I recently modded my Pioneer Elite CLD-97 Laserdisc player again. This time I added a mod that turns off the Digital Noise Reduction (DNR) at the start of the movie by default. It's a nice little tweak that makes it so I don't have to press the DNR button at the beginning of every movie. Here are some pictures of the circuit board and soldering sites. It was hard to solder because the contacts were incredibly small and very closely spaced.

HooDooMan Wrote:Nice job, DrP! That's some delicate soldering work there! So, how was watching TRON: Uprising in your home theater? I'm sure it was an incredible experience! We'll have to have a Sector party at your place! LOL!

Thanks. It really was "delicate". For some of the really close ones I used a large magnifying glass! Definitely not a good undertaking for someone without steady hands!

As for the home theater... I am a really big fan of watching movies. For me, watching films in the home theater room is kind of an event. Kind of like when other people go out to the movies,... similar thing. When I'm watching Tron: Legacy in there it's not just background noise, but it has my undivided attention. Phones are off, no lights to give glares, no widnows, no talking, etc...

I usually watch about 4 movies a week. Probably 2 blu-rays and 2 laserdiscs (my other hobby). In addition to that there is a separate 2 channel setup for music which is actually my primary hobby (and where most of the funds went). As for the quality, I would honesty say that audio and video quality is superior to most of my local theaters. I would say only the Imax ones really compare. Many people don't believe this, saying how could your setup compete with a theater setup that costs $100,000's. It's actually not "that" hard due to limited size. At a theater they have a huge room to fill so they need a lot more power for their speakers, their projector is super expensive because they have to go on a huge screen, etc. Also, one of the main reasons I feel that the audio component is far superior to what they offer in the theater is because the theater has to be set up to accommodate a very wide seating arrangement. In my theater, everything is calibrated to a specific seating position with an ideal sweet spot of about 6 inches plus/minus. I get much better and distinct soundstage and dimension to the soundtrack than any movie theater I have actually been in.

As for the "Sector Party at my house." If any tron fans live near me (about an hour North of Boston), a demonstration can be arranged.

Back in action! I got the tube replacement and swapped it out. The noise floor dropped to inaudible and all seems well again. Here is a picture of the new tube:

My fiancee (and I) decided that 2 walk in closets and a 8 foot wide coat closet was not enough room for her shoe collection. Thus, we had to free up another closet in the house for her ever-expanding footwear selection. Although this was bad news at first, I decided to move my Laserdisc collection into the hometheater room and it actually worked out to be a positive outcome. I was actually surprised (pleasantly) that I prefer this setup as I can grab discs much easier. I put a large media rack in the back of the room and I think it works quite well.

Now everybody is happy, she has another closet for her shoes, and I have a better storage solution for my 900 or so Laserdiscs.

The unit itself is quite large (and weights over 200 lbs):

Product dimensions
Width: 72 7/8 "
Depth: 15 3/8 "
Height: 72 7/8 "
Width: 185 cm
Depth: 39 cm
Height: 185 cm

I took some before and after pictures.

Comments welcome.

Kaisergrendel Wrote:That is some magnificent shoe collection :O I like the LD case. It adds character to your room

Thanks! Yes the shoe collection is... "magnificent."

How is your setup doing? I recall that awesome job you did with the custom made furniture, it looked completely professional (even better than many professional installs I have seen).

DrP Wrote:Tronfan72- Awesome! Nothing beats watching Tron in 1080p blu-ray. You have a nice clean setup there! Looks like a great place to turn down the lights pop in the blu-ray and spend then next 2 hours on the grid! I noticed that the speakers on your TV are rear firing. How is the sound with that? Tron:Legacy has a beautiful 7.1 encoded soundtrack that is unbelievable on a good system with appropriate speaker placement. I use T:L as my demo disc when anybody asks for a demonstration of my system. Placing the TV in the corner probably gives you a little extra base response which is nice as it's playing in stereo without a dedicated sub. I also noticed that the TV has bear walls and hard flooring around it. For your system this is probably an advantage as it will make the sound "brighter" and seem more powerful. Big plus on displaying the two movie cases. When the movies first came out I was really debating which versions to buy. I ended up going with the "Blu-ray 3D + Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy" combo pack http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/TRON-Legacy-3D-and-TRON-Blu-ray/20252/#Overview. But I really liked the cover of the classic Tron movie. My version has the holographic cover art which is nice as well but I still would have liked to pick up the one you have as well. Once again, great setup, and thanks for posting your setup!

