On Ebay awhile back I bought Friday the 13th part V Laserdisc. The movie played almost all the way through without any issues until the last 15 minutes of the movie. The Ebay seller swore to me that the disc played fine for him. Now I own two laserdisc players. One is a LX-h670 which is the player that seems to have issues reading discs sometimes. Now is this because some of these discs are warped and on lower end or middle tier laserdisc players will have issues playing the disc. Or is something defective with my lx-h670? The weird thing is that it will read probably about 70-75 percent of my 60 disc collection perfectly fine. It's only a few laserdiscs it has issues with. My lx-900 is not picking up the interference at the end of the movie. Anyways to make a long story short. The seller accused me of being a liar even tho it now appears were both may have been telling the truth. That the disc does indeed work fine but it takes particular players to read it properly. The disc might be slightly warped or some other defect on the disc and the lx-900 reads through it without showing the interference. Now my real question is there something wrong with my LX-H670 like the laser isn't aligned properly or if the laser is dying on it which is why it may read some discs perfectly fine and not others. Or is this more of a disc issue than player issue? I didn't know which forum this topic fits in. If I posted this in the wrong section just move this topic.

The Kindred which I accidentally had laying flat with PaperBoy and Perfect Victims ended up as warped discs and stopped playing properly in my LX-H670 from a result of it. That was my fault because when I first started collecting laserdiscs I didn't take as good of care of the discs. Now this LX-900 is reading these same discs without any issues what so ever. So this player is kicking the other players behind in that sense. My only con with the LX-900 is the fact that the right side is cutting off maybe about 10 percent of the picture. That's a pretty big con when you consider the movie is already being cropped to fit a 4:3 screen. Other than that big con. I would say I made the right decision picking this player up. I read on this forum as well as other laserdisc forums that people rank the LX-900 as the best Panasonic LD Player even if it has issues such as overcropping an already cropped picture.

I think either:
A: The LX-H670 is out of alignment and the discs are fine.
B: The LX-H670 is only slightly out of alignment and the discs are slightly warped.

See: Is this laserdisc rot or warped laserdisc? Will it get worse and try signofzeta's paper test.

Why are your posts so long.

I bought a disc from an ebay seller who said it was fine.
Doesn't play on all 3 of my players, one is better than the other two but it still has an issue and won't play all the way through on any player.

I agree with cplusplus but I'm leaning toward just the H670 needing some alignment.

My Pioneer 704 had such an issue when playing mainly Side B and it was the entire mechanism that was out of alignment by a few millimeters (probably dropped or dinged in shipping). I literally used my hand to bend it back ever so gently and used my 703 as a reference on where it needed to be. It has been great ever since.

It's definitely not a disc issue as you already proved that to yourself in that the bad discs played fine on the 900.

How do I align the lx-h670? Is there a video to help me through the process? I know on the Sega Dreamcast it's as simple as turning a small screw like object to make the laser read discs better. Is it similar on laserdisc players? What do you mean bend something? Something is bent out of shape in my lx-h670?

I did not imply that your player has the same bent mechanism issue as my player but definitely something is affecting it.

The best approach at this point is to open the unit and play the offending discs @ the exact point you are having the issue and simply observe what is going on. You have to be patient in this regard since you really don't want to mess with anything until you can see what is happening and relay what you see to us. Once we have have more info, we can do our best to provide a logical next step.

Dad and I took the lid off and what we witnessed with Friday the 13th part V and HideAway laserdiscs is the disc wobbling when it is struggling to read the disc. We have come to the conclusion as I expected that these are warped discs. The LX-900 is able to read these same warped discs and we also noticed that the LX-900 has circular pads and that maybe it was better designed to read warped discs. So about 75 percent of the laserdiscs I own work perfectly fine on the LX-H670. It's just the discs that are warped and some laserdisc rot discs I own that won't work properly. Also, the lx-900 obviously won't correct the laserdisc rot discs. I have a couple laserdiscs I own that have snow effects and are so bad that not even the LX-900 can fix the issues with it.

No. There are several adjustments and you need an oscilliscope and test disc. There are videos and guides for Pioneer, but almost zero information out there for Panasonic other than the service manuals for some of the players.

Thanks for that info. We determined it's warped discs since it wobbles in the lx-h670. Most of the discs I play in the lx-h670 1995 revision play fine. I'm assuming the benefit of the high-end model laserdisc players other than better video quality is that they were designed to read warped discs better. That's why my lx-900 has absolutely no problems playing these discs or hiding the defects. The interesting thing about the lx-900 is that one some of the frames when I pause my captures I can actually see the interference in the video but when I unpause it and let the video play it seems like the lx-900 is hiding the defects. So the lx-900 is doing something to the video to make it look fine in motion. I also am going to take an educated guess and say the majority of eBay sellers and even probably some sellers here do not have a laserdisc player at all to test their discs out. Most people will not have a high end laserdisc player. So most people will see interference in warped laserdiscs. With the prices of higher end models being 300-500 range now a days on the new and probably even used market most people will see interference in warped discs. Warped discs while might be a little less common are still out there because people make the mistake of laying the discs flat and not vertically. The disc only has to be slightly warped for issues to occur on middle tier and low end laserdisc models in my opinion. I am making assumptions right now. I am not an expert with laserdiscs. I just am 90 percent sure the lx-900 is reading the discs better and I don't think the laser is off on my LX-H670. Keep in mind I only own two players and I doubt I will get another player any time soon. So I can't compare another middle/low end laserdisc player to see if it some how reads the disc better than my LX-H670.

