We are currently compiling a set of masters transferred form a pioneer X0 player, via a professional broadcast capture system - so it will probably be the best you will get from the NTSC laserdiscs. With any luck it will look better than what most of you see from 'consumer' laserdisc players, so chances are the DVD we make will look better than the LD for 99% of you. The X0 basically has no issues with laser rot or introduced artifacts, so it is probably going to be as good as it gets. Then doing a full colour grade will be the next step, and then putting it down to DVD9 as a final step. The problem is that the faces and definitve laserdiscs are not great masters in the first place - there was dust on the lens elemens during the telecine process, and they have poor colour as well. Some of this can be corrected, but you just can't get something that isn't there to begin with.

I am still holding out hope that the PAL discs will give us something even better, there is definately more detail, better colour and no 3:2 pulldown issues to deal with. Getting it back to 24fps is absolutely no problem. The real task is finding a working PAL laserdisc player of the X0 calibre....