If were going for cosmetic looks, the Runcos(Lx900 clones) always looked nice!!!

Just my two-cents

I have 9 laserdisc players. 5 Panasonic and 4 Pioneer. I love the Panasonics. very quiet players. Pioneer makes great players but I really enjoy the Panasonics a lot. Very sturdy players as well. Wish more of them had AC-3.

pioneer, hands down

I may have heard tell that Panasonic LD players are less liable to get errors than the ones by Pioneer.

Who told you this?

Can you be more specific on what you mean by "errors"? Video, audio, tracking, etc. Seems like a vague thing to say out of nowhere.

In general, I've never seen a bad Panasonic player except possibly the LX-1000 and its oddball issues of not reading some discs correctly and having the door jam issue. Suffice it to say, I don't own any Panasonic players mainly because they are more rare since they came to the market much later than Pioneer. And because of this, I would not be in the market for any of the Panasonic players unless someone handed me one since I know trying to get spare parts for them would be a bigger nightmare than most Pioneer units (Pioneer also manufactured so many clones for different manufacturers to the point that we can use those players for spare parts as well).

The two people that have asked me about Panasonic players in person heard about them from Facebook.

Overall, it seems like they are good players but I could never recommend one in 2021 because parts are much more difficult to come by than Pioneer and I don't think anyone can fully service them anymore. It is hard to even get help with non-trivial issues.

Further, their flagship LX-900 was very much a work in progress.

Availability outranks everything. The availability of Panasonic decks is very very low and always has been so I have never had one or even seen one, I’m pretty sure. I’ll buy the next one I see but they are less common than a working Sony deck as far as I can tell.

The Panasonic players were the other good option opposing the Pioneer players, Runco and MSB took the LX-900U and corrected the video level gain control and put out very nice upgraded LX-900U players. Other high end companies took either the Pioneer CLD-D704 or CLD-99 and performed updates. I do believe the LX-900U was the best unit, the LX-1000U had a lot more pages associated to updates so the 900 which was the last Panasonic unit I believe was the their best effort. I had a LX-900U and I did like the unit, it had a good picture but I didn't like the way the video AGC would correct up (brighten) a dark scene, Was really apparent watching the original BATMAN movie. Otherwise the picture might have been superior. But then I prefer the CLD-97 which is better than all these for my personal taste.

As for working on them the Panasonic LX-900U servo adjustments were all controlled by the remote initiating a routine in the player to adjust itself, you cannot adjust this unit using test equipment to get the desired result. Pioneer players still provide adjustable pots so I much prefer Pioneer from a maintenance side. Also the LX-900U did not provide a RF level adjustment so if the level was a little low there was nothing to do. I can still buy lasers and spindle motors for the common Pioneer units (but not all units), there are no new parts available for Panasonic units, Panasonic totally quit supporting LD format many years ago, you have to find other players for parts.

Yes, the LX-900U does give the CLD-D704 good competition, The Runco or MSB versions of the LX-900U are better.

Kurtis, thanks for mentioning the adjustments via remote (Section 2-3 of the Service Manual). I'm going to check that out.

Personally, I really like my 900. It is from April 1995 and doesn't have the AGC issue. PQ is fantastic IMO. I would't hesitate to pick up a 900, 600 or a H670/H680 for a decent price. Parts availability aside, Panasonic made a great product that you should consider. Parts will continue to be scarce, even for Pioneer players, and ultimately will be fabricated by fanatics with 3D printers. My 704 needs the motor replaced. I did get a replacement but not sure if I could get another in the future or if so for how much. I'm even hesitating installing it for fear of messing it up. Most people would just junk the player at this point. My $40 LX-900 is still spinning....and begging me for an AC-3 upgrade.

Never owned a Pioneer laserdisc player. I wanted to but from videos I've seen on this website it seems like Panasonic video quality wise might actually beat Pioneer even though people aren't going to want to hear that on this website because Pioneer is suppose to be the main brand for ld. Someone posted a video comparing the lx-900 to a cld-3080 or cld-2080 I believe it was and the Panasonic lx-900 clearly had a little better video quality. It wasn't light years better but it was better. Now the biggest complaint I have with the lx-900 is the fact that for some odd reason it cuts off about 5 percent or 10 percent of the right side of the screen depending on the laserdisc. I notice sometimes it cuts off only a very small percent but other times it seems like it cuts of even a little more depending on the ld. I have absolutely no idea why it does that. I think on this website the LX-900 by many ld-fans is considered to be in the top 5 best ld players even with that annoyance. Also, the Panasonic LX-h670 is nice but on the player I own it will play about 70 or 75 percent of my collection fine but have issues with the video and audio on some of my lds. I own probably around 90 or 100 lds if I had to guess. I believe the Panasonic LX-900 and higher end Pioneer Players have something built into them so they can read scratches or warpedness better. I know something strange is going on because when I screen capture my lx-900 laserdiscs I can pause it in vlc media player and see the issues in the video but in motion those issues don't really show up at all. Bought my LX-900 brand new or so the seller claimed for 295 plus tax on eBay and it came to 315. I forget when I bought it but probably back in January. Seller told me he didn't even want to sell it that low. He had a best offer feature on the listing and he came down 5 bucks which isn't a lot to come down but I know the rarity of the lx-900. Also the lx-900 he listed was a 1992 version but I ended up receiving the better 1995 revision. I doubt you'll ever find a new or like new lx-900 for this price ever again. I've seen the market for LD Players and it seems like it has gone up lately for many of these players even including my lx-h670 which I believe is considered a middle of the road player.

Pioneer reliability is pretty poor compared to Sony and I wouldn't be surprised if Panasonic out do them too. Didn't Panasonic have a Sony HIL-C1 clone?

Glad you're enjoying the Panasonic players. I have an LX-900 as well, and the upgraded Runco LJR II. I have read that both the Runco and LX-900 cut off a little bit on the side of the video, but I haven't really noticed it. I should probably test that out with another LD player to see.

Most all LD players are going up in price these days. I got the LX-900 from a craigslist seller for just $75 about 7 years ago. Had to go 2 states over for it though!