|
Re: Dragon’s Lair Update
01/08/20 01:55 PM
|
|
|
> I don't understand the archiving process fully (actually not at all, lol). Is there > something that can be done for "drop outs" or "misreads" if there is only one disc to > sample? As in a proto.
Roughly speaking, the process is:
1. Modify a laserdisc player by tapping the raw RF signal coming from the laser pickup
2. Connect the RF signal to a capture device. The custom-built "Domesday Duplicator" is the standard so far, though people have been experimenting with using devices for Software-Defined Radio (HackRF, etc.)
3. Capture the raw RF to a ginormous, massive, really big file. A 30-minute side of a laserdisc captured by the DdD takes up 90 GB. I figured out a while ago that FLAC can compress it about 2:1, and people have since written scripts to support this as a quasi-standard for the project.
4. Use the ld-decode software stack to convert the raw RF into audio and video. The fact that this works at all is nothing short of amazing. The software is still under heavy development, but already the results are often better than anything that can be done with standard A/V capture.
5. ????
6. Enjoy in MAME
One area where ld-decode far exceeds a standard laserdisc player is in dealing with poor-quality discs. The dropout compensation makes rotted discs watchable, and good discs near-perfect. There is also a tool for combining data from 3 or more captures to avoid dropouts rather than compensating for them, and to take the cleanest signal for any given line in the video. It's in early stages, but this will be huge for getting truly archival-quality transfers.
It's not clear yet exactly what path the captures will take to find their way into MAME. It could be as simple as creating files using the existing CHD format, or as complicated as doing a full software decode in real-time. I think the best answer lies somewhere in the middle, but I'm not sure where yet. If anyone is discussing this, I'd love to hear about it, and help if I can.
Anyway, it's pretty cool stuff!
|
|