best connection method pioneer cld-d925

hi everyone,

looking for some help please, i have decided to reserect my laserdisc recently so retreived it from the loft and fired it up.
All appears to work fine however i cant remember which is the best connection method.
The player is a pioneer cld-d925 and my tv is a pioneer pdp436xde plasma, the player has scart as well as s video and composite, just not sure which connection will give the best results.
Any advise would be appreciated,thanks

As far as I know, Scart would be your best option.

S-Video may give better results on older TVs with poor comb filtering, but on modern TVs, Scart is the way to go.

The 925 is a very good machine, not up to the Elite standard of Pioneer players, but certainly easily at the top of the mid-range machines that were available in the day.

The simlpe truth is as Marc says, composite is the format of Laserdisc anyway, so it may be the one that gives you the best picture. Now as it turns out, on my Samsung TV, there is no realy difference between the two so I have left it connected with S-Video.

But my Phillips loves the S-video feed from my other player so it is a 'must stay'

Having said that the S315 looks best through composite, so what I am really trying to say is....

TRY THEM BOTH! Marc is also correct when he states that it is down to the comb filter that is in you machines, so Just see which givess you the picture you are most happy with, then go to town fully calibrating your TV. Do you have something that you can use to do that?

After years of much trial and error I have come this conclusion. CRT is the best for the playback of laserdisc. Whether it is rear projection (that needs some tweaking)or a standard set you will be satisfied with the composite inputs. Of course with CRT you must lean towards the later or rather last years of CRT production. Stick with Sony, Panasonic widescreen tube sets. The Sony XBR 4:3 will also look great. With rear projection the answer is either Mitsubishi or Hitachi.

The monitor on which you watch laserdisc is crucial for maximum effect. Composite rules for laserdisc from all the experimenting I have done. I use line doublers connected to component inputs for some discs. And although it increases the resolution, it can look "strained" for lack of a better word.

I'm big on line doublers for those who want to look at laserdisc in this digital age, but making laserdisc come alive is to hold strong to analog connections.

Good point Earthtime.

There is the sad truth regarding the onward march of progress...Laserdiscs were designed to be seen, at their very best, on CRT technology. It's that simple.

Now even though the picture will be different from your LCD or Plasma panel, it does not mean that you watch it or indeed, get an unwatchable picture.

Some folks on other more 'elite' (ie snobby) forums deem the picture from modern HD panels to be, and I quote..."dreadful" "awful" and "unwatchable" which is, of course, ridiculous hyperbole. You can get a perfectly watchable picture, just don' compare it to the resolution that you'd get from an HD source because they were never designed to compete.

I agree with your view on LCD and Plasmas laserdisc playback. I think you get a better picture with Plasma than LCD, thats just a black level issue. Just like I am pushing for an LD comeback on this site and others, I am also hopeful for a new television technology. Something similar or equal to CRT. The problem is size.

This generation is immersed in the digital mindset, they know almost nothing else but that word. In 5 to 8 years you may see changes with TVs. It will be because ground roots people like you and I will impact the marketplace. An alternative to the digital viewing experience will return. Its all about producing and mainstreaming an incredibly stunning analog picture that will blow folks away. Digital video is here to stay, but analog still has a few tricks up it's sleeve.

DGTWoodward wrote:The 925 is a very good machine, not up to the Elite standard of Pioneer players, but certainly easily at the top of the mid-range machines that were available in the day.

The simlpe truth is as Marc says, composite is the format of Laserdisc anyway, so it may be the one that gives you the best picture. Now as it turns out, on my Samsung TV, there is no realy difference between the two so I have left it connected with S-Video.

But my Phillips loves the S-video feed from my other player so it is a 'must stay'

Having said that the S315 looks best through composite, so what I am really trying to say is....

TRY THEM BOTH! Marc is also correct when he states that it is down to the comb filter that is in you machines, so Just see which givess you the picture you are most happy with, then go to town fully calibrating your TV. Do you have something that you can use to do that?

Thanks for your advise,when you say composite is that what is supplied from the scart?
i have seen leads on ebay that have scart one end and s video the other so may give that a try, with regard to filters etc i would imagine the tv would probably have the best as it was pretty much top of the range back in the day, think i paid nearly 3k at the time!!!!
As for callibrating no i dont have any equipment, i have experamented with adjusting the contrast and brightness which does improve results. do you have any suggestions regarding contrast/brightness levels? there also appears to a mode to callibrate the set which i have decided not to mess with.

The easiest way to get a decent picture if you don't have something like the Video Essentials calibration disk, is to turn the colour down to zero. Then adjust the brightness and contrast levels until you get the best B/W picture possible. Then bring the colour back up until you get the most realistic flesh tones that you can.

There is a very close relationship between brightness and contrast but it is tricky, because brightness will control the amount of blackest black in the picture and contrast will control the amount of whitest white.

Now that you know what connections to use it's back to the monitor you are using. Some good advise has been given in regards to adjusting the contrast, brightness and color. Dont't forget to eliminate the sharpness, turn it all the way off. You mentioned other settings. I don't know what type of tv you have but some have a color matrix setting or something worded similar. Use the standard setting, not the HD. Put the TV in cinema or movie mode and turn the "film" mode on if you have one.

You can do alot of your own eyeballing and get the picture that pleases you. Remember the goal though is to attain a natural look. If you have questions about other settings, ask away.