Laserdisc Digital Audio mod

I could use a bit of help with something I'm working on here. I have a Pioneer Laserdisc player model CLD-1580K and I was attempting to see if adding in an AC3 output circuit was possible.

I haven't found the mute line yet required:
http://www.laaudiofile.com/ac3mod.html

But I have found spots on a daughter board labeled DIG L and DIG R. There are also ANA L and ANA R spots on the board for what is I assume analog left and right channels. The player itself doesn't have built in digital output capabilities of any sort, however the ground point between the two sets are definitely shared.

I can't seem to think of or find anything in the digital realm that outputs the left and right channels in separate cables (coax/digital) so I'm unsure how to proceed with these points if there is even anything to do with them. Anyone have any clue what they are?

Later tonight I'll have to take out the entire daughter board and check out what ICs those four points are connected to as well as locating their datasheets.

 

I see what they did there..

 

Yeah, probe the ANA L point

On a serious note, you probably need to get hold of the service manual to make sense of it. However, I really wouldn't bother with this player. It's old and not a very high end player - more of a gimmicky karaoke unit than a serious bit of home cinema equipment. Here in the UK, probably the best model was the CLD-D925, known as the CLD-D790 over there. This was from 1996, whereas I would suspect yours is from around 1990. If you want to do Laserdisc still, try and track one of those down. DTS was supported on players from 1996, so you're missing out on the full experience on over 100 Laserdiscs without.

I see a couple of CLD-D605 units on eBay. That's a 96 model too, and not too bad.

 

May 1991 to be precise.

I bought it as it was $40 at a thrift store to avoid paying $60 for a player plus the same or more in shipping costs. This thing easily weighs 10kg and I'd rather not burn good money on shipping what amounts to 9kg of solid steel. Though if I can solder in a connector giving me something extra I'll happily do so since I'm always looking for an excuse to warm up my soldering iron.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Pioneer-ELITE-C...429?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2561336a35

$200 total for what looks like a nice player. However playing Laserdiscs at this point doesn't BEGIN to be worth $200 to me particularly when for $45 I can get a BD-ROM drive and enjoy movies yet to be made. This is mainly hobbyist/for fun at this point.

However $2 and some wire for an hours worth of fun? Fo shizzle.

 

May 1991 could be when your unit was manufactured, but it may be that the model dates from earlier. Interesting to know, though.

Eh, for $40 you could have picked up a better model, really. Did you at least get the mic with it? One of those 605s was $69 (or $99 BIN) free shipping in the US. That's a better deal, I'd say. Why not sell yours and upgrade? If you consider it, definitely look into the model's tech specs before buying.

You might get lucky if you've got the mic and sell it as a karaoke unit, especially with a couple of karaoke discs. However, theres a CLD-1580K on eBay for $0.99 with no bids... and it seems it sold for $0.99 before and was relisted lol.

 

Dont forget that LD outputs AC-3 as an RF signal, which needs to be converted. The converters can be a little pricey

 

No mic as I was just shocked to find a functional Laserdisc unit locally. If it was worth anything I might be willing to sell and upgrade for $20 but unless the picture looks like someone puked on my display I don't think I'll bother for the moment. Maybe if I have the spare cash sometime soon but I don't find that to be likely. Thanks for the input though as I'm only really aware of the high end Japanese units that cost as much as a decent car.

I've read that it needed a demodulator but I didn't realize they were pricy. Nut bunnies.

 

Well I am saying that, the Pioneer ones were about £65 last time I looked. I had an LD setup a few years ago but I got a Cambridge Audio Dolby Digital Processor, which had 1 x AC3 RF, 2 x SPDIF and 2 x TOSLINK and converted it to 6 analogue channels, I picked that up for £15 on ebay.

DTS though runs through the optical usually so no need for the demodulator for that.

They may be much cheaper over your side of the pond as LD's were more popular in the US than the UK wernt they?

 

Or get a decent player that does DTS over optical ;-) OK, not all discs are DTS, but still!

You're looking for a Pioneer RFD-1, and that'll set you back hundreds of dollars. Here's the only one on eBay for some time:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Pioneer-RFD-1-R...472579826?pt=US_Laserdisc&hash=item1e60c592f2

Alternatively, find an old amp that accepts the AC-3 signal.

 

I know it's deviating from the topic a bit and I totally appreciate APE's desire to get this working from a "just for fun" perspective, but I'm curious... is there any reason in this day and age to go for an LD setup? I'd probably buy one just to mess about with if the price was right, but yeah, basically just curious.

