Through a Philips sales person I got a number of 5" early CDVs, I tried to play them in my Pioneer and Philips players,
they were recognised as CDV, but am unable to play the video part (video part is clearly there looking at the disc),
also the audio tracks are reversed from what has been printed on the inlay and disc.
The color is also not that yellow as the regular once, more like the japanese CDVs.
I assume these are early test discs, they are all made in Germany (this factory never produced the discs that went on sale)

There are 2 versions:
- Compact Disc Video Single (round logo)
- CD Video (logo has three discs and a vertical break)

The discs I have are:

Tears For Fears: Head Over Heels (1985) [060 001-7]
Motley Crue: Smoking in the Boys Room (1985) [060 018-7]
Mr. Mister: Kyrie (1986) [060 020-7]
Cyndi Lauper: Girls Just Want To Have Fun (1983) [060 021-7]

So far I have been unable to find more details about these discs, anyone else who has these discs?

I see the disc illustrated is marked as NTSC. It's a bonehead question, but have you made sure that the video system of disc & player is compatible?

I understand PDO UK pressing CDs & CDVs were known for rot, but I never heard that of the German plant, & anyway it should affect playback of the audio part as well.

Yes I tried to play on Pioneer CLD-D925 and other NTSC machines, but no luck at all =;^)

The Tears For Fears and Motley Crue ones have even no mark NTSC or PAL, but I assume they are NTSC like the 2 other,

I agree the quality in the PDO Blackburn plant was terrible, they have had bad periods (1984 Laservisions are almost all rotten, and the early 12" / 8" CD Videos have very bad pressings with a lot of drop-outs, unfortunately they have no mintmark, so it is difficult to select a good one. I have read an article that mentioned pressings varied from one week to the next, do not understand the quality department let those pressings on the market .... must have been pressure to release discs as the introduction from Philips have been postponed several times

The 5" CDV's there are mint markings, but even these do not help, as I have a disc where the audio and video are distored at the end of the clip it is like driving through a real snowstorm, never seen and heard such a bad one, where another one with the same mintmark plays good.

The earlier discs mentioned above are all pressed in the PDO plant in Hannover Germany

I might add......my NTSC 5" CDV Kane Gang made PDO UK is pretty rotted on the video track (both video and sound) but the audio tracks play perfectly fine, and my Anita Baker Sweet Love NTSC PDO UK has rot at the end of the video track (but audio tracks are fine)

So it could be just the video tracks on your sample discs are rotted (and won't play) but not the audio tracks.

My one Pioneer (cld-3030) has a button on the player for cdv's called video part/CD part, which will bypass the video and play the audio tracks. If your player has that, see if it will play the audio tracks.

My feeling it has nothing to do with rot, with none of these 4 discs the player goes to the video part i can even not select the video track, the discs do not spin up

The 5" Durutti Column CDV I own has this issue and it was manufactured in France.
I'm not sure if other copies also suffer because no seller who had the CDV could/would confirm!!

Hello Laserdisc_fan

Have been in contact with Danilo from Germany and Laurent from France, both CDV collectors, they also own a couple of these early discs, both confirm these are not playable on our players (looks the coding of the main chapter track coding is different, nobody knows the reason behind, have this seen only on the discs made in Hanover Germany using the old logos (060 xxx-7))

My MPO France discs are playable

Why do they play on my players?
CLD-1850, CLD-D515, CLD-D515, CLD-D925, CLD-V2300D, CLD-V2300D
Early CDV's will play without a problem.... If they are still good.
I have to look, but I believe I have some left... (sold almost all my CDV's)
The first CDV's were from 1987

Hi please verify if they have a reference 060 xxx-7, do you remember a title or artist?

All my discs are recognized as CDV, however there is only 1 audio track recognized, which plays both audiotracks, however reversed as printed on label and disc, normally a CDV goes first to the video part, not the case with these discs.

Have a look at this disc as made in Germany 060 001-7

I have Duran Duran - Wild Boys 060 009-7
Just plays normal...

Almost all of the PDO manufactured CDVs have some level of rot. And the rot seems to get worse the closer to the edge. For example, my "Papa Don't Preach" looks great at the beginning, but by the end of the video track, the audio and video have picked up static. The ones from DADC are all excellent.

It is a shame PDO made such a mess of producing laserdiscs in general as many cool titles were released.
I have many 5" CDVs and VSDs from Japan and none are rotted. Japan manufacturing standards really are the best in the world.