Best LaserDisc player?
 

With LaserDisc, player quality directly correlates with the picture quality seen on screen, as opposed to DVD where a $15 Wal-Mart special and a "high end" DVD player will look more or less identical.

Does anyone know of a US made player that has higher luma and chroma SNR than a CLD-97? I don't care about on board comb-filters. I have a stand alone unit that's much better than anything that ever made it into an LD player, and most of the time I feed a vintage roundie via a Blonder-Tongue. Seperate luma and chroma are of no use there...

The reason I ask is because I have a bunch of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies material that never made it to DVD or Blu-Ray that I still enjoy.

Thanks.

I've had several Pioneers,a Sony and one other brand that may have been JVC.

Of these the Pioneers consistently had the best pictures, I even had one of their first models, the VP-1000, and it had a fantastic picture, the Sony was pretty close in PQ to the Pioneers and the third brand was noticeably inferior, whether defective or just a bad design I can't say.

Probably hard to go wrong with Pioneer, they are also the easiest to find.

I've owned a Pioneer CLD-M90 LaserDisc/CD combo player for about ten years. Found it at a thrift store and used it at my mom's house for both audio CDs and LaserDiscs and it's worked flawlessly all that time. Not bad for $20. Below is a pic I found online.

I recommend getting a double side player. It is much nicer only needing to put in the 2 disc of a movie VS handling 2 discs 4 times in flipping the discs over.

I've got a nice double side pioneer in my main rack at home I'll post the model # when I get back.

I should clarify a bit: I have a CLD-97 at home. This was Pioneer's pre-3D comb filter TOTL dual-side model. I'm asking if anyone knows of a player with lower absolute SNR.

"Pioneer", but "Panasonic" LX-101 also haves an good image + on discs without chapters you can jump to a specified minute even if you don't have the remote.

I do not remember for sure, but the CLD-99 may be a bit better than the CLD-97. Whichever was the Elite equivalent of the CLD-D704 is the one I am referring to; it may be the '97 that you already have. There should be an online discussion of these machines available.

The best of all are the two HD Laser Disc players from Japan, the HLD-X9 and HLD-X0, if you want to spend $2000-4000 or more on a player.

The CLD-97 is actually superior for my purposes to the CL-99. Take a look at SNR measurements, for both luma and chroma here: http://www.laserdiscarchive.co.uk/la...eer_cld-97.htm

Couple the CLD-97 with a superior comb filter and you have a combination that will beat the CLD-99 every single time. This is what I'm doing when backing up some of my rarer LDs to DVD. Also note that at it's best, the CLD-97 is coming within 10 dB or so of the theoretical maximum luma/chroma SNR for both composite and S-video out from a DVD player. On a TV screen, they would look essentially identical if mastered from the same source.

If you're watching the straight analog out on a roundie, like I am some of the time, noise from the BT modulator, tuner, IF strip, and chroma and video curcuits is going to have a far greater effect than the LD disc or player.

Also note the impressive performance of the CLD-97 in these tests: even the X9 performs worse in the chroma!

http://notonbluray.com/blog/comb-tb-tests/

You have won the battle with the CLD-97. My DVL-90 is not worthy. But boy do I love it even if it is the red-headed stepchild.

I think the DVL-90 is essentially the same as the CLD-99 in terms of optics, the video circuitry, and the composite output wave-shaping circuit. It should be a phenomenal performer. With all of these high-end players, the limiting factor is more than likely going to be the disc itself. I'm willing to be relatively few discs, aside from the Criterion releases and most of the Disney catalog, are getting anywhere near the 50 dB S/N mark.

The only thing that concerns be about the DVL-90, CLD-99, 704 family, etc, is the soft frequency response. Even then though, you're unlikely to notice it on any roundie...

I like the LD format due to the lack of Macrovision and the ability to jump/skip around at will. Sure I could rip all my DVDs to a computer and stream everything over the network, but sometimes its nice to just throw and LD on and forget it.

I've been running a CLD-59 for the past 4 years, it's been a good machine so far.

The CLD-59 is a good middle-of-the-road player. I think at one point, the US lineup was CLD-97 - CLD-79 - CLD-59, later replaced by CLD 99 - CLD-79 - CLD-59. Pioneer is far and away the best brand I've seen noise measurements for.

Also note that a CAV version of a film is always preferable to the CLV version, even if your player has a framestore. The CAV discs have much lower chroma noise and slightly better luma response.