I found this at a local thrift this week for $5. At that price I can highly recommend it as a backup player, or as something to give out as a reasonable first player. (Just make sure they won't connect it straight to a low end Vizio, etc!)
There is nothing industrial about this player, it's a CLD-980/990 hybrid with a computer IO port. It has a 'light' tray like the 80 series players and doesn't even give off the light-industrial feel the V2200 does. But you do get digital audio, which can be very important for later disks.
I didn't bother to take any scientific measurements ala megapixie, because I'm lazy and you shouldn't buy this player for picture quality.
(edit: If you're bidding over $50 for one of these on eBay and it doesn't have the original box or been tuned by krbahr, you are insane. And apparently there's at least one insane bidder on eBay...)
Pros:
+ Has digital sound, unlike the V2200.
+ Common in schools etc, may be easier to find than other players in working condition.
+ Reliable, reasonable video quality.
+ Plays GM disks (my sample is a bit bad, and got physically noisy and lost tracking midway through. Since it's from the DiscoVision green slime era, I blame the disk)
+ Most/all adjustments are easily accessible. First of the "simple" player designs in the V2xxx line, this is a good first player for an aspiring repair-er to cut their teeth on.
+ or -, depending on point of view:
- Uses old-style CCD time base corrector.
+ If you want an affordable 'analog' player, this is it!
- No S-Video out. Especially with the lack of NR, this player depends heavily on what you plug it into. If you have a cheap LCD TV, you need a good DVD recorder or somesuch with this.
+ You basically get what's actually on the disk, un-mangled.
Cons:
- No chroma NR, chroma noise is very visible - but stable on still frames.
- Typical levels of ghosting/ringing.
- No digital memory.
- No bitstream digital audio output.