LaserDisc's: Slow-Extended etc. Picture Quality Questions

[WishMaker]

An old Pioneer LD-V4400 LaserDisc player is on it's way to me. (within a week.)

I've never used laserdiscs, so I don't know if the different way laserdisc's are done is the same as VHS...

Here's what I mean. When playing back SlowPlay (SP) VHS on my VCR, the picture looks the best. Medium quality = Long Play (LP) and Super long play (SLP) has the worst picture.

Does this work the same way with laserdiscs? Slowplay = Best quality playback and extended play = Medium picture quality playback etc.?

Another question... it appears the video output is with BNC. (only)
Does anyone know what the best cable and connector's I should use to go straight into my computer's capture card? Is there really much difference in cables as long as it's 75ohms? Should the BNC and RCA connetors be gold plated if there is such a thing.

Also, would someone let me know what all the abbreviations mean? CAV, CLV, THX etc? My one remaining brain cell keeps giving me fatal errors.

[geek rock]

BNC is just a different type of connection for composite video, you should be able to pick up an adapter from radio shack that has a BNC plug at one side and an RCA socket at the other. then just connect a phono lead to that and into your capture card.

as for your other question.. i think laserdisc is basically just a lower resolution, two sided version of DVD. there isn't any "quality" mode.. it depends on the encoding of the original LD, just like it does with DVD's.

-Mark

[Wolfmancatsup]

Hi - as Mark said, there's no short/long play with laserdiscs.
Laserdiscs are(were?) recorded in one of two ways - CLV (constant linear velocity) which gave around 60 minutes per disc side, but had no freeze-frame or slow motion, and CAV (constant angular velocity) which allowed freeze frame & slo-mo, but only gave around 25 minutes playing time per side. It was possible to have a disc with CLV one side and CAV the other.
NTSC discs had analogue picture and a choice of digital or analogue soundtracks (this gave the ability to have director's commentaries - film sound on digital audio, commentary on analogue audio).
PAL discs, because of their greater resolution over NTSC discs, only had analogue audio.
Criterion released a few CAV versions of films - great quality for the time, but I'm sure you can imagine what it was like watching "Brazil" on five different disc sides, swapping over every twenty-five minutes!
As far as quality goes, on a scale of 1 to 10, with vhs being 1, and a good dvd being 10, I'd put laserdisc at around 7...
Oh, and the THX thingy is just the same as when you see it on dvd or tape (or cinema) just means that it meets ole George's standards for that medium.

I'm no expert on things video (that's why I visit here so often!) but I'll have a bash if you have any other questions.

Best,

Jeff C.

[Wolfmancatsup]

PS The CLV "no freezeframe/slo-mo" thingy in the end wasn't much of a worry as later players (and yours could be one that does this) had built-in picture memory, and enabled the user to get both of these features on the 60 minutes per side CLV discs.

[JGDragov]

I'm sure you'll enjoy your Laserdisc player Wishmaker. I bought mine a about a year and a half ago(I'm only twenty years behind) and I was really impressed with the quality.

Wolfmancatsup posted an excellent reply and I would only disagree with one thing in that the Laserdiscs are closer to an 8 1/2 in my opinon The audio is outstanding and the video is vastly superior to vhs.

Also, like Wolfmancatsup stated there are some CLV and CAV movies on one LD. "The Thing From Another World" is one that I have and I don't see a difference in the quality from side A to B.

Enjoy your player!

[WishMaker]

Thanks to all for the great input. I will keep everything in mind as I search eBAY for some good titles. I wanted better quality than VHS, can't afford buying many DVD's, but the LaserDisc's are a bargain on eBAY right now. I've bought 21 LD's so far with an average per LD price, shipping included, for $3.50 a piece!

Now if I can just figure out how I will go about getting rid of the letterbox area that a few have. (great prices meant I bought in lots, so some came in letterbox.)

Oh, I did find out the LD Player I'm getting is an old industrial LaserDisc Player and the online manual says I can only do still in the CAV format.

Sorry for the PS question, but does anyone know if one can "fast forward" with these things. I mean really fast forward like you would on a VHS (stop, then rewind or fastforward) If this older player won't get to certain chapter's, then I'm going to be spending a lot of time waiting to get to a certain spot. (What I plan to do with my captures is not the whole movie...just parts)

Again, thanks all

[musher70]

As an avid laserdisc owner i really appreciate this post,
http://www.mailordercentral.com/laser/products.asp?dept=133

they are selling all laserdisc here for $5 or so

got hundreds of those damn things

[JGDragov]

From what I have read of the older industrial units they are great players but I'm uncertain of their FF and Rewind capabilities. I bought a Pioneer CLD-S201 on Ebay but eventually sold it to get a CLD-D503. The reason being is that the 503 plays both sides without flipping the disc, something the earlier industrial players don't do.
Both my units would be considered "later models" and have FF and Rewind on the remote. On the players themselves there is a knob, similar to some vcrs, where you turn and hold the knob while the pictures move, just like a dvd but not as fast.
Again, I can't say for certain if an industrial can FF or rewind but what you might want to do if no one here gives you an answer is look for other industrial LD players for sale on Ebay and use the"Ask Seller a Question" feature to find out from someone who knows.