Re: [Download] Sneak Prevue LaserDiscs
Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2014 5:24 pm
Hey good afternoon fellow Cable nostalgia people!
First of all I want to extend a sincere THANK YOU to AriX for posting this stuff from the LaserDiscs. It is a privlidge to be able to see this stuff!
My name is Christopher, living in Los Angeles, CA and I'm quite intrigued by this old stuff, as it would seem you are as well.
I did not ever expect to find anything like this, and thought I was all alone in this realm.
Currently a project I'm working on is vintage CableTV headend equipment complete with a Scientific Atlanta scrambler, and 8600 subscriber set-top box(es).
I am still in the process of obtaining the difficult-to-come-by SA Headend Controller and System manager computers and thier related software, so I may have complete control over the STB(s). But that is all for a different post, and probably a different forum.
While I realize that this writing doesn't have anything to do with Prevue channel, I do have fond memories of Prevue channel and have been lucky enough to have seen it grow from it's (what I consider) infancy, to what it was before TV Guide bought it. I was also able to see the original C-Band feeds of it, which is what was used from the CATV co's and then masked with thier Amiga stuff based on whatever channels were and weren't available on that particular CATV system.
In any case - down to what's at hand here.
I have a fond love of Request PPV channel, from the 1990-1994 era. When I was a teenager I recorded quite a bit of stuff from Request (not movies, but the stuff in between showings)
Things like the movie previews, graphics, any sound/music that the channel made... Fanfares that would start before movies/events, and fanfares that would play before Music Videos they would show.
All of my recordings are in VHS format (unfortunately) but they are in SP, and in Hi-Fi stereo (Which to this day sounds pretty darn good).
I intend to digitize these recordings and then play them back on my vintage headend equipment here for nostalgic purposes.
==== My Question is This: ====
What "hardware" and/or "software" are you using to capture the content off of your LD's?
While researching movie playdates and years of films that Request was airing, I stumbled across this forum.
I was reading that AriX had some new LaserDiscs that he "couldn't capture at the moment, unless we wanted crappy versions, and would be better off to wait until you got back to your better capturing hardware".
I am in a dire attempt to encode my VHS tapes to the best quality possible, and obviously diskspace isn't an issue.
So if any of y'all have any information or suggestions on what hardware and software to use, I'd be greatly appreciative.
Currently I'm just using a cheese-whiz outboard MPEG2 encoder from 2004, but the thing was only $5 complete with software, new in the box. It does an O-Kay job to simply get the stuff on disk to view it with ease. But ultimately I want uncompressed (or the BEST quality/type of digital) video, if it's possible.
Any help would be greatly appreciated fellas. And if there are any questions or requests for pictures of my CATV "mini-headend", ask and I shall post a few pictures.
Please get back to me.
=C=
First of all I want to extend a sincere THANK YOU to AriX for posting this stuff from the LaserDiscs. It is a privlidge to be able to see this stuff!
My name is Christopher, living in Los Angeles, CA and I'm quite intrigued by this old stuff, as it would seem you are as well.
I did not ever expect to find anything like this, and thought I was all alone in this realm.
Currently a project I'm working on is vintage CableTV headend equipment complete with a Scientific Atlanta scrambler, and 8600 subscriber set-top box(es).
I am still in the process of obtaining the difficult-to-come-by SA Headend Controller and System manager computers and thier related software, so I may have complete control over the STB(s). But that is all for a different post, and probably a different forum.
While I realize that this writing doesn't have anything to do with Prevue channel, I do have fond memories of Prevue channel and have been lucky enough to have seen it grow from it's (what I consider) infancy, to what it was before TV Guide bought it. I was also able to see the original C-Band feeds of it, which is what was used from the CATV co's and then masked with thier Amiga stuff based on whatever channels were and weren't available on that particular CATV system.
In any case - down to what's at hand here.
I have a fond love of Request PPV channel, from the 1990-1994 era. When I was a teenager I recorded quite a bit of stuff from Request (not movies, but the stuff in between showings)
Things like the movie previews, graphics, any sound/music that the channel made... Fanfares that would start before movies/events, and fanfares that would play before Music Videos they would show.
All of my recordings are in VHS format (unfortunately) but they are in SP, and in Hi-Fi stereo (Which to this day sounds pretty darn good).
I intend to digitize these recordings and then play them back on my vintage headend equipment here for nostalgic purposes.
==== My Question is This: ====
What "hardware" and/or "software" are you using to capture the content off of your LD's?
While researching movie playdates and years of films that Request was airing, I stumbled across this forum.
I was reading that AriX had some new LaserDiscs that he "couldn't capture at the moment, unless we wanted crappy versions, and would be better off to wait until you got back to your better capturing hardware".
I am in a dire attempt to encode my VHS tapes to the best quality possible, and obviously diskspace isn't an issue.
So if any of y'all have any information or suggestions on what hardware and software to use, I'd be greatly appreciative.
Currently I'm just using a cheese-whiz outboard MPEG2 encoder from 2004, but the thing was only $5 complete with software, new in the box. It does an O-Kay job to simply get the stuff on disk to view it with ease. But ultimately I want uncompressed (or the BEST quality/type of digital) video, if it's possible.
Any help would be greatly appreciated fellas. And if there are any questions or requests for pictures of my CATV "mini-headend", ask and I shall post a few pictures.
Please get back to me.
=C=
