Hi everyone

While I’m new to Laserdiscs and this site, I’m an old fan of VHS and have been a collector since the 80’s. Yes I still have Super VHS Decks here at home (Sony SLVR-1000’s). The thing is I’ve just updated my entertainment center and have a nice spot for another deck and have decided to invest in a laser disc player for the first time after all these years.

Being you all are the pros I was thinking to ask for some guidance..?

Here is what I need primarily in my “new” laserdisc player

A Laserdisc player that has all or most of the following including outputs listed below.

1. Plays BOTH NTSC and PAL discs with 110 V plug adaptability
2. Can play both sides (not a must)
3. Two VIDEO Out: S-Video and Composite
4. Three AUDIO Out: Left and Right RCA, AC-3 RF Out, Optical (Does anyone know if “Optical out” will carry a 5.1 Disc signal from these decks or does the signal exclusively live via the “AC-3 RF Out”?
5. If NO then can I assume that any LaserDisc player with an optical out is already demodulating the AC3 sound signal?
6. Dimensions: Width no more than 18 Inches / Depth no more than 21 Inches

PS: People seem to love the Pioneer CLD-D925 but thats out of my price range. Any more reasonable priced Laserdiscs player model numbers that have (ideally) all of these features is what I need. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you all in advance!

There are plenty of topics and websites that have great info on what player to look for.
Please search them up and good luck on picking up a player.

The only advice I can add is get a working one, that is the best player option right now.

Your options are Pioneer DVL-919E and CLD-D925 only if you really must have PAL playback. Chances of finding one of these in the US is slim to none. You will have to import from Europe. You will pay a ton on shipping alone. They are versatile players in terms of feat however far from the best performing players.

If you give up on PAL playback, you have a ton of options. Coax/optical will do 2ch pcm and 5.1 dts. 5.1 dolby is through rf output via rf demodulation only. These are universal facts on all players.

I don’t know what’s a reasonable price for you but don’t expect to find anything remotely decent for under $200 unless you come across a lucky local find.

Not sure what the need is for a PAL capable player if you live in the USA since there is a much greater variety of NTSC LD's from both the US and Asia. Were there specific PAL titles that never made it on NTSC that you are looking to collect?

In any case, if you can drop the PAL requirement as "substance" mentioned, you literally open the door to a greater variety of players to choose from and they can all be had within the US (thus saving shipping cost). The trick now is to find a player that you like and hopefully it's in good working order.

Maybe DVL-909 ?

Hello.

I'm pretty much sure there is no LD player that match all your requirements.

The player which check most of your table of contents is, to my mind, an industrial (pro) Philips deck : the VP 380.

1. Plays both NTSC an PAL in their respective native forms and is also able to transcode PAL to NTSC and vice versa if required
2. (Single side play)
3. Three video outs : composite (RCA and SCART ouputs), Y/C (but on non standard 8 pins Ushiden) and RGB (yes ! on 21 pins SCART connector with the required fast blanking signal on pin 16 to switch TV monitor with SCART input in RGB mode)
4. Only two audio outputs : analogue left and right (RCA and SCART outputs) and digital (S/PDIF on RCA and even on SCART output !)
5. ?
6. Dimensions ?

Is there even a combi that still supports analog PAL audio?

1: you seriously don’t need this and it’s the hardest thing on your list to do so just forget about it. Even Europeans often don’t collect PAL LD. It’s a virtual wasteland of nothing except for like three titles you *may* want but probably not as bad as you want 300 other NTSC titles.

3: you don’t actually need this. Most decks with s-video will, with today’s equipment, look way better using the composite output. The comb filters (what strips the native LD composite into both Y and C) on old decks are garbage. The better ones are found on X0, 99, and a few other late models but the comb filter built into a new Bravia will be vastly better. The comb filter on a deck that wasn’t marketed as Elite or sold as a higher end JDM model is probably crap.

4 and 5: On LD there is more than one “5.1”. If you want Dolby Digital 5.1 you need the AC-3 output AND a demodulator or some other way to use it. Only 20 year old receivers will handle it natively. If you want DTS 5.1 then you need the SPDIF/TOSLINK. No player ever made will put anything out over the Digital out except what’s physically in the Digital Sound section of the disc. On most discs this is redbook Dolby Stereo but DTS takes the place on those discs. No player will output AC-3 from its Digital out. Luckily all players have stereo lineouts.

6: Dimensions...you realize they don’t make these anymore and LDs themselves are already 12”, right?

You didn’t number it but “invest” is something I had to laugh at.

So yeah, the player you want probably doesn’t exist and if it did it’s just the one in Alaska and it’s going to break in shipping. My advice is you buy whatever local clunker you can get and then refine your terms knowing a little more about this crazy world. Nobody here has one deck. They fail too easily and once you have a decent collection you’ll feel uncomfortable without redundant means of viewing it.

I Do.

- then again, i also have three or four identical players' worth of spares for it,
- and the knowledge on how to quickly and easily swap out the major component assemblies -

still, as a 1988 model, it IS an aging one, and i don't suppose i'm doing myself any favors here,
besides avoiding those awful 1990's player cosmetics i happen to so unreasonably loathe...

This certainly isn't strict criteria at all, and with a budget to boot.