This is now the Laserdisc forum

[Murray]

Well, I see more useful posts about LD here than home theater forums so I figured I'd post here to see if anyone could help.

I'll start by saying this could be perfectly normal and I'm only just now noticing it.

When I'm watching some discs, the picture gets kind of smeared looking when there's a big brightness change on the screen. For example, in the Star Wars movies, if there's something light flying on a dark background, anything to the right of it is lighter than it should be.

I have two players, a CLD-D703 and a CLD-D704. Both of them do it.

I found one guy talking about caps drying out in the video section causing it but nothing else to substantiate that. Based on what little I know about caps and video signals, that sounds right, but I'd like to hear from someone who actually knows. I also saw it mentioned a lot that this is a common 703/704 problem but again, no further information on it.

Does anyone have any ideas?

 

[famicommander]

Get the Video Essentials calibration disc. I hd a similar issue before I used it, and now everything (including Star Wars) looks outstanding.

It could also be the caps, but the calibration disc is a good place to start simply because it's cheap and if you want to maximize your LD experience you're going to need it at some point anyway.

 

[Nesagwa]

Im probably going to pick up a cheap LD today to test out the player I got last week.

I hope this thing works.

 

[Murray]

Get the Video Essentials calibration disc. I hd a similar issue before I used it, and now everything (including Star Wars) looks outstanding.

It could also be the caps, but the calibration disc is a good place to start simply because it's cheap and if you want to maximize your LD experience you're going to need it at some point anyway.

I've already calibrated with Video Essentials but it's possible I'm doing it wrong. Its brightness / contrast patterns rely on the TV doing CRT things like blooming and distorting, which don't happen on my plasma. Can you make any suggestions for getting that right?

 

[NeoSneth]

i need to get me a copy of video essentials.

 

[Nesagwa]

Well, opened the thing up today and there was a wallflowers cd stuck down inside the tray loading mechanism in the back. Had to snap it in two to get it out, but now the trays open. Have to kind of lift up on the LD tray while its closing or it will get stuck though, pretty sure its from a little metal piece being bent.

Only problem now is when I put anything in, itll just sit for a minute and spit it out displaying U1. I think the laser motor might be dead or broken. Laser was moving when I had the case open, dunno.

 

[Metal Slugnuts]

Well, opened the thing up today and there was a wallflowers cd stuck down inside the tray loading mechanism in the back. Had to snap it in two to get it out, but now the trays open. Have to kind of lift up on the LD tray while its closing or it will get stuck though, pretty sure its from a little metal piece being bent.

Only problem now is when I put anything in, itll just sit for a minute and spit it out displaying U1. I think the laser motor might be dead or broken. Laser was moving when I had the case open, dunno.

Hey, at least you got a Wallflowers CD.

 

[Nesagwa]

Hey, at least you got a Wallflowers CD.

It's in three pieces in the trash.

 

[NeoSneth]

i'd also be interested in hearing what line doublers and upscalers people have used.

my new pioneer vsx 1019 can do this but i havent tried it with my LD.
I have a Faroujda and a Silicon Image DVDO.

The old chool Faroujda is much better, but it's huge. I'm looking to get rid of it.

 

[Murray]

i'd also be interested in hearing what line doublers and upscalers people have used.

My Onkyo TX-SR606 does a great job. It has a Faroudja DCDi deinterlacer in it and scales up nicely to 720p.

 

[famicommander]

I've already calibrated with Video Essentials but it's possible I'm doing it wrong. Its brightness / contrast patterns rely on the TV doing CRT things like blooming and distorting, which don't happen on my plasma. Can you make any suggestions for getting that right?

You really just have to eyeball it on an LCD or plasma. Unfortunately, without a really nice scaler you're not going to get great quality from a Laserdisc player on an HDTV.

Also, it may sound counterintuitive, but you're better off using composite than S-Video. S-Video is only preferable on Laserdisc when the comb filter in the player is better than the comb filter in the TV, and there's no way your LD player has a nicer filter than your HDTV.

 

[StealthLurker]

i'd also be interested in hearing what line doublers and upscalers people have used.

my new pioneer vsx 1019 can do this but i havent tried it with my LD.
I have a Faroujda and a Silicon Image DVDO.

The old chool Faroujda is much better, but it's huge. I'm looking to get rid of it.

I use the following around the house:

1. DVDO iScan HD
2. DVDO iScan VP30 + ABT card
3. DVDO iScan VP50
4. DVDO iScan VP50 Pro
5. DVDO Edge

interested in trying VPs from other devs, but DVDO's been good to me so far. Maybe if I find a really, really good deal...

.

 

[Nesagwa]

U1 error = Miss clamp

I've also seen that this can mean the drive belt is loose and needs to be replaced.

Anyone have experience with that kind of thing?

EDIT:

Looks like the clamp is a direct drive, I see no belt and its refusing to spin.

 

[Rade K]

Hey, have you guys heard of DVD yet?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD

 

[Murray]

Hey, have you guys heard of DVD yet?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD

What? I refuse to buy into all this digital video snake oil. Haven't you heard? VHS is even superior to DVD.