I tried googling this question and came up with nothing and I didn't even search North American. I just searched which laserdisc player was the first to read both sides and nothing came up. My CLD-3080 is from 1990 so I'm assuming it's one of the first but I'm sure it's not the first model. Was there something before this? Which year was it when they released both sides players? Was it 1990 or another year?

The Pioneer CLD-2070 & Pioneer CLD-3070, were the 1st single disc auto reverse LD players and they came out in 1989 (difference is the latter has field memory). Pioneer Elite also released the Pioneer CLD-91 possibly in the same year and it was just a 3070 with the glossy look, wood side panels, & copper chassis (probably some minor performance tweaks as well).

Now when it comes to auto reverse in general, 1988 would really be the first year but the player in question is the Pioneer LD-W1, which is the only dual disc / four side changer ever made and makes it a one off type of player vs. the more common single disc units. It only plays LD discs as well (no CD).

The LD-W1 was the first auto-flip player in the USA, as ldfan mentioned. The CLD-3030 was the first single-disc auto-flip player in the USA, I am pretty sure. I bought mine in 1988 or 1989 when it first came out.

The Pioneer, CLD-3030 was the first player I ever owned and I will always cherish it. Unfortunately, it is not an auto reverse player so I missed out on it by one year.

Regardless, it's still a great player and from a historic aspect it's unique because it's the only single side combi player that Pioneer made w/ digital field memory. After 1988, all combi players with digital field memory would have auto reverse as well.

OK, my mistake then. I sure thought I owned a dual-side player before my CLD-D704 in the late 1990s, and I do remember selling my 3030 at a flea market around that time also (for a now-criminal price of about US$40, including remote control, in flawless condition, probably with its box and manual). Maybe I never did.

I do know that my first dual-side player would "go back a bit and pick a random freeze frame to put on the screen while it does the auto-flip". If the 704 does that, then it was/is my first one. I should check if that is how it behaves.

Pretty much all auto reverse players with field memory will do a quick image capture at the side change to display a still before getting to the next side. On the 701 and later players, that feature can be defeated with “film mode” to simply display a black screen which also quickens the reverse time.

The "Hardware Search" is not ready yet but a quick SQL'ing gives 3 USA Players released in 1989:

• Pioneer CLD-2070
• Pioneer CLD-3070
• NEC LD-2000

The NEC being very much a clone of the 3070 (same back panel).

Julien