Just grabbed an LX600 seller said was broken. Needed a loading belt and now works. If I play an analog only disc audio sounds fine, if I play a digital disc it is distorted out of both RCA and Spidf outputs. I don't have a remote, could it be as simple as being in the wrong audio channel?

Example -
https://youtu.be/RTh8wQdxrGg

Issue is intermittent, some discs work fine some have distortion? Laser issue?

Many LD players (don't know if this is one of them) used an off-the-shelf CD player chip to do CD playback as well as demodulating the digital audio (which is basically CD audio) from LDs. Do you get the same issue if you play normal CDs (assuming this is a player that will play CDs)?

I can try, what will that tell me?

Honestly, I'm not sure it'll tell you much, but it might possibly indicate that such a thing has nothing to do with anything specific to LD playback (like how you're selecting the audio track). It seems like a useful thing to try, and CDs for most people aren't hard to come by so I assumed it would be relatively simple for most people; I'm no expert though!

(I don't know, if it does turn out to be something wrong with that CD Player chip, that it would be too easy to replace it these days — though perhaps you'll get lucky and find that drop-in replacements are still sold, then it's just a matter of soldering it in or finding a friend or neighbour who can do it if you can't...)

From what I have read could be laser getting weak but I cannot find an RF pot to turn up.

Bear in mind it is not always bad, can play perfectly fine but then next disc has issues, almost like it isn't properly in the groove...

I sent krbahr a Panasonic LX-1000 that had digital dropouts to work on a while back. What he told me is that poor digital playback is often a sign of a weakening laser.RF signal. Panasonic players don't have a way to increase the RF level like Pioneers do. If you're intent on getting the player to work, you'll probably have to replace the laser pickup assembly.

On the plus side, the lx200,lx1000,lx900,lx600 have interchangeable pickups so finding a donor might not be too hard.

He just told me the same via email.

Replacing the laser pickup shouldn't be hard if I can find a donor. In the mean time (LD audio always confuses me) can I just get a remote and use the analog channel or will that not always give me the correct sound (I am always confused what comes out of which channel)??

Not the LX120? There is one on ebay right now for parts?

you can use the analog channel, but depending on the disc it may have different content from the digital channels. I'm not sure about the 120. The models I listed are the ones I know for sure.

Ok thanks. I love your avatar BTW, was drooling over the way the Panasonic flipped sides yesterday

Thanks. Yeah, the Panasonics use a simple, fast, U-Turn mechanism. It seems like it would be less prone to failure over time.

Yeah that thing is like butter, especially compared to the slamming and grinding of the Pioneer's....

Wait until you have heard the odd noises the Panasonic LX-HD20 makes when turning sides.
But that might be SONY's fault after all.

Panasonic LX-HD20? Where did you acquire one of these and how much if you don't mind me asking? I have always wanted one. Does it work well? How is the picture?

It is a clone of the Sony HIL-C2EX.

From the noises that it made back when I had the chance to play with one (which was not mine) I would not dare say if it does work well.
But it did what it was supposed to do. I only tested MUSE discs on it, so cannot say anything about the NTSC picture. You can ask Publius
and he'll let you know about the HIL-C2EX.

From what I remember (it was some years ago, maybe 2006) it was an ebay purchase, but I do not know for what kind of money.
I know however that it was later replaced by a HLD-X0. Not sure if the player is still alive with its new owner.

Finally got this one knocked out, I purchased a Panasonic LX-900 on eBay which unfortunately was damaged in transit, rather than return for a refund I decided to keep for parts. I swapped the laser out from the 900 to the 600 (thank you to gumbyandpals who provided instructions) and now the 600 is working perfectly.

So the moral of the story is the laser was weak and needed replacement...