Anyone converted KARAOKE Laserdisc to Karaoke DVD?

[lnong]

I spent the past couple of days looking online for knowledge on how to convert Karaoke Laserdiscs to Karaoke DVDs, but havent been successful. I did find some sources discussing how to back up regular LD to DVD:

Basically for a non-Karaoke Laserdisc, you just connect the L and R audio channels from the LD player to the analog input of your soundcard or DVD recorder, and you connect the video (composite or S-video) out of the LD player to the PC capture card's or DVD recorder's video-in. Then you would just hit play on the LD player and then use a video capture software (like Adobe Premiere) to capture the video as MPEG-2. I think the audio is captured as WAV format..not sure about that. Then you would use some DVD-authoring software to create a DVD from the video and audio stream files.

NOW, for Karaoke laserdiscs, it's most likely more complicated because the audio is stored on the Laserdisc as both analog (contains vocal and music) and digital (music only), also known as PCM format. See this link for an excellent description of how audio is stored on an LD.

http://www.hometheateradvice.com/story.php?sid=lds

So when you play the LD on the player during recording, you must either select music only or music + vocal. Therefore, when your computer or DVD recorder "captures" (not burns) the karaoke laserdisc as it play, you only get one of the two audio options: either music only, or music with vocal. The video is captured normally.

If there exists an "LD burner" (aka. LD-ROM, Laserdisc drive, etc) that connects to a PC, that would be the perfect solution. Then the Laserdisc can be ripped just like a DVD where ALL the content can be transferred digitally to the PC and then burn back out onto a DVD (after re-authoring, of course). Well, my search for a consumer LD-ROM turns up empty. And the reason is that 99% of all Laserdiscs store their video content in all analog format.

SO, the only way I could think of to backup a Karaoke laserdisc onto karaoke DVD format is to first capture it like a normal non-karaoke laserdisc. This means that in STEP 1, use Adobe Premiere or some similar software to capture the video and audio (music + vocal) normally. This will create one video stream and one audio stream. In STEP 2, recapture the audio (and video if desired) but this time turn off the vocal. After all this is done, you will have one video stream (in MPEG2 most likely) and TWO audio streams (one music only, and one music + vocal).

Then, you will need to find a software that can create KARAOKE DVDs from video and audio streams. At this time, Im still searching for such a software. I do see a lot of software for making Karaoke DVDs from video files and MP3s but I dont think these are the correct ones for our purpose. If anyone knows of a software that can be used for my purpose, please let me know!

The other problem I have is Im still confused which video and audio outputs I should use on my Laserdisc player when connecting to the recording inputs. Nowadays, S-Video is better than composite video for home A/V systems as most ppl believe. However, in many articles I've read online, for laserdisc players, S-video gives the same quality output as Composite video. The reason is because video content is stored on Laserdisc as analog composite format. So even if the laserdisc has s-video output, the s-video signal coming out it after the composite-to-s-video conversion can only be as good (or even worse) than the composite signal. So those articles argue that it's better to use the signal's native format, which is composite.
Now for audio, what would be the difference in using the coxial, optical or analog audio outputs? When I use the analog outputs, I'm still able to switch between "digital" (music only) and "analog" (vocal + music) using my LD player's remote. Why is that? What's the purpose of the digital coaxial and optical outputs then? Does it mean that if I use coaxial or optical, I wont be able to switch to "analog" mode to hear vocals? In other words, do these digital or analog output type correlate to the diagram from the link above?

PLEASE HELP CLARIFY!!! Thanks!

[mattyboy]

I spent the past couple of days looking online for knowledge on how to convert Karaoke Laserdiscs to Karaoke DVD

ALRIGHT!! LETS PARTY!!!

[c_hernandez32]

When you use the optical or coaxial for digital out you let your A/V reciever do the A/D conversion. You can not listen to analog tracks via digital outputs, because the audio was stored as an analog signal. You can hear both via analog outputs because when you switch to a digital sound you let the players DACs do the conversion.