Question - Upscaling a Laserdisc

[KokiriChild | 1,673]

Hello all! Hope you are all doing well. 
Ever since I became aware of My Life in Gaming, RetroRGB, etc. I’ve been aiming to get HDMI and/or RGB signals from all of my consoles. A friend who isn’t much of a gamer but is the biggest cinephile I know was massively intrigued. After showing him the setup, the next day he asked for my help using a similar upscaler to something like the Framemeister or OSSC to upscale Laserdisc video.

The player’s output is S-Video. Wanted to reach out and see if anyone has ever tried to use an upscaler with a Laserdisc player before and if there any tips, pitfalls, etc that I should be aware of. Never had Laserdisc so I’m very unfamiliar with it. The audio specifically is what I am most concerned about getting to output over HDMI.

He sent me this link and asked if this item would be any good for the job:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1208856-REG/kanexpro_con_av_hd4k_composite_s_video_to_4k_hdmi.html/?ap=y&ap=y&smp=y&smp=y&lsft=BI%3A6879&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD7yMh0O3pf53HC6gxp_7nH8l1Zg9

Any insight y’all could offer is greatly appreciated!

[SilverspoonGaming | 357]

I honestly just use the RF input in my theater for my Laserdisc player, but Im interested to see what you find out about upscaling, and maybe Ill try in the future.

[xelement5x | 119]

I personally use a VHS/DVD player that can take upscale and it did a pretty good job.  You used to be able to find them at the thrift for like $15 or so, the limit is going to be 1080p though for those devices.  

I don't know about that device you linked specifically, but I have heard people talk about using the RetroTink for LDs though it's not really designed for it.  You can really dial in the setting supposedly, but I'm not sure I would have the patience for that.  I'm old and watch LDs on a CRT most of the time anyway.

[TDIRunner | 2,922]

I've discussed this before, but I use the same thing to upscale my laserdisc player as I do with all of my video game systems.  I just run it through my amplifier/receiver, which just happens to upscale everything to 1080P.  The model I use is a Sony DA3400ES.  It has 6 composite inputs, 3 component inputs, 4 HDMI inputs, multiple digital and analog audio only inputs, a phono input and a 7.1 multi channel input/output. 

• Any composite signal going to the receiver can be output at its native resolution in composite, or upscaled to 480i or 480p in component or upscaled to 720p, 1080i or 1080p in HDMI. 
• Any component signal going to the receiver can be output at its native resolution in component, or upscaled to 720p, 1080i or 1080p in HDMI.  No option to downscale component to composite
• Any HDMI signal going to the receiver can be output at 720p, 1080i or 1080p.  No option to downscale anything from HDMI.  If it goes in as HDMI, it must come out as HDMI.  No 4K either.  The unit is too old for that.

With my current setup, just about everything runs through this receiver before going to either my 4K TV or my CRT TV.  This is my basic setup:

• RF input
  • Atari 2600 and 5200
  • Anything RF goes straight to the CRT TV.  All audio and video go through the CRT only
• Composite
  • NES, Duo R, Laserdisc, VHS
  • Anything with composite goes to the Sony receiver, which upscales the video signal for the 4K TV and sends all audio through the 7.1 surround speakers.  The receiver also upscales the composite to component and sends a component output to the CRT TV so these devices could be watched on a CRT.  This is mainly for NES games that require a CRT, and VHS to DVD transfers (which is an entirely different discussion)
• S-Video
  • GameCube, Dreamcast, 3DO
  • Anything s-video unfortunately has to go straight to the CRT TV because my receiver doesn't have s-video inputs.  Fortunately, the three systems that I use s-video for have the ability to output composite and s-video at the same time, so I also send the composite signal through the receiver to upscale to the 4K TV if I want to play those systems on the 4K TV and listen to the audio through surround sound.
• Component
  • SNES, N64, Wii, PS1, PS2, Master System, Genesis, Saturn, XBox, MVS, Jaguar
  • Anything with component goes to the Sony receiver, which upscales the video signal for the 4K TV and sends all audio through the 7.1 surround speakers.  The receiver also sends the native signal put a component output to the CRT TV so these devices could be watched on a CRT.
• HDMI (All HDMI except for 4K HDMI)
  • Wii U, Switch, PS3, PSTV, XBox 360, OUYA, Neo Geo X, and all Analogue systems
  • Any HDMI that doesn't output 4K also goes through the receiver and upscales to 1080p and sends audio through the surround sound.  
• HDMI 4K 
  • PS4, 4K Blue Ray player, 
  • The 4K signals have to go straight to the 4K TV because the receiver predates this resolution and is not compatible with it.  Fortunately, the TV can send audio back through HDMI back to the receiver, so that the 4K devices can still send audio through the surround sound

I probably gave way more information than you wanted, but I enjoy discussing this stuff, so I sometimes go a little overboard.  My setup works really well for me, but might be a bit much for most people.  The receiver I'm using is 16 years old and it cost about $1k new.  Most receivers don't have composite inputs anymore, and the few that still include them do not upscale the image to HD.  I've spent a lot of time looking for a receiver that could handle 4K inputs while doing everything that my current receiver does, and it just doesn't seem to exist anymore, even in the high end multi-thousand dollar range.  I will still probably upgrade to a modern receiver someday, but I will probably have to keep the older one to handle all of this other stuff that runs through it and use multiple receivers at once, which is another set of problems.

TLDR.  It requires a tone of research and digging, but there are many older receivers like mine that could handle what you are looking for.  Unfortunately, it can be difficult finding one in working order and for a reasonable price.  You also have to keep in mind that not all receivers from this era are capable of upscaling video.  Some do it, but poorly, and others do it but introduce lag.  It requires a lot of research, and many of these older units may not have much info available.  If I was starting from scratch today, I would be looking at the modern upscalers that you were discussing in the OP.  That is probably the easier/cheaper way to go.

[Tulpa | 3,725]

Yeah, they've sunsetted most analog input upscaling in receivers awhile back. 

I've also got an older receiver (circa 2009) that I use for upscaling legacy components. 

[Pikkon | 31]

It's more for preservation but there's the  Domesday Duplicator.

https://github.com/simoninns/DomesdayDuplicator/wiki/Overview

 

Edited September 19 by Pikkon