I picked up a Pioneer CLD-D704 last week and was super excited to read about the increased signal to noise ratio on this player compared to my last player, the Yamaha CLV-W901. However, after I plugged everything in, I honestly could not tell the difference. Laserdiscarchive informs me that the CLV-W901 is almost identical to the CLD-D604, which is a slightly lower model than the CLD-D704. The increased signal to noise ratio is a jump from 50db to 51db. Is there really a significant difference between 50db and 51db for the signal to noise ratio? How perceptible is this difference to the human eye? Can someone post two side by side images to show me the difference? Also, perhaps I am not setting the new player correctly to optimize its performance. Any suggestions?

I ran both players through S-Video into my Onkyo TX-NR1008 receiver. This receiver upconverts the picture to 1080p before sending the signal to my full HD television via HDMI.

I can tell a huge difference between a D704 and D604.

Good stuff guys, thanks! Can anyone recommend a good comb filter? A quick search turned up http://www.hdtvsupply.com/stovgaco.html. What do you think?

Also, I can bypass the receiver and put the S-Video directly into the television or run it through an external comb filter, but I still have to worry about the comb filter in my television distorting the image. Is this going to be an issue and if so is there a good way to bypass this?

if the player comb filters the signal then recombines it for composite does it really matter what comb filter you then put it through? The damage of inferior filtering has been done.

Yes, this is the way to do it but the level going into the IC is not 1Vp-p so you also have to apply the proper gain reduction. Get the signal before before going into the separation/TBC/DNR IC. People modify before the RF on games as the RF limits the resolution to 330 lines resolution and can add much noise.

The thing is you do get a non TBD corrected signal so you should put it thru a processor somewhere. I have a Philips CDV-488 that has a pure analog signal with analog TBC. You can get a S201, S104 entry models and they are pure analog. Why tear into an expensive player when you can just buy one of these. BTW the LD-S2 has a better looking lower noise picture than these units with it's normal output. More people have been interested in getting the digital signal coming out of the IC and putting that into a system totally avoiding the need to perform the D/A conversion.

I agree the S201 and S104 do not have the best picture but it will look about the same as the mod getting the signal before the TBC/DNR/Filter IC in a CLD-D703/704/79/99/504/604 etc. You have to start looking at the CLD-97 and LD-S2 to get the units with higher quality power supplies etc to give you a better picture. This is why I say just buy a LD-S2 or HLD-X0. The X0 would have an advanced Filter over the S2 and probably give you the separation you were looking for.

Buying an X0 without getting ass-raped is easier said than done...

You can't buy them easily from Yahoo! Japan using a bidding service, because they are too heavy to ship. I RARELY see them on eBay or Videogon. I never see them on craigslist. The only person who will sell one to you is n$a, but he wants an arm and a leg for one ($7K+).

TLK

At least one of the bidding services, as I found when I researched the question, has a special "auto parts" account for people who want to bid on especially heavy items.

Which one, specifically?

TLK

I picked up a Pioneer CLD-D704 last week and was super excited to read about the increased signal to noise ratio on this player compared to my last player, the Yamaha CLV-W901. However, after I plugged everything in, I honestly could not tell the difference. Laserdiscarchive informs me that the CLV-W901 is almost identical to the CLD-D604, which is a slightly lower model than the CLD-D704. The increased signal to noise ratio is a jump from 50db to 51db. Is there really a significant difference between 50db and 51db for the signal to noise ratio? How perceptible is this difference to the human eye? Can someone post two side by side images to show me the difference? Also, perhaps I am not setting the new player correctly to optimize its performance. Any suggestions?

I ran both players through S-Video into my Onkyo TX-NR1008 receiver. This receiver upconverts the picture to 1080p before sending the signal to my full HD television via HDMI.