How Would You Rate the Laseractive as an LD player?

[SignOfZeta]

So my LD-V2200 is starting to band on CLV discs and I miss the "modern" features from my CLD- S201, so I'll be getting a new (to me) LD player soon. The guys at laserdiscservice.com can reman me a CLD-A100 (aka: Laseractive) and I'm thinking about it. I'm not concerned with the PAC modules at this point (although they would be nice to have down the road) I'm primarily concerned with its viability as a straight up movie player. The actual Laseractive bit...I'll get into later.

I'm interested in how good it is at being an all around LD player. My S201 was a real rattle trap compared to my V2200 (which shouldn't be a surprise considering the 2200 was about ten times the price when new) and vibrated when playing crappy discs from companies like Image. It did play digital sound though, which is something I really miss now since my dual audio discs are all...not dual audio anymore when played on units from 1990.

So basically I need to know if I should just be looking at another player, or if the Laseractive is relatively solid, hopefully comparable to another mid-range players from that time period.

[nectarsis]

From anyone I've ever talked to they have fair to meh image quality..QC issues (common to have sticky /malfunctioning trays, etc.).  Just not worth the $ unless you're hardcore about the Sega/NEC Pacs.  A standalone quality laserdisc just makes more sense.

[bust3dstr8]

Low to mid range AV and the tray is a POS.

[TheClash603]

I agree that it isn't the highest quality, but there are the perks of LA games...  if you aren't looking to play any though, go for another player.

I have 3 Laseractives because only 1 currently works, if that is any indication of the physical quality of the machine, which is much more suspect than the technical quality.

[SignOfZeta]

Thanks for the info so far!

After looking at some internal pics of the Laseractive I think it has many of the same guts as my S201 Now, this wasn't a bad unit exactly, it just wasn't that great.

I have yet to see what this place is charging for reman Laseractives, so the price he quotes me will be a big factor in my decision. It will be a newly refurbished example, so a lot less rattly than most of the units out there that are going on 17 years old or whatever.

[SignOfZeta]

Low to mid range AV and the tray is a POS.

I think I had basically the same tray in my S201. It was cheap feeling, but never malfunctioned. What does yours do?

[bust3dstr8]

The tray is loose and rattles alot. I have had it stick a few times on me. It just needs to be babied and kept well greased.

[arbaba]

Low to mid range AV and the tray is a POS.

I agree with that......

[kattare]

feature-wise it kinda sucks too... no auto-flip and no dual tray... if I remember right, the control had a bunch of features missing too, like you could grab a remote off another pioneer unit from the same timeframe and get a bunch more functions.  I have two here, both work fine, but it's taken some love to keep them in working order.

the issues with the tray and disc loading I think stem primarily from age, as the mechanism is driven by a rubber band, and the rubber degrades with age... Pioneer actually still sells replacement bands tho on their website. (and if I remember right, the shipping is really expensive!)

[SignOfZeta]

feature-wise it kinda sucks too... no auto-flip and no dual tray...

Well, in 1993 non-Laseractive players with auto reverse were $700 minimum, so this unit not having it seems logical since it was already hugely expensive. I'm not sure what you mean by the dual tray. If you mean the separate slide-out section for 5" discs...well, it has that.

if I remember right, the control had a bunch of features missing too, like you could grab a remote off another pioneer unit from the same timeframe and get a bunch more functions.

Yeah, this is also typical of Pioneer back then. The LaserActive has the same remote as my 201 did. Puny, no jog dial, etc.  I could use the remote from my friends unit (the one with the 5 disc changer built in) and have some extra features.

I have two here, both work fine, but it's taken some love to keep them in working order.

the issues with the tray and disc loading I think stem primarily from age, as the mechanism is driven by a rubber band, and the rubber degrades with age... Pioneer actually still sells replacement bands tho on their website. (and if I remember right, the shipping is really expensive!)

Yeah, well the guy I'm considering buying one from is basically the most knowledgeable LD repair man in the English speaking world. He still has is original training certificate from 1979. Because of this (and my own electro-mechanical semi competence) I'm not really worried about things that only happen after 15+ years of use. I'm more concerned with other basic issues of AV quality.

I still haven't gotten a price from this guy. Depending on what it is, I'm probably getting one from him.

[kattare]

Sorry about the dual tray ambiguity.  It DOES have a separate CD/LD tray setup.  It DOES NOT have the feature later models did that would let you put disc 1 in one tray and disc 2 in another tray so you could watch an entire two disc movie uninterrupted.  As you mentioned, that would have cost an arm and a leg at that time.

Audio/Video-quality wise, I don't have any other LD units to compare it to.  If I'm comparing a TG w/ Booster, TG-CD, or Duo, all the stand-alone consoles have better picture and audio IMHO.  I think the path is just too long inside the LA between the output of the chips in the PAC and the output of the video on the back of the LA.  Interference and other artifacts get introduced.

[SignOfZeta]

Sorry about the dual tray ambiguity.  It DOES have a separate CD/LD tray setup.  It DOES NOT have the feature later models did that would let you put disc 1 in one tray and disc 2 in another tray so you could watch an entire two disc movie uninterrupted.  As you mentioned, that would have cost an arm and a leg at that time.

Holly shit. I've never seen that in any LD player before. Considering the auto-reverse units have two complete laser sleds in them (and some of them with two lasers each) I can't imagine how expensive that would be. I also can't really imagine caring. Did they make a model commodious to take the Fantasia CAV (five sides)?

Audio/Video-quality wise, I don't have any other LD units to compare it to.  If I'm comparing a TG w/ Booster, TG-CD, or Duo, all the stand-alone consoles have better picture and audio IMHO.  I think the path is just too long inside the LA between the output of the chips in the PAC and the output of the video on the back of the LA.  Interference and other artifacts get introduced.

Now that's interesting because I've read other people's post saying that the LA has the best composite of any PCE system. Maybe I'm confused and they were talking about the Sega PAC? That would make sense.

[kattare]

I'd heard that it was great composite too, but that definitely hasn't been my experience.  Maybe it's my monitor?  I'm using a 21" philips LCD.  I have an old commodore 1702 around here somewhere, maybe I should give it a whirl on that...

[SignOfZeta]

I'd heard that it was great composite too, but that definitely hasn't been my experience.  Maybe it's my monitor?  I'm using a 21" philips LCD.  I have an old commodore 1702 around here somewhere, maybe I should give it a whirl on that...

Composte on LCD=more or less totally unwatchable, from my experience.

[kattare]

Yeah, it's not ideal, but I was just comparing TG-CD composite to TurboDuo composite to LA composite on the LCD... so as a comparison it should be fine, display being equal.

http://burnside.kattare.com/ebay/duo_kiosk_1.jpg


It's not a LCD TV, it's an actual computer monitor, that also has composite and s-video.  Very handy, and pretty nice as far as LCD's go.

[kattare]

In a real quick and dirty comparison of my duo-r and the LA on the commodore 1702, I definitely prefer the duo-r's composite.  On the same cables the duo-r has less ghosting, and the colors are slightly more subdued, which is good because on the LA the bright reds seem to bleed slightly.  The differences are nearly indistinguishable without looking closely though. *shrug*

The 1702 definitely handles the LA composite signal better than the LCD... but then again, that kind of points to a flaw in the LA that the duo-r doesn't have, because I don't get the same problems on the LCD when I use the duo-r.

[SignOfZeta]

I have a theory to explain this. A lot of LDs have some pretty serious red saturation. Maybe they are assuming you have your display set to correct for this, and adjusted the PAC's output to match the settings you would probably be using?

Makes sense, I guess.