Probably one of the best things about laserdisc players, particularly the Pioneer models is so many of them seem to be the same basic player inside.

I bought some discs from a guy in the US who told me what player he was using at the time. Unfortunately I forget the model number he quoted as it was 5 years ago but at the time I looked it up on the laserdiscarchive site and it appeared to be very similiar to the CLD-D925 which I was using in the UK. Another chap in Japan told me what machine he was using and when I looked it up it appeared to be a silver fronted version of essentially the same machine again!

Now I know there will be some differences like PAL playback circuitry and SCART sockets for European machines etc. Still it seems like there are lots of players which are essentially very similiar machines inside so many of the parts should be interchangeable in the future. If so for the low to mid range players sold in much higher volumes there should be tonnes of spares available from existing machines as long as they haven't been thrown out or dumped on a landfill site

Certainly this would have made sense from a business perspective for a company to re-use designs in multiple machines. If it ain't broke why change it!

Is that actually true though?

Pioneer had an enormous number of different model numbers, I have no idea why. Most of them have to be pretty similar, because otherwise their manufacturing operations would have been impossible, & they would have needed to employ a ridiculously large staff.

The CLD-D790 is the US version of the CLD-D925.

I think it is par for the course for a Japanese manufacturer to change certain things for different hardware for different regions. From what I've read, Sony was the same way with their Betamax VCRs. The North American models of their top of the line VCRs would have features removed that were in the Japanese models.

back then...
theta data = Philips DV400
theta voyager = Pioneer CLD 704
McIntosh MLD 7020 = Pioneer CLD 97
Runco LJR II = Panasonic LX 900

now..
Theta Compli Blu = Oppo Bdp 83
McIntosh MVP 881 = Denon DVD-A1UD
Goldmund Transport = Pioneer Dv 300

LD players are no different than other electronics. You make one PWB and the parts you put on it determine the options it has. Design the boards with jumper positions available with the parts on the board. Saves design cost by only doing one design.

That is all good news because there is nothing worse than having to scramble for some spare part that was totally unique to one player.

Another added advantage is it might be easier for a novice unfamiliar with the repair of these machines to see where the part should actually go by inspection of another spare machine. Just a thought because I know I've studied the internals of some devices trying to figure out the correct orientation for some part that was broken from the original machine and it wasn't always obvious from inspection of the service manual.

Better still buying a second identical machine gives you spares for all the components. This will likely be the most practical method for sourcing parts in the near future.

If we had a basic list of the most popular machines across regions and a few matching service manuals then it should be relatively easy to source parts for them and also repair them.

I suspect the high end machines which sold in much lower volumes will be the most difficult and therefore costly to source parts for but on the plus side they are probably less likely to break in the first place if they used higher grade components.

It's a bonus though. If a part breaks you could possibly salvage parts from a semmly different machine however the internal mechanics are relatively the same. They just changed the outside design to fit the market. During 1998-1999, silver was big. To have something silver was very attractable at that time. And with many later Pioneer model, about half were silver during that period. (also some of the best players were produced around that time) Basically they change the design and colour to suit the trend.

Just remember lets say you have a CLD-D504 and CLD-D604. The complete mechanical assembly is swappable but the power supply for the 604 is a little higher wattage so you can put that in the 504 but not the other way for the long term. Then the other board, while the same wiring board, are populated differently so I never intermixed those. The important part is that the mechanical assembly is the same and more of the failures are spindle motors or pickups what are part of the mechanical assembly.

I know the silver/light gray colored players were big elsewhere and not in the US at that time. that color was popular in the early 80s then fell out of favor for dark greys and black, then came back but too late to effect LD production in the states

If you want a modern LD player to match vintage silver-colored electronics, it's a tough go in the US. You have to get something from elsewhere. That's why I like my Sony MDP-V players so much. They fit perfectly with the other vintage silver items I have set up in one room.

Here's a shot of one.

I agree the silver or champagne gold coloured models tended to look better. I never really understood why the colour black was in vogue for such a long time in the hi-fi world. Apparently Steve Jobs insisted that only matt black paint be used for his NeXT cubes despite the fact they showed fingerprints from the moment they were unpacked.

I suspect the main reason for black hi-fi in the 80's/90's was it was significantly cheaper to produce, as silver fronted equipment tended to use real aluminium fronts whereas much of the black equipment was just plastic. It would also mean the units are lighter which also reduces freight cost.

Although the CLD-D925 is a nice reliable machine to use - I don't think anyone would deny it looks a bit cheap and nasty in comparison to the later aluminium fronted DVL-909/919 machines despite the fact it is almost certainly a better laserdisc player. The bright lights on the front don't do it any favours either, although those annoy me far less than the plastic front.

Given so many players have the same basic inards I guess it could be possible to improve the cosmetic appearance of some of these machines by simply swapping the outer cases!

Yeah, that can be done I suppose. I did it on a Mitsubishi VCR I had. It had S-video and was black, and I wanted it to be silver to fit the rest of the stuff. There was a silver one made but without S-video. Turned out I found a silver one that didn't work, and the case and front were an easy swap out for the black one, and so I had my silver VCR with S-video.