re CAV/CLV - at the beginning of each side they're the same, but the further you go into a CAV side the faster the linear velocity of the pickup, and the RF bandwidth of the signal improves, and the noise along with it. I've found a few dB improvement between outer-CAV and CLV.
I have one Sony (Japan) demo disk with both CAV and CLV sides of the same content, but the mastering is different enough to prevent a perfect comparison :P
But really, if you're worried that much about such things just look for a Blu Ray and be done with it ;)
IMO the X9 isn't worth hundreds more, the X0 would be worth hundreds more... but it's thousands more, and is potentially a white elephant if something goes wrong (even Pioneer Japan can't always fix them now)
Nope, the thinner boxes are definitely thicker - even compared to the intermediate "side-open sticker" packaging.
But there's a good chance your Galactica is a thick box, especially if the disks are in felt sleeves and it feels like they have plenty of room in there.
It works with pretty much any working LD player, most of them have RF taps somewhere. The 1995 and later CLD's all have it labeled on a 11-pin header, which is nice. The EFM port was only used to see what the players did with the EFM on the disk.
I don't know of any pre-made boards right now alas.
When replacing the pickup all the calibrations will be off, so you will need to go through the service manual and follow the steps set out for when you replace the pickup.
https://manuals.lddb.com/LD_Players/Pioneer/CLD/CLD-D504/CLD-D504-EN-Service-Manual_Scan.pdf covers the NTSC version of the 515/915.
And simoni just updated this alignment guide for the LD-4300D/4400 - it's for a more complex player but a really good description: edit after cplusplus's comment below: https://www.domesday86.com/?page_id=2896
edit: The above's for more general issues. Make sure the motor holder is in good shape on the new pickup - the 315 has the dreaded VNL16xx version - and maybe remount the pickup and make sure there isn't anything blocking it? krbahr or a more experienced tech will be more helpful than I :)
The LD-S1 has (CCD) TBC for analog audio RF as well as (demodulated) video, which will get rid of 30hz flutter. If they went to that much trouble, the rest of the circuitry and sound quality should be very nice.
The 315 should be close enough, aside from lack of PAL analogue audio support and dual-side play. It'll almost certainly be based on the same motherboard, so everything about digital audio should be identical.
RRV1603 is the AC3 addendum - There is a guide for the S104 (RRV1188) that I'd like to get someday if it ever pops up somewhere, but I don't know if there's an equivalent for the 504/515/604.
The X0 is in a totally different league from a 99 in terms of heft, electronics, and noise levels.
The X0 - and to a lesser but increasing extent the X9 - are white elephants though. With a 909 there's a lot more players you can cannibalize for spare parts. If the pickup on an X9 or pretty much anything on an X0 goes, you're hosed.
To be fair, there are some Discovision disks where the aluminum *has* developed holes and is therefore utterly unplayable. Sometimes this happened on a smaller scale because someone at the plant marked a good side with a sharpie.
This, Fun&Games, and the History Disquiz were all reissued by Voyager in 1990, w/solid Pioneer USA pressings.
(One can safely assume Discovision made every then-possible LD mistake at least once. ;) )
Pioneer's digital TBC's generally use 8-bit (+ sync in most cases) ADC/DAC's. A few like the LD-S2 have oversampling DAC's that are pseudo 9-bit.
Thank you for confirming this. I still get an expanded range (ie. no clipping) capturing in 10-bit, so I'll continue to do so. Is the ADC used during normal playback, or only displaying still frames (for example, when players give CAV-like still frame display to CLV disks)?
Digital TBC players always use it. You might be seeing better results with 10bit because the comb filter you're using does a better job, and there's a 4.2mhz analog LPF after the TBC (which is at 14.something mhz). So in effect it might be a higher depth (and unfortunately higher-ringing!) signal.
Thinking about it more, bit depth isn't always the only factor... in a Domesday Duplicator setup the RF capture is done at 40msps/10bit, but you can go down to 8 bits worth of signal before losing much - player calibration is a far, far bigger factor.
I remember seeing the last 8" plant shut down in 2007 or so, but I doubt there were any 12's being made in 2004.
edit: This auction might be interesting: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Teichiku-Laser-Karaoke-24-Sheets-Edition-Series-Collection-Special-Excellent-/183989714620 - if it's the same series that includes #602 . They're LD Singles, probably 8". Which would explain why the last factory was kept open longer,t hose are much easier to make.
TBF the Pioneer player was the rather dreadful 3090. There is/was an interesting eBay auction with a massive list of reworks earlier runs in particular needed before any other warranty service would be paid for!
And the late run Panasonic 1000 may or may not have been a good player.
So if the review was earlier (Pio 3080) or later (Pana 900) the Sony would've had more of a challenge.
I don't have a foolproof way of determining SuperNTSC titles, but they're less likely to have noticeable artifacts when run through a good 2D comb filter.
(Also, I'm more interested in relative oddities - most of the late disks mentioned have decent DVD's, if not decent Blu-Rays that not even an X0+ADV7842 has a chance of beating.)
PAL/NTSC players are mostly meh. The 915 is OK, but has worse ringing than similar models, and the PAL/NTSC DVL's might be alright.
Generally with NTSC before the 915, the circuitry is much worse than in NTSC-only players, especially when the PALB board is in use (which may or may not require rewiring the player). The 2950 has basically the same mechanics as the 99, but the electronics are worse than the baseline NTSC-only 503 (analog TBC, etc)
As for PAL, it's mostly that nobody ever made a really good PAL player, ever. They *all* suck compared to what PAL LD can do.
Thanks list
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