PROS:
LINEAR MOTOR! Like the Pioneer HLD-X0! - no more broken belts!
"Pure" laserdisc player - not compatible with CD/CDVideo.
Plays everything - late 1970's GM disc too, so I suppose no problems with DiscoVision.
Single Side Play - less mechanical parts in movement, less things to eventually fix.
No digital frills - image a lot more analog than recent models.
Dual-standard (PAL/NTSC) with pure output - no conversion from NTSC to PAL.
BNC and RCA composite out - the former is the best composite connection available.
RGB out - could be handy in some occasion.
Built like a tank - it will outlast me, you, and everyone else...
RS-232C Serial Port for computer interface - perfect for LD games like Dragon's Lair.
EFM Out - could be used as LD-ROM with the right interface.
Fairly Quiet Operation - no side change, no big noises.

CONS:
No digital out - neither PCM/DTS nor AC3.
No remote included - but compatible with most Pioneer's other models remotes.
Single Side Play - you should leave your couch to turn the side...

CONCLUSION:

This is one of the most underestimated laserdisc player in the world; but it's heavy, it's really well built, it plays only laserdiscs, with a oversized LINEAR motor - similar to the one inside the Pioneer HLD-X0; really few players has it, and it's capable to pass from the beginning to the end of a CAV disc in less than 5 seconds! Ideal as LD-ROM player too, as it has the EFM out - decoder needed, perfect to use with laserdisc games.

Plays practically every kind of disc, even the most ancient; the only major downside is the lack of digital audio - altough probably could be extracted from the EFM out; if someone could find a way to do it, it will climb the list of the preferred laserdisc player for many of us, I'm sure!

Is it releated to the ldv4300d? 4300 has 42db s/n ratio which is really very low.

Yeah it's the NTSC/PAL version of the 4400.

Just came across this thread - I got one of these a couple of days ago, it does seem to be pretty good, though heavy and BIG, I'll probably use it as my backup player, with a CLD-D925 as the main machine. I'm wondering if it's worth building the special RGB cable and/or getting a remote - the other player's remote works most of its features. If you've tried it, did you notice much difference between its composite and RGB outputs?

update - found a cheap remote (only cost slightly more than the player!), still wondering about the cable. Anyone got any experience of this?

A company that sells a very similar lead as a SCART to RGB input for a Philips monitor is going to modify one for me free of charge, if it works correctly they may add it to the leads they sell. Won't be especially cheap, but I'm willing to give it a shot to see if it makes a difference.

megapixie recently reviewed this on his site:

http://notonbluray.com/blog/pioneer-ld-v4300d-laserdisc-player/

It's a mixed bag - good SN ratio and excellent frequency response curve - but significant ghosting and CLV smear (both observed with the NTSC 4400 as well by others) I suspect the analog filtering components could use an upgrade (same with the 8000, it just doesn't need it as much) - if it was done well these might hold up pretty well against an S2.

Looking at a graph of the 4-gray scale picture, it looks sort of like the deemphasis is out of phase - it undercorrects then overshoots and then settles in. Nice clean signal after it settles down, at least.

It's worth noting that this is the only Pioneer PAL player with industrial build quality, and one of a few Pioneer solid-state laser ones (this, the 4400, and 8000)

Reminds me to say that I got nowhere with the RGB cable, just couldn't get it to work. But colour seems reasonable with composite video anyway, so no problem. I haven't used it much with NTSC, apart from checking it works, but PAL seems fine.

happycube, what you tell me about the S/N on the colour ratio figures of link in your post of the varies players I gather if all the RGB was equal level and high would be good or bad. I see ALIEN THX screen capture on the link not looked closer to see if I can see same artifacts of ghosting around the white opening titles.

btw some LD-V4300D on ebay.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3-x-Pioneer-I ... 19f6c9927f

I didn't run the test, but high S/N ratios are good.

Those players were made in 1997, BTW. V series players of all sorts had a pretty long production life. Heck, I saw an E2000 (an S201!) on eBay made in 2000 once...

Okay so its (good) that's all I need know cheers.

Just got one today, but despite having what seemed to me as the right cable (VGA 15-pin / 9-pin), the player wouldn't display anything on my LCD TV through the VGA channel. If someone knows how to use that RGB port, I'll be really glad since I want to use it to import some rare footage…

I bought mine from ebay, and on the ebay listing, it said:

D-sub connections for the RGB output:

Pin 1 gnd
Pin 2 gnd
Pin 3 red
Pin 4 green
Pin 5 blue
Pin 6 NC
Pin 7 NC
Pin 8 CVBS
Pin 9 PAL/NTSC toogle (PAL=hi, NTSC= low).

I don't know where they got that info, but if that is the correct pinout, that means it is RGBS and not RGBHV for one. The output will also be 480i. I have found that none of the monitors in my house will display 480i over VGA/RGB, because my CFD-SN also ouputs this. A CRT PJ would, and I was surprised to find out that my arcade machine monitor would not accept it either.

looks like a far more ruggedly built variation of the CLD-99S/-3030 series;

http://notonbluray.com/blog/pioneer-ld- ... sc-player/

http://www.dragons-lair-project.com/tec ... ations.pdf

Ah, the one in that Bond movie...I forget which one.

I'd love a white LD player, but it's hard to made the case for this one.

Licence to kill. Good movie.

I don't think I've ever seen a good Bond movie so I must be thinking of something else...

there are but a handful of BOND films that actually aren't enjoyable in at least one way or another.

IMHO, MOONRAKER was the finest of them all, however, and i suppose that speaks volumes
about my presumed utter lack of good taste...

I should have said "enjoyable" movie. You don't generally expect a bond movie to be good, but enjoyable, yes.

LD-V4300D is specified at 48 dB (NTSC) or 43 dB (PAL) video signal to noise ratio as stated in the leaflet to which points one of the above web links.

Enjoy a tour of this machine (in french) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myudRuHDpEM

To obtain digital audio, connect a Pioneer DA-1 to the EFM out port. I expect soon to devise a mod to get SPDIF out of this unit.