On Thu, Dec 4, 2008 at 2:35 AM, Cameron Kaiser <spectre at floodgap.com> wrote:
> > My laserdisc player harks from 1986,
incidentally, and even its SCSI data
> > interface has no Inquiry support - it was just too early, I suppose...
>
> SCSI LASERDISC?!?!?!?!?! I think there were only RS-232 Laserdiscs?!
>
> I'd love to have a serial-commanded laserdisc hehehe :o)
I have a few - mostly to play Dragon's Lair and Space Ace (but I do
have a couple of kiosk CAV discs as well). AmigaVision supports a
variety of laser disc command sets, as a classic environment which
could be simple and fun to explore such discs in.
I recently got an AG-LD30 with a serial interface, but
I don't know the
pinout. It's a 15-pin D female connector, like a PC joystick port or Mac
monitor port.
I think there's at least one Pioneer with a DA15 serial interface, but
I have no idea if there's any sort of standard for them. If you can't
find a manual for your AG-LD30, there's always the technique of
tracing out the circuit manually. Ground should be easy, then it's a
case of looking for, typically, a 1488/1489 pair and divining what
your RxD and TxD are. It's probable that there's no handshaking, but
I suppose there could be. Not knowing the command set could be a
problem, though. Check out AmigaVision to see if it knows about your
player. You could then sniff the command set with a serial analyzer.
Generally speaking, the player should have commands for start, stop,
and seek, at least, and perhaps lock/unlock, eject, and several more
directives. When writing apps for a friendly environment, start,
stop, and seek are probably the most important commands to figure out.
-ethan