What would be an upgrade?

Hi guys,
I'm a newcomer to the world of these enormous but totally awesome Laserdiscs and I happen to have a few questions regarding LD players.

Right now, I have a Pioneer CLD-V2800 and there's two things I would like to know.

1) Where in the hierarchy does this belong? I know it's an industrial player but does it belong in the low, medium or high-range? (Okay, probably not).

2) What player would be a noticeable upgrade and are there other good brands beside Pioneer?

The Pioneer Elite models or those JP only units are pretty much out of my league but I'm open to all suggestions & comments : )

Hello Ji,

Welcome to the forums.

These are just some guide ideas for you to consider, and if it seems like I am being overly obvious it's because I have more-or-less assumed that you are really starting form almost nothing (experience included)..

Well, as far as Laserdisc went, there was no one that produce better LD players, for longer, than PIONEER.
Don't get me wrong, all the makers that had a go producing machines would generally always give results that looked better than VHS, but then when you examine the PQ of VHS...that was never going to be too hard an achievement!

Now, as to your player. Well the PIONEER industrial machines did tend to be built very solidly and (I think) mostly with direct drive motors so they have a bit of rep of running practically forever!

However, I think that this one has single side play only right? So an immediate step up would be a machine that plays both sides of the disc without having to get up every 30-60 minutes (depending on the disc). That may not seem like much of a step up, but if you're watching the Definitive STAR WARS set, that means leaving your chair every 30 minutes...that's six visits for one film!

Another step-up would be a machine that gives you digital audio out. I know that this machine can give digital, but I believe that it must come via the RS-232C interface. Unless you are running this machine through your computer, it is inaccessible to you. A lot of PIONEER machines give digital audio out from and standard TOS-LINK optical socket (exactly the same type that made it onto DVD players and the PS3). This would also give you straight DTS out from a DTS coded Laserdisc, as long as your amp can support DTS. But also remember that your standard red/white stereo output will give you wonderfully sounding DOLBY Pro-Logic Surround (analogue). It is not the digital 'flavour' but my goodness, analogue Pro-Logic still sounds damned good compared to just stereo.

Also, is PAL and NTSC capability a must for you? Dual standard players, to a UK buyer at least, are a must really. You're in Sweden so a combi-player would open up a whole range of titles from the USA and Japan.

There are many players that would fit the bill. These days, they would not be too expensive either. The PIONEER CLD-2950 remains a good seller and has a great reputation as a reliable workhorse, gives great picture resolution, plays both sides of a disc, provides PAL/NTSC play back and will give you digital audio out that you can easily get to. It is also one of the most sturdily built machines I have ever had. It has a good solid build feel to it, like it means business.

And it does deliver. I also have a CLD-D925 which I love (it was my very first player ) and that also gives fabulous pictures, as does my DVL-909. But these two offer AC3 Dolby Digital sound which - if you want that particular extra - is a whole additional dimension to talk about, involving at least one additional piece of hardware.

Whilst there are many who might argue that there are some much better machines out there, that would be 'ELITE' machines but for lacking the wood panels at the sides (or proclaiming them even as direct equivalents) you will find that these stray too close to the 'ELITE' price range for comfort. They did for me at least.

I have lucked out with my purchases and have ended up with some really decent machines...But I did my homework first. Think about what you need from your potentially new machine. Does your current machine give you great pictures and decent sound?

If so, is there a need to upgrade?

DGTWoodward wrote:Hello Ji, Welcome to the forums.

Thank you. : )

DGTWoodward wrote:

...the PIONEER industrial machines did tend to be built very solidly and (I think) mostly with direct drive motors so they have a bit of rep of running practically forever!

However, I think that this one has single side play only right?

Yes, it's a single side player but it sounds like the perfect backup player, then.

Yeah, one of the reasons I want to upgrade is to have the ability for dual side playback. Most of the titles I have clocks nicely in just under 30 minutes but some certainly doesn't
The digital audio out/ac3 out is not very important to me at all, in my current setup at least, neither is the ability to play PAL movies.

I guess what I'm looking for is a player featuring double side playback and noticeably better image quality. Some of the titles I have are pretty noisy, so a noise reduction feature would be very much appreciated.

DGTWoodward wrote:
There are many players that would fit the bill. These days, they would not be too expensive either. The PIONEER CLD-2950 remains a good seller and has a great reputation as a reliable workhorse, gives great picture resolution, plays both sides of a disc, provides PAL/NTSC play back and will give you digital audio out that you can easily get to. It is also one of the most sturdily built machines I have ever had. It has a good solid build feel to it, like it means business.

Thanks for the recommendation. Are there any other players out there that offer similar performance?

A bit of problem with the Laserdisc Archive is that the specs for my player are clearly stated, but not for all the others, making direct comparisons a tad difficult...for example, the page for the CLD-2950 contains just pictures.