Hello and greetings,
I'm sure you get similar questions daily (and I admit to have lurked here before as a guest) but I felt I needed to ask someone this question, because I felt I was just getting more and more confused while pondering on my own. I made a very similar thread on another LD-forum (Retroflix) and was recommended the CLD-2950 but I thought I'd ask here as well.
I've had my first player for what very soon will be a year. It's a Pioneer CLD-V2800 that I scored for "cheap" through eBay and I have been thinking of making an upgrade. But there are so many players out there that I just become
What I'm wondering is:
1) Where in the hierarchy does this belong? I know it's an industrial player but does it belong in the low or mid-range?
2) What player would be a noticeable upgrade (and are there other good brands beside Pioneer)?
Double side playback would be nice, CLD trick play would be even nicer and optical out could be an added bonus
3) Sort of related, are the older players any good? Specifically, If used with a good comb filter and/or scaler?
I want to state again, I'm not looking for the "best" player out there, just something that would be better. Elites and Japanese import units will probably be ruled out, sadly, and I don't want to pay extra for some old on-board Y/C separation I do not need. My main concern is picture noise - most of my discs are okay, but some older ones are pretty grainy. When reading about LD players online I stumbled over this quote:
Quote:
The consumer age seems to be divided between Pre-Digital Noise Reduction and Post-Digital Noise Reduction.
What I mean by that is the older players, like the CLD-3080 and the Elite 95 and the Elite LD S2, had to rely on good processing to put out
a nice, solid, stable noise-free or noise-reduced picture.
After digital noise reduction was developed fully and was in players like the CLD D703, D704, Elite 79, Elite 99, the native picture the
players put out were terrible for chroma and luminence noise. You HAD to rely on some mixture of both types(chroma and luminence) of noise
reduction to get a nice, smooth, noise-free picture.
I remember when I had a D704.... for older pan and scan titles like Pretty Woman, I would have to put DNR on full blown max. On better
produced laserdiscs I could settle for a mid-point setting.
With my Elite 95, I can rely on the native output for a nice clean stable picture.
What I mean by that is the older players, like the CLD-3080 and the Elite 95 and the Elite LD S2, had to rely on good processing to put out
a nice, solid, stable noise-free or noise-reduced picture.
After digital noise reduction was developed fully and was in players like the CLD D703, D704, Elite 79, Elite 99, the native picture the
players put out were terrible for chroma and luminence noise. You HAD to rely on some mixture of both types(chroma and luminence) of noise
reduction to get a nice, smooth, noise-free picture.
I remember when I had a D704.... for older pan and scan titles like Pretty Woman, I would have to put DNR on full blown max. On better
produced laserdiscs I could settle for a mid-point setting.
With my Elite 95, I can rely on the native output for a nice clean stable picture.
To me, it sounds like the older players should provide a better, less digitized image. But since I'm looking to cutting out the noise, I'm not sure that is what I want.
I see many LD players show up on eBay but I find it hard to know if they are any good, especially in comparison to what I already have, even with the help of the Laserdisc Archive.
Sorry if this post seems a bit vague and unfocused, I should've hit the sack a while ago
I want to remember spending about 100$ on my current, and most of that was shipping to Europe from the US. 
(The more the better) 
Still, does feature CLV trick play and that's one of my most sought after features. Haven't seen too many around, however. But I'll keep looking, thanks for the recommendations so far 
