Using a HTPC to enhance laserdisc video? (1 Viewer)

[Chris Brown]

I run all my video through my HTPC. I play my DVD’s on my HTPC using a software DVD player with hardware video acceleration, and I run my laserdisc player into the Video-IN on my Radeon 64VIVO. My question, is there any way I can take advantage of my HTPC to somehow make the picture from my laserdisc look better? Right now I’m just using the ATi Video-IN software to play my laserdiscs, is there any options in this program or another program I can use that will somehow help enhance my laserdisc picture or anything? Maybe I should just hook my laserdisc player directly to the TV bypassing the HTPC all together?

 

[Jeff Kleist]

It would probably be cheaper to buy a top of the line LD player than any hardware/software that did that

 

[Chris Brown]

I doubt it.

I already have a fairly good LD player, the Panasonic LX-1000. The really nice players sell sometimes for over a grand, and thats a lot of money.

I know i've heard of people using software to enhance/clean up a DVD picture, so it seems reasonable to assume there might be software out there that can do the same thing for the video input coming into the computer (after all, my computer doesn't know it's coming from a laserdisc player)

 

[Matt DeVillier]

plenty of people use a brooktree/conexant 878 based tuner/capture card and DScaler to do exactly this...so yes it can be done, and yes it is quite beneficial

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

What Matt said. I don't know what "enhancing" you're looking for, but Dscaler will deinterlace, 3-2 pull and scale to output res.

-Vince

 

[Marty Christion]

I third what Matt and Vince said.
Capture card ($40) + Dscaler (free) + Powerstrip ($30) = "Holy Cow, I had no idea LD's could look like that!"
This setup also works for Cable/ Satellite/ VHS...

 

[Christopher_J_F]

Greetings!
I wanted to resurrect this thread because I'm looking into the same thing.

Capture card ($40) + Dscaler (free) + Powerstrip ($30) = "Holy Cow, I had no idea LD's could look like that!"

-That sounds great, but does anyone have any recommendations on the capture card brand/model?
-Could someone give me a link to Dscaler?
-Where do I get Powerstrip?
ALSO:
Keeping in mind that I watch a LOT of LD's, can anyone recommend to me the video card I want to get, or does it not matter as long as I have the capture card?

Sorry for the newbie questions, but I'm just starting my first htpc and LD's are VERY important to me!
Thanks in advance for any advice you could give me!

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

http://www.entechtaiwan.com/ps.htm

 

[Christopher_J_F]

Thanks so much Vince!
That's exactly the reply post I was looking for!

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

I aim to please.

 

[Chris PC]

Cool. Since I'm not getting new info in my thread here, I guess this helps. People at AVS are discussing similar stuff too:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...hreadid=228744
Looks like there are different cards and different chips etc etc. Flyvideo 2000 seems to be good but I haven't read the exhaustively long thread in its entirety yet.