The player that will be used for this Bond preservation series has just been upgraded.
Pioneer CLD-D704
Specs =http://www.laserdiscarchive.co.uk/laserdisc_archive/pioneer/pioneer_cld-d704/pioneer_cld-d704.htm
SilverWook said:
Does the "RF LOCK" indicator ever light up? Does moving the switch from "opt" to "coax" do anything?
Yes it does. The "RF LOCK" light lit up when I put in my "Star Wars: A New Hope" from the 1997 SE box set. Yet still no audio into my older DD/DTS receiver that I keep in my computer room. But it did not light up for the Thunderball" 30th Anniversary THX box. I still need to take it into the living room, so that I can hook it up to a DVD with optical out, and also my other DD/DTS home theater receiver that has an RCA digital coax in. Here is what it says in the operating manual about the Power/opt./coax switch...
"Regardless of the OPT./COAX. switch setting, the input is switched automatically to the Dolby Digital RF input when ever a Dolby Digital RF signal is input."
YES, I am being Ignored by Jedi Temple34 Frink.
FF
SilverWook said:
Plug a DVD or CD player into the optical or coax inputs and see if it passes the signal to a receiver.
Great Idea, I will try that first thing in the morning!
Thanks for the reply. I don't have anything with a V.U. meter on it. Do you think a basic Voltage Meter from radio shack would work?
The model I got was the Kenwood DEM-9991d
Looks like I'm going shopping for a Pioneer Elite model player for my projects. The CLD-504 is just the bare minimum in requirements, and it looks as if I might have a faulty AC-3 out jack. Still trying to work that problem out. But having a better player seems the only way to do justice to these films.
FF
Edit: Found this on the net about what type of player are best, and thought I should pass it along.
I've run into another frustrating problem. I can't seem to get any sound from my player's AC-3 jack. Is there a way to check if a player's RF jack is working or not? A meter or something like that? You see, I just got an RF demodulator (Seems to be working), but I am still not getting any audio into my DD/DTS receiver. I want to know if there is a way to see if there is any activity from the player's digital out jack, or if it's the demodulator unit that is the problem. I would think the signal from an AC-3 encoded disk would automatically be sent to that jack, as I don't see any option to turn on the RF AC-3 within the players options controls. The player is a Pioneer CLD-504. Any advice or help with this problem would be very appreciated.
FF
captainsolo said:
I'm starting to believe that is the case for most every older film. Don't want to because that would mean more money towards LDs...oh well ;)
I'll get to a Star Trek audio preservation in DTS, but only after the Bond films. That is, if no one else has made these tracks available by then. I have the Star Trek LDs, so it would be no extra cost or searching for me to do it. Has anyone ever done a preservation of ST: VI?
The AC-3 RF demodulator for lasserdisc players that I had won on Ebay came in the post today! Now let's see (hear) what I can do with this Digital THX Surround mix on the "Thunderball" 30th Anniversary box set. I'll try to post some DTS conversion examples as this project moves forward. I have all the equipment and software I should need now, so wish me luck.
FF
When I put my first dog down due to cancer, it was heart wrenching. She was much more a part of my life then I had ever realized, and the void that was left after her death devastated me. It was important for me to immediately change my life routine, and daily activities so that I could help remove the blatant reminders of our time together. I would avoid the places I would walk her, and the parks we would go play at until at least a few months after. Time DOES heal all wounds, but everyone needs their own amount of time to adjust. Within six months I had two new adopted dogs to care for. They did not replace my first dog, but they did help me move on. Now these dogs are hitting middle age, and I see that their time is winding down. My main focus is to treat them with as much love and care that I possibly can. I never say I am too busy or make excuses to avoid their daily care, attention, and play time. Even though my family and friends consoled me and told me what a wonderful pet owner I was, I was still hunted by my own guilt after my pets death. I was continuously asking myself if I truly gave her the beast I could, because she gave such unconditional love to me. Now, I got to go hug my dogs, and cat!
skyjedi2005 said:
I am surprised there has never been a preservation of Goldeneye or tomorrow never dies DTS laserdiscs, the dts tracks on the UE were a new mix and not the theatrical track.
