....in comparison to the red laser on the HLD-X9. The CLD-1010 was the only (early) US model to have the higher end red laser that could read through some rot as well as upgrade the pq. Any experience or knowledge is appreciated.

I've always been wondering about the cld-1010 as well, what it's performance is like. The only thing I'm not excited was the player having 2 seperate motors (one for LD and one for the CD) But any of this player model on ebay seems to have a high start price on it.

I wonder if the picture quality would be as good as a 704?

The picture quality of the 1010 is the same as other players. The red laser just helps the tracking and laser rot but other players adjusted properly have just as good or better picture, the picture quality upgrade is only that there is more adjustment room to get the alignments correct. A properly adjusted 704 has a better picture. I do not believe it is worth the $500 on eBay unless you specifically want to play LDs with laser rot. Even the X9's real advantages are laser rot, MUSE playback, and the "HR" video mode. The X9 Video Viewable noise levels are the same as the 704 and when not in "HR" mode the sharpness is equal, the X9 has extra features. The X9 does have multi-bit Audio which is better that the bit-stream in the 704.

I read one persons description on ebay some time ago comparing the 1010 to the HLD-X9 and saying the picture quality was equal because they both use the red laser. Don't know yet for sure but I'm leaning towards doubting that as there would possibly be a mad rush on 1010s.

Just out of interest what kind of laser did most players use? I know that red has now been retired in favour of blue, but what was before red? Green?

The original LD players used a helium-neon tube laser, which is red-orange. Succeeding models used a solid-state (diode) laser, with an infra-red wavelength of 780 nm. This provides, ceteris paribus, a larger spot size, hence less analog bandwidth & poorer tracking, than the red visible wavelength, but in practice this was made up for by the better optical properties of the beam produced by the diode over that produced by the tube. Hi-Vision LD players, which require more bandwidth, used a red diode laser, with a wavelength of 670 nm.

Cheers for the info, publius .

The cld-1010 is indeed a great tracker - it's drawback is the analog noise reduction, which is the same as used in the LDS-1 and LD-W1. It seems to suppress detail in shadowed areas and smooth the picture a bit more than is acceptable now. In fact, a VP-1000 has a sharper, more detailed picture, not to mention the very best FM analog audio of any LD player ever made.

So it turns out I actually own one of these players. I bought it along with some other misc electronics from a guy cleaning out his storage unit a few months ago. For some reason I thought it was the 1070 and stored it away as a backup but I pulled it out yesterday and it's the 1010. I'd be happy to help with some observations or tests if anyone is interested in how it performs.