LaserDisc Audio Guide – Part 5: Wrap Up - Cables, THX, DD EX, MUSE and More

Culturedog Sam Hatch has returned with a small series of videos hashing out the convoluted history of the audio portion of LaserDisc history. Analog, digital, mono, stereo, surround, Pro-Logic, AC-3, Dolby Digital, DTS… all those confusing acronyms and output jacks… all will be broken down and explained.

In this fifth and final (for now) video, Sam discusses leftover topics such as Dolby Digital EX Surround, MUSE Dance 3+1 audio, THX, cables and interconnects, and a number of the format’s major audio complications and some corresponding troubleshooting suggestions. Analog, digital… Optical, coaxial… Mono to 6.1 channels… it’s been a wild ride on the LD audio rollercoaster.

Strap in and crank it up!

Chapters
0:00 Opening Titles
0:14 Intro / Recap
0:55 LaserDisc Audio
1:38 Dolby Digital EX
3:10 Pro-Logic with Stereo Discs
4:22 Decoding Surround Centers
4:52 MUSE Hi-Vision Audio
5:46 THX Audio
8:42 THX LaserDiscs
10:33 Coaxial and Optical Audio Cables
12:00 Cable Quality
15:49 Onboard DACs / Player Remotes
17:58 Digital and Analog Connections
20:57 Player Capabilities
22:51 Dolby Digital Myths
24:31 Best Sounding Players
26:19 Obscure Player Outputs
26:49 Player Modifications
27:52 Audio Troubleshooting
30:12 Wrap-Up

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Intro music: "Anger Mgmt." by Sever the Drama.

[Riddler]

This was a great series Culturedog. It is really great to see someone create long in-depth videos about LaserDisc and what it offered. I love learning about how audio for Cinemas and Home Theatre evolved over the years. It is fascinating. 

I bet that DTS ES (Discrete) 6.1 would have been possible on LaserDisc. There are some movies on Blu-Ray where the lossy versions of the audio mixes for legacy receivers are Dolby Digital EX and DTS ES. Thor 1, X-Men: Days of Future Past, and Star Trek: Beyond are three of them, I assume that there are more.

I have compared Optical & Coaxial and I honestly could not tell a difference between the two. They both sounded identical to me.

[tiobetio]

Excellent videos. I grew up with VHS but I was always so jealous of a friend of the family who had a surround LD theatre system. He must have spent 15 grand on it, it was so amazing. Sadly, my only memory of LD besides seeing them at HMV or Virgin here in Canada.

[abcdefg-udcu]

Hello Sam, The numerous hook ups on laserdisc players is one of the things I really love about the format. So many sound options, so many ways to hook it up and so many ways to enjoy a movie. Todays bluray players just have 3 hook ups at best, HDMI, Coaxial and or Toslink. Boring. I have my Pioneer hooked up so many different ways to my TV and my Onkyo receiver so that I can get the best results from my collection. I love it! Thanks for all of the videos and all of your help. It's much appreciated.

[TheLastRealJEDI]

Thanks a lot for this series. It answered all my remaining questions about LD audio...

[marlonhouston]

DeoxIT 5% Spray Contact Cleaner is the key to any static in your connections or just to clean your electronics. When I get old audio I clean them, because most old electronic has corrosion from sitting. Great videos I've learn a lot from you my Florida brother. I saw your cable listing and you had WINK News on it. I currently live in Cape Coral we can have coffee sometime. 😊

[zacharia]

Congratulations on completing the audio series. My dts & ACrf are coming together nice. "How 'bout a Fresca?"

[bnasty]

Found this very enlightening. Thank you for the videos.

[damonfountain]

I just wanted to say that I enjoy your videos very very much I've learned a lot about LaserDisc I have a CLD s280 player yes I know it's not the most expensive player in the world but it definitely gets the job done picture and audio are fantastic I'm very pleased with it anyways I just wanted to say thank you again for your videos they are extremely helpful a very enjoyable to watch

[bhusar]

Yes. Do a video on THX. Which is still in existence but not like before

[dbanner]

You are the man, Sam, and if the "proper" series is 1/3 as good as this off the cuff series, it'll be great.

