> Can you link me to the specific hardware and a schematic or even just block diagram > of what you want to implement?
If I'm reading John Doe's mind correctly, I think that he's referring to this post, which in turn references this thread on the JammaPlus forums.
Fundamentally, I do agree that capturing the laserdisc output from a point as close to the laser pickup as possible before it hits the player's image processing circuitry is definitely preferable. That's really not up for question as far as I'm concerned.
However, I feel that there also needs to be a middle-ground solution. While the method that Dave Spicer used is workable, it's pretty specialised. Given that we've kicked around the possibility of using MAME as a tool for preservation of retail laserdiscs (which is a Good Thing(tm) in my book), then the solution should also be one that's accessible to someone without either the access to or interest in hardware built to capture discs at as low a level as is being proposed.
Ultimately, though, much of that will be dependent on the project's focus. I'll be the first to admit that the above paragraph is a moot point if the decision is made that only laserdiscs used with arcade and personal computer systems are of interest, and that decision subsequently determines the standards used for their capture.
With that said: time is still a factor in all of this. While I'm far from suggesting that all laserdiscs are going to spontaneously rot out overnight, there is entropy taking place and the amount of media usable as capture candidates is dwindling.