Ah... Sorry for the Late Reply!

But yes the 7.1 Track is AMAZING! I do some home theater calibration for friends and family and I use the TRON: Legacy Blu-Ray as the Demo Disc as well. My TV Speakers are Fantastic. The built in speakers Ive EVER heard. I guess the placement of the TV that you mentioned would help with the sound as well. Never thought about that.

I will say, I was a little disappointed with the 3D on the Blu-Ray. I remember the 3D being better when I saw it in IMAX. But it still looks good overall.

I did calibrate my HDTV for Night-time viewing, so thats when I usually watch TRON & TRON: Legacy...& TRON: Uprising. I actually figured out how to download TV Shows from the official/revamped Disney Video website by looking in the HTML code, and they offer each show in various formats...all the way up to 1080p with a 7mpbs encode, Including a couple episodes of TRON: Uprising! So I downloaded one episode and it ended up being around 1.5 gigs. I wasnt expecting too much since it was encoded at a low bit rate, but it ending up looking fantastic on my TV! I was really surprised!

I personally dont like the cover art for the original TRON Blu-Ray, its seems like they just threw it together last minute. :/

But thanks for your kind comments. I'll post any updates i add to my setup!

tronfan72 Wrote: DrP Wrote:Tronfan72- Awesome! Nothing beats watching Tron in 1080p blu-ray. You have a nice clean setup there! Looks like a great place to turn down the lights pop in the blu-ray and spend then next 2 hours on the grid! I noticed that the speakers on your TV are rear firing. How is the sound with that? Tron:Legacy has a beautiful 7.1 encoded soundtrack that is unbelievable on a good system with appropriate speaker placement. I use T:L as my demo disc when anybody asks for a demonstration of my system. Placing the TV in the corner probably gives you a little extra base response which is nice as it's playing in stereo without a dedicated sub. I also noticed that the TV has bear walls and hard flooring around it. For your system this is probably an advantage as it will make the sound "brighter" and seem more powerful. Big plus on displaying the two movie cases. When the movies first came out I was really debating which versions to buy. I ended up going with the "Blu-ray 3D + Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy" combo pack http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/TRON-Legacy-3D-and-TRON-Blu-ray/20252/#Overview. But I really liked the cover of the classic Tron movie. My version has the holographic cover art which is nice as well but I still would have liked to pick up the one you have as well. Once again, great setup, and thanks for posting your setup! Ah... Sorry for the Late Reply! But yes the 7.1 Track is AMAZING! I do some home theater calibration for friends and family and I use the TRON: Legacy Blu-Ray as the Demo Disc as well. My TV Speakers are Fantastic. The built in speakers Ive EVER heard. I guess the placement of the TV that you mentioned would help with the sound as well. Never thought about that. I will say, I was a little disappointed with the 3D on the Blu-Ray. I remember the 3D being better when I saw it in IMAX. But it still looks good overall. I did calibrate my HDTV for Night-time viewing, so thats when I usually watch TRON & TRON: Legacy...& TRON: Uprising. I actually figured out how to download TV Shows from the official/revamped Disney Video website by looking in the HTML code, and they offer each show in various formats...all the way up to 1080p with a 7mpbs encode, Including a couple episodes of TRON: Uprising! So I downloaded one episode and it ended up being around 1.5 gigs. I wasnt expecting too much since it was encoded at a low bit rate, but it ending up looking fantastic on my TV! I was really surprised! I personally dont like the cover art for the original TRON Blu-Ray, its seems like they just threw it together last minute. :/ But thanks for your kind comments. I'll post any updates i add to my setup!

