Digitizing a laserdisc?

[ZeGermans]

So my uncle has an old copy of the entire star wars trilogy on laserdisc. As in, pre-special edition butchering, but still amazing video quality. He also has a high-quality laserdisc player. I'm wondering if it's feasable to digitize these discs without a major investment in hardware. Currently I also posses a leadtek winfast TV2000XP Expert tv tuner with video input.

 

[TheRyuu]

I think your best bet would be to go out and buy the Widescreen Trilogy for less than $20

I guess if your video card had AVIO (sp?) (or your TV Tuner)

 

[keeleysam]

If you want the LaserDisc rips, there are higher quality rips than you will ever make.

 

[ZeGermans]

wizboy, my TV tuner has both RCA and s-vidio inputs. The graphics card is vivo as well, but I'm going to assume the tv tuner will give me better capture quality.

 

[beserker15]

Yeah, your tuner will probably provide a better quality. Still though, the quality will probably be around to slightly better than vhs.

 

[Liver]

svideo and component inputs are no where near digital quality. i second or third the vote to go out and buy the dvds. keep the laser disks and player for other times!

 

[TheRyuu]

http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Trilogy...bs_2/002-2052123-2338411?ie=UTF8&s=dvd

When I said $20, I meant $50.
I had no idea it was so expensive. I don't remember paying that much.

But it'll be 1000x better then any thing you'll get with the laserdisc.

 

[jjzelinski]

I could be wrong but he might want the Laser Disc version for it's authenticity; it was not altered or edited in any way from the original. At the risk of sounding like a huge dork, I can see where he's coming from if this is the case.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: jjzelinski
I could be wrong but he might want the Laser Disc version for it's authenticity; it was not altered or edited in any way from the original. At the risk of sounding like a huge dork, I can see where he's coming from if this is the case.

That is what I deduced the OP's reason was too. Just look at the review in the trilogy linked above

What's Been Changed?
The rumors are true: Lucas made more changes to the films for their DVD debut. Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker) has been added to a scene in Jedi, Ian McDiarmid (the Emperor) replaces Clive Revill with slightly revised lines in Empire, Temuera Morrison has rerecorded Boba Fett's minimal dialogue, and some other small details have been altered. Yes, these changes mean that the Star Wars films are no longer the ones you saw 20 years ago, but these brief changes hardly affect the films, and they do make sense in the overall continuity of the two trilogies. It's not like a digitized Ewan McGregor has replaced Alec Guiness's scenes, and the infamous changes made for the 1997 special-edition versions were much more intrusive (of course, those are in the DVD versions as well).

 

[TheRyuu]

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER

Originally posted by: jjzelinski
I could be wrong but he might want the Laser Disc version for it's authenticity; it was not altered or edited in any way from the original. At the risk of sounding like a huge dork, I can see where he's coming from if this is the case.

That is what I deduced the OP's reason was too. Just look at the review in the trilogy linked above

What's Been Changed?
The rumors are true: Lucas made more changes to the films for their DVD debut. Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker) has been added to a scene in Jedi, Ian McDiarmid (the Emperor) replaces Clive Revill with slightly revised lines in Empire, Temuera Morrison has rerecorded Boba Fett's minimal dialogue, and some other small details have been altered. Yes, these changes mean that the Star Wars films are no longer the ones you saw 20 years ago, but these brief changes hardly affect the films, and they do make sense in the overall continuity of the two trilogies. It's not like a digitized Ewan McGregor has replaced Alec Guiness's scenes, and the infamous changes made for the 1997 special-edition versions were much more intrusive (of course, those are in the DVD versions as well).

I think the good outweighs the bad here. You can't beat the visual quality of the DVD release (espically with the battles in space ).

But hey, to each his own I guess. I still have the original trilogy on VHS (not the 1997 ones, the really old ones)

 

[Golgatha]

They did just release the unaltered Trilogy on DVD this week I believe. Saw it advertised in several ads.

 

[Golgatha]

http://www.starwars.com/episode-iv/release/video/news20060503.html

This release will only be available for a limited time: from September 12th to December 31st. International release will follow on or about the same day. Each original theatrical version will feature Dolby 2.0 Surround sound, close-captioning, and subtitles in English, French and Spanish for their U.S. release. International sound and subtitling vary by territory.

 

[quikah]

FYI, the new DVD release is basically just an LD rip, non-anamorphic, supposed to be pretty mediocre, they supposedly destroyed all the original unaltered masters. Of course once they start running low on funds they willl probably miraculously uncover a surviving copy to sell to you again.

There are LD rips floating around out there, just look around.

 

[Raincity]

If you do plan to do your own rips post what Laserdisc player you will be using so i can advise you on what video input to use depending on the players comb filter.

 

[Mullzy]

Originally posted by: jjzelinski
I could be wrong but he might want the Laser Disc version for it's authenticity; it was not altered or edited in any way from the original. At the risk of sounding like a huge dork, I can see where he's coming from if this is the case.

Many fans would agree.

 

[ElFenix]

LD rips have been floating on teh intarweb for several years. might want to look around first.