Lasrdisc Recording (1 Viewer)

[Rob.melone]

I know that I can not record (make copies) of DVD's with my DVD Recorder because of copy protection. Before I go through the process of hooking up the equipment, does anyone know if I can record my Laserdisc's onto DVD? There are still movies that I have on Laserdisc (e.g. The African Queen) that have not yet been released on DVD, or, the Laserdisc version is in Widescreen while the DVD version is Pan & Scan. Thanks.

 

[ChristopherDAC]

Yep. People do it all the time. There was never any form of "copy protection", Macrovision, or anything else applied to LaserDisc. Often, the "copyright" bit in the Digital Audio stream was not even set.

 

[Henry Gale]

LaserDisc: 12"
DVD: 5"

How is that going to fit?
And then there's the other side of the LD!

 

[jim.vaccaro]

The size of the discs has nothing to do with anything, Henry.

 

[ChristopherDAC]

Well, I don't know about that. The only reason I can see for duping down the disc in the first place is to get the smaller-size package.

 

[Henry Gale]

 

[jim.vaccaro]

I disagree, Chris. The dedicated enthusiast with the right equipment can produce DVD copies that look better than the original laserdisc recording. Additionally, duping to DVD makes the movie portable, and saves wear and tear on aging laserdisc players. But all that's beside the point here.

Henry doesn't seem to understand the difference between how laserdisc stores video and how DVD does, i.e. analog FM waveform vs. MPEG-2 compressed digital video. Of course DVD can store as much 480i video as laserdisc (more, actually, dependent on bit rate). Even a single layer DVD can hold a better looking 2 hour feature than both sides of a CLV laserdisc. His assertion that DVD can't handle a feature length film because it is smaller is just wrong.

 

[ChristopherDAC]

No, I think Henry's making a joke. Of course, I'll just agree with him here, for a laugh, and remark that you can't fit all that onto one of those little bitty things without digitizing and compressing the information, which is just too bad. I also have something of a problem with the idea that a compressed component version of a full-bandwidth composite original can be better — that is, that it can be made to look better without compromising the actual image quality — but that's a separate issue. Too many filtering-and-reconstitution steps for me.

 

[Henry Gale]

How could you think I was serious?
OK, I owe post #3 one smiley face.

But I did like it when jim called me "Harry".
Wish he had not edited that out.
Really, I may change my name.
Harry Gale
Sounds like something a weatherman on the coast would say.
I'll ask Em & Dorothy what they think.

 

[Rob.melone]

Not to interrupt the technical debate on this subject, but when I make a copy I will let you all know how it looks and sounds compared to the original. Thanks for responding to my thread. Rob

 

[jim.vaccaro]

My mistake on both 1) calling Henry "Harry", and 2) missing Henry's joke. :b

ChristopherDAC, I understand your reservations about DVD recording looking better, but remember that "better" is a subjective thing. What I do know is that I've seen some DVD backups of the Star Wars Definitive Collection Laserdisc set that looked superior to the laserdiscs themselves.

 

[Rachael B]

I wouldn't make DVD's of the LD's and then discard the big discs. I don't think DVD-R's are gonna last much longer than CD-R's...a few years, generally.

I don't see how DVD-R's are gonna look better than the original LD's...? I can see how that could be percieved though...you run composite out of LD player into really good comb filter in recorder and it converts it better than you're used to, maybe? I've made some DVD's using the HLD-X9 (S-video) as the play deck and they came out spectacularly well. The DVD didn't lose a thing, seemingly. Better? No...same...

 

[ChristopherDAC]

As I understand it, there are people using computer editing and all kinds of spectacular computational filters on their video files. They will take three copies of the same disc, all rotted, and record them, and run the recordings through a kind of majority-logic process to get rid of the speckles; or apply inverse 3-2 pulldown filtering; I have even heard of an attempt to make an anamorphic progressive NTSC STAR WARS DVD from the PAL LaserDisc. The STAR WARS people are the most fanatical about this — rotoscoping, superimposing and interpolating different transfers to back out more resolution, and so on have apparently been tried. I wouldn't count those as straight "DVD recordings", more as attempts at video remastering. Anything else, like adjustments of brightness and contrast, or what-have-you, which might be done during the DVD recording process, could be done during straight playback with the proper hardware; I'm guessing many people don't have that, but use the DVD recorder/player technology to approximate it. In any case, you're restricted to the information in the source, and perceptual improvements are going to come at the cost of reducing the actual recording quality.