Laserdisc Ripping

Has anyone had good results converting to DVD or ripping to PC? I want to transfer my NTSC Godfather Trilogy [Chronological Version] to an easier format. Any advice or help would be appreciated. I'm no tech head so layman's terms please.

I have a Sony MDP-850D LD player and a Samsung DVD-R122 DVD Recorder.

 

The easiest way to do this is what you already have. Connect L/R/Composite video to your DVD-recorder. Don't use S-Video. Select your input, press "record" on the DVD-Recorder, press "Play" on the LD player. The two hour mode is pretty good on most DVD Recorder devices. You can then rip to your computer using Hand Brake.

Do you have a DVD drive on your computer? If it's RAM compatible and you can use the DVD-RAM format. I've done this transfer with loads of LDs and it works great.

 

Thanks. Do you know if the quality will be as good as ripping to a PC? It's been a while since I used both machines and would need to set them up properly. Is there going to be an issue in that the discs are NTSC?

 

This topic brought me here back in 2009. Archiving AC-3/DTS Laserdiscs

 

How did you get on?

 

NTSC/PAL conversion should be done either by your LD player or the DVD. You'll have to give it a try. Will it be as good as ripping to a PC? There's no one answer for that. It depends on the quality of the encoder and processing in the DVD recorder versus whatever capture hardware you're using for your PC. Before I had a DVD Recorder I used to use an external conversion box to make DVD and file copies of VHS and LaserDisc, and only speaking from my experience the DVD Recorder did a better job, even with the extra encoding needed to make a DVD, then handbrake on my PC. If you have better PC capture hardware that would be better I suppose. The quality of the source is not good enough (except audio) IMO to make it worth the trouble.

 

This may be a stupid question, but wouldn't it be easier to rip the dvd to a computer, cut and re-sequence the movie the way you want it, then burn it back to dvd-r discs? Should look much better than a laserdisc rip.

 

Since you've already payed for the laserdiscs, download the BluRay versions for free and enjoy the upgrade.

 

I would if I could find them! The chronological version of The Godfather Trilogy has only ever been released on video cassette and LD.

 

Yes - and it would take a huge amount of effort to re-create that from DVD rips, though I'll bet it has been done by some hobbyist out there and can be found in the dark corners of the web (along with Quadraphonic 70s release rips to DVD-Audio, many of which are spectacular).

 

Now I'm frothing at the mouth.

 

This, and similar threads dealing with "ripping" content, has me puzzled.

Instead of pulling a Rube Goldberg and going through a huge hassle (and sometimes the purchase of hardware and software to do it) why don't you just download a copy?

You're talking about making a digital copy of something that you already own. Just because you jump through hoops to make that copy, doesn't make your owning a digital copy any different than if you simply download it.

But back to the question about using the laserdisc as a source, I also have to ask why bother? I have a very big collection of laserdiscs. I spent thousands and thousands of dollars building it back in the day when LD was king. But I'm pretty sure that every title (and probably every version of every title) in that collection became available on DVD and then maybe even on Blu-ray. Why would you want to rip a laserdisc, which will give you a vastly inferior quality (video and audio) copy than a Blu-ray that you can buy for $24.50 off Amazon? There's nothing more organic, or natural, or [insert other nostalgic terms here] about a 480i version of great movies!

Jeff

 

Not sure you understand the premise ripping of this particular title.

 

Where would you download a copy of the Godfather story re-set in chronological order? The Blu-Ray set you link does not have this content. It has only ever been release on LaserDisc and VHS.

Where would you download a copy of Laurie Anderson's "Home Of The Brave" movie? (Or "Let It Be" or any of the many of other music LDs that that have never seen the light of day on any post-LaserDisc format)

In cases like this it's MUCH easier to just copy the LD to DVD and then rip in HandBrake than to go to the trouble of finding torrents and other less than legal content online (many of which may have questionable quality).

If this statement is true "I have a very big collection of laserdiscs. I spent thousands and thousands of dollars building it back in the day when LD was king." I would be shocked if this one was: "every title (and probably every version of every title) in that collection became available on DVD and then maybe even on Blu-ray. " Especially if you have a large amount of music LaserDiscs. There are many, many music LDs that never saw the light of day on any better format. Many are natively recorded at NTSC/PAL quality so they would only get limited gain by being on a digital format.