I am sure Fanfiltration is only doing the classic bond stuff though, i suspect he hates the Brosnan Bond films.
Who is this Brosnan guy? *wink*
You are 100% correct on all your assumptions, but "hate" is a rather strong word for how I feel about the 1995-2002 films. I don't have any plans to do anything except the 62-71 films, but you never know.
Moth3r said:
What do you mean by "results"? Amount of dropped frames, quality of image, or something else?
Normally, analogue capture relies on the hardware device and its WDM drivers, the actual software choice should not really have much of a bearing on the final results.
The best thing for me to do is run the tests again and do a screen capture of the info panels and post them side by side here for you to see. But yes, I see frames dropped and audio sync problems. I'm a bit confused by the way some tings are working and other are not the way they should. I'm determind to learn this, and to know what is at work here. With some things I have taken more of a whatever works attitude, but not this time.
I'm doing a straight capture of my LD into the capture T.V. card via S-video. I did a visual comparison, and to tell the truth, I could not see any difference between the compost and S-video inputs. I've seen that S-video is considered a better signal, so that is what I went with. I capture in 720X480 uncompressed UYVY 29.970 fps. I capture audio PCM 16 Bit 48.000 kHz.
After I capture to the PC, I crop out the black bars on the letterbox image, do any picture adjustments like color correction, and then re-encode to a Lagarith lossless AVI file. Then I use that file for my master to encode with PCM and or DTS to MPG2 via C.C.E. SP3 at high bitrate to a DL DVD-9 for my LD preservation.
I do not de-interlace captured films from LD, as I have seen you guys suggest on these forums not to do so. I try not to use any filters I don't understand.
FF
SilverWook said:
FanFiltration said:
SilverWook said:
Hey FanFiltration, Sony had a line of external Dolby Digital surround processors in the early days of DVD that had an unadvertised extra feature, an AC3 RF demodulator built in. Might these be in your price range?
http://cgi.ebay.com/SONY-SDP-EP9ES-ES-SURROUND-PROCESSOR-PREAMP-NICE-/350393597777?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item519515ff51
http://cgi.ebay.com/SONY-SDP-E800-Dig-Surround-Processor-EXC-Fr-Shipping-/130428969359?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e5e2c218f
Thanks so much for this info. I was lucky to be able to get my hands on an RF Demodulator this weekend. It will be put to good use on this and a few other projects I want to do in the next few months.
UPDATE: All of my future James Bond Laserdisc preservations will now feature lossless DTS Digital Surround (if film had an available surround ac3 track on the laser), and / or a PCM audio track.
FF
You're welcome!
If it's not a silly question, would the first DVD's of the first three Bond's be of any use to you? They were all THX and came in the snapper cases. They went out of print pretty early on, and I don't think Lowry had anything to do with these transfers...
http://cgi.ebay.com/Dr-No-THX-Edition-DVD-1962-1997-Sean-Connery-OOP-/110544607313?pt=US_DVD_HD_DVD_Blu_ray&hash=item19bcf8d851
http://cgi.ebay.com/Russia-Love-DVD-1997-/300460494319?pt=US_DVD_HD_DVD_Blu_ray&hash=item45f4d74def
http://cgi.ebay.com/Goldfinger-DVD-James-Bond-Pussy-Galore-Spy-007-VG-NM-/290457907607?pt=US_DVD_HD_DVD_Blu_ray&hash=item43a0a3f197
Thanks for asking! I'm not sure if this was the same print as used for the SE or not. The SE was not THX certified, and I am not sure if the technical details changed when these films had been re-released and repackage as part of the SE wave. But anyways, I am going to be sticking with only doing laserdisc preservation for now. Yet to be honest, I am still very intrigued by those THX releases. I seem to remember that Moonraker (a guilty pleasure of mine) was amongst the first released Bond titles on DVD. More information on their history and technical specifications is desired for sure! These disks came out in the mid 1990's. I clearly remember drooling over them in the bins at the Virgin Mega-store back in the day. I was a late bloomer, and I did not get into the DVD game until late 1999 or early 2000. That was around the time when the SE sets came out. Now that I come to think of it, I got my first DVD player specifically for the Bond set release.
