recording laserdisc cartoons over to DVD

[rex racer]

Anyone out there been experimenting with this? I'm thinking of splurging on a Panasonic DVD-R unit and am wondering if there are any problems recording the GAOLT LD box sets, or Art of Tom and Jerry box sets. I'd like to do my own compilations based either on year of release or individual directors.

[Sogturtle]

Originally posted by rex racer
Anyone out there been experimenting with this? I'm thinking of splurging on a Panasonic DVD-R unit and am wondering if there are any problems recording the GAOLT LD box sets, or Art of Tom and Jerry box sets. I'd like to do my own compilations based either on year of release or individual directors.

Do yourself a favor Rex, DON"T sell them to anybody... Warners won't look on that favorably...

[all41]

How do you plan to capture the laserdisc? SVHS input would give you better resolution than just composite RCA jacks.
What bit/rate do you plan to capture for the MPG2?
Most Hollywood DVDs run about 5MB/sec.
The Japanese "I Love Tweety" DVDs are about 9MB/sec. They look very good.
Remember, "commerial" DVD's have much better source material to work with and much better capturing methods than consumer video cards. Additionally, they can use a variable bit rate encoding for the MPG which improves the quality. My point is that its hard to reproduce that quality you see with comercial DVDs.

If you do give it a shot, post your findings!!

[rex racer]

Tim and "All41",

Thanks Tim, no plans to sell, I know the drill from reading posts here from the past few years, but wouldn't mind trading DVD-Rs for the use and archiving other source material from folks such as yourself.

All41, your link states DVD cartoons coming soon. Are you already recording as well ?, via a DVD drive computer, or an outboard unit such as those by Panasonic or Philips ? Or are you like me, still at the point of giving it some serious consideration. Or are you just doing VHS recording from DVD source material?

I've also heard, from someone here I think, that something called "Time Base Correction" can actually improve laserdisc playback quality. Perhaps this would be a good thing to utilize when dubbing over to DVD. Know you anything of this ? Quality is important, as well as original sources. I worry that some form of dubbed toons will be created and considered as "restorations" from the WB vaults when DVD product is finally released. (2-3 years down the road is my guesstimate....) As Tim has said, WB is very protective of their product, the dubbed and erroneous ending circle toons used on GOALT #5 LD set, and CN are evidence of my concern here.

Anyone?

[all41]

Since you asked, I've got an external firewire DVD-R heading my way (based on the Panasonic A03 model). Expect to have it soon. Like you, I have the GOALT laserdiscs as well as many of the other laserdiscs. My intention would be to make copies <for my own private use/no sale>, then turn around and unload the laserdiscs. Only, of course, if I can get good, quality captures from the sources via SVHS video input. Don't know anything about "time base correction" but I'm going to look into it, since you mentioned it.

Looking forward to playing around with it and creating custom DVDs (i.e. Speedy, Yosemite Sam, etc). Still a work in progress but heading in the right direction....

[Thad Komorowski]

Our board member, Larry T., is working on transfering the entire Tom & Jerry series to DVD, with the original Mammy voice on the ones that do. He told me he could fit about 9-10 cartoons a disc, and he's got two done so far.


-Thad

[ChrisWinston]

Thinkin' about copying Looney Tunes from Laser Disc to DVD? Might as well since Warner Brothers isn't going to release Looney Tunes DVDs anytime this decade. Four more months and the 2nd season of The Simpsons + extras will be released and within a year from now the 3rd season, also. Yeah, that's a different company but it just proves Warner Brothers just doesn't care. It's a shame WB has no plans for putting the Looney Tunes on DVD's. It's more than a shame, it really sucks.

[all41]

I don't understand why they are waiting.
Disney is cranking out those awful sequel "Cheapquels" (ie Cindarella 2, etc) for a purely revenue source and AOHell-Time-Warner is sitting on a gold mine that isn't generating them any income.

I have the Japanese DVDs "I Love Tweety" Vol. 1, 2, 3. And while they aren't "re-mastered" (still with the identical defects you can spot in the laserdisc copy), they look great. Maybe we should appeal to their greed and remind them of their crappy stock price.

[Matthew Hunter]

I think I know why they are waiting, they are doing some serious remastering. BUT...for some reason we're not allowed to know exactly what's going on. Or so Jerry Beck says. Mysterious, aint it? Secondly, I'm not going to buy a DVD player, period, until they release a complete LT set or they come out with a unit that will record from TV just like a VCR can. Otherwise....and maybe I'm naive and will piss DVD fans off....what's the point?
-Matthew

[Brian Cruz]

I have an S-VHS VCR with a built-in Time Base Corrector, and it works wonders on laserdisc video. I never watch the LDs anymore, I just stick with the S-VHS copies of them. If at all posisble, I highly reccommend getting a TBC if you're going to make DVD copies of the LDS.

BTW, my VCR is a JVC HR-S9500U. The TBC inside is probably not as good as good as a stand-alone unit, but it's much less expensive and cleans up the picture more than enough for my satisfaction.

[rex racer]

Thanks everyone. "All41", it sounds like you got a plan in mind, good luck with it. Brian, thanks for the word regarding "Time Base Correction" I'll look further into it. Cost is a concern though, these DVD-R units are not cheap, and I've not seen any which offer this particular "enhancement" feature. I'll post what I discover.

Time-Warner AOL may eventually release the golden age material, but I'm not about to hold my breath waiting for it. I just hope that when they do they utilize all of the material. What was nice about the GOALT series was that they used general themes, not just, all Bug's Bunny's, all Porky Pig's, etc. but mixed them all together. Hey, they could even do a censored 11 DVD with disclaimers covering the entire snap case, their own "Banned and Censored", ooops sorry, lost touch with reality....

That's all folks,

[Larry T]

What exactly does "TimeBase-Correction" do with your videotape signal? I know I have had a few prints on occasion that for some reason won't digitally capture without a jittery effect, no matter how well I track them. Yet, on the monitor and TV screen they play fine directly off the tape- then when I run them through a TBC the signal clears up.....

BTW Rex, my DVD-R is a good ol' Pioneer A-03. My DVD player is a Pioneer DV-333, one of the cheapest on the market, and it plays Multi-region, macrovisioned, and burned DVDs without a problem... I've heard you must clear up compatibility issues when using a personal DVD-R. It did cost a good amount, but when I think of all my cartoons that I can archive off my more than 1000+ videotapes and laserdiscs, it will be well worth it. Some of my 20-year old tapes are starting to show a lot of wear..... :( and what's on them won't be re-airing anytime soon....

To make things easier I also invested in a hardware MPEG-2 encoder, which was pretty expensive, but well worth the time and drivespace I can save when archiving my collection.