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 Post subject: Pioneer's new owners throwing out parts?
PostPosted: 19 Jul 2022, 05:53 
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I've been a long-time fan of laserdisc but I just learned something troubling today- when trying to get a player fixed at a repair shop which has also been around a long time, they said it needed a new laser pickup and they were unable to get one. While Pioneer has traditionally continued to support the laserdisc format after its demise, they were recently bought out by Onkyo and the new owners didn't want to keep old parts around. They may have even been throwing them out.

I don't know how much of this is true, but very sad if so. You'd think someone else could grab all of the discarded parts they could find and hold onto them for the future.
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 Post subject: Re: Pioneer's new owners throwing out parts?
PostPosted: 19 Jul 2022, 08:20 
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8traxrule wrote:
I've been a long-time fan of laserdisc but I just learned something troubling today- when trying to get a player fixed at a repair shop which has also been around a long time, they said it needed a new laser pickup and they were unable to get one. While Pioneer has traditionally continued to support the laserdisc format after its demise, they were recently bought out by Onkyo and the new owners didn't want to keep old parts around. They may have even been throwing them out.

I don't know how much of this is true, but very sad if so. You'd think someone else could grab all of the discarded parts they could find and hold onto them for the future.


That someone would have been ... me.

I tried to acquire the remaining parts inventory from Pioneer Japan when they stopped servicing LaserDiscs in Tokyo end of 2020.
Even started asking people to petition with me to gain traction.

They flatly rejected, only allowing me to buy the remaining stock of basic remote controllers.

Pioneer Japan LD Player Servicing ending 2020/09/30

Julien
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 Post subject: Re: Pioneer's new owners throwing out parts?
PostPosted: 19 Jul 2022, 10:24 
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It has nothing to do with the new owners. The last date of service for the final players was written when they were made. This is typical behavior across many many many industries.
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 Post subject: Re: Pioneer's new owners throwing out parts?
PostPosted: 19 Jul 2022, 15:05 
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This just is not very true. "We can't get a part." really means "We thought we knew how to work on laserdisc players, but it turns out we do not.". You could bring a laserdisc player into a highly respected shop in the analog audio realm, but if they do not have the required laserdisc specific equipment to service that player, they can't properly service that player. For Pioneer, a shop must have a GGV disc. For newer Panasonic, CD and LD test discs used for auto-adjustment. Most Sony's require a special cable and a decent amount of nihilism. I'd be curious if they could show you that they actually have any of that.

You can still buy parts from Pioneer, but the vast majority has been bought over the decades. Here is a new pickup for a CLD-1070: http://parts.pioneerelectronics.com/par ... um=VWT1048

If someone asked me to repair a CLD-1070 and it was indeed the pickup, I wouldn't pay $332. I would inform the owner that I must pull from a donor, and if I did not have one I could buy one for much cheaper than that.
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 Post subject: Re: Pioneer's new owners throwing out parts?
PostPosted: 19 Jul 2022, 16:47 
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Yes, all of that.

Also, when someone says your Laserdisc player has a laser issue…always question that. It’s much more likely to be a host of other smaller issues. Usually the run time needed to wear out a laser is several times what’s needed to wear out the belts, the grip ring, power supply, spindle motor, etc in addition to rotting plastic gears and capacitors. I’ve owned about a dozen players, fixed all of them at least once, I currently have seven decks with one actually working, I’ve never worn out a laser.
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 Post subject: Re: Pioneer's new owners throwing out parts?
PostPosted: 19 Jul 2022, 17:18 
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signofzeta wrote:

Also, when someone says your Laserdisc player has a laser issue…always question that.



Yup.... That was my story about my CLD-D704 that simply had the bent frame issue on the turn mechanism. A repair shop told me that the player had a bad pick-up and was going to cost me $400 to fix. He was just lazy and didn't want to work on it.
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 Post subject: Re: Pioneer's new owners throwing out parts?
PostPosted: 19 Jul 2022, 18:45 
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When hiring labor it’s absolutely key that you know the signs of someone who has no interest in the work. Sometimes they just drop hints.
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 Post subject: Re: Pioneer's new owners throwing out parts?
PostPosted: 19 Jul 2022, 19:32 
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A lot of these places also charge "diagnostic fees" after the "can't get the parts" ruse.

The majority of pickup failures I have personally seen are from people (as well as shops) bricking them in all sorts of imaginative ways.
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 Post subject: Re: Pioneer's new owners throwing out parts?
PostPosted: 20 Jul 2022, 02:58 
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admin wrote:
They flatly rejected, only allowing me to buy the remaining stock of basic remote controllers.


To be more precise, they rejected based on "liability issues" as I was not an official reseller/authorized technician.

Another person with these credentials might have been luckier.

Thinking of all these optical blocks and M-Holders going to trash was quite disheartening.

Julien
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 Post subject: Re: Pioneer's new owners throwing out parts?
PostPosted: 20 Jul 2022, 03:59 
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I think the spindles will become unobtainium before the optics. There are a couple of different ways to guess how much a player has been used (if it doesn't show hours), but if you pop the bottom off of a spindle housing, you can see how worn the brushes are. As the brushes wear, it creates a substantial amount of "dust". This might accelerate wear, so I'm not sure if we should be "servicing" the motors as well. There are also three small electrolytic caps in this type of spindle (i.e. CLD-D503/D703/D704/79/99).

Much like the brushes, we have auction sites wearing away our hobby. I think it will all end with optics though. Unless you have something like an LD-S2, Hi-Vision player, etc, it is easier to find a replacement than to actually replace it. If a shop can't figure out how to get a replacement, you sure as hell don't want them actually replacing it. These can't be hot-swapped like a gear or tray.
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