Pioneer LaserDisc / DVD thread - Page 13

Hi
I saw at an auction site a Pioneer CLD-A100 Brand New, and i am curious about it.
I also have seen some used go high, but this one is brand new, and i do not mind to pay the asked price as i do not believe i will find any in this special condition.

Just a few questions if some of you can answer:

Will it play NTSC Laserdiscs?
The Laservision Games are cool?
Will it provide a good picture?

It also comes with Sega Module. Will it play the cartridge directly? Or only Sega CD or Mega CD?

Tank you

The CLD-A100 is, by all accounts, a reasonably good player for standard NTSC movie discs.

Here is a link to some A-100 info.

http://www.laserdiscarchive.co.uk/la...r_cld-a100.htm

Is Philips CDV488 a good LD player? I know a local seller who has one and asking $40 with some LDs. Seller claims unit plays CDs, LDs however drawer needs servicing.

This is sellers description about the player

Joe Kane (Mr. ISF) felt this was the best performing LD player and used this as his reference standard in teaching his courses on video calibration. It had a superior Philips comb filter on the S-Video output producing great image quality and outstanding S/N. The audio section is also superior to other LD players using the Philips TDA 1541A-S1 Select Grade 16bit 4X oversampling D to A converters used in Phlips and Marantz audiophile CD players. It has optical and co-acial digital audio outputs. It also has a killer LCD system learning remote with a great jog shuttle. Plays 3", 5" CD's, 5" CD Videos, 8" and 12" laserdiscs. This has the original box and instruction manual.

How does this compare to CLD-97 which is my reference player? Can I fix the drawer myself? the seller claims it needs cleaning belts etc..

Another player I know I can get it Pioneer 1010. its much more expensive than the philips unit. I would only consider it if it puts out considerably better pic than CLD 97

Interesting. The CDV-488 is my main player in my bedroom. This unit came out the same time as the Pioneer CLD-3070 which I also had at that time. The 488 is a single sided player and but the picture was lower noise than the 2-sided 3070. The 488 has a button on it's front that will allow you to switch between a pure analog signal or digitally processed. Only player I've seen with that. Now forget about the S-Video output and comb filter as for it's time it was good as it was sync'd electrically to the video coming off the disc and its timing but there are better filters today. Now these units are Pioneer based with Philips electronics inside. The door issue is either a belt or lubrication issue. I had to remove the tray from mine to re-lubricate the loading gears as the grease had become very sticky. Then had to get the timing correct when re-installing the tray. As for the picture; it is very good but the unit is hard to get fine tuned so it plays at peak performance. Took me a very long time to get mine right. The remote is neat but its learning memory was too small for what I needed. The size makes it impossible to handle with one hand. Also the 488 does have a dedicated power supply for the digital audio section just like the 97 but as you said it has the superior TDA-1451 Crown chip and matching Philips digital IC's, a warmer sound than the 97. I use a 97 in my main system because it is dual sided and the picture was good like the 488. I used the 488 until I got the 97 as I preferred the 488 over the CLD-D704 and the older non-Elite Pioneer players.

So a properly working 488 is an interesting unit, more on par with the 97 but remember it is older, no spare parts available and hard to play with it's alignments for peak performance.

This is just my opinion about the 488, not everyone feels this way. This is also the ONLY Philips player I'd recommend.

The CLD-1010, while it has the red laser the remainder of the electronics is equivalent to Pioneer entry level players. It will do better with disc's that have laser rot but the noise level of the electronics is the same as the other players from that time. There are some going for prices way too high. I personally would not give more than $50 to $80 for this player. The 97 is a much better picture.

Kurtis

From a video game collector's standpoint, that is a very valuable LD player. Unfortunately it does not have either the Sega CD or the NEC game modules. I believe that means it can't play the LD games then. Usually it sells for thousands, but thats with the Sega module and some LD games. Unless you're wanting to get into LD video games I don't think you should get that player, if for any other reason than to let a video game collector have it!

I had no idea they were that expensive.

I've been sporadically checking ebay and craigslist for an ac3 rf demodulator to go with my CLD-D704. I knew prices were high, but it's out of control! It seems people will drop $300 on a converter without blinking.

And when I think about it, it's all to be able to playback a 384kbps DD track. I don't have that many Dolby Digital disks in the first place. To be honest, I find myself content with the 2 channel PCM track converted to DPL II in the receiver. I've never had a demodulator in my system, so I can't compare.

I have, however, concentrated on collecting DTS laserdiscs, and will still pick one up if the price is right. I even have an anamorphic (squeeze) version ofThe Fugitive that is a rare jewel in my rather small collection.

If anyone has any thoughts or experience with RF DD playback compared to PL II playback, I'd love to hear them.

