So I Have A Shitty LD Player And I'm Looking For A Better One

[Gypsy]

I've already kind of compiled a list based on old ass threads I was reading. However, I know there are some LD peeps around here, and I would certainly love to have your input as well.

X9/X0 are not in the range of what I'm looking to spend.

[GohanX]

What kind of budget do you have? And you don't happen to live in NC do you? I have some spare players.

[SignOfZeta]

In the sane price point: CLD97, CLD99, R7G, LD-S1, and of course those 909/919s, which I was never a fan of but they are honestly pretty good.

You didn't mention what you have, where you are, or what you will spend so this is not really easy...

[Gypsy]

In the sane price point: CLD97, CLD99, R7G, LD-S1, and of course those 909/919s, which I was never a fan of but they are honestly pretty good.

You didn't mention what you have, where you are, or what you will spend so this is not really easy...

Yeah I could have definitely been more clear.

Answers: CLD-2080, Kansas, up to $500 but something like $100-200 is ideal.

Knowing the better models in these general price ranges would be good. I would guess that like anything else tech (my most experience would be with headphones) that we are talking about pretty marginal gains/diminishing returns when you take bigger steps up the price ladder. If this thinking is wrong, do let me know.

97 and 99 were actually ones I was already looking at as potentials.

GohanX, let me know models and prices. I'm not looking to buy right this second though.

[SignOfZeta]

Being in Kansas I would imagine local finds are rare. Therefore you will have to ship and here is a decent chance that the thing will break during shipping. I would reccomend contacting a repair guy who has something ready to ship. This way you won't have to spend another $200 fixing something you just bought.

In 2017, on eBay and whatever, you can't really trust that a player will arrive undamaged. It may break in shipping or maybe it was already broke when they mailed it out. It's pretty treacherous, if I'm honest.

If you are in the LDDB forums contact Grasshopper or Krbahr. If you aren't on that forum, rectify that.

Don't engage Bayview Electronics or Duncan Hunter. He seems to have gone rouge with quite a few players and pissed off a small mob of LD fans.

[Gypsy]

Thanks Zeta.

[crazydean]

Being in Kansas I would imagine local finds are rare. Therefore you will have to ship and here is a decent chance that the thing will break during shipping. I would reccomend contacting a repair guy who has something ready to ship. This way you won't have to spend another $200 fixing something you just bought.

In 2017, on eBay and whatever, you can't really trust that a player will arrive undamaged. It may break in shipping or maybe it was already broke when they mailed it out. It's pretty treacherous, if I'm honest.

Agreed. I bought two last year off ebay but the first one arrived damaged. I figured that it was worth a look, to see if i could fix it. No way was that happening. They are way more complicated than i expected. Anyway, I got a full refund and bought another one.

If you buy from Joe 6-pack, there's a good chance it will arrive damaged. However, if you buy on eBay, you can very likely get your money back.

[kazekirifx]

Well, the LD-S9 I have is pretty good. And while still expensive, it doesn't cost nearly as much nowadays as I bought mine for. Bought a used one for around $1,000, telling myself it was an "investment", and I'd better get one while I still can. LOL. They go for like half that much now. Heheh... sniff 

[Gypsy]

If you buy from Joe 6-pack, there's a good chance it will arrive damaged. However, if you buy on eBay, you can very likely get your money back.

You absolutely will, because well, that's how eBay works. However, the people that Zeta mentioned are likely extremely reliable. So if I could get something solid off of one of them, and have it shipped correctly, well it's worth even a slight increase in cost over eBay to not have to deal with a headache.

[crazydean]

If you buy from Joe 6-pack, there's a good chance it will arrive damaged. However, if you buy on eBay, you can very likely get your money back.

You absolutely will, because well, that's how eBay works. However, the people that Zeta mentioned are likely extremely reliable. So if I could get something solid off of one of them, and have it shipped correctly, well it's worth even a slight increase in cost over eBay to not have to deal with a headache.

Sounds like a solid decision.

[SignOfZeta]

A lot of people buy a player and eventually realize it's out of alignment so they send it out and wait and then get it back again later. This will cost more than a cheap player so it's a good idea to a) not buy a cheap player and b) try as hard as you can to make sure it was at least in good shape when the people mailed it.

The trailer queens that run ebay have no idea what they have. They don't know what good/bad or fixed/broke is. Try to deal only with actual LD people. If you buy a Ferrari at 7-11, don't expect anything to work on it. Anyone can be retro game dealer or sell you mint comics or whatever, but LD is high end, fragile, OLD, and very hard to get serviced.

The screw drive players, the LD-W1 and the pro ("V") decks are vastly more durable but I don't know if anything with all the bells and whistles of later LD (ie: AC-3, both side play, digital out) that is built this way. The LD-W1 can do most trick play features, plays four sides continuously, and can be modded to have SPDIF and AC-3 but they don't come with those features and they are pretty hard to run across in real life, especially with the remote and there is no other remote made for any player that has sides A-D so you really want the real remote.

