Hello everyone.

I am new to the whole "laser disc thing" and really do not know much about it.

I do have a few LDs that I bought, in hopes of perhaps getting an LD player one day. After doing some quick research, I almost immediately found myself overwhelmed by the technology and gave up on the idea.

Well, some time has passed and I have decided that I really would like to give it a go!

On an audio forum I frequent, a member offered to sell me his Philips CDV487 (I know nothing about this unit) for $60.00 shipped. It doesn't have the remote, nor the manual. Is this a decent player? Is this a good deal?

If not, what player(s) should I be looking for?

I am concerned about long term reliability as well. With these machines no longer being produced, that is an important factor to me.

Thanks.

-Dave

That is a decent price shipped, however, shipping a laserdisc player is an iffy proposition for anyone. I dont know about the player so I cant say much about it. What I can say the shipping on the sucker is going to be about 30 to 40 dollars so your player is being priced at 20 to 30 dollars. That being said, it might be a beginning player. Does it play both sides? Check on the net to see if it does. You might want to check Craigslist if it comes back as something that you dont quite want. Depending on where you are there are always players available.
Good luck in your efforts. It is an evil hobby that grabs you and wont let go. The next thing you will want is a 40 inch Sony WEGA tv to play your discs on, lol. Or you can look like my garage at the moment.
Chris

Thanks for replying to my question.

I have tried searching on several different search engines and cannot seem to come up with too much information regarding this unit. From a thread that turned up mentioning the player, it said that it is an older, all analog model...not really sure what that means.

To be honest, I am not 100% sure about LD technology. Is it analog, digital, hybrid?

I was always under the impression that LDs were digital, like a giant cd. From my reading, though, I am under the impression that it's really an analog technology?

I know these "noob" questions make me look like an idiot, but I love film and think there is probably a huge treasure chest of great movies just waiting to be discovered and loved. That might sound a bit silly, but I kind of like the notion of giving love to this technology that nobody cares about any more.

From what I understand, the CDV-487 is supposed to be very similar to the CDV-488, which Kurtis Bahr (krbahr) said had very low noise and defeatable digital processing

Laserdisc video is analog composite with two analog audio channels and two digital audio channels (same as Red Book (CD format))

Later players would digitize the video signal for processing then convert back to analog, which is undesirable, but these players tend to perform better in terms of resolution, color reproduction, noise, etc. anyways.

I'd also recommend reading this to get satisfactory LD performance. (one thing I don't think he mentions is that DVD recorders tend to have much better comb filters then most TVs and/or LD players, so If you have one of those, you should try it out) (Also, he mentions Pioneer's CLD-7xx line of players, some of which rixrex is selling pretty cheaply, so if the CDV-487 doesn't work out, you should PM him.)

Sorry if I left anything out, I don't want to seem condescending and tell you things you already know.

Thank you for the information.

No need to worry about coming off as condescending, as I really do know absolutely zero about laser disc technology.

That is why I came here. I actually knew about this site from buying a couple of LDs on here about a year ago (when I first planned on getting into the LD hobby) but I hadn't really visited this site in a long time. When I did re-visit, I discovered this forum and figured it would be a great place to start.

If there is anyone here who is looking to sell a LD player, please let me know. I am not looking to jump into an expensive unit. I just want something that is decent, and reliable, to get my feet wet...so to speak.

One thing that concerns me is shipping. It has been mentioned on this thread that shipping an LD player is difficult and can damage the player. Does this cause major issues when ordering from e-bay? Are there any sellers (or members on here) that come highly recommended?

My apologies to the mods if I am breaking any forum rules with my questions. Please feel free to modify my posts/shoot me a PM if I am in violation.

The CDV-487 is a CDV-488 without the digital video option section. The 488 can provide pure analog or digitally processed. The 487 is pure analog only.

These machine are hard to get aligned for premium performance but are decent players. The follow-on Philips players were not as good. Only issue is that there are no parts available. The cheapest player I can sell you is a CLD-D704 for $250 with remote and manual but this is the highest non-ELITE Pioneer model.

LD is an analog format in composite form that is FM modulated and recorded on the LD. The length of the pits and lans when read reform the FM modulated signal. If you understand FM radio you'll understand how this was done.

Pioneer is the best hope for longevity as they have the most machines out there and in some cases that is the only way to get parts and they do still stock and restock some parts.

I've bought four players off eBay and they've all arrived damaged (though one I was able to fix). I recently bought a CLD-703 from rixrex and so far it's been the only player that's arrived in perfect working order. I think this was his list of players for sale. Though from what I hear, krbahr would also be a good choice to buy from (especially for higher end players).

Also, if you need info on a player, you should check out LaserDisc Archive, if you haven't already.

If you are in so cal, you are golden, lol.

Thanks for the words of kindness abnout the 703 you got. Having packed many CED players, I tend to over-protect the LD players, but nothing wrong with that.

If you checked my list you'd have seen that there is one Philips CDV 488 with remote and manual:

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

When I got that player out and going, I was actually so surprised at the quality of the image it output that I almost did not list it and thought about keeping it instead, especially with the unique remote it has. All of the other Magnavox and Philips models did better than I had expected also.

It's true that I have no really top quality models like the Elite as Kurtis would have, and he has a solid reputation and background. You couldn't go wrong with one of those.

The other 700s are no slouches for just starting with, and I personally like the Panny LX 1000u very much as well. The two Elite players that I had at one time, I put up for sale because I actually prefered the 1000u to them and replaced them with the Panny. That could have just been those two of course, and not indicative of Elites in general. Any that were at Dad's shop he typically sold quickly and so we did not get any from his estate.

I don't know what level you want to start at and what you can comfortably spend, but I started with the gift of a flip-top Magnavox player that I actually still have and which still works well. You'll also want to consider if you'd like to have the player flip sides for you as well, or do you want to go with a vintage look? That player you were offered may be a great starter and subsequent backup or second room player later on.

what i did with my second player was find an ebay seller close by and drive out to him to pick it up, it may take a few weeks for a good player to appear on ebay thats nearby you, but it would be worth it. having a player shipped is dangerous so i wouldnt even try it, except maybe from kurtis or some of the other people here

i recomend getting a cld 2080 or 3080 if you dont want to spend too much, they usually sell from 50 to 100 and are fairly abundent on ebay, there pretty good too, they're flippers and the 3080 has optical audio

Heck. I have sold maybe thirty players in my life. I know how to ship them. Sadly that being said I still have about an eighty percent success rate the slightest bump from the Po regardless of how something is packed can destroy the player. I don't ship anymore. I only do local pickup.

Rixrex, thank you for the link and information. At this time, I am looking to just give laserdisc a try, to see if I want to invest more into the hobby. At this time I only have a handful of LDs I picked up here and on e-bay.
I have Breaker Morant, Pulp Fiction, Citizen Kane, Boogie Nights (all from the Criterion Collection) and Ed & His Dead Mother.

I have a a fairly small DVD collection (about 150 or so, and I give them away as I upgrade to BD) these days, but I am a HUGE fan of blu-ray. In fact, BD is what really rekindled my interest in home theater/hi-fi audio.

In the past few years, I have built up a HT system that is what I consider to be "decent entry-level hi-fi" Nothing near some of the HT galleries I have seen online, though. There are theaters out there that could be used as commercial theaters, and probably be a much better experience. The kind of systems I can only dream about.

Anyway, I am just looking for a cheap player, having a remote would be nice as well. As far as features I am looking for in a player, I don't know. I don't really know what features are "necessities" (the ability to play all types of LDs) vs. just added "luxuries" (up scaling or things of that nature).

I am also not clear on the audio for LDs. There seems to be many audio options. Also, I see there are external audio decoders that are needed to play certain discs. Am I understanding that correctly? Do you need a special type of player to be able to decode all of the audio types? I have a modern 3D receiver (Yamaha RX-V667) that I use as a processor. Will this be sufficient?

Can you ship? I am in the 52544 (southern Iowa) zip code. Also, can you accept PayPal?

Once again, I apologize for all of the "noob" questions, but I just want to make a "smart" purchase. I don't want to buy a $20.00 player that may turn me off to LD (unless a decent player really can be had for that) , when I could buy a $50.00 player and get a much better experience. I hope that makes sense.

Why you would want to get into a dead technology for movies is beyond me, unless there is a set of movies you can't find on DVD or BD? I recommend you sell the laserdiscs and be done with it. Stick to the BD, it is far more friendly with todays latest screens for viewing.

Elvis

Yep, pull up your BluRay copy of Highway to Hell, and have a double feather with Day of the Triffids. Oh, and then go and watch looney toons volume 5 for intermission. you should have no problems finding any of them on BluRay or DVD. I could go on and on but I wont. Just because something is old doesnt mean that it is worthless There are a bunch of movies not on either format for being the reason I collect the stuff. Now, if you are just getting one to watch movies avaliable on DVD or Bluray that have nothing extra to offer, yeah, I can see that.

As for LD audio, originally LD audio was just two analog tracks (I think this was just back in the DiscoVision days, but I have no DiscoVision discs or players that old so I can't say for certain). Then CD style digital audio tracks were added and CX noise reduction was used for most analog tracks (specifically to reduce interference with video, if I'm not mistaken). Any player past the mid-80s should be compatible with all these. Players also started to feature S/PDIF outputs for use with an external DAC (much like DVD). They were usually only the TOSLINK (optical) type, but some also featured coaxial outputs. There are two discrete surround sound options, DTS (which just replaced the digital audio tracks, so all you needed was a S/PDIF output) and AC-3 (Dolby) (AC-3 would replace one of the two analog audio tracks and would be output by a special AC-3 output that would need to be send to a demodulator (often stand alone units, but also in some old receivers)). DTS was the higher quality of the two, but there are more AC-3 discs than DTS discs.

I'm guessing your receiver will work with everything but AC-3 (unless of course you buy a demodulator).

On rixrex's list, the highest quality players would probably be the CLD-D702, LX-1000-U and M-V7026. None of those have AC-3 out, though. If AC-3 is important to you, the DVL models are the best on that list.

Also, scalers and the like are more necessities than luxuries to enjoy LD on any modern display. I wouldn't recommend underestimating this either. If you just plug in your player directly to your TV (I'm assuming you don't have an old <50" 480i CRT), you'll probably be pretty disappointed. (admittedly, it doesn't take a Lumagen Radiance to get good LD performance either)

My interest in Laserdisc stems from the same part of me that still likes vinyl records and cassette tapes. Not sure why, but I just like to support great technology (old or not) that holds some sense of value. I have been lurking/reading this forum for about two days now and I see a lot of chatter about really "owning a copy" of the film. I can relate to this same sentiment with vinyl vs. cd. When I buy the vinyl of an album, I feel like I really bought a copy of that record. I now hold that music in my hands...with CDs, that feeling just doesn't exist...

As far as availability reasons and things of that nature. I plan to purchase the Criterion LDs that are no longer available, as they do not have the license to these films anymore. Sure, you can now buy some of these on DVD or BD (non-Criterion editions) , but others aren't available on any other format at all.

is this a blu ray forum? i could swear i was in a laserdisc forum.. i must be in the twilight zone...

No, the fellow who wrote that is just lost. What's he doing here anyway? There's plenty of reasons we like LDs other than the mere quality of the image.

This is like having a character join a vintage car collector's website and then tell all the member's that they ought to toss their classic Ford, Chevy or Dodge for a throwaway modern import vehicle that has no style (color choice of black, white or a shade of grey) because it gets better milage and has AC.

I made this specific comment due to the fellow's moniker.

Like I said last night. I was watching the Roan copy of Demons on my DVL 909 and it looks as good as any DVD. I wish I could upload some video to do it justice. I was also watching The Iron Giant and it looked awesome on the WEGA. I was listening to the awesome soundtrack track on the Demons LD, oh wait, it isnt available on DVD because of copyright issues. You get subpar music. Regardless, enjoy the hobby.