FF
Moth3r said:
FanFiltration said:
[...]
Any other capture program suggestions?
Thank you for your reply and advice as always Moth3r. VirtualDub is an amazing free program, but for some reason it is not doing a great job capturing from my card. Just to be sure, I spent the last two days running a number of tests with VirtualDub, and comparing the results with to this IuVcr capture program. IuVcr is clearly the winner with my hardware, and I am going to pay for the license as soon as the demo period ends.
FF
SilverWook said:
Hey FanFiltration, Sony had a line of external Dolby Digital surround processors in the early days of DVD that had an unadvertised extra feature, an AC3 RF demodulator built in. Might these be in your price range?
http://cgi.ebay.com/SONY-SDP-EP9ES-ES-SURROUND-PROCESSOR-PREAMP-NICE-/350393597777?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item519515ff51
http://cgi.ebay.com/SONY-SDP-E800-Dig-Surround-Processor-EXC-Fr-Shipping-/130428969359?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e5e2c218f
Thanks so much for this info. I was lucky to be able to get my hands on an RF Demodulator this weekend. It will be put to good use on this and a few other projects I want to do in the next few months.
UPDATE: All of my future James Bond Laserdisc preservations will now feature lossless DTS Digital Surround (if film had an available surround ac3 track on the laser), and / or a PCM audio track.
FF
Here is something I did not consider back when I made the Banned Bond set. The Criterion Collection are in optimal Standard Play - CAV format. This would mean that the prints used on these disks must be preserved in great quality for fans not owning LD players or these sets. I think I remember using the Connery Collection Vol. 1 as my video source for the Banned Bond project.
The Connery Collection I and II are only in Extended Play CLV format. I'll preserve all these sets anyway. The only one with a THX AC3 surround mix is the "Thunderball" 30th Anniversary Deluxe box set. I'll save the preservation of that particular box set (with new DTS versions of the original LD's AC3 surround tracks) for after I obtain a AC3 RF Demodulator. That could be a long time. But the other version of "Thunderball" from the Connery Collection Vol. II need not be held up.
The "Goldfinger" Deluxe THX box was not surround, so that can be released as well.
This is the Soundblaster I am using with the breakout box. It's the Audigy 2 ZS Platinum. I also use a set of Triton true 5.1 (Dolby Labs approved) surround sound headphones that plug into the cards front,center,rear 5.1 jacks. They are great for mixing in 5.1.
Jetrell Fo said:
All I can say is ................... WOW
:)
How do you connect it to capture different audio from the LD for your releases?
As I still don't have an RF demodulator to decode the AC3 audio from my player, I am just using the LD players RCA stereo audio out jacks. I use heavy grade gold-plated audio/video cables. I try and never use thin and poorly shielded cables. Also, I make sure that I don't have anything that could possibly send out any kind of interfering electronic or RF signal close to the cables, player, or PC. No one gets to use a hairdryer, vacuum cleaner, or any other such device in my place when I am doing my capture. And just to be fair to other people I live with, I do try to do my capture work very late at night.
As soon as I get my hands on a RF demodulator (and I will), I will use a RCA gold-plated digital cable from the player to the RF demodulator, then from there I will use another gold-plated RCA digital coax that goes in to an optical-to- toslink converter box. Then from that optical-to- toslink converter into my PC via optical cable. My SoundBlaster has a auxiliary jack panel that sits in an vacant DVD drive bay in my PC. This panel has convenient digital optical in and out jacks.
I capture each audio track presented on an LD independently from one another then re-sync them to my master video capture file when I build my project in an editor. For editing and such, I use Adobe Premiere CS4 Collection, Virtualdub, and Cinema Craft Encoder SP3 as my final MPEG-2/DVD encoder.
Jetrell Fo said:
What kind of sound card do you have?
