Help setting up a LaserDisc Workflow
 

I was fourteen years old that summer of 1977 when I first saw Star Wars on the big screen in that packed theater in Shreveport, Louisiana. It was an experience, and among other things I came away from it knowing with certainty that Han Shot First!

Now, the original Star Wars (without that "Episode IV" crap in the header) is now hidden away for all eternity in George Lucas's vault in some parallel universe. About the closest I can come to it is the 1995 video release on VHS and LaserDisc. VHS I can handle, thanks to some help from LordSmurf. But I'm wanting to get the best quality picture, widescreen if possible, and so I'm looking to find and to add a LaserDisc player.

I did submit a thread to the Marketplace forum three days ago but either it didn't go through successfully or didn't get approved, apparently. So I'm looking at the eBay crapshoot or perhaps a secondhand reseller such as Porter Electronics. Can someone share advice as to caveats to observe and questions to ask before pulling the trigger on a long-distance purchase?

Assuming that I do succeed in obtaining a decent player, how best to make the capture and transfer? I had planned to use it with my ATI AIW 8500DV workflow which currently has my two Mitsubishi D-VHS decks. Are there any special considerations when capturing from LaserDisc, especially if you're going for widescreen? Will I still want/need to capture in 720x480 YUY2? Any suggestions for post-processing for digital (.mp4 or .mpeg) archiving and/or transfer to DVD/Blu-ray?

Thanks in advance for any helpful suggestions.