So I've had a second 900 I purchased from a good seller as a backup unit for sometime but I noticed the digital audio was crackling/popping and DTS was dead silent. This indicated a laser going out so the seller sent me a 600 to perhaps do a laser swap. I plugged it up and everything works fine but I noticed the picture is noisier than the 900. Is that a symptom of the 900 not having the ability to fully turn off the noise reduction?

I guess my biggest question is: is the laser the same or should I just leave it in the 600?

My main player is a 900 with ac3 mod but the reasons why I got the second one are that the video 1 went out and this player absolutely, positively, completely HATES any disc warpage. Sometimes it usually comes up in a spot or two as some crosstalk/waviness but at others it can just go nuts particularly at the end of a side on CAV.

1 Sorry I have no idea if lasers are compatible, I don't really think they are from what I sort of rememer reading in the past.

2 are you sure the digital is not rot? I ask as again I've read that some discs the digital audio will go first and I actually own a disc that plays
perfectly but has static in the digital audio.

It's perfectly fine on my main 900 and other players. On the player in question while watching a disc you'll notice all kind of defects pop up where there aren't any. The big sign of it being the laser is that DTS discs simply will play silently with no audio at all.

Digital audio issues do not always mean the pickup is getting weak, but it does seem like the pickups are compatible based on [LX-900] Potential issue?

Since you are talking about swapping out the pickup, you'll need an oscilloscope so I would just go through the adjustments listed in the service manual before actually swapping them out. It sounds like it is in need of some. I'm not familiar at all with Panasonic units so I'm not sure if you'll need a 8" LD in order to reach all of the adjustment points while it is playing.

Have you checked/measured for leaking or bad capacitors in the audio section?

Definitely a possibility and worth checking. I've even had audio issues from a failed diode.


I've had two players where one of the two composite video outs failed. Both cases were the result of the 75ohm resistor failing. Either way this is pretty easy to debug with an oscilliscope by working back from the connector until you get a signal.

I would not assume this is a laser until every other possibility had been exhausted. There are loads of issues that could cause the digital audio to be less than perfect (and it has to be perfect for DTS to work).

I've had more weird issues pop up on my main 900. I had been testing out a number of new discs when I noticed some that were analog only had no right channel sound signal. Since I never use analog unless it's an analog only disc I had no idea that the right analog signal on both sets of ports has gone out. Sometimes it will cut in and out if you wiggle the cord but that's it. You can faintly hear the signal when it's plugged in.

Then suddenly my video signal dropped out and came back after I gave the player a break. This is the same main player I have that lost the signal in the port 1 and i had been using Port 2 composite with no issues. It has worked fins since then but I have been babying it. I use regular cables with no tight connectors or heavier audiophile cables.


Now that I have the 600 as my backup player I've used it some more and find it's similar in performance but lacks the ability to see all that you fast forward. While advancing it will skip though with gray-white frames. The picture quality is similar but with greater noise. Is the 600 supposed to be very close in performance to the 900? That's what I was hoping for as I wondered if i could just keep it as is as a backup unit.

You could have cold solder joints. You would have to remove the board to get to the under side to inspect to see this is the real problem and if it is then re-flow the solder.

That is correct for any LD player that lacks the digital field memory circuit. When you FF or REW on a CLV disc, you will either get a distorted picture or gray fill ins (at least for Pioneer, I think they started doing the gray fill in sometime around the CLD-S201).




They mechanically should be identical but definitely the 900’s pic will be better since part of the use of the digital memory circuit will also provide digital video processing to the signal. You obviously won’t get that with the 600.

LX-900 for the win! Downside to LX-900 is that earlier version of it 1992 ad 1993 have agl/apl color issues when it comes to the blacks and whites I believe I read on here. That and the LX-900 cuts off a small percent of the right side of the screen which will be noticeable on a big lcd screen. I notice that my right black bar side is slightly bigger than the left because of the lost pixels. That's weird that Panasonic LX-900 does that and even stranger it does it in the 1995 revision model too. So they never even corrected this and I don't know why. It does produce a gorgeous video picture though.