Category Archives: Blog

A number of original BBC Domesday AIV LaserDisc sets have been archived in the Internet Archive. These images are LaserDisc samples created using the Domesday Duplicator and suitable for decoding using ld-decode. All images have been captured using calibrated equipment and, where multiple copies are available, can be median-stacked to produce high-quality video, audio and data. For details and links Continue reading Domesday LaserDisc images preserved on the Internet Archive→

A new page has been added about the BBC VideoBook “British Garden Birds” which was narrated by Sir David Attenborough. This disc is widely considered to be the forerunner of the BBC Domesday project due to the inclusion of data on the LaserDIsc in the form of teletext:

The Domesday86 project recently gave a presentation about the project and the current progress for a virtual ABUG (Acorn and BBC micro user group) meeting. You can view the presentation online from ABUG’s website by following the link below in this post: The Domesday86 project ABUG Presentation – Part I The Domesday86 project ABUG Presentation – Part II

After many months of intensive development, ld-decode rev6 is now released. Project details are available on the wiki: https://github.com/happycube/ld-decode/wiki Amongst the many new features are: ld-decode processing speed greatly improved ld-decode and ld-decode tool multithreading support Direct support for compressed RF disc images in ld-decode Lots (and lots) of bug fixes Improved TBC NTSC Analog audio improvements PAL Analogue audio Continue reading ld-decode Revision 6 released!→

A quick how-to guide on cleaning and polishing LaserDiscs to get the best possible playback and duplication quality from older discs is now available. To read the article, please follow this link

In order to create the Domesday Community LaserDiscs over 9,000 schools contributed text articles, pictures and captions to the BBC project. This article details the process of both collecting the data at the schools and collating the data ready for inclusion onto the LaserDisc itself. Domesday86 was contacted by Bertil Schou who kindly provided a wealth of documentation and information Continue reading Domesday data collection→

Hot on the heels of revision 4 comes the latest iteration of ld-decode including many new features including digital audio and data decoding support. For a complete breakdown of the (several hundred) commits to github, please see the github repository for the project. The following list is a summary of the improvements and new features: Improved MTF handling in ld-decode Continue reading ld-decode revision 5 released!→

A new release of ld-decode is now available from the project github: https://github.com/happycube/ld-decode/wiki Some of the many new features include: Accurate dropout detection in ld-decode using pre- and post-filtered decodes Improved dropout correction supporting inter-field replacement Intelligent line and sub-line video combination (combine video data from multiple disc sources) Improved NTSC 3D comb filter Improved YIQ to RGB colour-space conversion Continue reading ld-decode revision 4 released!→

Thanks to our friends at the Leicester Retro Computer museum, the long lost BBC AIV City Disc set has been found and documented for the Domesday86 project. This disc set (which is without doubt the rarest AIV disc made by the BBC) covers the square mile ‘City of London’ and was produced by the BBC’s Interactive Television Unit in association Continue reading The BBC AIV City Disc set is found!→

In 1989 Apple produced a LaserDisc based multimedia kit for American schools similar to the BBC’s Domesday National disc (although with less focus on data and more on video). As with Domesday, the Apple Visual Almanac is an example of early interactive multimedia applications using LaserDiscs to present video, pictures and sound with unprecedented quality. Information about the kit and Continue reading Details of the Apple Visual Almanac added→