Glad to hear that your enjoying the T:L blu-ray. I find it funny that it's the first disc I grab when I show somebody my system.

As for the 3D, I am actually one of those people that don't like it. When I watch a movie on my system I want the best picture quality. The inherent technological flaws in the current 3D displays is bothersome to me. I find that the inherent ghosting, lower perceived resolution, and most importantly dramatically reduced brightness is too much to take. And of course that the 3D effect simply looks fake since they haven't solved the "eye convergence" issue. Oh, and I don't want to wear another set of glasses. I really don't see current 3D taking over. I feel it's basically a gimmick that theaters will charge extra for, but 99% of all TV watching will continue to be 2D. I know many people who own 3D TVs, but none of them wear those goofy glasses for even a significant fraction of the time watching their sets. I find that most buy the TV, immediately watch two or three 3D movies, and then the "wow factor" wears off really quickly and the glasses start collecting dust and they put the TV into 2D mode for the next few years.

I'm waiting for T:Uprising to come out on blu-ray. I actually haven't watched the episodes for this reason alone. I'm basically at the point where many blu-rays don't even look that good to me, so although a 7 mb/s download stream sounds impressive, that's about the data rate on a blu-ray just for the audio stream! I don't watch too much cable TV, netflix streaming or anything else as the low quality of the content (especially what they call "HD") is not rewarding. The only standard def material I watch are Laserdiscs, but that's because I collect them as a hobby (many actually have very good soundtracks, superior to DVD mixes), so it's a different kind of experience on a personal level.

As for the original Tron blu-ray cover. I do agree that it's not the best. Clearly they didn't spend a lot of time on it. I don't mind that it's simple, that in itself is appropriate, but they might have gone a different way. Maybe just an original lightcycle outline, or the 4 squares of Tron's insginia. Keep it really simple but elegant. Oh well.

Murdock.dat Wrote: tronfan72 Wrote: I actually figured out how to download TV Shows from the official/revamped Disney Video website by looking in the HTML code, and they offer each show in various formats...all the way up to 1080p with a 7mpbs encode, Including a couple episodes of TRON: Uprising! So I downloaded one episode and it ended up being around 1.5 gigs. How exactly do you do that?? I look at the html code and just get a headache!

Usually, I would be more than happy to show you how. But what I did was technically illegal. The only reason why I even downloaded the episode was because I already bought the episode on iTunes, and also because I wanted to compare the quality of the download to the iTunes Encode.

I will say that the 1080p Stream i downloaded from the Disney video site looks slightly better than iTunes 1080p Encode.

My new Conrad Johnson D/A-2b Digital Processor.

Some new Home Theater goodies were under the Christmas tree this year. Probably my favorite was my new Conrad Johnson Processor/DAC. I had been looking for this unit for quite some time and I was finally able to acquire it for a very good price.

Frankly, I was not expecting a significant improvement in sound quality. After all, I felt that I was getting a pretty good sound from my Oppo CD player being fed directly into my Conrad Johnson PV12 preamp. When I put on that first CD, boy was I surprised. It is difficult to describe the difference but it was quite obvious. The music simply became more.... well,... "musical." In the past year I have been slowly moving toward more and more vinyl because the sound seemed more pleasing to the ears. I think this may start a shift back to Compact Discs. The new sound is smooth like vinyl, yet without any of the artifacts or limitations of the format. I was originally worried that dynamics and detail would be diminished but this was not the case. The music is just as dynamic as ever and clarity is exceptional. The D/A-2b removes all the "digital harshness" inherent to the CD format. I did some test CD's, with my most critical pre/post comparison with Cyndi Lauper: The Body Acoustic (CD) which I had just listened to prior to putting the D/A-2b into the system. The low end was even more lively than before, mids quite accurate, but the greatest improvement was in the very high notes. Cyndi Lauper often sings with a very high pitched voice that if any higher would be a "screetch". This can sound somewhat harsh on some setups but with the new D/A-2b in place it was "accurate" but without any harshness whatsoever. I was simply amazed.


I have included a picture of it below: