My current player is the Pioneer CLD-V1210D which is a pretty basic player. As my collection of discs has grown I now find myself wanting a better player with a few more bells and whistles.

I'm mainly looking for a player with both PAL/NTSC capability, both side play and AC3 RF out, CLV freeze frame etc too if possible. From research I've done on the net it seems the two obvious choices are:

Pioneer CLD-D925
Pioneer DVL-909

The D925 seems to be the go-to player for a lot of people, and I've heard a lot of strong views on the 909 both ways. Are there any other players that I should be looking out for?

I believe the consensus player prior to the D925 was the CLD-2950.

I know that the CLD-2950 is PAL/NTSC and can play both sides, but I'm a bit hazy about the other features. From what I've seen it can be modified to have AC3 RF, but does it have CLV freeze frame etc functionality?

Thanks for the info.

Indeed it can be modded for AC3, but it does not have CLV freeze frame.

I'm very pleased with my CLD-D515 which has ac3, but I also have a DVL-919. 909 is good too, depending upon if you want the DVD capability or not.

An AC3-modified CLD 2950 is rated better that the CLD 925 / DVL 909 or 919, but all four of these players are good and reliable.

The CLD 2950 build quality is very good and is very slick in operation.

Indeed, the 2950 is one heavy piece of hardware.
Try lifting it, then lift a 925, it'll feel like lifting a cardboard box.
Won't do CLV freeze frame, but that ain't really a useful feature these days, as most tv's will give you freeze frame option anyways.
It does not have AC3-RF out either but then... there are no PAL discs with AC3 anyhow, and if you have a large NTSC collection
I'd strongly advise you to look for NTSC only players because of the much better quality of certain units.

What the 2950 has that I have liked though is the headphone output with volume control knob.
And the picture quality of the 2950 is on par with the 925 in my opinion.

Cheers for the info guys, I'll add the CLD-2950 to my list of ones to look out for.

I've just come across the CLD-D515 which seems to have both side play, PAL/NTSC and AC3 RF out. From what I understand the both side play isn't as good ad the later models though. Does anyone have any experience with this player and how it compares to the others?

I'm one of those annoying people who often researches every possibility before buying what everyone has been recommending from the start...sorry for all the questions.

Also, just out of interest what happens if you play a PAL disc in a NTSC only player? I remember when I was a kid I had a SECAM VHS, tried playing it in a PAL machine and it played in black and white. From my understanding PAL and NTSC are much more different to each other than PAL and SECAM.

Some NTSC players will play back a PAL disc. I have an owner's manual somewhere which mentions this. The resulting picture, if your TV will display it at all (older analog sets probably will, newer digital ones may not), will be monochrome & possibly distorted. There will be no audio.

I tried to play a PAL LD on the HLD-X9 once out of curiosity.
The disc was spinning up for a really short moment, then stopped showing an error code in the display.
So won't play at all for that machine.

I like my CLD-D515. The side change works just fine. It looks very much like the CLD-D504 which has a better side turn design than most of the others from that period, where the laser rides a U-shaped track and there is no swivel or flip-turn assembly. Have not looked inside the 515 to see if it's the same.

I like digital field memory on a player, not only for freeze frame on CLV (which some tv's have) but you also get smooth scanning on CLV discs.

Right, I like it too, so I usually only use the D515 for PAL discs.

Also use the CLD-D515 for PAL discs. Good player!

I own a 2950 and always wondered about the AC3 mod. Costs, where to get parts, and if I could do it with basic soldering experience.

Cheers for all the help guys. I ended up finding a broken DVL 909E for a tiny price and couldn't resist.

I've now started a new thread about fixing it up, I've already identified the problem and what part I need to replace. Follow my progress here:

http://forum.lddb.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=467

And if you have any advice or tips then they'd be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again.