Orinoco_Womble

I'm suitably impressed. This must have cost you a fortune, forget about the time taken to do the mod etc!

A couple of questions though:

What was the reason for the 3 powersupplies?

You mentioned painting the plastic pickup surround on my player; any idea what type of paint to use? (I don't want to melt it).

Any chance you can please list or give some links to the suppliers for your parts used eg R-core transformers, exotic capacitors etc?

Can't wait to see the end result of all this hard work.

Look at all those pretty stars!  Good work Arnie.

Good on ya Jay.  It sounds like you got a good deal and I'm sure the player will give you the best transfer out of the players you were interested in.

Hope it all works out well for you.

Stamper was pretty much on the money.  Apart from everything else being wrong in the movie, having short arsed Sly play Dredd AND remove his helmet is kinda like finding out Halo Jones was a tranny.  Could be worse though, they could have had John Travolta or Danny Devito in the role :/

In my opinion, that whole movie was pretty much just another Hollywood travesty.

BTW, Dredd didn't have his helmet in 'The Dead Man' series.

That's a cool looking player.  How does the picture quality compare the to 4400?

Hi Jay,

From my limited research I can tell you the following:

DVL 909/919 - combo LD + DVD players - these players compromise on LD playback quality. I understand they are not recommended for LD transfer as there are many other players out there that beat them picture quality wise for less money. The reviews for these players are here.  At the bottom of the page they state that the 919 is better than the 909.

LDV4400 - NTSC only industrial player.  No idea if this is a good player or not, but it should have good picture quality being an industrial deck.  LDV800/8000 would be better and those go for as little as $20 USD on ebay.  What a bargain!

D925 - Full featured PAL/NTSC deck - suffers from a pretty average comb filter which can't be bypassed.

2950 - supposedly marginaly better picture quality than D925, but missing AC-3 playback capabilities.  AC3 can be retro fitted though.

Are you wanting to transfer PAL or NTSC or both?  The reason I ask is because you mentioned the LDV4400.  If you are after the best NTSC picture from an industrial deck, then Laserman mentioned the V800/V8000 players as being very good. Actually, I think he said they gave a better quality picture than any of the USA consumer level decks including the Elite range (could be wrong on that though).

If you are after the best PAL player which also has NTSC capabilities, then have you consdered the V4300D or V2300D? These decks are supposed to be better than those other consumer level decks for PAL. I have a v4300D, but I'm not sure if it's working properly so can't comment on picture quality unfortunately. These players seem to be hard to find and can be fairly costly depending on the seller.

Hope this helps.

It looks like Negative1 has done a transfer of the CED trilogy as well.  You might find this thread interesting:  http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/query-converting-RF-to-RCA-video-audio-signals/topic/9710/

If you are looking at buying a CED player, then you might like to have a look at this page as well:  http://www.cedmagic.com/museum/ced-player-guide/ced-player-guide.html

The specifications page mentions that some players had AV outputs as well as RF.  If you were looking to buy a player, then it would probably pay to try and get a working one with RCA AV plugs as this will give you better quality than RF.

Hope this helps.

Aleksbmw said:

did some hard surface mount bypass on the 3D-Y/C card with silver mica caps.

Nope, sorry, didn't understand that bit.

(thanks to many chips working together to improve chroma bandwidth).

Is this similar to the Faroudja bandwidth expansion?  If so, cool!

It was originally a full scaler yes but the output cards has been removed and motherboard changed to one that is just a doubler with many fewer chips and regulators.

Does this mean that it's still a progressive output?

Now it only does 5xBnc composite input and 1xS-video output.

I think Laserman mentioned something about the S-video and RCA connectors not giving accurate 75 ohms.  Would it be a good idea to use 2 separate BNC plugs + shielded cables instead of the standard S-Video connectors?

