Does anyone have any pointers as where to purchase PAL players, other than ebay? I recently purchased a PAL disc I want to watch and there aren't any (decent) PAL players on US EBAY. Even ebay in other countries has a very limited selection.

I am kind of curious about http://www.laserdiscarchive.co.uk/laser ... p-v90k.htm
(that might only be PAL CDV though, not PAL LD)


thanks!

You will have to import it from Europe. There is so few pal players in the US. On US ebay, a Pal player shows up maybe once a year.

Since there was literally zero incentive to own PAL anything during the life of LD (and really, none now) you won't find many Americans selling PAL LD players. Even in Europe the selection wasn't that great.

I think the best bet would be to find someone in the UK that could help you out. A willing person could look through listings on local UK websites and procure one for you. Germany also could be a good option, but because of language reasons, UK is probably best.

From what I've seen, even here in Europe PAL discs were not that popular. A lot of import were done even in the 80s and 90s. In my country laserdisc were not officially released, so everything were imported. I hardly come by PAL titles on our "craigslist". Mostly imported US stuff.

Thanks guys. I have my eye on a few now in Germany. While there is minimal reason to own a PAL player, there are a few that interest me. I recently ordered the UK "The Big Blue". http://www.lddb.com/laserdisc/18905/EE- ... g-Blue-The ... The US version has an alternate ending, and I was concerned about the Japanese version with regard to it being a PAL version transferred to NTSC disc. The blu-ray version has gone massive changes to the color, and it was a visually stunning film (if, rather slow in plot). I worked at the movie theater as a projectionist when it was released!

Just make sure you get a player that supports both analog and digital tracks. Some players in the 90s didn't include the audio circuit for analog sound. The result is that discs that have analog sound simply are silent, no audio output. Manifacturers excluded it because digital audio were taking over. Later models did include both circuits again.

If you are going all that trouble, these are the players worth importing from best to worst (all pioneer)

Dvl-919E
Dvl-909 (Euro version)
Cld-d925
Cld-d515 (no trick play but same as d925)
Cld-2950

Also the clones of d515 as in denon la-2300 and la-2700.

Dvl units are usually $300 and up plus fees, shipping, proxy etc. The other ones are considerably less but still with fees, shipping, proxy etc usually end up in $300 range.

I bought a dvl-919e for a cost of about $450 including all expenses. I only watched like 3 partial pal discs on it. I question whether it was really worth it.

If it is any help at all & you are really looking to get a PAL/NTSC LD player then I am in the UK & if you bag one here I would have no problems packing (well!!!) & sending it out to you, sent quite a few out over the years with only one having an issue on arrival but it was very badly handled at some point in the transit chain - double boxed & no physical outer damage to the player but the package had been dropped from such a height the tray had moved within the player, it was an easy fix though but was still a bit of a hassle at the time. The transit cost can be quite a bit but some carriers do offer "budget" services & a couple are quite good but I have not used them for some time now but could check them out if interested.

A CLD515 can usually be picked up fairly easily for under the £100 GBssterling mark & the 925 is a rather good player, the prices for them can go a bit silly sometimes but if you are not in a great rush they can be picked up for around £150ish on a good day. The DVLs 909 & 919E can go a bit high here & the DVD unit is not that great (only my opinion though) but they are good looking units & again that is only my opinion.

Might work out a bit pricey all told if it is only for one or a couple of PAL discs. I sent a PAL/NTSC 925 player to a buyer in the US about 5 or 6 years ago as he had a couple of PAL music discs & he was talking of collecting some other PAL discs but he ended up copying the few PAL discs that he owned then sold on the player, as far as I know he bought another couple of PAL music discs but both were showing mild rot (UK Blackburn PDO pressings) & he then gave up on them.

Cheers