Are saying that the wobble seems more pronounced on the H670 vs. the 900?

If that is the case, then maybe the H670 clamper is not properly locking down the disc. I have 12 working players and none of them (except the 704 I mentioned before that is now fixed) have ever had a skipping issue because of a warp.

NO PLAYER of ANY PRICE POINT is “designed” to read warped or rotted discs. I already mentioned this in another thread and it’s things that this that make me wonder if you’re actually reading all the advice you’re getting. If you asked any engineer from any LD player making company back in the day what the solution is for warped/rotted discs the answer would be the same every time, throw it away and buy another copy.

You need to calm down and begin a process of condemning or clearing every suspected fault in your setup/collection. Once done, don’t go back and spend time on diagnosis already done.

1: are the discs warped? I already explained in another thread that warping is a physical phenomenon that can me measured. If your discs are warped less than “.002 or so then they aren’t warped bad enough to ruin playback. You don’t have to wonder about it. Prove that the discs is warped or not and then stop thinking about it!

2: rot is usually colored snow. If you see a lot of colored snow you have rot. If you still enjoy the disc, keep it, maybe make a note to put in there for yourself in case you don’t watch it again for years. If you don’t like the colored snow or it plays till it locks or something, throw it away.

3: the players. Play a known-good disc of long running time in CAV and other in CLV on both sides. If one player plays these discs then it’s good, stop worrying about it. If there is an issue with one player or both then you need someone to repair the players.

That’s your roadmap, stick to it. Since I’m genuinely interested in your success I’m willing to send you some known-good discs for free if you PM me your address. They may not be great movies but I will play test every minute of them because you need a reference point.

I get attacked on this forum by users who are making accusations that I am not reading other users posts yet it's obvious many of you are not reading my posts. I already explained that when I bought The Kindred, Perfect Victims, and Paper Boy back in 2015/2016 that they all played flawlessly in my previous H670. However, at that time period I only owned 3 laserdiscs. I had these 3 laserdiscs stacked onto of each other which is what caused them to go warp. The interference I am getting on my player Is because of warped discs. Some of you are making claims that there's no way I could be running into so many warped discs but we all know that man people out there are making the same mistake as I did where they aren't taking good care of the discs. Many people probably have them flat not realizing they are suppose to be vertical because younger people didn't grow up with Vinyl Records. I hope this message doesn't come off as rude. It's just I hate how I am the bad guy when all I was trying to do was find out the issue. My Father and I took the lid off the player today and we diagnosed the problem to make sure it wasn't a player issue. We have determined it is not a player issue. We seen the disc playing fine at times but when it got to the problem areas of the disc it started wobbling in front of our eyes. Thank you for all the help everyone. I greatly appreciate it. Warped discs are not as uncommon as people said. And yes I know that one comment where the guy told me to do the paper trick. I don't understand how to do that. Either way it's obvious the discs are warped and that one player is able to read through warped discs better. Thanks again! I also understand that through text it can be confusing for both I and you to understand sometimes. So it's just a translation issue. If we could verbally speak I think it would be easier to understand each other.

Something is really wrong if you have so many issues.

The wobble you see is it worse than an LP Vinyl????

Make post shorter pls.

What do they say to you on facebook??

Can you actually verify the change in warpage you claim prior to when you stacked them months or years ago and now? I honestly don't think if I had stacked three on top of each other there would be enough weight to significantly warp them unless you had them on an uneven surface or the room you had them in fluctuated in temperature extremes.





How do you know it's still not the player?

The fact that you have asked us all these various questions about your issue leads me to believe you really can't make such as easy assessment especially since we know that you and your dad are obviously not electronic repair technicians (and if you were, you would not be asking). It's pretty obvious to me that the fact your 900 plays the questionable discs perfectly means the discs are within tolerance to play properly (and let me just add that there is no perfectly flat laserdisc; they always have some level of warpage and that is why all players have a tilt servo to compensate to a certain degree).

Thank you.

The only way to definitively determine this is by following the procedures in the service manual.

As mentioned above, no disc is perfectly flat. Players can handle slight warping when adjusted properly. Mentioned specifically here: https://youtu.be/zj8RE1EV_Q4?t=1723 "If the laser beam is emitted onto a warped disc". Additionally in adjustment #3 in the CLD-1450 service manual: "Symptoms when incorrectly adjusted: Operating range of the objective lens is unsatisfactory with warped discs".

When you have a warped disc that you can tell is warped by glancing at it, throw it away or try to flatten it out. If it is very hard to tell and you result in doing something like a paper test, vast majority of laserdisc players can handle it. They were engineered with this in mind. I watched an ever-so-slightly warped disc last night. I noticed zero issues. For the record though, I will side 100% with the user manuals that say "Never play a cracked, scratched or warped disc." If you have to ask yourself "Will this damage my player?" or you do not know, or if the disc is abnormal in any manner, don't risk it.

Maybe just get into DVD or BD instead.

I would concur with that as well.

Even in LD’s heyday, it was far from being the perfect format. Always had to deal with laser rot (well... we still have rot on DVD and Blu ray), pressing imperfections, machines that needed tune-ups, and the somewhat complicated nature when changes to the format were made (e.g.: external decoders for CX & Digital Sound and the introduction of AC3 & DTS).

DVD and Blu ray are literally plug and play for the most part.

So for anyone deciding they want to get into LD now, gotta learn to be patient as well as accepting that there are imperfections.

Wise words, well put - thanks.