Laser Disc Player Help Needed

I want to buy a Laser Disc player. Where would I go to find one. Are they still being made? I am totally unknowledgeable about these, but I have acquired some rare laser discs that I would like to be able to play.

 

Try eBay. I found a "brand new in box" Pioneer player for $150 last year.
Plenty of used players too.

 

There are tons of laserdisc players out there, but if you are going that route, try to get a good one. I would recommend one of the later Pioneer decks, specifically the CLD 97 or 99. The can be a bit pricey. Avoid the Sony players like the plague...many problems. A good page from the UK to give you data on the various players...

http://www.laserdiscarchive.co.uk/pioneer1.htm

Great discs out there on the cheap, and they sound tons better than DVD! They look very good with a great montior, but lack that extra crispness (speaking generally here) of the best DVD's.

Good luck!

 

Our own Rachael Bee, would be a good person to ask about this, you see. She wrote an interesting article about the best, the above average, the good and the rest of the players out there. If I can find it, I'll post it, if she doesn't beat me to it.

 

Here 'tis:

http://www.moesrealm.com/hometheater/laserdisc-guide.html

 

My advice would be to contact Duncan at www.laserdiscservice.com for a player. Duncan has been servicing LD players for many years and is the best there is. He will get used players and make sure they are in top operating condition. You can also try ebay but you take your chances with what type of condition you might get.

I also recommend a pioneer. The reason being pioneer made great players and still make parts for most models. The CLD 99 and 97 that PJaizz mentioned are great players, but you will pay for them. The Pioneer CLD 704 is pioneers best non-elite player and is generally considered about the best bang for the buck. I would go to www.laserdiscservice.com and see what Duncan has right now. You will not go wrong getting a player from him.

 

I'm at my brother's house and don't have the link for my LD player article here. It used to be on the HTF site but the article has moved to another site now. If I was home I'd have the link. The best Pioneer players are the HLD-X9, LD-S9, CLD's 97, 95, 99, 79, D704, D703, DVL's 91 & 90 in that order. IMO, it's no longer worth paying a premium for a CLD-99 over a CLD-79. IMO, the 3-D comb filter in the 99, fpr S-video output, is mostly not worth using. The two players are equal for composite output. These players all do 51 db video or better.

The next tier of lesser players would include CLD's 59, D606, D605, D604, DVL's 919, 909, 700 and CLD's D503 & D504. These players all do 50 db video S/N video. I don't recommend lesser Pioneer players than these.

If you wanna take a chance on a Panasonic player, no longer suppourted, the LX-900 and it's clone the Denon 3500 are 51 db players. The older Panasonic LX-1000U is almost as good.

Sony players stink. Don't waste time looking at them! Feel free to PM for help or questions.

 

RB, I have an CLD-99, why do you say I should not go s-video out of it?

 

It depends on what type of display you are using the 99 with and how good it's comb filter is. Video on laserdisc is in the analog composite format. Composite meaning that the two main video signals, the luminance (Y) and chroma (C) are combined together. A display device must have the Y and C signals separate in order to display it. The comb filter is the device used to seperate the Y and C signals. Your CLD99 has a built in comb filter, and your display device will also have one. You want to use the best comb filter that you can to get better Y/C seperation and fewer artificats.

If you use S-video output from your 99, then you are using it's comb filter. If you use it's composite output, you are using the comb filter in the display. Now the CLD99 has a very good 3D comb filter. The question is then what type of display you have and what type of comb filter it has? If you have an HDTV, it likely has a 3D comb filter that may, or may not be, better than what is in the 99.

I would check and see what type of comb filter your display has. If it has a 3D comb filter, I would try comparing the S-video and composite output from your 99 and see which you prefer. If it has something lower than a 3D comb filter, you'll be better off staying with the S-video out from the 99. Hope this makes sense.

 

Thank you all for your input. You have been a big help to me.

 

Pioneer stills amkes these new:
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/p...&searchText=laserdisc&contentType=PIO_Product

I have a 604 I got about 6 years ago and love it still.

Some LDs I own that are not on DVD:
Original Star Wars Movies - THX editions and Definitive Guide
Neeil Young's Human Highway
Criterion versions of Dead Presidents and Menace II Society
Devo's Ther Complete Truth About Deevolution with the R U Experienced video not on the DVD
Beatles Anthology (slightly differnt than the DVD)
David Byrne's concert film Between the Teeh <-AWESOME!
Star Wars The Pjantom Menace Japanese edition (original cut of the film)
She Gotta Have IT

and if you go up to Amoeba in LA there's tons of disc for 1.99-3.99 that are great films. It's as cheap as renting at Blockbuster

 

My Sony MPD-333 was in for repairs three or four times; I lost count actually, and gave up on it. Worked OK, but reliability sucked. Bought a used Pioneer (can't even remember how long ago!), and it's been running great since then. Also bought a demo DVD/LD unit from them (not sure which model, maybe DVL-909--it was first generation), in which the LD portion works but the DVD section suffers in not playing certain discs. (Heard there was a firmware update.)

Heck, I still have my first LD player! Don't remember the model, but it was the first inexpensive model they made. Top loader, CX noise reduction switch on the front, no digital readout (other than a red LED that moved along a scale on the front panel), and NO chapter advance! No remote either. And you know what? It still works!! Any wonder I buy Pioneer?

 

greg, this is what I thought too. In my case I think the comb filter in my 9 year old Sony TV and the one in the 99 are about equal, both 3D. I wish RB would chime in on this.

