AC3 LaserDisc on old player  

Any disc that has Digital Sound written on it has a PCM track with stereo or Pro-Logic and an analog track for old players.These discs may also include an AC-3 track too.DTS discs replace the PCM track with a DTS PCM track.The analog track has a,usually stereo, track for an alternative.You cannot play AC-3 LDs on old players that only have a RF output for the video.I have an antique top loader like this.I have discs from the 1980's that do not have digital sound.Buy all the AC-3 discs you like,maybe you can get a player that exports the DD sometime.

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Ms. Bitchlist

Two years ago I upgraded my LD player to have an AC-3 digital output (coax). It wasn't that expensive, and the results were great. Every now and then I hook up my LD player and watch some of my collection, however admittedly that is happening less and less often. I've even considered selling my player (Sony MDP-455).

So I guess what I'm saying is you can still get that AC-3 out of an old player. Gives you some options.

Steve

Carlos,

You can still use your player but :

The ac-3 rf track is recorded onto one of the analog channels (normally the left one...if memory serves me correctly), so even though your player only has analog audio (which is very likely the case) then you can still play
ac-3 discs by selecting the OTHER channel and using it. The only problem is that this audio track is mono !

It is possible to modify your player to correctly "extract" the ac-3 rf signal but I suspect that it might be more cost effective to buy a more recent player which has both digital audio capability and ac-3 output.

If you do want to carry out the modification then search around on the web (laserdisc) where you can find some information about circuit diagrams for adding ac-3 capability. These circuits are fairly simple (and cheap..less than $25 for the parts) and you could make it up yourself or get any competent electronics tech could knock one together for you. Most of these modifications relate to specific models but it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out how to (or where to) add the modification into your particular player.

Brian.