When Did you purchase your last LD Player, Make/Model?

Mine was a 3080 that I needed a few good parts 5 months ago

Then, I was offered a DVL-90 Elite 3 months ago and said why not..

I bought an LX-900u on eBay this morning for $84 (including shipping).

Did you buy that one missing the jog/shuttle knob? If so, I almost bought that one this morning too because it was so cheap. I have an extra remote for the LX-900, but unfortunately the previous owner spilled something inside it and although I've taken it apart and cleaned it, etc... Only a few of the functions work - and the jog/shuttle is dead on it too. I also bought the Denon version of the remote, but Denon used completely different IR codes - which really sucks because the Denon remote has a button to turn on the digital video noise reduction.

I just got the issues of Stereo Review from 1993 that test both the LX-900 and the CLD-97 - I can send you a PDF of the 900 review if you'd like.

That's a Good Buy on the LX-900u





Thanks for sharing your latest purchase,

Duane

My last LaserDisc player purchases were the EAD TheaterVision "Audiophile/Videophile Transport", as EAD pretentiously called it, and just after that, another Panasonic LX-900. Although the newer 900 works perfectly, I bought to act as a back up "parts player" for my "main" LX-900 that Duncan refurbed/realigned and added an AC-3 RF output to. The Super MASH digital audio converters in the 900 have a wonderful sound that I prefer to the modern DA converters in my Denon receiver - that Super MASH chip contains 8 complete 128x oversampling MASH DA converters running 4 per channel in differential mode to cancel any common mode distortion - only one other $5000+ CD player used that chip due to its cost and it makes the 900 an excellent sounding player for both CD's and movies.

I visited my dad in New Mexico last week and shipped home my CLD-1010 that's been sitting there, gathering dust for the past 12 years - happily, it still works perfectly, but needs a good internal cleaning and relube to get rid of all the New Mexico dust.

Disclord, thanks once again for filling in the specs, your like a LD Encyclopedia, OK You are

Sorry if I babble in my posts - as you know, I tend to do it in emails too.

BTW, don't you have an LX-900 too? It's funny to think that for all intents and purposes, the 900 is a THX certified Runco LJR, since MSB did absolutely NOTHING to the video circuitry other than add the cheap board that corrected the APL error - something my Faroudja VP-100 comb filter does or the "dynamic contrast" function on modern sets will achieve too.

Yes, I do own 1 lx-900u, I purchased it back in 2006 and my folks used it right up until 2011. Dad liked it because it would play a disc soon as you closed the tray and he enjoyed the Picture quality also. I watched a few movies on it on their lcd, I really haven't used it personally yet in my setups.

I guess maybe I should hook it up to the DLP with my VRE Alchemy comb filter and try it out. Im very impressed with the reliability and tracking on these and never heard of a lx900 ever breaking down on anyone.

Disclord,

Your next mission is to get the schematic of that APL board

Then we can complete the upgrades on these,

Im sure you can do it

Hook it up and check it out.

I don't know if the Audio Alchemy VRE will affect the APL/Grayscale Linearity issue in the LX-900 since I've never used that unit, but if it doesn't, turn on your DLP sets 'Dynamic Contrast' or 'Black Stretch' setting and that will restore the full dynamic range to the 900's image - then, boy, does it pop. The 900 EXCELLS at reproducing shades of color that NTSC hates, like saturated lavenders and crimsons - and without streaking or flicker - I always leave my 900 set with the digital noise reduction in Mode 1 because it cleans up all discs without harming the picture on good discs in any way - with resolution charts and such, you can't even see that it's operating other than the lack of chroma or luma noise. Mode 2 of the DFNR gives a substantial amount of video NR, but damages diagonal resolution - on an interlaced set, you'd never see it - but on a progressive scan set, angled edges and such take on a stair stepped quanitized look due to the field correlation NR processing. Too bad Panasonic didn't make chroma/luma adjustable separately like Pioneer. The 900 keeps the digital noise reduction operating when in CLV still mode, unlike Pioneer models, so a still frame doesn't make the image suddenly fill with noise on a marginal disc.

