When the laser goes to read the disc or get a reflection you can actually see the red light turn on inside the lens. What am I missing here ?

Are you talking about the CLD-1010 specifically, or all LD players?

I personally cannot see with my naked eye, a 780nm IR laser. I can see the 632nm and 650nm red lasers on the HeNe player and DVD player.

As I said before though, there is a little red light near the pickup on the CLD-1010, but that is not the laser.

I just want to add a disclaimer here for all.
It really isn't the best thing to look at lasers.

thanks rein-o, that is 100% true. You should where special glasses. I should have said that in my posts initially.

To clarify all players. Also to further clarify I am not looking directly into the laser

You can see it at a slight angle.

Okay, i personally can't see that wavelenght (780nm) at a side angle or anything. When referring to the "red" laser of the cld-1010, it is referring to a red-orange wavelength of ~630nm which is very visible, hurts your eyes to look at it from any angle without glasses.

the cld-1010 laserdisc archive says this:

http://www.laserdiscarchive.co.uk/laser ... d-1010.htm

That statement on laserdisc archive, contradicts the service manual for the cld-1010, that specifies 780nm for the laser (you can google angstrom to nm to convert, but 780nm is 7800 angstrom, 6228 angstrom is 622nm). Further, the link to the history of lasers I provided earlier clearly indicates that a diode laser of that wavelength (<670) was still in R&D in 1987.

That is what I am trying to say, that the information on laserdisc archive, and subsequent references to the same, contradict the manual and other sources about lasers. Using the word "red" is probably too vague or ambiguous, because as rein-o pointed out earlier, they are all "some kind of red".

Just something to add regarding manuals. I have 2 cld-3030 players, and my manual for it says the RCA jacks are gold coloured. Neither of my 2 players have gold coloured jacks, and I have seen many other 3030 players pics on ebay with no gold jacks either.
So the manual is not accurate they probably changed that idea, after the manual was already printed.

I remember them saying the cld-1010 being the first to play the new 5" cdv was a fast addition and something about putting a extra piece of paper in the box explaining how to play the cdv as it was not printed in the manual. I don't have my cld-1010 anymore, but the red laser (if true) could have been added after the manuals were printed.

I also want to mention that the first short-wavelength solid state RED lasers to be mass-produced was the Toshiba TOLD9200, which became commercially availible in April 1988 with a retail price of $300 each (and are still being manufactured today, now selling for $10 each):

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1988/02/08 ... 571294800/

https://www.mi-lasers.com/product/3mw-6 ... -told9200/

These are red laser diodes that produce a wavelength of 670nm. Toshiba originally developed them in 1985 and tested them in 1986. These types were eventually used for the Muse HD Laserdisc players.

https://toshiba-mirai-kagakukan.jp/en/l ... /index.htm

Around 1990, solid state red laser technology was further improved to produce shorter wavelengths of 650nm. These types were eventually used for DVD players.

With the exception of the Muse HD players in Japan, no LaserDisc player was ever manufactured that ran on a red laser (including the CLD-1010). And all LD/DVD combo players have two separate laser pickups (one infrared 780nm for LD, and one red 650nm for DVD).

When the CLD-1010 came out in '87, it wasn't feasible to use red laser because they weren't available. And even when red lasers became available the following year, they were still way too expensive to use in the player that originally went for $2500.

It just does not matter too much because the disc carries more weight than laser wavelength. A properly functioning player will not be picking up adjacent tracks from properly mastered, undamaged discs with an infrared laser. In regards to Hi-Vision, it just does not compute for me since it is a different format.

It is also not just the laser wavelength that matters: aperture is significant. You will notice a different lens on each pickup in a DVL. The red laser is not what causes it to have a different lens, rather DVD requires that combination of lens and wavelength with a focus servo capable of keeping the spot size optimal for DVD pits. Apparently, incorporating two pickups was better for Pioneer than designing a LD/CD/DVD pickup and accompanying servos for it. Maybe they did not care to expend R&D costs for something that would only last a few more years at best.