Anyone still using an AC3 processor for laser discs or something else?

[Chargermeister]

Hello all, this is my first post here after lurking for quite a while now. I finally got to cleaning out my electronics area in the garage to make way for the safes coming in, and I am just shocked at some of the gear I have kept over the years. There are speakers from the 70's, amps from every generation, single components that for the most part are now combined into the receiver/amp.

The thing that surprised me the most was finding the Yamaha DDP-1 AC3 decoder. I love my equipment and consider myself knowledgeable, but I don't see a use for this other than to allow surround sound on the laser disc players. Please correct me if I am wrong.

 

[Pyrrho]

You are wrong. It can decode DD (Dolby Digital, the currently more common name for Dolby AC-3) off of regular DVDs as well, using the coaxial or optical digital inputs. The main reason why anyone would want that model today, however, is due to it being capable of demodulating the signal off of a laserdisc (using the AC-3 RF input on your decoder), as most equipment made today cannot do that.

You can download the manual for it here:

http://usa.yamaha.com/products/audio-visual/hifi-components/amps/ddp-1/?mode=model

(You will need an account with Yamaha, but it is free.)

There you will see that Yamaha was looking to the future by including those regular digital inputs on that Dolby Digital decoder, which were useless when it was designed.