 

I love the old "Thin Man Movies". Before the days od DVD my wife gave me the LD box set of all of these movies. Last time I checked they were still not all out on DVD.

 

Here's a link to a new Pioneer 919 from audio advisor who still sells these. Its a cd/DVD/LD player.

http://audioadvisor.com/store/productdetail.asp?sku=PIODVL919&product_name=DVL-919 DVD/LD/CD Player

I too have had a lot of good fortune with the Pioneer players and would recommend them highly. Good luck...

 

Dr. Greg and I concur on your case. If the filters are about equal, use S-video because the player's comb filter is adjustable. You can adjust it down to 2-D if you so desire and if that benefited your display, which it proably would not for a tube...? With older RP's sometimes 2-D does work better. My oldest TV is a Sony XBR 250 tube from '99 and it's comb filter is better than a 99's. For older Sony sets, if your's isn't an XBR 100, well the 99's comb has a good chance.

The best way to run a comparrison is to run an A-B Repeat, repeatedly. Be sure and get a dark or night scene in the clip. Look for the noise levels in that dark scene. That scene should be most revealing.

The only LD player comb filter that can't be beat is the one in the HLD-X9 and the LD-S9. All other LD player comb filters are definitely suspect. That's Dr. Rachael's diagnosis.

 

RB, Thank you so much. My Sony set is an XBR 100 so I will give your experiment a try. RB, how did you get into all of this, tell us more. And what is Dr. Greg a doctor of, has he been holding out on us. Just for the record I am Dr. Tony (physicist) and my wife is Dr. Emily (computer science).

 

The Pioneer LD players always seem to perform quite well. I purchased a CLD-D503 when they first came out and have had virtually no trouble with it. It's still in periodic use to this day.

 

so where does the clds201 or is it cld201s, whichever, where does that one fit in. it happens to be the one i have????

 

Greg, is a docteur of LD-ology and I be a Muse-ologist. Greg and I have feed off each other's LD knowledge on other forums for quite some while. I always wanted an XBR 100 and XBR 96 before that but never forked out the wheelbarrow's worth of cash. I had a friend who had an XBR 96 with an LD-S2 on it. He used composite because the 96 comb was better than the S2's. However, he had an early S2 with the 3-line filter. The later editions of the S2 had a 3-D comb. You could stille order an S2 in '97.

I have accumulated LD knowledge since 1985. I took the plunge and bought my first LD player in '86. I've owned atleast 20 players since then. I'd buy players and when I got tired and disapointed in their video performance, I'd sell them to my family and friends. I was searching for LD nirvana. I've had about every class of Pioneer players that came along outside of the LD-S1 & LD-S2 & the dual-drawer player...I can't remember it's model #. I wanted to collect movies and Star Trek and I became very disenchanted with VHS in the mid 80's. My first LD player caused me to swear VHS off!

I sitting at my brother's PC presently. Over to my left on his equipment rack sits my first LD player, an LD-838D. The silly boy hooked that one up instead of his CLD-59 when he moved here last year. Tomorrow, I'm gonna reinsert his 59 and help him generally get his system back in order. That's role reversal, eh?

The closest I ever became to being a doctor was when I became an operating room technican, which I didn't do long. I quit to sell cars because I needed mo' money. My late father was a Pathologist and my mom is a retired nurse. I got an undergraduate degree in marketing along the way too. I proably would of made a good doctor. I certainly have the apptitude but never really wanted the responsibility and hospitals depress me. Being an ORT really taught me to steer clear of the health field for my own sanity.

 

I had an MDP-333 for a little over the 1 year warranty. What a mistake! I got it on sale. My 333 had it's main board go out and the laser head went beserk and dug a trench in an X-Files disc. All of Sony's U.S. models suck. They all have the same video quality about 48 db S/N at best, n-o-i-s-e-y! They're attractive players and have nice remotes. That's about the best, or only nice thing, I can say about them. BTW, they made real LD players for the Japanese market. They only shipped low level designs to the U.S.

The first DVL's were the DVL-700 and Elite DVL-90. I have a 1983 Magnavox toploader that works. It's only video output is RF. I got it as a throw-in with some discs about 10 years ago. Right now it's in the closet and I doubt it's ever coming out...? It belongs in a museum.

 

It's an early 90's budjet player. It doesn't perform as well as later budjet models like the CLD-S104 or CLD-S304. It's gonna perform at about 48 db. It's a good player for what it is. Single-side players tend to last long too.

 

RB, You are indeed incredible. My wife and I are both Ph.D.'s (actually she is a D.Sc., but it is the same thing). I understand where you are coming from. To make extra money as grad students my wife wrote programs for radiation dosages to cancer patients. Since I did my thesis on radiation dosimetry (in rocks not humans) I was offered positions at well known hospitals as a radiation physicist. It would have meant working with cancer patients all the time. I knew I did not have the emotional fortitude for that. It haunts me to this day that I could not bring myself to help people in their greatest need.

 

Rachael, you helped me out several years ago when I posted a similar question on the Home Theater Forum.

I had a Sony MDP-something that just stopped spinning up discs after about 8 years of use. I was never really happy with the picture but as my displays got bigger over that time I was really itching for something else. I saved your advice and after the Sony died, I started ebay hunting. I ended up with a great D704. It's great as a CD player too.

 

My good old Sony MDP-333 still works. I don't use it a lot any more but it comes in handy when i want to watch my original Star Wars disc. I don't want no stinkin George Lucas enhanced version. The original releases are still the best IMO.