I bought this disc used at a San Francisco records store. When I get back home, I'll take a VLC screencap and post it. Hopefully somebody recognizes the problem from my description.

PROBLEM:
- Bright colors get a few ghost copies next to it. (white is especially sucseptible). LDDB.COM has no reports of rot. Anybody else have this problem with the disc?
- A hissing sound can be heard. I checked the cables, they're fine. Being a Dolby 5.1 Disc, I had VLC play only the left analog stereo channel while viewing the MPEG. Hissing sound is still there. Right channel is same deal. Understanding Dolby, it's the right analog channel that's used for Dolby 5.1

MISC:
While I understand CLD-S104 is low-end, I have played "Gold Diggers: Secret Of Bear Mountain" and "Leaving Normal" with decent playback.

The S104 is a pure analog player, no digitization anywhere like the higher models. So if you like pure analog the picture will look softer that a digital processing unit but it will be more analog looking. For the ghosting I would say that is more related to the disc. certain players show more of this than others, in the correct scenes Goldeneye has a lot of this and different models show varying amount of ringing as I call it. I have seen as much as two ghosts to the right of the object.

Cannot answer for the hissing other than as you stated the AC-3 is in the right channel. It should be more like a blast than a hiss unless the volume is way down, it should not leak into the left channel unless the player is having issues. In the analog menu you need to select left channel only.

Kurtis

Hey Kurtis,
Thanks for your insight. Here are the pics. Unfortunately the ghosting doesn't show up as well unless blown to 1280x800 (my laptop screen). Even 4:3 shows it better.

Pay attention to the white areas.

Yes, this is the ghosting I have also noticed to varying degree on players. Not sure if it is the enhancement to the signal while mastering the disc or it it occurs in playback. Just interesting it is different model to model.

2 questions:
- What is the CLD-D704 like? That's what I'm eyeing the most for purchase.
- Official name for this particular artifact?


Yes, this is the ghosting I have also noticed to varying degree on players. Not sure if it is the enhancement to the signal while mastering the disc or it it occurs in playback. Just interesting it is different model to model.

I have never heard of an official name for this. Ghosting has always sounded like a good name to me or more accurate name would be ringing. If this bother you then the 704 is the best bang for the buck but it has the lesser amount of ghosting maybe the same as the S104 but it also has a white smear especially seen during credits that is worse if you like to set your black level high. Now this doesn't bother me but others it does. Depends on what you are looking for.