[GohanX]

Ok, so the CLD-2080, assuming everything is working properly, is a pretty solid player. It doesn't have a lot of the features of the later 90's players, but you need something pretty high end to get significantly better. Keep an eye on Craigslist, as you might get lucky and find a high end player cheap, but otherwise I'm basing my pricing on recent ebay prices, which have been increasing lately.

First of all, if you see a CLD-97, BUY IT. It's the best player you can buy without going into retarded money territory. I paid $300 for mine, but they're going north of $500 on ebay now. As much as I love it I wouldn't pay $500 for one. The only downside to it is that it doesn't have a Dolby Digital RF output if you care about that unless it's modded. The newer version, the CLD-99 is a solid player with Dolby Digital but the image quality is a little inferior to the 97.

For the $100-200 range, there are a couple of players I'd keep an eye out for.

DVL-700 is a seriously underrated player. The DVD portion is awful but the Laserdisc side is excellent. It has every audio output possible, and it has one of the cleanest videos you will find. CD audio output is also better than any player I've used with the exception of the CLD-97 and the LX-900. The drawback to the DVL is that it has built in DNR that you can't turn off. This is pretty good if you hook it up to a SDTV, but not so great if you use a HDTV or a scaler of some kind. This was my first player and it will always stay in my stable. The other DVL models like the 909 are still solid LD players, but not quite as good. They are also creeping up in price, don't pay more than $100-150 for one. They are above average but they're not top tier.

Panasonic LX-600 is around the same class as the DVL, but the image quality is a bit better. it's a very low noise player so the image is pretty solid and a little bit sharper than the DVL. I use this as my secondary player connected in my office right now. The downsides to the Panny are no Dolby RF output, and parts aren't readily available for them. The good part is that since Panasonic doesn't have the same name as Pioneer in the LD world, you can sometimes get them for a steal. I paid $80 for one player, and $100 for a second. (yeah I like this player enough that I bought two.)

Also keep an eye out for CLD-700 series players, particularly the CLD-703 and CLD-704. They used to be the best players you could get for the money (better than many Elite models) but the word has gotten out and the prices have risen. $250 for one is a joke, but sometimes you can get lucky.

If you go up in price a bit, keep an eye out for a Panasonic LX-900. It's very similar to the LX-600 (they share 90% of the same parts) but it has a better video and audio section. Panasonic built this to compete with the CLD-97 and they did a damn fine job. On high quality discs the LX-900 is in the same class as the CLD-97. Not quite as good, but really close. On bad pressings, the LX-900 has a noise reduction setting that works wonders. It is the only player I've ever used that actually has good noise reduction, able to filter a good bit out without taking a big hit to detail levels. Even the CLD-97 has garbage noise reduction (which can be turned off thankfully.) I currently have the LX-900 as my main player as my 97 needs some maintenance. I paid $240 for mine which is a decent price but not exceptional, but sometimes you can get really lucky. A LX-900 recently sold on ebay for $99 shipped, which is crazy.

Like I mentioned with the other Panasonic, the big issue with the LX-900 is the lack of available parts if you need to fix it. It's a good idea to pick up a cheap LX-600 to use as a parts machine if you get a 900. Almost everything is interchangeable. If you look at Pannys the LX-600 and the LX-900 are the ONLY ones you want to look at, most of the rest of the Pannys are garbage. The LX-670 might be okay since it looks similar to the 600 but I don't have any personal experience with them.


Now, all this being said, even the best laserdisc player is still a laserdisc player, and most players are going to look like complete shit on a HDTV. Keep that in mind. They are best used with a HDTV or a scaler of some kind. If your 2080 is connected to a HDTV, a top of the line player really isn't going to look much better. They still look great on SDTVs that have great comb filters though.

[Gypsy]

Okay lots to comment on.

I actually got this current player in person, at a thrift store oddly enough. No remote, but it was quite cheap. Somewhat humorously, I made them an offer on it close to when they first put it out and they declined. It didn't sell because well, it's a LD player in Kansas. They mark stuff down when it sits and eventually I got it for LESS than my original offer. I paid something around $11 after tax. This was awhile ago, so I don't remember exactly.

Anyway, it seems to be in good working order but I can admit I do not know the intricacies of these things. I surely have no idea what trick play features are. All I've done is just watch some movies start to finish.

Wow GohanX thanks for all the info. Good to hear this player isn't too terrible and that it would require a big step up. This will help me be even more patient.

The dvd portion of the one player wouldn't bother me, I'm pretty set for DVD players with some solid region free Oppos. Not amazing but they don't do the heavy lifting.

I am 100% using it on a CRT. I have plenty of upscaling/processing equipment (ia-100, vp30 w/abt102 and vp50pro which is what I use when watching DVDs) but for older formats (I also still watch VHS) I like to watch them on a CRT. I have a PVM, regular old SD consumer tubes as well as a Sony KV-34XBR800 that is in fantastic shape. I would definitely not plug something like a VCR or LD player directly into an LCD tv, that's for sure. I actually have a Leitch DPS-235 coming in the mail. I plan to route my VCR and LD player through it. That's the main purpose anyway, I'll see how it plays with consoles like the PC-FX and my Duo R. I've noticed some annoying stuff with this Duo R, I definitely need to send it on over to Keith eventually.

