I started to use another CLD-D925 as main laserdisc player, and I wanted to test its comb filter, so I re-do some old tests that I previously made with another specimen.
My PC has an AverMedia BDA capture card, based on the Philips SAA713x chipset; I've done these tests using the CLD-D925 composite out to three different DVD recorder, used in passthrough mode as comb filters; the Panasonic DMR-ES15, the Pioneer DVR-320 (comb filter set for movement), and the Yukai DVDR-100B (a Mustek clone, for whom it may concern...), then from the DVD recorder to the capture card via S-Video cable; plus, a direct CLD-D925 -> capture card via S-Video; the test video is from the NTSC Video Essential.
I used also the only PAL laserdisc I own with a test card - actually, a CD-Video, and (sadly) it shows... - to test an USB AverMedia EZMaker capture card, just to see how bad it was!
The result capture were made with VirtualDub, at 720x576 for PAL, and 720x480 for NTSC, encoded with Lagarith lossless codec, then I use a simple avisynth script to show them. The NTSC screenshots have the same frame, while I didn't bother to do the same with the PAL, as they are so ugly... "thanks" to the CD-Video highest quality...
Well, I uploaded images as PNG, and they are quite big (few MB each) so everyone who is curious enough, could examine them better; here you are the links:
PAL CDV test
image 1 (test card) | image 2 (resolution)
NTSC VE test
image 1 (color bars) | image 2 (contrast) | image 3 (test card1) | image 4 (test card2)| image 5 (Snell & Wilcox)
Conclusion: none of them has a decent comb filter, so I should buy a better capture card and/or a device with a better comb filter, or... I could try the phase-inverted trick!
...good result, eh? The only fact that this phase-inverted trick is, actually... a trick! (^^,)
I took a frame when the circle was still, I took the following frame, and I overlaid them to obtain the third picture.
This is a demonstration that inverting the phase SHOULD work! But I tried every possible test to achieve it, without success... I switched off the laserdisc player, then on, capture, nothing... off, inverted the plug, on, capture, nothing... the same with the DVD recorder, at the same time or one at a time, plus with the PC too... I tried to invert the plug for everything, but nothing!!! I've done dozen captures, and the phase was always the same... why? If really it should work when the devices are switched off, if should happen before or after, but not never! Did you try to launch a coin for ten times? Did it happen that the same face appeared EVERY time? Yes, it's a possibility, one out of 2^10... actually, it's not impossible, it's one out of 1024 possibilities, but I should be really, REALLY unlucky - and probably I am...
OR... there is another explanation... maybe the Pioneer CLD-D925 finds everytime the "right" phase, as it has digitally *improved* analog video out? If so, I should try to redo the same test with a digital-free player, like the Pioneer LD-V4300D. Or, maybe I have to switch off the home electricity at all? If someone has an explanation, please let me know, I'm going crazy... poita, antcufaalb, if you read this post, and you did succesful a phase-inversion trick, post it here how have you achieved that task! I'd like to do some important laserdisc captures soon, and I'd really like to use this trick to eliminate all chroma noise before further processing...