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Welcome to the ld-decode Wiki.

ld-decode is an open-source effort to provide a "software defined LaserDisc player".

The project aims to take raw FM RF captures of LaserDiscs, Captured by the Domesday Duplicator hardware and software but can also take captures from other RF capture devices such as the CX Cards using the CXADC driver and decode the RF back into usable component parts such as video, analogue audio and digital data and audio too.

The decoding process (like a real LaserDisc player) is a multi-stage process. The raw RF must be demodulated (from the original FM signal) and filtered into video, audio and EFM data. This data is then framed and passed through a digital time-base correction (TBC) process which attempts to remove errors caused by the mechanical nature of a LaserDisc player during capture.

The resulting lossless TBC output is then run through a chroma-decoder (comb-filter in NTSC speak) which recovers the original color and can output it as a RGB or YUV stream.

This raw stream can then be with a single command saved as a Y4M file or processed via FFmpeg into video files like ProRes or FFV1 in the mov or mkv containers etc for viewing using media players such as VLC or MPC and are editing/archival ready.

Please see the Installation guide for details of how to download and install ld-decode and the basic usage guide for instructions on how to use ld-decode.

An overview of how a LaserDisc player functions (which can help you to understand the component parts of ld-decode) is available from this link.

Current status

ld-decode revision 7 is the current release of the decoder and associated tools. ld-decode is capable of decoding a wide-range of PAL and NTSC LaserDiscs with support for both analog and digital sound tracks (as well as EFM data tracks as used in Interactive Video systems such as the BBC Domesday system)

The tool suite, decoders, and DomesDay Duplicators capture app now also have self contained builds for Windows, MacOS & Linux bundled alongside with vhs-decode (*supports a wide range of tape formats), cvbs-decode & hifi-decode projects.