!! PING !! Adam Sampson

[bil...@yahoo.com]

Hello Adam,

In the old thread, You explained to me that the Sony 1450 & 1550
would not be a top pick for home movie use because they do not support
digital sound. I was wondering if there would be any way to add
digital support to these machines. Perhaps by tapping into existing
circuits inside the machine? I was thinking something similar to the
clever hack like you can do with the Pioneer LD-V8000 to add AC3
output.

Thank you,
Bill N.
ICON Science Fiction, Inc.
Long Island, NY

[jonlowe]

AC-3 can be added to any player that doesn't have it. Very easy and
well documented on the web, if you have any ability to read schematics
and do soldering. Digital sound out (known as spdif) either optical
(Toslink) or coax, can be a more tricky proposition. First off, the
player has to be capable of playing digital laserdiscs. Early LD's
were analog only.

Second, one of the main controller IC's has to be spdif enabled. The
Pioneer LD-V8000 industrial player is a good example. It can decode
digital sound with its D/A converters, and put it out via it's analog
outputs. However, the CXD1130Q digital signal processor on the V800's
DADB board is a braindead version of this chip family that is
incapable of putting out SPDIF. There is a pin compatible chip, the
CXD1135Q, that is capable of putting out the signal. However,
replacing the chip requires someone who has capabilities to do board
level replacement of surface mount chips. Curiously, once done, the
traces are already on the DABD board leading to a header to put out
SPDIF to the outside world. An optical digital output is the easiest,
since Toslink outputs are available to take signals from the chip and
output them almost directly.

Some players have SPDIF capable chips, but the manufacturer decided
either not to populate the circuit board for cost reasons, or not put
the circuitry on the board at all. I have a Panasonic LX-120
industrial player that had all of the necessary traces on the board,
had a compatible chip, but the output was not soldered onto the
board. I had to add the Toslink output to the PCB, and add a handful
of other components to the circuit board, and I then had digital out.
It would have been impossible to do without the service manual for
that LD player, as well as a service manual for another Panny player
that did have digital out as a reference. I only did it as a
challenge.

Frankly, unless you are really attached to a particular player, you
are better off finding one that has digital outs already. Since you
are talking about a Sony LD player, you are definitely better off
looking elsewhere. I know, I briefly owned one. The LD-V8000 may be
the sole exception, as it has other features that could make it worth
fooling with. Even in the case of the V8000, unless you want to play
DTS discs which require either Toslink or coax digital out, it
probably isn't worth it. Even then, the chips are VERY difficult to
find. I bought a few a couple of years ago, and it was very difficult
then. I never did put them in as I never found anyone nearby to do
the chip replacement for me.

Jon

[Adam Sampson]

bil...@yahoo.com writes:

> I was wondering if there would be any way to add digital support to
> these machines.

What Jon said, basically. I did consider it for mine, but never managed
to turn up a service manual (without paying considerably more for it
than I did for the player in the first place), and since the player is
otherwise unspectacular I couldn't see a lot of point.

--
Adam Sampson <a...@offog.org> <http://offog.org/>