One benefit of the 900 is it has better analog audio than Pioneer models - discs that have minor crackles, siblance or ticks/pops when played on a Pioneer sound silky smooth and quiet on the 900, but with no loss of high frequency response. Because of that, I prefer to play older analog music discs only on the 900.

Believe me, I'm trying to get one - or just a board. Even if we could get out hands on a broken Runco LJR to take it apart and see what parts the small video output board has on it. Larry at MSB told me they cost less than $5 bucks in Radio Shack parts to make and 10 minutes to install and calibrate for the 1volt p-p output level. With that and an AC-3 RF output, an LX-900 would truly meet all requirements for THX LaserDisc player certification.

I'd love to partner up with someone in upgrading players for better performance.

That's the one. I'll post a comparison of the LX-600 and LX-900u once I get it. The shipping was only thirty bucks, so I'm worried it's going to arrive trashed, but then again it's just going from south California to the Bay Area (although it is like 400 miles). So let's hope the post office won't screw that up. And I figure the knob isn't a big deal since I can just take it off the LX-600. (It's not even screwed on or anything so I can sort of see how they might loose it.)

Yeah that'd be great (email was naiaru@live.com). I was actually holding out for a 97 until I saw the 900, and despite being pretty much broke right now, I sprung for it since I figured when would I ever get a chance like that again?

after working without any vacation this summer, i bought my hld-x9 from japan in July and my Kuro in august, pioneer summer!

I see that you are a lucky owner of a Pioneer Plasma, and some great Backup Pioneer LD players also..

Thanks Cpix for sharing your Pioneer Summer!

Duane

My last player would be last weekend when I picked up a PR-8210 from a couple a few cities over, and I was excited because it came with the original remote. From what the couple told me, it belonged to the ladies mother who recently passed, and it was actually bought in California, and stayed there until 20 years ago when the father died and the mom moved to Toronto. I thought that was cool, and then when I looked through the discs that were coming with the player, a lot of them still have Ken Crane stickers on them, which I find really cool.

The 8210 is a great player and with an interesting history too, since it was originally sold as a professional player and then Pioneer massively reduced the price and sold it as a consumer player. Ken Cranes had a lot of 8210's and sold them for well under $400. Internally it's basically the same as the 1100, but with tighter spec'd parts, and is a wonderful player for early pressings and MCA DiscoVision. Unlike the PR-7820 the 8210 is not a Level II player and so doesn't contain internal RAM or a microprocessor to run self-programmed industrial discs. It's a beautiful looking player too.

I bought a Sony HIL-C2EX in the first part of the year. It's been doing me good offices in playing back MUSE discs, & the NTSC quality is quite good as well. I appreciate the full-frame stills on CLV NTSC. (I'll never understand why the Pioneer CLD-D704 goes to field-store mode when doing CAV multi-speed play, but it means that I have to hit the remote control button for every frame instead of just setting it to "1/90 forward" to watch the still-frame collections on some of my discs.)


The C2EX has a switch on the inside to turn it into a Panasonic LX-HD20. In that mode, it won't recognize the Sony remote, because Panasonic used a totally different code system. (There's also a switch to change between two sets of remote codes in Sony mode, in case you have two Sony players.) Is there a switch like that on the LX-900 motherboard which would make it think it was a Denon?

Last player I bought was an HLD-X9 Christmas 2011 in pristine condition which I was lucky enough to locate from a UK seller so no expensive shipping from Japan to worry about or import duty.

Also the price was well below the current market value - a by product of the recession I guess.

I'll have to check that out - Panasonic OEM'd the player to so many it would be great if they provided such a feature.

BTW, how is the Sony Hi-Vision players NTSC playback? Is it comparable to the Pioneer Hi-Vision players or any of the high-end US players like the Pioneer 97 or 99 or the Panasonic LX-900? And does it provide adjustable comb filter or digital video NR options?

bought a CLD-D503 for my work / computer room.
watching bloodsport right now as i'm doing some woodwork.