Laser Disc digitizing

[djobitwan7]

Sorry for injecting myself, but.....does anyone know of people that actually digitized their Laser Disc movies or TV shows on Domesday (Preferable) or have a good quality capture with commercial equipment?

It would be great if a person could just buy movies released on LD or VHS (those rare movie titles are only on those formats), but outside of that.....it's not easy to know if you can get a good LD player in working order and then try everything out, just to find out that the quality is not great. I'm not expecting DVD quality, but Laser Disc looked good to me back in the 80's when I first saw it, so I know what to expect. Heck, some LD's were in 1080i, so those should look better than all DVD movies, but I think that was PAL movies (I'm not sure anymore with my memory).

Would just love to know if anyone does this or can covert LD's for me. I can buy the movie or buy directly from the converting person doing it, but I am not sure which LD discs have disc rot or other defects. I just want a copy of some titles that were not released on DVD, much less Blu-ray or UHD. Thanks all and hope I hear back soon. I appreciate it.

[dellsam34]

LD is not 1080i, it's slightly better than VHS and inferior to DVD, DVD can be 480p on a good day. LD if digitized correctly it will give you 480i but the actual horizontal resolution is equivalent to 300 samples per scan line, though the output after conversion will be 720 pixels per standard.

Very few LD that did not make it to Blu-ray, but finding those discs is the limiting factor not to mention their high value, digitizing them is another cost that will be added to the equation.

As to the differences in releases, I don't see the need to spend more money so you can watch a deleted scene or an alternative ending, but hey if you find that interesting and worth the money go for it.

[clashradio]

I also live in MI and am able to do DdD captures with laserdisc and vhs. its very time consuming, so it's only worth transferring if the vhs or LD isn't already on dvd or BD.

[dellsam34]

I agree, The doomesday and VHSdecode are very time consuming, Unless someone is converting a very rare tape or LD that has a sentimental value, it is not worth it for mass produced commercial media.

[lordsmurf]

I agree, The doomesday and VHSdecode are very time consuming, Unless someone is converting a very rare tape or LD that has a sentimental value, it is not worth it for mass produced commercial media.

- Yes, ld-decode (Domesday) is quite superior to analog Laserdisc transfer methods.
- No, vhs-decode is not, still quite inferior, lots of problems, especially ringing/halo that did not exist on the original tape.

And yes, both are extremely time consuming, require lots of drive space, gamer computer specs..