I saw the first Magnavox players in late 1978. I thought they looked cool, but I had just paid $1,500 for my first VHS VCR (an RCA SelectaVision VET-650). But by 1983 I was getting ready to take the LD plunge. I had two CED players by then (an RCA and an Hitachi), but as I continued to buy CED discs and VHS tapes (I was a charter member of the Columbia House Video Club) I started buying LaserDiscs mail-order through Starship Industries.

In 1984 I bought my first LD player, an NAD-5900.

http://www.laserdiscarchive.co.uk/laser ... d_5900.htm

It was a clone of the Japanese Pioneer CLD-9000 and U.S. Pioneer CLD-900. It was a very early model combi-player, and was built like a tank. I paid $450 for the floor model, plus another $50 to join their LaserDisc club, which entitled me to rent from their 2,000 LaserDiscs, plus discounts on new discs.

The NAD-5900 was heavy, but very sturdy and well built. It was only cosmetically different from the Pioneer CLD-900, but it was reliable. I watched 2 and sometimes 3 movies on it EVERYDAY! When it hit ten years of age the laser pickup assembly started making a really loud noise as discs spun, but spin they continued to do. I finally gave it away and bought a brand-new Pioneer CLD-D504. That was followed by a Pioneer LD-V8000, and then a Pioneer CLD-D503, and then an RCA LDR-600, and finally a Pioneer CLD-980. All continue to work.

RCA LDR-600
http://www.laserdiscarchive.co.uk/laser ... ldr600.htm

Pioneer CLD-980
http://www.laserdiscarchive.co.uk/laser ... ld-980.htm

Pioneer CLD-D503
http://www.laserdiscarchive.co.uk/laser ... d-d503.htm

Pioneer CLD-D504
http://www.laserdiscarchive.co.uk/laser ... d-d504.htm

Pioneer LD-V8000
http://www.laserdiscarchive.co.uk/laser ... -v8000.htm

STAY AWESOME!

ldv2200 got it from a freind who got it from his school, i didnt know anything about laserdisc at the time lol, ended up getting a new player a few weeks later

My first player was a LD-660, Pioneer's bottom-of-the-line tube-type player, which I bought in a pawn shop in the summer of 2000 for the princely sum of $15 (according to the bill of sale, which I still have in one of my desk drawers). It worked, to the extent that it played back discs ; the limited trick effects it should have had, via front panel buttons, were inoperable, & the "inner limit" switch was set wrong, so that it skipped the first 45 seconds of any disc. And of course it didn't have digital audio (which meant I couldn't listen to the English-dubbed audio on the Pioneer anime LDs I was buying at the time). But I didn't care!

I used to carry that thing into the living room to watch a disc, then lug it back into my bedroom & set it up on my dresser, with my little stereo amp, so I could get out of bed in the morning to the sound of Hurricane Live. I cadged a copy of the service manual from the closed stacks at the public library in order to try to service it, & got surprisingly far. I even let it run all night, once, in pause mode, listening to that rumble. That machine, old & crippled as it was, was the beginning of something beautiful for me, & I don't think even a brand-new-in-box HLD-X9 could quite recapture that feeling of wonder & discovery. I replaced it, fairly quickly in fact, but it's left its mark on me.

Mine was a Magnavox VC-8010 that was given to me in 1992 by a pal who upgraded to a CLD-3090. I had like two laserdiscs.

I still have that player and remote and it's set up in my 1980s styled vintage extra bedroom/den with the 1982 Motorola quasar console and a CED player and Betamax VCR, 1984 LA Raiders and Larry Bird Celtics posters, etc.

I had some Pioneer model I picked up from Monkey Wards in like 1990. Paid 150 bucks for it. Was 1500 to begin with, was a floor model and got 50 Percent off, then they put it at 50 percent more off and then another 60 percent off that for some reason. It lasted until 2008 and died. I loved the thing and we had like 20 discs with it. Among the discs was a copy of south park, lol. Anyway, it was an awesome piece of machinery and it served us well.

Well, I have two for my "first" player. Hear me out.

First one I bought was a Pioneer dual sided player. Can't quite remember the number. I want to say D406, but not completely sure (bought it in 1995.) Only other distinction I remember about it was that it had a voltage selector (so it was probably an Asian model--we could get stuff like that from the Navy Exchange in Japan) but no AC-3 output. Only problem was, it had some electrical issue. It would shut down when trying to play a disc quite often. So I brought it back to the Exchange two weeks later to get another one.

So I opted for a Sony player (hey, I was young and didn't know any better!), the MDP-A3. I thought it was great as it had Digital Frame Memory so I could freeze frame CLV discs (couldn't do that with the Pioneer I initially had.)

I thought it looked good for the most part (the only other person I knew with an LD player was my friend who also had a Sony!) Plus with the optical TOSLink I was able to record digitally when I picked up an MD Recorder (my first of those was a Pioneer--how's that for irony!)

But of course, like most Sony LD players, the picture started to go dark for no good reason. Ended up selling that one on Ebay and picking up a DVL-919 (also my first DVD player.) I was amazed at how much better LDs looked on the 919 vs the MDP-A3! So yeah, I can tell you first hand, Sony LD players suck!

