Originally posted by: Rebelscum
I hear the PAL GOUT is just a resized NTSC version, stretched to fit more lines. Yes, this is correct.

Also, would it make any difference if you used the NTSC or PAL GOUT for the anamorphic enhancement? Which would be better?

No, there's no significant difference, although the NTSC GOUT is marginally sharper.Doesn't the PAL laserdisc have more image resolution and a sharper image than the PAL GOUT?

Vertically, yes. The PAL format has 576 visible lines. For a letterboxed film about 320 of these lines are actual image. The NTSC laserdisc master that was used for both the NTSC and PAL GOUT only has about 270 lines of image - and these have been blurred for the DVDs.

Vertical resolution is easy to explain because it's related to the number of scan lines. Horizontal resolution of laserdiscs is harder to understand because it's related to the analogue bandwidth of the format, which is about 5.5MHz or 440 lines. DVD's analogue equivalent is 6.75MHz or 540 lines - which means there is more horizontal detail on the GOUT (this might also explain why there is more grain evident).

But there are several other things to consider. The PAL ANH laserdisc does not seem to exhibit as much gate weave or "telecine wobble" that you see on the GOUT and the NTSC LDs. Also, there is slightly less dirt on the film in some of the shots (but a dirty great burn mark in another shot). The PAL LD players produce a signal with more video noise than players like the X0, so some noise filtering is required which could affect the amount of detail present. Laserdisc contains composite video, so any capture process has to split chroma and luma which can lead to dot crawl. Both the GOUT and the THX laserdiscs suffer from DVNR smearing; this is why the X0 project - and Moth3r V2 if it ever goes ahead - will be supplemented with captures from the pre-THX laserdiscs.