[GohanX]

Your gonna have fun figuring out what looks best. I have both DVDo and Leitech equipment, I can give you some pointers.

[DragonmasterDan]

If you were in a more urban area I'd say just check around thrift stores, yard sales, etc. A friend of mine picked up a DVL-919 for me a couple years ago at an estate sale. I also found a Pioneer CLD-D504 at a goodwill for 3.99 a little bit before that.

They're out there, but the very high end players are unlikely to be found outside of looking online at this point.

[GohanX]

I've never been that lucky, but LD wasn't much of a thing around my neck of the woods back in the day. The only time I've ever found anything laserdisc locally is when I found a random CLD-S201 at a used electronics store. I don't think they even knew what it was, as they had it marked as a generic CD player for $29.99.

[GohanX]

Make sure you post your impressions of using that Leitech device. I have a DPS-290, which isn't really the same thing, but some people use it for noise reduction. Some people swear by it, but I wasn't crazy about it in my setups. I'd imagine it probably won't make too much of a difference on laserdiscs, but the time base correction will probably do wonders for color on VHS.

I also have a Dvdo VP50 (but not the pro model.) The thing is great for upscaling to a widescreen set. I think the pro model has noise reduction too, but I'm not sure if it's anything useful for laserdiscs. I upgraded to the Dvdo Duo, which is really similar but it has a much better comb filter for composite sources and it auto switches 8 ports on HDMI, which I'm using much more than I would have thought beforehand.

That said, your Sony tube is badass. Laserdisc may look best simply connecting composite directly in without any processing equipment.

[Gypsy]

Yeah I definitely will. As I said in addition to old movie formats, I'm going to see how it cleans up my PCE composite. I've noticed a weird noise scroll. It might be the cord, I sure hope it isn't the system. So I'll definitely get some use out of the DPS-235.

The 50pro is pretty damn nice. I use it for DVDs in terms of really putting it to work, but I also pass through my HDMI systems and BD player with it. I've actually been stink-eyeing some newer Lumagen units, but I'm not sure when I'll actually take the plunge and buy one. I'm not sure how any of these newer Lumagens handle composite, but I'm only planning to use it with component and hdmi.

Yeah man it's a really nice TV. I'm only the 2nd owner and I got it for free off CL. I've already put so many hours on it. Before I got the PVM I was using it as my main set for RGB. It's still got plenty hooked up to it though. Just a beast.

[DragonmasterDan]

Yeah I definitely will. As I said in addition to old movie formats, I'm going to see how it cleans up my PCE composite. I've noticed a weird noise scroll. It might be the cord, I sure hope it isn't the system. So I'll definitely get some use out of the DPS-235.

The 50pro is pretty damn nice. I use it for DVDs in terms of really putting it to work, but I also pass through my HDMI systems and BD player with it. I've actually been stink-eyeing some newer Lumagen units, but I'm not sure when I'll actually take the plunge and buy one. I'm not sure how any of these newer Lumagens handle composite, but I'm only planning to use it with component and hdmi.

Yeah man it's a really nice TV. I'm only the 2nd owner and I got it for free off CL. I've already put so many hours on it. Before I got the PVM I was using it as my main set for RGB. It's still got plenty hooked up to it though. Just a beast.

I've been doing LDs on my PVM 3230 for the past few years over svideo.

[Gypsy]

A 32'' beast, nice. My PVM is a bit smaller, but reasonable. I'll just determine with I like the look on better after the DPS-235 comes in.

[roflmao]

It sounds like what you have is similar to my main player, a CLD-D505. It's nothing fancy, but looks pretty good and plays both sides, which is convenient. I run it through a DVD recorder to a 30" HD CRT and I'm happy with the results. I picked up one of these calibration DVDs ages ago and it has really helped: www.amazon.com/Sound-Vision-Home-Theater-Tune-Up/dp/B00005TRZA

Earlier this year I found an AC-3 demodulator for $50 and added a surround sound system and I think I'm done messing with the LD home theater until I win the lottery.

It's kinda funny - the living room has a bigger HD TV, much nicer receiver and speakers, lots of HD sources to enjoy media on, but 90% of my movie watching is from laserdiscs in this dinky little theater and I couldn't be happier.

[GohanX]

Nice. IMO the CLD-D5XX players are criminally underrated. Collectors tend to pass them up because they aren't the high end players, but they are really solid. They're probably the best bargain in players right now. I have a CLD-D504 that I fixed recently as a backup. It had the infamous broken m-holder, the fix was easy but I had to get the part from a seller in England.

[Gypsy]

It's kinda funny - the living room has a bigger HD TV, much nicer receiver and speakers, lots of HD sources to enjoy media on, but 90% of my movie watching is from laserdiscs in this dinky little theater and I couldn't be happier.

Yeah I can understand that. I have and watch movies/anime/tv series on VHS, LD, DVD and BD. Some stuff I have on just about all of them, since it's difficult to sell movies for much of anything and in most cases I'd rather just keep them. I have donated a bunch of VHS though, since there isn't a tangible benefit to keeping most of them around. Still have quite a few that I haven't gotten anything better of, and stuff like Star Wars original trilogy which I should really get on LD.