THX certified Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
Jetrell Fo said:
FanFiltration said:
Jetrell Fo said:
I found a nice little capture program that let's me take much better advantage of my capture card's options.
Can you elaborate on this a bit? I'd like to find an alternate solution as well.
I did find something called ChrisTV that looks promising.
The program I am using now is called iuVCR 4.170n and it looks good, so far.
It's a shareware download with a 30 day free use limit. I like how they give you a lot of options to play with, and the info panel they provide during capture let's you know what's going on with the capture, and also the CPU usage. It seems to be giving me better results then I had with VirtualDub's capture. My capture of the 1989 LD release went flawless last night. I was able to capture to a uncompressed 720X480 UYVY format with no frame drops, and it smoothly maintained a 29.9 frame rate.
Hope this helps.
FF,
Thanks for the info. I will check it out. I want to try and get the best capture from my Pioneer DVL-90, even if it's just for home purposes...I've got a few LD's like the Criterion Editions of Halloween and Close Encounters that I'd like to transfer for archival purposes.
Cheers
I am far from an expert on this, but I will be happy to help in any way I can.
I am finding that the card I use for capture has a lot to do with the quality.
I have been using this hauppauge WinTV HVR-1600. This card was included with my HP Media Center PC model: m7760n. The card has a box / panel on the front of my PC with extra inputs for Stereo RCA jacks, A compost video in, and also a second S-Video in jack. This card lets you import audio, but I still use my PC sound card for sound capture.
Jetrell Fo said:
I found a nice little capture program that let's me take much better advantage of my capture card's options.
Can you elaborate on this a bit? I'd like to find an alternate solution as well.
I did find something called ChrisTV that looks promising.
The program I am using now is called iuVCR 4.170n and it looks good, so far.
It's a shareware download with a 30 day free use limit. I like how they give you a lot of options to play with, and the info panel they provide during capture let's you know what's going on with the capture, and also the CPU usage. It seems to be giving me better results then I had with VirtualDub's capture. My capture of the 1989 LD release went flawless last night. I was able to capture to a uncompressed 720X480 UYVY format with no frame drops, and it smoothly maintained a 29.9 frame rate.
Hope this helps.
Update:
My latest capture of the "Thunderball" film from the Connery Collection Vol. II laser has worked out much better then expected. I found a nice little capture program that let's me take much better advantage of my capture card's options. This is going to look much better then my past laserdisc sourced preservation projects. I was able to capture uncompressed via the S-Video plug on my card. No DV codec or firewire is used this time. The DV codec produced a shimmer that was so annoying to me. It made things strobe far too much. Look at my Godfather or Banned Bond project to see what I am talking about.
Running some tests with some basic filters in VirtualDub tonight. So far looks real good. As good as if I plug my LD player straight into my T.V. set. Can't ask for a better capture then that now can we? An Extend Play CLV format laserdisc is going to show it's limitations no mater how good the capture is.
I'll try to post some shots here in the morning.
FF
I am so over my head right now, and I am pulling out the little hair I have left.
I think I have the right equipment to do my preservation justice, but I am afraid I am not using this equipment to it's full potential.
This is what is avalible to me right now.
LP player is a Pioneer CLD-D504 and has (S-video out, 2 RCA Composite out, 2 RCA stereo out, 1 AC3 RCA coax out, and 3 plugs for VHF adapter)
Capture Card is
hauppauge WinTV HVR-1600 NTSC/ATSC
Two tuners on board: a 125 channel cable ready TV tuner and an ATSC digital TV tuner. Connect both cable TV and ATSC digital TV to the WinTV-HVR-1600 at the same time. (With dbx-TV stereo decoder & Supports clear QAM channels with the new WinTV v6 application)
New Hauppauge remote control and IR blaster included to control satellite and cable TV set top boxes
Composite/S-Video and audio inputs, for cable or satellite set top boxes or VCRs
Watch and record all ATSC formats, including the highest definition 1080i format,using the built-in high quality hardware MPEG-2 encoder.
I have just downloaded a shareware program called iuVCR 4.170 and it looks good so far. Any other capture program suggestions?
A Bong.
