of places there still carry the stuff in stores, some used, and some still new.

laserdiscs are a completely dead format now, even in japan - the land of ever eternal formats. a year or 2 ago, pioneer of japan destroyed a large amount of discs, b/c they were sitting around, and they wanted to shut down the factory...needless to say, some of the now hard to find titles, are now completely extinct.

[Bob W]

Most of the Laserdiscs have I got off of eBay. It's no big deal now that I know what the problem is. I only convert the Laserdisc movies that are not available as DVD, movies like "High Road To China" and others that may never make it to DVD.