Thanks,
EJ

I am keeping a reasonable LD Player to play my small quantity of Laserdiscs at the momment.
Sometimes it gives me U1 Error.
For example, in 2 discs it happened the following:

1. In one certain disc i press play on side B, it starts spinning but then stops and gives me U1 "error"
2. Playing another disc, in the very same scene, i start to see green speckles...getting worts and worst, until the player stops the disc. Always in the same scene.

The laserpickup is as new. Can anyone tell me the problem?

For an rf demodulator why not try a yamaha ddp 1. You can probably get it for under $100.

I got myself a Yamaha DDP-1, which decodes an AC-3 signal (RF, coax SPDIF, or optical SPDIF) to 5.1 channels analog, for $25. Since I have several AC-3 LDs, including several Studio Ghibli discs, the second Sakura Wars OVA series, the Pioneer Tenchi Muyo & El-Hazard OVA rerelease boxes & the magnificent Wings of Honneamise re-release box set, it made sense for me. I, for one, do enjoy having the discrete audio option.

If anyone is interested I have a Pioneer LD 838D and remote that I no longer use. I also have a few discs. I would have to look since I don't remember which ones, except for 2001 A Space Odyssey. PM me for more.

There is a Squeeze T2 on ebay, so tempting

There is also a squeeze Cliffhanger for $65 if anyone is interested. (A heads up on the shipping for this. It's not the $6 listed, but rather $28, which he tries to explain later. So you're already up to $93.)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Japan-LD-CLI...33670276007125

$350 for the anamorphic t2!! $$

Holy $h*T! Somebodys got to be insanely into LD's to go after that at that price!!!....just sayin'.....

Its the Best Version on Laserdisc...
The Muse Edition is fantastic, but the Squeezed Edition from 1998 is the Best...

I have both and side by side the Squeezed wins.

I still have 2 of these players when I used to collect video game systems. 1 has the Sega module installed, the other is a like-new CLD100 with a new in the box Sega module + pioneer branded control module as well. I thought i'd hold onto them for a while, it's good to see others know about this LD player's unique design. Considering how expensive it was when it was released, it's no wonder there was no chance of survival.

I've played a number of sega CD's on the one I using in a game room, it works fine. It's funny seeing a 'Sonic the Hedgehog' cartridge sticking out of the front of a Pioneer laserdisc player.

Although I've collected LD's for years, I know very little about the laseractive/sega technology. Is there a website or guide where a novice like me could brush up on the technology?

I think it should be very cool...
My unit and the 2 modules (PC and SEGA) are still Brand New in box, but if i don't sell them i will display these in my Home Theater...

Has anyone ever done an A/B comparison between the HLD-X0 and the LD-S2 using the same NTSC LaserDisc and composite output (the BNC one)?

TLK

"I haven't been able to definitely verify it, but I believe that this is THE VERY FIRST LASER DISC MODEL EVER!"

Awesome.

TLK

The asking price is outrageous, but I guess if someone is willing...my parents had a similar model for a few years starting in the late '80s. Picked it up for $10 at a yard sale. I collected lds and they could watch ones I bought. I had them donate it when dolby rf discs appeared. They could only play a 1 channel soundtrack, if any at all. It was way past it's expiration date anyway.

i deslike ebay

I miss my Laserdisc player some days. But I cringe at the thought of the weight of having to move the collection from one apartment to another. Maybe once I get a house.

My 704 just gave up the ghost I shot off a pm to Kurtis on whether it's worth fixing.

Hi
Yes i have done that, i had all High End Players and i still have a few, that i am selling since i don't use them.
The picture is very close, in fact inside the LD-S2 has a very close building in pair with the X0.
But the X0 is a unit that was launched 5 years ahead, and the picture is like 10% even better than he LD-S2.
The X0 is for a "Purist"...it's for a Laserdisc lover that wants to take the maximum of laserdisc quality and have the most natural and breathtaking picture possible.
But the LD-S2 is also very close. The LD-S2 and HLD-X0 are single side units for a reason, they were made to last and Pioneer didn't bothered to fill the units with double side mechanism, instead they built them like tanks with the best of the best.
If you check laserdiscarchive.co.uk, you will see that the LD-S2 was called LD-X1 in Japan.
THe X-Line was the Reference Line, and the number 1 is the closest to the 0, so by here you can see how close in quality these units are.

If most of the people knew the LD-S2 they wouldn't want to buy a CLD-97 or CLD-99.... I am not saying the CLD97 is not a good unit, but it's mid-end, not High End.

Well, I finally got an AC3 demodulator, a Kenwood DEM-999D. Paid $83 total. I just couldn't justify $250 for the Nakamichi(sp) name.

Thoughts?

Nice find! My Yamaha DDP-1 was 25.00 but to tell you the truth as nice as discrete multichannel is I still think Pro Logic II still sounds better.