Making Star Wars LD Backup. How Record Dolby? etc. (1 Viewer)

[Lee_H]

oh ok, forgot the optical will auto match...i havent ever imported through that port yet!

as for the ac3 info, it was just for some basic knowledge for future reference is all. Nothing pertaining to SW

just thinking i might create an ac3 5.1 mix of my first single when i get my debut album out

 

[Lee_H]

also i think mainconcept's h.264 encoder will allow you to input the video file and the audio file...and then export as mpeg-2 with the LPCM option checked!!!

 

[JeremySt]

Theres alot of people discussing in detail how they have created their own copies on originaltrilogy.com.

Lots of useful information on encoding, filters, etc.

 

[Ken Chan]

I don't use the low-end stuff. Maybe this will do it. Seems to specifically address the low volume issue you mention.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Thanks for the link, I'll give it a whirl later this evening if I have time.

 

[Keith Paynter]

I've done several discs too, Lee, and the best results I've had (even though I've done transfers in DD - 192kbps - vs PCM) came from a DV camcorder as the interface (not recording direct to tape, but in play mode as an A/V input device) into firewire. DV-AVI capture is better than MPEG and when assembling cuts, you don't have frame loss and duplication. You do require more HD space, but not as much as if you were going uncompressed AVI (with DV-AVI, an 80 GB hard drive will permit your original, edit and mastering files for a movie of approx 135 minutes for applications like Adobe's Premiere Pro.).

A word of warning - don't expect your DVD's to look very good once you upgrade to a 16x9 display - they'll look as fuzzy as standard NTSC broadcasts on widescreen televisions - zooming your original LD on the TV actually looks better.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Yes,

not to mention that those laserdisc look *really* horrid...I mean compared to what we take for granted as "decent DVD masertering" today, those original Star Wars LD's (I've got them all) have the video quality of VHS mush.

Sound however...that' another matter...

 

[Lee_H]

i do professional video restoration and editing so i thought i could sharpen the picture enough to overcome that. (i just had no experience with surround sound)

ok, ill echo others sentiments...."DAMN YOU LUCAS"

 

[ChristopherDAC]

Given that LDDb lists no fewer than thirteen separate releases of the original version of "A New Hope" alone, not counting Special Editions or sets, including some released in PAL, I rather suspect Mr. Boulet is exaggerating.
It should be pointed out that with a 50dB video signal-to-noise ratio and 5 MHz of bandwidth available through any decent player, LD was entirely capable of providing performance comparable to DVD. Unfortunately most of the software released was not capable of taking advantage of the capability: film-to-video transfers through most of the LD era were relatively mediocre, bad mastering practives were at least as common as they are now, and of course very few anamorphic LDs were released. In the particular case of the Star Wars Definitive Collection discs, which were among the first THX-mastered video software, I believe a good deal of vertical prefiltering was applied. This I must regard as an egregious error whenever it is done, and particularly after so much effort had been spent preparing the video restorations.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Since I've been messing with RoTJ lately, that's the LD's video that I'm most familiar with, and the parts that look really murky are the hazy or darkly lit scenes (like when Luke is speaking with Leia at the end, or the Luke and Yoda scenes). Other scenes, cleaned up with a 411 filter via VirtualDub look fine for its source. I use a Pioneer D704 as my playback machine. I know there are better LD players, but bump in video quality isn't not worth additional expense to me.

 

[Lee_H]

chris and patrick very informative...

i use a cld-d704 with rfd-1 as well..

personally I LOVE the picture on this unit! i had a different run of the mill unit before this, and it didnt even compare.

i have some newer lds...and they look beautiful on it, watching it on a pioneer bigscreen.

woodstock 94, watching Nine Inch Nails on that laserdisc, is absolutely brilliant, the white strobes in the dark look so real, the sound was beautiful...im happy.