 

There are a handful of movies and such available for the Laserdisc platform that aren't available elsewhere at all. Want Looney Tunes uncensored? Gotta get it on Laserdisc. Original Star Wars? Laserdisc.

The latest DVD release did include the original theatrical release of Star Wars but they were sourced from the Laserdisc masters essentially making them Laserdisc in a DVD footprint.

 

Full bit rate DTS as opposed to DVD, which uses half the bit rate.

However, it's an analogue (composite) video format as opposed to digital DVD. The luminance and chrominance won't be perfectly separated. Also, if the disc gets scratched or dirty, it will alter the signal. That said, the digital compression techniques of DVD can cause artifacts, such as macroblocking. And you can skip a damaged area of a LaserDisc, but you generally can't with DVD.

You'll find the main argument is much the same as that of analogue vs. digital music - that analogue gives a more natural recording than the lossy digital compression techniques.

The Criterion edition LaserDiscs were good, there are just over 100 DTS LaserDiscs, and you'll find some material on LaserDisc that you won't find on DVD, although that number has fallen, of course. All in all, it's eaiser and more convenient to have a DVD setup and collection than a LaserDisc setup and collection!

 

I guess this is what I was asking really (I understand the technical differences). Content-wise, what is there on LD that is superior to, or unavailable on, DVD? Is it really just Star Wars and a few banned Looney Toons cartoons?

 

Ooh, been looking for something like that.

What's the model number of that bad boy?

 

Cambridge Audio V500,

 

Nah, there's all sorts, really. A lot of (Criterion) discs have interviews etc. that weren't included on DVD, for whatever reason. Don't forget LaserDisc started in 1978, so there are probably some old obscure releases that aren't on DVD. Just don't buy them without expecting laser rot!

Whilst they're old threads now and I see some titles that are now on DVD, check out these for an idea:

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/dvd-talk/488993-laserdisc-titles-still-not-available-dvd.html

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/forum/thread/212155/criterion-laserdisc-commentaries-not-on-dvd-yet

Star Wars isn't necessarily superior on LaserDisc, just different. There were at least 4 versions on LaserDisc, each with differences. Lines were added to / omitted from certain versions, you had the Special Edition additions, different audio mixes (i.e. remixed) etc. In actual fact, the 2004 DVD release was digitally restored and the soundtrack was remixed, so it is completely different from the LaserDisc releases. Unfortunately, the restoration seemed to do weird things with the colours in places, and the sound mix was slightly curious in places (particularly of note - the rear channels were swapped!). It has come under criticism as a result, hence why some prefer the LaserDisc treatment of the film. Hopefully the Blu-ray will rectify their mistakes!

You can't say LaserDisc is ONLY worth it if there are films not available on DVD, though. You need to sum up whether the experience is better on LaserDisc or DVD. Sometimes that's down to hardware capabilities, sometimes it's down to poor transfers (on either format), or even parts being edited out of one format.

Oh dear, Cambridge Audio :-\

 

For me subjectively Laserdiscs are only really worth it if they differ from DVD or Blu-Ray releases due to:

1) Cost of Laserdiscs (Star Wars just ran me $51 and they are unknown as per if they play or not. Looney Tunes run a pretty penny as well)
2) Availability of Laserdiscs in general
3) Impossibility of acquiring new Laserdisc pressings
4) High quality players are extremely expensive (such as the Pioneer HLD-X9 and HLD-X0)
5) Difficulty of acquiring brand new display that won't make the picture look like trash for one reason or another without having video processing equipment and/or spending a good sum of cash to make sure of it.

Then again I'm a college student. Give me 10-20 years after I have a good career and a home and THEN ask me how I feel about Laserdiscs. If I could afford to throw $5k at a HLD-X9 then I likely wouldn't be complaining at all. Though #5 is something I consider to be an eternal problem with aging formats. Not everyone wants to keep a quality 30" CRT around just for older movie formats. Though if RGB output can be garnered it shouldn't be too hard to process it in such a way that it looks good.

I hope.

 

Why throw 5k at that model when the 925/790 is WAY cheaper and still a very good player, though? Would you spend $20k on a Meridian DVD player, or opt for something cheaper but still pretty damn good?

 

I had a laserdisc player and to be perfectly honest they are only worth buying if you are a real movie buff. The image quality wasn't that hot, well in fact I thought it was awful especially on a HD TV even through a XRGB3. Audio was very nice mind you BUT for me the system and discs were far too big and heavy. It' snot like collecting vinyl. Laserdiscs weigh a lot!

Yakumo

 

You shouldn't connect a Laserdisc player to an XRGB-3. Laserdiscs are interlaced (I think), and the XRGB-3 was made for 240p material.