Home transfers of laserdiscs

I'm in the process of starting to transfer my restored, extended versions of "The Alamo" and "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" to DVD since the former won't make it to DVD until 2010 at the earliest (Robert Harris is still trying to raise $1.4 million to do the restoration work), and the latter will likely NEVER make it to DVD. So I figure I need to transfer these now while the laserdisc player still works.

I'm using Pinnace Studio to capture and edit before importing to DVD, but I'm not too impressed with this software. Anyone else here do laserdisc-to-DVD (or VHS-to-DVD) home transfers and and have some tips or advice?



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A stand-alone DVD recorder is the best and easiest way to record to DVD.

 

I thought of that, but there's a certain amount of editing and fine-tuning needed, what with each film being spread out over at least four or five laserdisc sides. It's not like I can just hit 'record' and then, 90 minutes later, hit 'stop' ...

 

I do plenty of LD to DVD transfers. Pinnace Studio is ok for simple editing out of the side changes, what is wrong with it?

Fo fancy editing Sony Vegas is a much better PC based nonliner editing software. But I don't see a need for it.

The encoding process is where you might want to try something other than Pinnace.

I would

capture/edit with Pinnace Studio

encode with Procoder 1.5 or Tmpgenc

author with whatever you feel comfortable with

burn with Nero

I'm currently in the process of transfering Japanese LD pressings of Pete Townshend's Deep End Brixton concert, and Richard Thompson's Across a Crowded Room.

I may do the box set MGM: When the Lion Roars The Story of a Hollywood Empire this year, as it is not planned for DVD as far as I know. Six hours on 4 discs. A lot of work. Plus I still have VHS titles on my "to do" list.

 

That sounds great!

 

Thanks for those tips! Maybe I can save you some work now: That MGM documentary was just released on DVD -- finally! -- last month. (I was waiting for that one, too.)

Clark

 

Is this what you're looking for?

http://www.amazon.com/MGM-When-Roars-Patrick-Stewart/dp/B001I2EQUO

 

If you use a DVD recorder with a hard drive, you can transfer the sides separately, then combine them into one movie for burning.

 

I find it odd that the Wayne estate isn't going to pony up the money for Dad's movie to be restored. They would certainly make back their money in sales/rentals/TV showings. Why not presell the rights to it?

 

I used to be a huge proponent of using standalone DVD recorders for this purpose. However, as my TVs get better and better, MPEG-2 looks less and less good. I'd rather encode to an advanced codec and play via HTPC. Any recommended capture cards that don't break the bank? Video-only would be fine, I can capture the audio bit-perfect with my soundcard.

 

You might be better off to forget copying and just get an extra LD player or two?

How good an LD player you use to feed is proably the biggest factor in PQ obtained. If you had a better player and maybe video processor, you'd have less reason to actually transfer the LD's.

Your LD's ought to out-last burned media in the end, wheather you transfer or not.....

 

Well, there are only a few LD-only releases that I still really want to watch, so an investment in new hardware wouldn't make much sense for me. Still, I love these big, 12" MGM laserdisc boxes and I can't imagine I'll ever part with them. (The 30th Anniversary box of "My Fair Lady" is a work of art, and "The "African Queen" is pretty nice, too...)

 

But there is nothing like having a really great transfer to DVD that you can take with you on trips, and can take to others' homes and watch it with them, or loan it out, basically do anything at all you want with it. The original LD can't be viewed on the plane, or at the hotel, etc.

I personally do two different masterings, one will have an 82 min. version with AC3 soundtrack on a single disc, the other will be two discs aprox. 40. min. each top bitrate with PCM soundtrack. Or one could go dual layer with the full bitrate, and PCM.

 

Yes, thank you.

Too bad that my still sealed MGM LD Box Set has now sunk in value due to the DVD release. But good to know it is out there for everyone to enjoy as it is a great documentary.

 

Is there consumer software which will allow the layer break on a dual layer DVD to be set? I'm on a Mac and use Toast, so I'm not aware of what's out there on the Windows side.

Clark, just curious, what are you using for LD playback? (Last year I finally found myself a nice Pioneer player and haven't yet done and DVD transfers with it, but that was my main reason for getting it. Specifically, for my LD of The Compleat Beatles. )

 

I have a (fairly rare) laserdisc version of Jimmy Buffett: Live by the Bay. The performance is from around '85, has Timothy B. Schmidt from the Eagles on bass and is really what finally made me "get" Buffett. If you look on YouTube you can pretty much watch the whole show.

From what I understand Pioneer Entertainment holds the rights to a lot of laserdisc performances & they reportedly have no plans to bring them to DVD/BluRay. A shame because there are a LOT of music performances on LD affected by this.

So I'd like to capture it along with my Criterion Edition of Close Encounters of the Third Kind which is the only version of the original 1977 theatrical release on home video. I'm trying to capture it at the highest possible resolution using VirtualDub a free tool, but I'm trying to figure out a way to make it anamorphic and encode using free tools as well as keeping it simple.

The Buffett concert will undoubtedly get PCM and I'm sure both will be dual layer to keep picture quality high.

 

I'm not doing dual layer for my transfers at this time, generally I am leaving the end of side one, and beginning of side two w/ clean fades from black so that in the event I want to scoop up the vob files (from both discs pts. 1 & 2) later and reauthor to dual layer disc, I have the elements ready to go no issues. Almost like combining two CDs to one CDR, with no picture loss from a reauthor and not a re-encode.

 

I still have a LD player and a few dozen laser discs. One that I want to record to c.d. and dvd is the Billy Joel "Live From Long Island" concert. This is one of the best shows I have ever seen. He was at his peak.

 

I'm pretty sure the Blu-ray replicates the theatrical version properly.

 

Thank you minerwerks and DetroitDoomsayer, having that knowledge will save me some work This one slipped past my radar. I will pick up the Blu-Ray.

 

I have that Mad, Mad thang and The African Queen. If you looked around you might very find some other LD's of stuff from the 30's-50's era worth pursuing on LD...? I recently finally finished a boxset of Gable-Crawford films I got in the big sell-off. My last unwatched set is Lost In Space, season 1. I have watched the first few episodes.

There's stille worthwhile stuff out there, IMO. There might be worthwhile players too?

 

"The Sound of Music" big box set has a fancy book and extended soundtrack CD included. Not sure if that CD was ever sold at retail separately.

If you have the room in the rack it is always a good idel to have a working LD player on hand. Just like you should always have a VHS Hi-Fi deck on hand. I have four LD players and four VHS decks. They all work, some of them track difficult media better than the others. It's just fun stuff if you are so inclined.

 

I still have Criterion's "The Last Picture Show (Director's Cut)" on LD -- a perfect film, I think. Just amazing.

I know that a while after Criterion released their LD of this extended version, it came out on VHS... I assume the available DVD is this same extended, director's cut?

 

Many DVD authoring programs can create menus similar to those in commercial DVDs. You could set each laserdisc side up in an episode type fashion as with TV show releases on DVD (including the option to select which episode or play all).

Not that I know how to do this. I just know that it's possible.