So, I have been searching web sites of Sony parts suppliers to try to figure out what might still be available in terms of support for their Hi-Vision LD players. Perhaps surprisingly, there are parts available from Sony US, although the selection is very strange.

Anyway, I ran onto something unexpected. Sony Hi-Vision LD machines have model numbers beginning with "HIL", & it appears that prefix isn't used for anything else. There's the industrial HIL-1000, a consumer version of the -1000 called the HIL-C1, & the well-known HIL-C2EX. (The meaning, if any, of the suffix escapes me.) I have found, however, references to a model HIL-C3. Has anyone ever heard of such a player? Or if it isn't a Hi-Vision LD player, what is it?

Next to no info on this player but it appears to be a 1996 US Model. There is an 8 page service manual available, the link below will let you see the first 2 pages, not much info though.

http://www.nodevice.com/manual/sonymans/manual2878pdf/get4398.html

That was the impression I got too, from the Sony site — a US model MUSE player. I have to imagine it was produced, but then, where was it sold? Who bought it? Where are they now?

"Scarce as hens' teeth", indeed!