Newbie question on LD Player AC-3 outputs....

[Nick Graham]

While I have been into DVD since 97, I am now looking at getting an good LD player for things like the Star Wars Trilogy and Indiana Jones. I don't really have any high end gear, my receiver only has one optical input free, and no AC-3 RF input. I have seen LD players on eBay with both the AC-3 RF out and a regular optical out. Is that optical output capable of sending the 5.1 signal directly to my receiver, or is it only meant for other purposes? The only LD player I have laying around here is a Pioneer CLD-S104, and I don't think it's gonna meet my needs. Any help would be greatly appreciated. An example of the players I'm seeing with both optical and RF outputs would be this.....
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=1348672554

 

[Sean Dayton]

Go here A Primer for Home Theater Newcomers Page And go to page two and scroll to the bottom and read Rachael B primer on LASERDISC.

 

[Selden Ball]

Nick,
If your receiver or pre/pro doesn't include an AC3-RF input, then you'll have to get an external decoder. They are rather hard to come by these days. The RF signal is *not* compatible with the standard digital audio signal.
You need to be sure to get a player that provides all three types of audio output: analog, digital (which is used for PCM or DTS but not DD) and AC3-RF (for Dolby Digital).
Some laserdiscs, especially those produced by Critereon, include completely different soundtracks in each of the different formats. Some NTSC discs are analog only, some analog plus PCM, some analog plus PCM plus DD. PAL discs don't have room for PCM, since the video signal uses more of the bandwidth. DD actually replaces one of the analog soundtracks.
I hope this helps a little.
p.s. the original Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies are not Dolby Digital, so you don't need AC3-RF for them. In fact, I think the only DD LD in my collection is the imported SW Ep 1. ... Nope: so's the Lion King.

 

[Nick Graham]

Well, it looks like getting an AC-3 rig is just too cost prohibitive, as I am under enough debt. Looks like I will just get a player with an optical out and be happy hearing
Indy and the non-SE Trilogy in PCM, and if the price is right, maybe Titanic and a few others in DTS. This mess makes me glad I got into home theater right as DVD took off.....as a high schooler I never would have been able to afford the gear necessary for the maximum LD experience. As a matter of fact, I still can't!

 

[Matt Stone]

I can't afford high-end LD stuff either, so I just plunked down 300 or so for a Pioneer CLD D505 and the Star Wars Definitive Collection LD Set. Hopefully it'll be enough to tide me over...

 

[Philip Hamm]

The titles you are interested in are not AC-3. If you are interested in the Indiana Jones and Star Wars ORIGINAL non-SE trilogy I would recommend a CLD-S104 highly. It will sound great through the analog outs and look good also. Not as good as DVD but WAY better than VHS. And the prologic on these titles is great and will sound fine through stanrard L/R analog cables. Don't worry about AC-3 or even a digital out for LD.

 

[Keith Mickunas]

If you stick with the S104, adding the AC-3RF output to it is not difficult at all. Go here and see how. If you scroll to the bottom and follow the links you can see how I did my S104, it was pretty similar. The only hard part will be finding the demodulator.