 

I never did. I got on with enjoying the lossless PCM soundtracks on my occasional Blu-ray purchase. I sold some scarce discs and gifted the rest to my ex-wifes nephew. The picture quality of laserdisc was difficult to watch on an HD ready 27" monitor, let alone a 60" plasma. Post divorce I don't have any audio visual system except for my iPhone. Easy come, easy go. I occasionally get a chance to screen a used or library Blu-ray. My brother-in-law set up a 10 foot wide portable screen and projector to show the restored Spartacus Blu-ray to my children and girlfriend. the picture was awesome.

 

What's this then ? Sorry if it's not related.

https://www.amazon.com/Godfather-Co...&qid=1534972863&sr=1-2&keywords=the+godfather

 

Exit Flagger,

Apologies on that point. Before posting I located a Blu-ray copy for download that had as part of its description: "This direct-to-video feature re-edits the three Godfather films into one cohesive package. The saga of the Corleone Family is told in chronological order and numerous scenes that were deleted from each film have been restored." It appears that this is not correct and, rather, is attributable only to the 1992 VHS and LD releases as has been pointed out. Thanks.

Ditto

Ditto, but...

I don't have many music LDs in that collection. At one time the likes of Rush, The Eagles, Yanni, Roy Orbison were only on LD (if you wanted the highest quality possible at the time) but have since been re-issued whenever a newer, better, format appeared.

Those box sets of Looney Tunes Cartoons? The same. The other 50 or so box sets of movies etc.? The same. The Film Noir titles? The same. All the other movies? The same.

Now I will grant that, for the longest time I couldn't find a widescreen Blu-ray version of the movie Taking Care of Business (1990) (also in my LD collection - which I'm not particularly proud to admit! - but it's pan & scan only). However, apparently one was released last month!

And finally, about that "legal content"... that was part of what I was driving at. I know things vary from country-to-country as far as copyright laws go, but I was simply saying that if it's legal to rip a copy of something you already own, so that you now have a digital copy that's playable off other platforms (like streamed from a home server, or copied from LD to DVD-R) how is that any different than downloading and using a copy of that same content? Can one be legal and the other not just because you ripped rather than downloaded?

Jeff

 

LaserDisc is analog video. It is interlaced (first one set of screen lines, then the other) and for movies, uses a 5:4 telecine technique to spread 24 frames per second across 60 fps video.

You can record in analog with a DVD video recorder, and this will preserve the telecine with interlaced frames. The MPEG2 on the DVD will also be interlaced 480i, and your TV or playback device will handle the deinterlacing (or you won't notice it like you didn't on an old CRT television.)

When ripping using an analog capture card on a computer, you will be recording the video signal also with the interlacing. However, computer video formats are primarily natively progressive-scan, and often video is recorded at 30fps with the frames jumbled. It will play back with strange artifacts. Any compression or encoding you do will worsen the recording if not interlacing-aware.

"Ripping" to a computer, you must ideally record to a lossless format such as HuffYUV, and then use something like AVISynth with inverse telecine or decimation plugins to intelligently separate and turn the video fields into 24p when can be encoded into a progressive scan AVI or MP4 with a modern codec such as MPG4AVC (x264). I have an XP PC and a capture card that can be run with Dscaler should I ever need to do this again - it can capture the individual 60fps video fields discretely.

Sometimes the video was made with several stages of analog equipment, and the interlacing cannot be cleanly reversed. I found this with some South Park DVDs, they encoded them poorly so the lines and frames don't match digitally.

 

Yes, I use a Sony VRD-MC6 dvd recorder, a neat little thing. and it works like a charm. Have recorded a few Laserdiscs to dvd-r that are not available in any other format.

 

Update: for those in the UK like OP, which uses 25fps/50fps PAL video, movies are not telecined - instead, they are sped up by 4% so they run at 25fps. This reduces the run time and pitches up the sound and music. For these, the recovery off disc is not removing scan lines, but re-timing the video and audio.

 

The otherwise excellent Steely Dan "Jazz-Rock Party" DVD falls into this category.

 

Many TV shows from the '90s and 2000s were recorded at 24p to give it the "film look", but then edited at 60i using standard videotape equipment. As a result, scene changes often break the telecine cadence and require manual frame-by-frame editing to correct. Or just de-interlace the whole thing to 60p to preserve the original appearance without worrying about trying to convert it back to 24p.

It is possible to capture analog video sources at 60 fps using an inexpensive "EasyCap" USB device and free (but old and flakey) VirtualDub software:

 

Why would you want that old thing? There’s the hd version shown on HBO ect

 

US only, I assume?