My first player was a CLD-D701 that my aunt had bought for herself when it was still new. She used it for a few years in her home theatre (I loved going to her house when I was a kid!) When DVD came out, she bought a DVD player and she stopped using her LD player. I overheard her and my uncle talking about getting rid of it because it was old technology, and asked if they were just going to toss it if I could just have it. They said sure and gave it to me the next time they came over, along with about 20 discs. I was only 12 I believe, so this was in 1999 or 2000. I got to put it in my room and I was thrilled. I had my own room with my own 21" Electrohome or Emerson old TV and a garage sale VCR I had picked up and now I had a very nice LD player to watch movies on! I think I had it hooked up by it's composite out to the composite in of my VCR then via coax cable to my TV, as my TV had no composite inputs. I didn't get my own DVD player for at least 3 or 4 years from that point, so I watched some of the movies my aunt gave me and they looked great! I still remember watching the Director's Cut of Lawnmower Man late at night and wishing they could have fit that whole movie on one disc because I was in bed and didn't want to get out of bed to switch discs! I don't think I ever watched all of the discs she gave me because she gave me a lot of music discs that would never be interested in (Yanni and Streisand come to mind). I used that player for at least 3 years or so before it gave up it's ghost. I would plug it in and the red standby light would flicker on and off. I always wanted to learn how to fix it and tried replacing the fuse, but to no avail. I held on to it until last year, when I got my D704, because I figured one day I might be able to fix it. But in trying to fix it again I really fried something and had to trash it. It was hard to throw it out, but now I have a new better player that I am making new memories with. But I will never forget that D701 and how it introduced me to a world of not only laserdiscs but home theatre as well!

I moved my NAD 5900 alot too. It had locking screws which I would tighten before each move. Generally this was whenever I would travel to my parents house. They didn't have an LD player (they didn't even have VHS then, just a Sears Betamax). That's why I say the NAD 5900 was such a tank (aside from it's weight). I used it daily and moved it from place to place on a frequent basis. It lasted ten years of such use. In fact, while it was making alot of noise when I finally gave it away, it still played LaserDiscs just fine. Only loudly! LOL!


STAY AWESOME!

My First Laserdisc player

Pioneer DVL-909 of which has played most of my 772 approx collection and was still going strong when I last used it.

The only downside with combi players is that they are a compromise as we all know.
the DVD section of this player I gave up using, due to the fact that it kept freezing at a certain point on each disc, but apart from that a sound player.

I am hoping to have this player serviced by a Pioneer service Engineer who lives about three miles away, who also has a DVL-909.

Sincere Regards

CLD-980 very good first player that a got in 2006 then went for an S201 then decided to get an elite CLD-79 and now I'm really loving my discs:)

CLD-97.

Pioneer CLD-1080 that was bought in 1990, the whole reason we ever got a laserdisc player was because a few videostores in nearby towns always had new release lds in and almost never had new release vhs in. That player ran strong until around 2001 but had been retired as the main player 3 or 4 years prior. It was then obliterated into hundreds of pieces when it received 9 12 guage slugs through the faceplate and top. Lol

CLD-3070. Still have it. Don't use it, though.

TLK

And a CLD-980 was my most recent add. It cost me all of $10.


STAY AWESOME!

My first laserdisc player was a Sony MDP850D - what was I thinking of as it was total rubbish!
It was purchased second hand in 2006 along with a few hundred LDs.
The player was really heavy and had an unusual loading mechanism like a portcullis where a door lifts up and the tray slides out.
That was the only good feature.
I used it briefly for a few months and then quickly upgraded to a Pioneer. I've never used it since although I still have it!

How would you like to own another Pioneer LD-660, in great shape, looks good, plays great and it's quiet too? I have one I'm letting go for pretty cheap, it's in this listing with a bunch of others that we got from our Dad's now closed shop:

http://inlandempire.craigslist.org/ele/2682222903.html

I would keep it, but decided to keep the Sylvania VP-7200 instead. Well let me know.

Thanks for the offer, but aside from the difficulty & expense involved in shipping a tube player from California to Texas, I can't really see the advantage in buying another of these machines. The nostalgia value is quite limited, & so far as practicality is concerned, I have much better LD players. Indeed, as I have two MUSE units coming from Japan, I need to reduce my existing holdings over the next couple of months. At the very least I need to let the LD-700 go, & probably will sell the CLD-V710 as well.

I know what you mean. It was a big deal for me to keep the one flip-top and find the right spot for it. Fortunately I had a bedroom that's like half a den, and have a big old CRT set in there, so it was just the right spot, and it looks great on that set. Made the CED player and beta VCR mad though getting pushed out of the way and set to the back.

ANd the shipping is a problem for sure. Not for me really, as I pack exceptionally well, but the cost is pretty stiff for those heavyweight units. It sure is one heck of a nice looking and working player however, and the only reason I kept the other was because that one had remote.

Having a LD (from a music artist) I decided to find a cheap LD player to see how this was. That was only about 5-6 years ago I think, so I was late getting into LD. My first player Pioneer cld-1070 I won cheap (ebay) other then costing a bit to ship it to Canada. But it arrived damaged (internal) so I guess I had different thoughts. Not working anyways I took the cover off to see if I could get it working. Seeing what had shifted inside I realized these things don't ship well (as a member said crap shoot)

I managed to get it working to play LD (but cd not) and seeing that shiny 12" disc spin up and a image on the TV was more then cool and that's how I got started.

I've heard of nothing but bad things about Sony brand LaserDisc players. Their innards are cheap and of poor quality compaired with Pioneer models. I bought an RCA LDR-600 off of a YouTube friend for $30 or so and it looks and sounds very good. I'd recommend one for those looking for an inexpensive player.

STAY AWESOME!