Wanted: Technidisc (a.k.a., Smear-free '93) Trilogy: I now own it!!!

I’ve managed to track down all three Technidisc pressings of the Special Widescreen Edition. <span style=“text-decoration: underline;”>I now own them</span>.

The mint markings from the first disc from each seller are:

Star Wars: #433-083-278K 05/08/94B

The Empire Strikes Back: #433-083-284G 05/25/94H

Return of the Jedi: #433-083-287A 08/23/93M

I’d like to do the best possible preservation of this set, but I don’t have access to an excellent laserdisc player. I live in Columbia, MD (USA) and I’m willing to travel up to 1-1.5 hours in any direction. Does anyone live nearby with an excellent laserdisc player available?

Alternatively, I can meet someone half-way.

However, that'd be a little weird. We'd have to do the capture(s) in a motel or something... lol.

What about a Pioneer HLD-X9?

You_Too said:

While msycamore have already captured these, (I think he did all three, right?) it would be awesome if there could be a capture done on a really high-end LD player.

msycamore only did ANH, actually.

_,,,^..^,,,_ said:

What about a Pioneer HLD-X9?

Do you own one?

How close are you to Columbia, MD?

AntcuFaalb, yes, I own one and used it really rarely, just to capture the rarest LDs... and I'm sorry I live in Italy!

You could send the laserdiscs to me, I'll capture them and send the laserdisc AND the captures back.

OR... if you prefer, I'll send you the captures and swap your Technidisc laserdiscs with my Spanish THX (really rare) or French THX PAL laserdiscs. Also if you have not a PAL laserdisc player, they worth to be owned by a Star Wars laserdisc collector, right?

Interestingly, I just noticed the following:

Star Wars

Condition: "Good"

The Empire Strikes Back

Condition: "Very Good"

Return of the Jedi

Condition: "Like New"

The conditions reflect my preferences! That is, my favorite is Return of the Jedi. My order is: 6, 5, 4. Weird o.O

_,,,^..^,,,_ said:

AntcuFaalb, yes, I own one and used it really rarely, just to capture the rarest LDs... and I'm sorry I live in Italy!

You could send the laserdiscs to me, I'll capture them and send the laserdisc AND the captures back.

OR... if you prefer, I'll send you the captures and swap your Technidisc laserdiscs with my Spanish THX (really rare) or French THX PAL laserdiscs. Also if you have not a PAL laserdisc player, they worth to be owned by a Star Wars laserdisc collector, right?

I appreciate the offer, but I don't know how comfortable I'd be with shipping the LDs. Furthermore, I'd prefer to be present at the time of capture.

Plus, doing a median-of-five requires five captures from each LD side. That's 45 captures in total! Would you really want to do that? o.O

What if I were to use the best pure-analog LD player, the Pioneer CLD-S104, with the extremely powerful line-TBC and comb filter in the Panasonic DMR-ES10?

You_Too said:

AntcuFaalb said:

Plus, doing a median-of-five requires five captures from each LD side.

Didn't you say the median of five reduced the vertical resolution to half? That wouldn't be wise when trying to preserve a Laserdisc.

Oh, no, it doesn't at all. (For example, LeeThorogood's PAL THX preservation used a median-of-five and was full-resolution.)

I chose to average the even and odd fields in PS78 (thereby halving the vertical resolution) because it resulted in a cleaner picture and restored the original aspect ratio. That, however, was a PS78-specific choice made by me and had nothing to do with the median-of-five process.

Using a median-of-three or median-of-five is common practice in capturing from laserdiscs because the averaging lessens (and, often, eliminates) drop-outs in luma and rainbows in chroma.

I have done many laserdisc capture tests, also multiple with same disc and with different ones, on many players, using median and other methods, and I reached some conclusion:

1) When a single laserdisc is used to make several captures, on the same laserdisc player, it is useless... I mean, the dropouts are always in the same place, and if the player is good and the electric plug and video cables too, the noise floor caused by electric interference is so low that the captures are almost the same - not identical, because the source is analog, but really close.

2) When DIFFERENT laserdiscs of the same edition is used on the same players, the dropouts are usually in different places, so a median script could erase them, then is it much better than solution #1.

3) When a single laserdisc is used on DIFFERENT players, the dropouts are always in the same place, but treated differently... some player may display the dropout, the other may not display it, and the video quality could be really different; in this case, making different captures could be useful and is better than solution #1 and could be on par with solution #2.

4) When DIFFERENT laserdiscs of the same edition is used on DIFFERENT players, than this is the better solution until...

5) Using DIFFERENT laserdiscs of DIFFERENT edition on DIFFERENT players is the best of the best solution, ever...

So, if you send me the discs I could certainly use several solutions: #1, quite useless, and #3, quite good. If someone else would send me their discs, I could implement #4... at the present, I could use the solution #5 for many titles -visit the following thread: http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Audio-and-or-video-captures-offered-anyone-interested/post/601192

Anyway, my japanese Star Wars Trilogy: Collector's Set [PILF-2070] seems, accordigly to LDDB, to use the same master of Star Wars: Coffret Trilogie: Edition Collector [856235] - if this is the case, it is smear-free too! How can I check it, which scenes must I see and what are the proofs I have to find?

AntcuFaalb said:

Alternatively, I can meet someone half-way.

However, that'd be a little weird. We'd have to do the capture(s) in a motel or something... lol.

"Your place or mine?"  Hahaha  "You bring the discs, I'll bring the player.  No strings attached..."

1990osu said:

AntcuFaalb said:

Alternatively, I can meet someone half-way.

However, that'd be a little weird. We'd have to do the capture(s) in a motel or something... lol.

"Your place or mine?"  Hahaha  "You bring the discs, I'll bring the player.  No strings attached..."

lol!

I have both Moth3r's and LeeThorogood's copy of that set, You_Too. I can post those images from them tonight...

You_Too, the edition Moth3r used is the French THX, not the one I was talking about (called "pyramid" because it's box set shape).

I have that one, and I could assure you is completeley smear-free.

Thanks for the hints: right now I'm going to test if the japanese set is smear-free (but quite sure is not)... see you later!

Jetrell Fo said:

AntcuFaalb said:

I have both Moth3r's and LeeThorogood's copy of that set, You_Too. I can post those images from them tonight...

 

Lee did the French Coffret set of the SE.  He did 2 versions....I have both.

He also, as a side-project, did the French 1995 THX (non-SE) set.

_,,,^..^,,,_ said:

You_Too, the edition Moth3r used is the French THX, not the one I was talking about (called "pyramid" because it's box set shape).

I have that one, and I could assure you is completeley smear-free.

Thanks for the hints: right now I'm going to test if the japanese set is smear-free (but quite sure is not)... see you later!

The Japanese Special Collection? That's 100% smear-free. It was the first widescreen release: 1986!