Will also try a very powerful Proc amp, Elite video Bvp plus for the pre SE sets to see if i can color-correct (JSC especially) and fix it up before input on the DC-30

I've seen posts from people doing that on another video forum which looked interesting.  Isn't there a danger of overdoing the adjustment which cannot be undone in post?

(via Hercules and a modded Meridian demodulator)

mmmmm, Meridian, mmmmmmmmm

in total level and on dampened spikes also got the picture a bit better.

Holy crap Batman!

Jonno said:I'm amazed there's anyone still using a DC30! Are there even post-Win98 drivers for it? And I don't think it will plug into any software later than Premiere 5 (though I guess it does have a standalone capture app).

A fully uncompressed capture card sounds like a must for this kind of work - there was recently a brief discussion about them in the tech forum.

By the way, the RT2000 was only DV and MPEG-2. And wasn't supported by an OS after Win2000. Wow, my head is just filled with information about obsolete crap!

My mate bought the card years ago when he was still using Win98. I think he said he downloaded the Win2K drivers that some German was selling privately.  I couldn't get the drivers working on my Win2K PC at the time though unfortunately.  The captures on the DC30+ looked pretty damn good too from what I remember. It's a real pitty they didn't re-compress to MPG2 very well.

Thanks for the info on the RT2000. I didn't know they were DV/MPG2 only.

Aleksbmw said:

Thinking Pinnacle Miro DC30 plus, probably going to be reclocked (separate precision crystal oscillator with its own power supply) for even more accurate A/D conversion.

A mate of mine has a DC-30+ and from what he tells me M-JPG does not re-compress well for MPG2/DVD.  Also, I think he mentioned something about the colour space being limited or not accurate or something.  I think from memory he mentioned that the RT2000 might be better as this used pretty much uncompressed M-JPEG and might not give the same sorts of problems.

As for the Hercules, is there any chance you can do a tutorial with pics on how to go about modding LD players?  I know I'd be hella interested in seeing something like that.

Also, are you planning on upgrading the clock in the C2EX or is the on board one good enough?  What is the Runco video scaler mentioned?  I thought all of those video scalers put out progressive for use on projectors, not interlaced, or did you mod it for a more pure interlaced output?

Good stuff Cade Skywalker!

Is there any chance you can give us a tutorial on how to do this and what programs were used etc please?

Thanks for the info and advice  Alek.  I'm going to have to look into this ... once I get my player working properly that is :(

Is there any chance you can go into even more detail on what you've done to your player and some more detailed advice on how to go about modding other players please?  I'd be especially interested in seeing how you mounted the copper shielding plate around your circuit boards etc.  Any chance of some under the hood type pics of the C2EX please?

The player is a Pioneer LD-V4300D.  Did you find it hard to do the swap and get the head in the correct position?

Off topic here, but aren't you the guy who mentioned modifying the Sony C2EX?  Care to share any tips on getting better performance out of these players?

Thanks for the advice guys.

Mosth3r: I suspect such a repair is an extremely specialist operation.

I suspect you're right Moth3r.

Moth3r: You could try asking in alt.video.laserdisc, although it's been little quiet in there recently.

I don't have access to news groups at the moment, so I'm a bit stuffed there.

Silverwook: Isn't Kurtis in the USA?  I'm in New Zealand, so the round trip cost of shipping the player to the USA and back for the repair might be a bit too much for my wallet.  Damn shame I didn't win Lotto on the weekend :(

Hi all.

It looks like I need to replace the optical head on my LD player.  Bummer :(

I've priced up the replacement and have some skills with electronics but have never done this before.  I suspect that some specialist tools and jigs may be needed for correct alignment and is probably not going to be an easy job.

Has anyone else done this or know more about what is involved?

CO said:

If you play the DVD backwards on an old turntable the Gungan really says, "Fuck You OT fans, love George!"

