> In my mind, the final "laserdisc dump" format should contain enough information that > if someone had the ability to master a new laserdisc, that it would contain all the > information required to do just that and result in a reasonable duplicate without > significant data loss, understanding that with the number of analog-digital and > digital-analog transitions we've been discussing here, wouldn't be exactly the same.
Agreed. And reconverting the digital conversion to analogue, sending it straight into the laser pickup of a player, and having the player both act on the VBI data and display the image it was sent would be an excellent demonstration of the success of the process without needing to build a disc-pressing plant
> Also, because we also have console systems to worry about, that whatever format we > develop would also work fine for all the various usages of laserdisc in console > videogame and computer systems, both in entertainment, edutainment and productivity. > > And eventually have enough bells and whistles that if, say, someone from various > laserdisc movie collecting societies wanted to use our format and the dumping > hardware and software solution created to preserve their rare discs, that it could do > that.
This was actually something I was hoping would come out of MAME's laserdisc preservation efforts. More:
> It may take us several iterations to get there, but it's pointless to limit it to > just what arcade needs simply because that's what concerns us right now.
Also agreed. My thinking was that by focussing on arcade games at the start the basics could be established then built on from there. Most arcade laserdiscs were not overly-complex by laserdisc standards (video plus two analogue audio tracks, for the most part), which is common to the fundamental retail laserdisc.
> And yes, virtual laserdisc players - in all their various models - is generally the > end goal. We already load several player ROMs in MAME, eventually we'll model their > video and audio processing as well.
Understood - that was partly a rhetorical question on my behalf, but it should definitely be the end goal.