POLL: How Many Forum Members Have a Working Laserdisc Player?

[Nick Cooper]

I still have my Pioneer CLD-925, and recent use after prolonged hibernation has shown that it still works perfectly. I bought it in mid-1999, which was towards the end of the format's commercial life, but that did mean that I picked up a lot of discs relatively cheaply, as the local HMV were selling stock off at not much more than VHS prices. The player cost me £269.95, which I partly justified on the grounds of needing a replacement CD player already. Over the years it certainly was used for more CD playtime than LD.

Until fairly recently I had a "generation zero" NTSC-only MCA Disco-Vision player, but sold it since it was never getting used, and I was having to de-clutter. This model was the only one to feature analogue interactive functions, which was most notably used in the States in General Motors dealerships for promotional videos (although the only disc I had was a Bank of America training programme!). I also had one of the Philips LD-ROM drives (PAL-only), although not the one generally used for the BBC Domesday Project. The only disc I had for that was a British Medical Association image gallery (ugh!). Both drive and disc got eBayed relatively recently, as well.

[threeseven]

Out of curiosity I just had a look on ebay to see what Pioneer LDP's were around. Am very surprised to see the prices they are now fetching! A few years ago they could be had for £5 or £10 if anything but now they are around a hundred and more! I wonder whats driving that?!

[electronicskip]

i think as more fail and they are getting rarer and more difficult to repair the price is going up,plus the interest is being rekindled.

[Doctor Hue]

I have a Pioneer LD-1100, manufactured December 1982.

It uses a gas laser I think.

The servo is not good. It keeps slipping and mis-tracking.

Not sure how to fix it. I don't have a service manual for it. ( anyone got one ? )

One of my disks has Tele-Text on it.

[LDFan88]

I guess I'm late to the party but why not mention what I have just so everyone knows there are some serious LD enthusiast still out there. Here we go....


I have nine working players currently but have had a total of 13 at different points in time. The models are as follows in no particular order.

Pioneer, CLD-3030 (My first player ever from 1988 w/ digital field memory and modded w/ an AC-3 RF output about 16 years ago.)

ProScan, PSLD43 (Re-badged Pioneer CLD-2090 w/ auto reverse; no special features.)

Pioneer, CLD-M90 (First ever 5 disc CD/CDV changer and single disc/side LD player; a very interesting conversation piece considering the complicated nature of its design.)

Pioneer, CLD-D701 (Auto reverse unit w/ digital field memory. Also, 2nd player I modified w/ a combination AC-3RF and AC-3 Demodulator circuit boards for outputting Dolby Digital 5.1 in a bit stream format.)

Denon, LA3100 (Re-badged Pioneer CLD-3090 w/ auto reverse and digital field memory. I have two of these and they were my 3rd and 4th players to be modded w/ the combination AC-3RF and AC-3 Demodulator circuit boards.)

Pioneer, CLD-D703 (Auto revers unit w/ digital field memory. As stated all over the web, the best "non Elite" - "bang for the buck" player when it comes to image quality but unfortunately it lacks an AC-3 RF output. I will be performing a mod to it shortly w/ the aforementioned AC-3 boards so it outputs a Dolby Digital 5.1 bit stream. I will be my 5th and final player to receive this mod.)

Pioneer, CLD-D704 (Same as the 703 but has an AC-3 RF output. I won't be doing any special mods w/ this baby since I already have an AC-3 processor w/ the needed input.)

Pioneer, CLD-59 (An Elite model w/ auto reverse and digital field memory that utilizes an AC-3 RF output and has the newer [and maybe lower quality] epsilon turn auto reverse system. Overall, a nice looking machine w/ that nice glossy finish.)


In addition to these players, I have an abundance of LaserDisc movies probably in the high 100's (I think I am shy 1000 titles but I could be wrong) with many of them having the Dolby AC3 5.1 and some with DTS 5.1. I plan on keeping most of them but time will tell as the HD formats continue to grow.

Dave

[Keith1973]

I still have my Pioneer CLD1750. It was last used just over a year ago to watch a Doctor Who that wasn't released on DVD at that time. I think my parents still have their's somewhere think it's a Pioneer CLD18xx. That model had a separate tray for CDs in the middle where as mine in CD mode just opened the big tray half way.

[Lodgesound]

I went digging and found my one of these, quite rare now and was the best Laserdisc player Pioneer ever made. I had forgotten I had it.


http://www.audiounion.jp/stock_images/74613.jpg

Still working after 25 years.

