Laser Disc Digitizing

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obitwan7
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun Sep 24, 2023 8:13 pm

Laser Disc Digitizing

Post by obitwan7 »

I am bringing this up and forgive me if I am not the first. I did search beforehand, but.....I have heard of a kit called Domesday and it basically captures the RF signal from a Laser Disk player, VHS or anything that has RF in it and captures raw RF data, bypassing the heads, which gives us the best possible quality from that single movie disc.

I only bring this up because we all here digitize our beloved movies, but we can only digitize DVD, Blu-ray or UHD because we can rip them directly and have the best quality possible, but Laser Disc is analogue and there are movies or TV shows that were only released on VHS or Laser Disc and it is a shame that studios don't think certain titles deserve to be upgraded at all so far & I have a list of movies that need to be digitized, but I cannot get them except if I buy that title on Laser Disc or VHS.

I was hoping maybe someone here knows about digitizing Laser Discs or knows a way to get said titles that were already done. I am happy to pay for titles to be digitized if they already weren't, but I don't know enough to spend thousands of dollars on a wonky LD player or even if the Laser Disc movie themselves are in good quality to even attempt digitizing them.

This seems like an untapped market, but there are extras on these movie discs that you cannot get anywhere else and I would hate to waste those or lose them forever. I'm open for discussion and would love some advice on this. Thank you in advance.
Coopervid
Posts: 3798
Joined: Tue Feb 19, 2019 10:32 pm

Re: Laser Disc Digitizing

Post by Coopervid »

obitwan7 wrote:
Wed Dec 03, 2025 6:20 pm
I am bringing this up and forgive me if I am not the first. I did search beforehand, but.....I have heard of a kit called Domesday and it basically captures the RF signal from a Laser Disk player, VHS or anything that has RF in it and captures raw RF data, bypassing the heads, which gives us the best possible quality from that single movie disc.

I only bring this up because we all here digitize our beloved movies, but we can only digitize DVD, Blu-ray or UHD because we can rip them directly and have the best quality possible, but Laser Disc is analogue and there are movies or TV shows that were only released on VHS or Laser Disc and it is a shame that studios don't think certain titles deserve to be upgraded at all so far & I have a list of movies that need to be digitized, but I cannot get them except if I buy that title on Laser Disc or VHS.

I was hoping maybe someone here knows about digitizing Laser Discs or knows a way to get said titles that were already done. I am happy to pay for titles to be digitized if they already weren't, but I don't know enough to spend thousands of dollars on a wonky LD player or even if the Laser Disc movie themselves are in good quality to even attempt digitizing them.

This seems like an untapped market, but there are extras on these movie discs that you cannot get anywhere else and I would hate to waste those or lose them forever. I'm open for discussion and would love some advice on this. Thank you in advance.
This is widely discussed in the videohelp.com forum. You should look there.
dcoke22
Posts: 4199
Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2020 11:25 pm

Re: Laser Disc Digitizing

Post by dcoke22 »

This YouTube video is about the Domesday Duplicator: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDlbwl3f39Q
Coopervid
Posts: 3798
Joined: Tue Feb 19, 2019 10:32 pm

Re: Laser Disc Digitizing

Post by Coopervid »

dcoke22 wrote:
Wed Dec 03, 2025 9:46 pm
This YouTube video is about the Domesday Duplicator: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDlbwl3f39Q
Whow! Whow! You can spend a lot of money for obsolete hardware and obsolete media. I think it's time to move forward and leave these things behind.
dcoke22
Posts: 4199
Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2020 11:25 pm

Re: Laser Disc Digitizing

Post by dcoke22 »

Indeed. For a very small subset of movies the best available release is still laser disc.

https://letterboxd.com/michaelhutchins/list/the-criterion-collection-laserdisc-titles/

Some collectors like to go deep down the rabbit hole. While a Domesday Duplicator is not for me (although I would like a blu-ray or 4K release of Dead Presidents (1995)) I'm glad it exists in the world.
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