:)

hahahahaha, that's so funny I think some wee escaped  :o)

C3PX said:

Few guys like Peter Jackson understand this, a lesser film maker would have gone for CG orcs. The LOTR trilogy will look great for years to come.

umm, I dunno about that.  The LOTR series is fantastic, but that bit in ROTK where the ghosts are sweeping and circling up through Minas Tirith near the end kinda looks like a 'scooby doo' cartoon effect to me.  That completely jolts me out of the movie every time.

Also, the original Golum in Fellowship' looks pretty dated these days, but doesn't detract too much from the movie itself.

I think the best visual 'effect' Peter jackson used in those movies is the New Zealand scenery itself.  No CG can possibly compete with that!

How about replacing the Wampa with jarJar? Then when Luke has been captured and is hanging upside down, JarJar comes over "Mesa gonsta eats da Jedi num-num".  Then Luke suddely uses the force to pull the lightsabre out of the snow and chops the top part of jarJars head off, which then spins in the air and lands with a 'hissssss' in the snow.  Then Luke could free himself, spit on the rapidly cooling carcase and give a little laugh before toddling out into the snow.

or

When Yoda tells luke not to go into the cave because it is strong with the darkside and something evil is inside.  When Luke enters the cave, instead of DarthVader, we see JarJar and Luke quickly shoots him between the eyes.  "not so damn evil after all, was ya!" chuckles Luke.  Then he turns his back and swaggers off while flipping the bird to JarJars still twitching and smoking carcase.

or

Have Lando with a chainsaw and use the same "suck spinning steel SH*T head!/I'm reborn again" scene from Bad Taste.  Then in ROTJ when Lando is in the Falcon and is heading out to attack the deathstar in the final battle, Lando can slip on his JarJar suit, pat his trusty chainsaw and say "I'm comming to get you B*st*rds!".

I'd gladly give my gears or circuits to see any one of those :o)

Doctor M said:

Do you really hear a difference between 384k 2.0 and 448k 2.0?

Sure do.

Moth3r said:

ABX log or it didn't happen! ;-)

Fair enough.  Already have and yep 448 really does sound slightly better than 384 to me (won't go into detail here).

Moth3r said:

Actually, could we please start a new thread about Dark Jedi's custom DVDs and continue the audio discussion in there?

Sorry Moth3r.  Point taken.

Moth3r said:

This thread is supposed to be about g-force's AVS GOUT script.

Damn impressive script it is too!  I tried the script out a few versions ago and was soooo impressed with the results.  Nice job G-force.

One question though, can someone please tell me how/where the GradFun2DBmod filter gets squeezed into the script?  Sorry for showing my ignorance, but I'm pretty new to Avisynth etc.

If you're gonna do the PCM track as DD 2.0, then it deserves 448.  448 just sounds so much better than 384.  384 sounds weak and overly compressed to me.

Is there a reason you'd go for 384? Do you need to make it 384 to fit in with the existing audio of the GOUT disc?

I wouldn't be satisfied unless I saw him in pieces.

Thanks for all the info guys.  I think though, DarK_Jedi was after more of a step by step guide or something similar as a way of getting started into this sort of thing.  I know I'd find something like that very useful as well.  There are little bits and pieces of info on colour correction etc scattered around the net, but nothing comprehensive or complete  (and free) that I can find unfortunately.

I found this here on the Doom9 site which goes into some basic correction near the bottom of the page and a bit more here.

Theres also some good info on Zions X0project site here on setting black and white points and other info which will be very useful.  I know black and white points are not 'colour', but this is a hugely important part of the whole process and will affect how the colours look in the finished video.  Defintely well worth a read.

Hope this helps.

Damn that's interesting.

Are there any updates to this or any new discoveries that you can share please Zion?

TheBoost said: and we might have laughed at Jar Jar.

naahhhhhhh.

... although ... maybe if he was on fire.  Something like: "Owsa, mesa go burny-burnies!" ... and then Yoda bounces around the screen before stabbing him through the eye with a light-sabre as a mercy killing.  Then Yoda could say something really hilarious and profound like "the force was dumb with that one, hmmm".

Yeah, that could be funny.