Interesting find:


The CLD-99 below is mine, manufactured May 1995. Above it is a CLD-99 manufactured February 1997. I did not know these were still being manufactured in 1997 much less that they existed with blue displays!

Very interesting

Wouldn’t mind finding more historical info on it especially why the change in the display color since the North American Pioneer equipment has always been traditionally amber in color.

If I had to guess, they ran out of the orange considering I only know of the 79/99 (until now) having orange displays. CLD-HF7G/HF9G/D99 and LD-S9 have the blue. Might be a few more I am not aware of.

I thought they were just gels they put in to change the color.

I think they were more like filters than gels.

Maybe the reason was that these late players could have been commissioned as international models which would have been bluish/white since the LD market was already stagnating in the US (so didn’t bother to make a separate line for a different market since the overall demand was shrinking).

My CLD-99 is a 1997. I think the last released CLD-99 may have been 1998 if memory serves me correctly. My favorite players I own are CLD-99 and CLD-3080. The 3080 is really something cool but it also weighs a bit more and has awkward weight. Not fun to move around and I weigh about 250 pounds. I want to lose some weight though since I'm a bit heavy for my height. I really like the CLD-3080.

My CLD-99 was manufactured in 1997 but doesn't have that blue display. Are you sure that one wasn't modified? I believe it possible to modify them to look more like the Japanese model. I think I learned that either on this forum or another laserdisc forum that people change the led color sometimes.