I wonder if maybe you'll mention your favorite LDs for each format?☺

[JunkerDC]

This so reminds me of the stuff we use to talk about all the time 20 years ago man EX didn't last long

[DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader]

Everything in this video I found out the hard way over the years! Where was the cdog back then!!😂 There’s nothing like being in your home theater space, amongst tons of parts and cables everywhere scratching your head.
I would mention that EX decoding really only works if it was specifically encoded. Otherwise it might only spread some random sounds around. Later on Dolby improved the formula on PLIIx so it’s best to use that for EX now. They stopped EX and dtsES for 6.1 then thx realized 7.1 was a better formulation. The one great thing about prologic application to standard tracks is to run dual mono as single channel mono and/or cut down on noise and hiss.
Oddly enough if your speakers are equally placed and the mix is good you can hear the matrix rear center without any decoder as the rear L and R channels naturally form a phantom center image behind the listening position. So some films that aren’t listed as EX but are EX will have this effect and clue you into them being stealth EX titles. And unless they remix the tracks those rear surround centers stay intact even on Blu-ray.

[stg]

Great video. This weekend I aded a dvl 909 to one of my setup, and worked fine with DTS discs (just as you said in your DTS video). But the DD doesn't work with optical cable (my receiver plays 2 channels only)... There are 3 coaxial outputs, one RF, and other 2 for DD/PCM. I will try to install a coaxial cable, but I think that model is not capable to output DD 5.1 unless you have a AC3 demodulator. In this setup I have a CLD 504, that doesn't have internal DD demodulator too. So, in the future I will pick up my CLD 704 (that was hooked up in other setup) to enjoy DD 5.1. Greetings from Brazil!

[austinwillcut]

I have some THX DVD discs, Hellraiser 1-2, Evil Dead 1-2, Highlander, and some others. Highlander 10th anniversary DVD looks like hot melted ass but damn.... it does sound good! The Hellraiser discs from 2000 look good and sound crisp, the blu ray audio kicks their asses though. Evil Dead 2 sounds great even through tv speaks, very theatrical surround sound and Anchor Bay knew how to make home theater discs back then. The Star Wars THX vhs tapes sounded great from what I remember, definitely the best versions to have back then in terms of audio.

[oneidavf]

is there any benefit in pursuing AC3, dts, etc if I only have a 3.0 setup (left, right, center)?

[keithm]

Honestly, I prefer conversational style to a chronological history (which can feel like a class!). I have quite a few discs which are mono sound only - some receivers can spread it out but with mixed results.

[Farstarbuck]

Hey man, so around the THX certification for Laserdiscs, are you saying that the discs which had a noticeable and at times superior audio track over the previous version of said movie was just more to do with the new audio track than say the THX certification process? So for example the Fox Die Hard release vs the THX AC3 release. THX in this example was just them making sure it met a certain grade? They didn’t have anything to do with the mix? Thanks.

[The_Badcompany]

Hey! Do you know if a CU-CLD098 remote for the CLD-D703 Pioneer laserdisc player will work with any other Pioneer remote such as a Pioneer cld-d503 or something else?
I'm having trouble finding an original remote for my newly purchased cld-d703 laserdisc player. The seller I got it from on Ebay had an aftermarket remote for it.

[musicman]

learn a lot from watching your video what do you watch your musicals through is just stereo mode I remember watching sgt peppers by the bee gees in a theater in Chicago which is way before surround sound They Had speakers about as big my bedroom door around the theater and it Rocked wonder what they used back then im petty sure it was probably just stereo I don't think they had surround in 77 when I sew that movie on its first run boy did it Rock my world And that's what got me hook on sound systems today sound was so fantastic and clear

[shyanneharper]

Culturedog, how do i hook up the surround ex, matrix 6.1. i have pioneer vsx-81txv it has dolby digital ex, dolby pro logic ii, dolby pro logic iix, dolby digital, dts es, dts neo:6, dts 96/24, dts, THX Select2, THX surround ex. how do i do this.