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Transferring help wanted for "Thief and the Cobbler" LD

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Hello,

A friend and I have been trying to find a way to transfer a laserdisc of "The Thief and the Cobbler" that we got off of eBay. I keep hearing all this stuff about V800, X0, and all these weird things, and I've just decided, to heck with it, I'd rather find someone to transfer it for us than blow a bunch of money trying to obtain the optimum tools myself.

What's the optimum player, connection cables, and transfer format needed to get as perfect an LD transfer as possible, and does anybody have the tools to do it? I just need as perfect a straight transfer as I can get, with the best possible source image and transfer quality, and as little compression artifacting as possible.

I'm sure other people know about if it should be deinterlaced during the transfer, or if the transferred version can be deinterlaced, if 3:2 pulldown should be reversed during transfer, or if it can be done to the transferred version, etc. etc. etc., better than I do.

Can anybody help me?
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In my experience, it's always up to the guy, who wants it preserved, and can pony up the dough, and spend the time. There's lots & lots of worthy stuff out there, that hasn't been getting done. Everyone who can, has a backlog of their own favorites, or they don't have time.

But you can get pretty close on a budget.

To get you started, this sub-forum has great advice. Search "laserdisc" and "capture".


Some bullet-points:

The X0 is the the bad boy that we all need. The X0 Project had the temporary use of another person's. Last I looked, there's an eBay dude in Japan who can ship you one, when he has it in stock. I think about $7,000. Plus a few hundred shipping (it weighs a LOT).

The expensive ones that are almost-as-good use a lot of antiquated signal processing that softens & degrades the image. Looks nicer than static, when you're watching, but it takes away signal that you want to capture. You want to do the processing in the capture card & software. (The X0 has a bypass path around the extra processing).

So, the next best thing is the V8000 - a cheap industrial model that's built like a stone and skips most of the signal processing. Trouble is, they go for cheaper than the shipping - meaning no one is motivated to test them beyond power-up and play. Most don't test past power-up, some don't even bother with that. You'll find the exact model in this sub-forum.

You might need a TBC (Time Base Corrector).

You capture to a lossless codec. That compresses without artifacts or compromises. Huffyuv seems to be the only one that works fast enough for capture. Then you do your processing steps & compress for dvd. You might store the original capture - it'll take a few discs.

You don't use the word de-interlace. Taboo! That isn't for film-source. If you use that term, over on videohelp.com, they will think you mean it and give you a lecture on the evils. De-interlace is a destructive process - only for truely-interlaced sources - e.g. 60 field/s videocam footage, or 30 frame/s CGI.

You're wanting IVTC (Inverse Telecine). That removes the pulldown (aka telecine).

IVTC is done after capture.

Videohelp & Doom9 are where you go for the various IVTC tools, and not-much-explanation on how to tweak them.

Laserdiscs video is stored as analog, so you want a kickin' capture card to digitize the signal. (The LD analog is a little more complicated than tape's steady analog, but it isn't digital. Doesn't matter how, though, so I'll skip the explanation). There's good recommendations in here.

Citizen did a thing where he captured the disc 5 times, and averaged out the static & interference. That emulates one of the nifty tricks that the X0 does in hardware. There a software utility, called "Toot" that works with 3 captures.

One day I found... 10 years had got behind me. Next day was worse.

 

Download  shows from Cable DVR (Updated! Yes, it needs a rewrite, but it's worth slogging through, anyway).

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Well, I'm trying to get the laserdisc transferred because it actually has a better transfer of the Miramax cut (and thus a good amount of the Richard Williams scenes) than the Japanese R2 DVD; it's sharper, has better color, etc. That fan edit used the Japanese DVD mostly on the grounds that it was 16x9 enhanced.

Even if this version won't end up in a fan edit, my friend and I would like it for reference.

I don't have the time or money to buy all these things and learn all this stuff. Besides, I don't intend to have any other LDs transferred besides this, so buying all this equipment for one transfer would be a horrendous waste of money.

If and when anybody with experience and equipment has some free time, I'd be glad to utilize their services. I understand that people are busy, so I don't want to shove my way into other people's schedules. I'd like to utilize the services of someone who has what it takes, and knows what they're doing.

I don't need cleanup, color correction, or any of that. Just a straight transfer, albeit in 24p. It doesn't even need to have sound; we just need the picture.

EDIT: We've decided to try it ourselves. Thanks for the tech tips, Jaiman.