Pioneer LD remote control/automatic recording software!

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.laserdisc (More info?)

Hi, I'm a pretty good programmer and there's a project I've been thinking
about. I am going to write software that automatically controls Pioneer
laserdisc players while recording it's output through a capture card
automatically.

After you insert a disc, you will be able to press a record button and it
will tell the player the start, and begin recording right at the start of
the disc, and when it detects the player's status as stopped, it will
pause the recording waiting for you to flip the LD over and you can resume
recording without side-flip related interruption.

Would anybody be interested in this kind of software? It will of course be
free during the development period for beta use, and when finished would
charge a modest fee of $10-$15.

Let me know what you all think!

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.laserdisc (More info?)

What capture program is it going to be used with? Most people are using
VirtualVCR, some are using VirtualDub, some iuVCR. I use Fly2000 EXCLUSIVELY.
Is it going to support all of them?

Now as a high demading consumer I will want to look for the following:
1. I don't think I want to record from the very begining to the end all the
time. Sometimes I want skip the intro/warning and then record.
2. As far as side 2 is going I want to start recording *precisely* as the
disc starts. Not before, not after. So once the LD outputs the very first
frame, I would like to start recording. If I start recording before, I will
lose Audio/Video sync. If after, I will obviously lose some information.

I don't intend to critisize your idea, I'm just expressing my opinion what as a
consumer I would be looking for.

Now another thing I was always thinking about is to modify laser disc players
that digitize frame by frame. This has been discussed on doom9's forum. Here's
the link:
http/forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12456

***
I still have some of the promotional material circa 1980 advertising and explaining Laser Disc.
According to this material, the picture is stored in an analogue format but by no method as advanded as Frequency Modulation.
This literature claims (and gives diagrams) that each frame of the movie is in fact stored as a tiny image in the pits of the disc which has a laser shone through it and it is magnified onto a camera inside the player. This seems somewhat bizzare but is how Philips claimed it was done around 1980.
The audio was of course stored digitally using the same system which was later used for Compact Disc.
With this in mind, surely the purest way to capture the image from a Laserdisc would be to capture the signal from the camera inside the player and digitise it straight from there...
****
Later in the post it says that this idea is incorrect and it was a dumbed down
version for general public. I guess more knowledgeble people on this group can
shed the light whether it is doable or not and whether it already exists.

--Leonid

half_eaten <half_eaten@hotmail.com> wrote:
: Hi, I'm a pretty good programmer and there's a project I've been thinking
: about. I am going to write software that automatically controls Pioneer
: laserdisc players while recording it's output through a capture card
: automatically.

: After you insert a disc, you will be able to press a record button and it
: will tell the player the start, and begin recording right at the start of
: the disc, and when it detects the player's status as stopped, it will
: pause the recording waiting for you to flip the LD over and you can resume
: recording without side-flip related interruption.

: Would anybody be interested in this kind of software? It will of course be
: free during the development period for beta use, and when finished would
: charge a modest fee of $10-$15.

: Let me know what you all think!

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.laserdisc (More info?)

Thanks for the input on this, I'd like all I can get. As for the capture
program, I was going to have AVI capture hardcoded in the software without
using third-party programs.

And yes, it would be easy to incorporate a feature to begin recording
after the into/fbi warnings, etc.

For the second side, it will have the ability to start at the very
beginning. (I'd say within 5 frames accuraacy. At the worst, about 7)

I am going to start development as soon as I pick up an RS-232 interface
cable. Thanks for the input again!!

-Mike

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.laserdisc (More info?)

half_eaten <half_eaten@hotmail.com> wrote:
: Thanks for the input on this, I'd like all I can get. As for the capture
: program, I was going to have AVI capture hardcoded in the software without
: using third-party programs.

Yeah, but a lot of capture TV Tuner cards are based on Philips. For such cards
Fly2000 program is the best 'cause it utilizes Philips native calls thus
bypassing driver calls. Thet's why Fly2000 users will not want anything else.

: And yes, it would be easy to incorporate a feature to begin recording
: after the into/fbi warnings, etc.

Manually...

: I am going to start development as soon as I pick up an RS-232 interface
: cable. Thanks for the input again!!

On the other hand if you think about it... How many people are capturing
from LD players? Not too many.

Now out of these people how many people are using TV Tuners to capture? I'd
speculate that not more than 50% at best case. The rest might be using Canopus,
Matrox, Pinnacle and such semi-professional boards that provide their own
capture programms based on either DV or direct MPEG-2 capturing. There're also
cards with built-in MPEG-2 hardware encoders.... Are you going to cover them
as well?

Just giving you an idea about your possible market.

If I were you, I would write a simple transparent interface with the
LaserDisc. Call it LD remote control. Then the user starts *his* capture
program. You navigate/link the record button of LD player remote control with
record button of capture application remote control. Then you press Play on
remote control. Once the LD starts playing, it automatically makes the click
in the area where the application record button is located. Just my $0.20.

--Leonid

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.laserdisc (More info?)

Yes all this is very true. You know I may just make it freeware. Mostly I'm
just writing it for myself.

Yeah screw it, people can use it for free. I won't be greedy.

-Mike

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.laserdisc (More info?)

Leonid Makarovsky <venom@csa2.bu.edu> wrote:
: If I were you, I would write a simple transparent interface with the
: LaserDisc. Call it LD remote control. Then the user starts *his* capture
: program. You navigate/link the record button of LD player remote control with
: record button of capture application remote control. Then you press Play on

I meant to say that you navigate/link the record button of LD player remote
control (software remote control - your program) with record button of the
capture application.

Sorry for the typo.

BTW, you know there're telecine machine to capture films. When they sell them
to you, they provide their own device that you have to plug instead of the
mouse. And then this device makes a left click on your behalf once the
machine advances to the next frame. So the same idea.

--Leonid

 

[Guest]

Hi, I came across this forum and was wondering if you were do yet. If so , could you post the link to where I can download it from?
Thanks