LASERDISK DUBBING HOW-TO
B. Handy, 26-Sep-2000
~sxt_co/documents/laserdisk.howto

This document attempts to address the vaguarities of dubbing laserdisks
using the Sony LVD players at ISAS.  There is a handout with the
laserdisk manuals that helps describes this (in English), I believe the
manual also includes much more comprehensive Japanese instructions.

1.  Setup

    a.  Use the top deck for playback, and the bottom deck for recording. 

    b.  CABLING:  Two cables specifically need to be hooked up for this
        to proceed:  
        i.  'DUB' cable:  This cable supplies the trigger pulse to 
            start the recorder in sync with the player.  A BNC cable
	    should run from 'DUB OUT' on the top player to 'DUB IN' on
	    the bottom player.

        ii. Video.
	    To keep things consistent, I always dub using the RGB cables
	    on the back of the machines.  The original is recorded from
	    the NVS unit (the computer video output in the bottom of the
	    rack) using this method of cabling, so it appeals to my
	    sense of symmetry to continue to do this.

	    To set this up, the simplest method is to disconnect the RGB
	    cable from the NVS unit, and attach that end to the 'VIDEO
	    OUT' on the top monitor.  The 'video in' RGB cable, at this
	    writing, comes from the top source unit.  (The white cable
	    is for sync, the others are color-coded.)

    c.  SWITCHES:  Underneath all the big, friendly looking 'play',
        'record', and various shuttle buttons on the bottom unit are
        some unfriendly-looking tinny black switches.  The 'REC MODE'
        switch has to be in 'continuous' mode.  Also, the video input
        switch should be in 'RGB', if you did the last step right.

2.  Operation
    a.  First determine how many frames are going to be recorded from
        the source disk.  There are two cases we'll follow here.

        i.  More frames than available space
	  If the source has, say, 10,000 frames but there's only 5,000
	  frames available on the recorder, then it's easy:  we
	  instruct the recorder to go until it hits the end of the
	  disk.  In order:
	  A.  On the player, shuttle to the first frame to be recorded.

	  B.  Switch the monitor to the recorder unit, so you can watch
	      what's going on.  On the recorder, hit the 'REC STANDBY'
	      button.  This will search the disk for unrecorded
	      frames.  Then, hit 'enter' to start at the first
	      unrecorded frame, hit 'enter' again to end at the last
	      frame (we'll fill up the disk), and then hit 'enter' one
	      more time to get a big message on the TV that
	      says the unit is ready.  Next hit both big red 'REC
	      buttons simultaneously to set this unit active.  The
	      display should say it is waiting for the player.

	  C.  Hit the play button on the player to start the session
	      recording.  The player will run forever; the recorder
              will stop at the end of the disk.


        ii. Fewer frames on source than on recorder
	    In this case, you need to count up the frames that will be
	    recorded from the source, and then do the math to figure out
	    the last frame that will be input in the second part of
	    section 'B' above, the "out" point.  This time the
	    recorder display should again tell you the total number of
	    frames you're going to record.  Hit 'enter' again, then
	    'rec-rec' to set the unit up for recording as in (i).  The
	    recorder will stop at the end of the desired frame count.

3.  Clean-up
    a.  Put the RGB cabling back where you found it.  The RGB cable
        should go from video out on the NVS unit (bottom of the rack) to 
        the 'video in' on the bottom unit.