[Courtney Louise]

Never seen one of those, but if it needs a home ;-)

[argibbo]

Used to work as service engineer for a Pioneer Reference Point dealer. I remember servicing these. Happy days. Probably still got my training manuals from the manufacturer somewhere!

[Roberto41240972]

I was told that some laser disk films contain subtitles via teletext tv set.... is that true or not? Ii remember asking a sales man many years ago in the early 90's about subtitled films he told me as long Ii have a teletext tv Ii can see subtitles.... but again Ii wasn't so sure never got one.

[Courtney Louise]

A lot of laserdiscs have Closed Captioning but I believe you need a decoder for this.

[Gulliver]

I still have my small collection of about 25 laserdiscs. Some from the "Laservision" days, some "CD Video" and some "Laserdisc" up to about 1994 was probably the last I bought. The oldest BBC Laservision discs are going black!

My player died in 2000. I had a Marantz CV-55 which was a disguised Philips model. Quite good for the day and played CDs as well as any 16-bit DAC ever did (which is to say it taught me analogue is better). The power supply literally exploded. I still have the machine and might try to resurrect it.

[BGmidsUK]

I too have a Marantz CD-Video player, acquired as a scrap unit from the TV service dept where I worked in the early 1990s .. symptom: dead PSU, I got it working by replacing the switching transistors (thyristors? I can't remember) but it soon failed again, due to ageing caps. I rang their service department and ordered a rebuilt PSU for about £70 and this machine was in use until I bought a CLD1750 from a mate. I still have it along with the universal remote I programmed with all the special functions (it has a door with loads of extra buttons inside) but it's buried in a cupboard and I can't recall the model number (CDV-55 sounds about right). I took the plunge and bought a copy of Terminator 2 from HMV so I could use it, not even being sure it would actually play LaserDiscs!

The collection was regularly added to from there, a friend ran a small business supplying LaserDiscs and he had thousands of them, including some early and rare releases. He used to make me laugh with the comments such as "you'll have kittens if all these are actually in stock and turn up at once!" (he did give me generous discounts though) and the excuses he'd heard from the USA suppliers. Sadly lost contact years ago when he and his partner moved. I wonder if I still have the suppliers' listings books?

The Pioneer CLD1750 was in use until I bought my DVL-909, by which time I had 80-0dd LaserDisc titles. It has a broken loading gear but works if you hold the door down when opening/closing the tray. Currently in a disassembled state on the work-top, I really need to put it back together before the cats relocate the bits!

My silver Pioneer DVL909 was bought from a chap in Preston along with a substantial quantity of discs, all in pristine condition, 450 or so titles. Even the remote is in good condition. This is a fantastic machine and is used quite regularly via the amp and Grundig 28" widescreen CRT television, I can also record them to DVD if I wish. Picture and sound quality are excellent, the side change is also very quick.

I also have a Pioneer CLD-D925 which arrived wrecked in the post, power button had been pushed in, back also damaged and the laser assembly was rattling round in the case, the little ribbon having broken off as well. This was rebuilt by guesswork! I didn't get round to risking a LaserDisc in it until recently but it turns out I'd got it right and apart from initially sticking on Side 2 of the first disc I tried (grease not spread out) it has worked flawlessly since. It is currently on loan to a mate with a few titles and the remote for my CLD1750 which works with most functions. We wanted to see how it would perform with his projector.

Teletext was certainly an option for PAL titles, I'll have to check mine to see if any have it. Many NTSC titles indeed have Closed Caption, it might be worth looking out for a decoder.

I'll have to post a Success Story for the CLD-D925. Also with the Marantz, for an effective repair it seems ALL the caps need to be replaced, using low ESR 105° types.

Brian

(Sorry for the long post!)

[ntscuser]

Originally Posted by Roberto41240972

I was told that some laser disk films contain subtitles via teletext tv set.... is that true or not?

Yes they did but it was very rare on English language releases. The Gregory Peck western 'Duel in the Sun' was subtitled in six different languages for the European market. I *think* the French and German releases made much more use of it.

[Roberto41240972]

Yes I remember the closed caption box I had one from Conneveans many years ago using VHS films that gave me subtitles but had to look the the CC or square TV symbol... its allot easier with DVDs now as its all subtitled. Still have that box still works well.