I "resurrected" this old thread of mine, just because today I posted in another thread some info about comb filters... then I realized I have a PAL CD-Video with a test card like the one Moth3r used here, so I decided to use it...

Here you are the screenshots - they are unprocessed, but the source is REALLY bad, full of speckles like the most part (if not all) of CD-Video around... the frame is always the same, captured with the same capture card, using the same cables (Monster Cable S-Video and LINN composite) - HuffYUV

Pioneer CLD-D925 composite:

Pioneer CLD-D925 S-Video:

Pioneer CLD-D925 through Panasonic DMR-ES15 DVD recorder:

Pioneer CLD-D925 through Pioneer DVR-320S DVD recorder:

The Pioneer DVR-320S clearly has the worst picture... look at the grey grid, and the red bar on the bottom of the circle.

The Panasonic DMR-ES15 has a strong TBC - clearly it can't be seen on static images, but when seen in motion, the captured clip shows almost no sync problems, unlike the other three clips. But the image is not the better - look at the grey boxes on the left, near the white ones... or, better, they are not grey!

The same problems could be found in the D925 composite output; in the D925 S-Video the problem is still here, but really reduced, compared to the other three captures.

Conclusions:

the Pioneer DVR-320S comb filter (the one used for PAL signals, that *maybe* is a 5-line one) is not good as the straight composite and/or S-Video output of the CLD-D925; it's better to avoid it with PAL material. BUT, IIRC, when I tested it with Video Essentials' Snell & Wilcox zone plate, it was better, due to its 3D comb filter used for NTSC. Further investigation needed.
the Panasonic DMR-ES15 could be really useful if used with a VCR, due to its good TBC. But, as laserdisc *usually* has not sync problems, it could be not useful for laserdisc captures (apart for some material onto CD-Video...)
the CLD-D925 composite output - or/and the capture card composite input - is not that bad, considering that the capture card comb filter is a 4-line one; still, there are some residual chroma noise
the CLD-D925 S-Video output is the best in this test; its comb filter is a mere 3-line type, but clearly it's superior to the capture card's one, maybe because the composite output of the D925 is just a recombined S-Video signal, or just because its comb filter is better than the 4-line one of the capture card, or thanks to both things...