Pioneer CLD-2080 having trouble tracking the end of CAV discs

[BenM86]

This is the only laserdisc player I’ve had, but overall I’ve been pretty happy with it. The picture quality seems great, much better than my VHS’s and works amazing with the D Series CRT. But I have an issue where it just doesn’t want to track that last 5 minutes or so of a disc correctly. When it gets to the end it starts dropping frames and skipping all over the place and repeating itself. Finally it will loose tracking all together, give up and go to an earlier part of the disc. When I first got it it would also break up the picture and sound pretty bad on CLV titles also, but would track ok.

I found that this player has adjustments for tracking balance/gain and tilt balance/gain. Through subtle adjustments while discs are playing I found that the tracking adjustments and tilt gain don’t seem to have much affect at all, or at least were adjusted ok to begin with and further messing around just made it worse. Only the tilt gain had any positive effect. After some trial and error I was able to get the CLV disks to play all the way to the end quite reliably with only minor picture degradation at the very end with no sound issues. CAV on the other had is still an issue. It got a little better with adjustment, but ultimately no matter what I do I can’t get them track for that last few minutes. Some discs are better than others, I assume this is based on how much of the disc is used before changing sides? It’s the same on both sides of the discs (it a 2 side player).

Any ideas on how or if I can make it any better? Most of my favorite discs are CAV titles. Thanks!

[ARC Tech-109]

Sounds like the pickup is hanging up on the end of the rack, old grease with dust or dry rails will do this. CAV is going to need more energy to track given the constant speed to follow the program and the rack motor may not have the muscle to overcome the drag.
I used to run a 800 grit wet sandpaper across the rails to cut the dead lube and crap off in the older LD players then use a light synthetic engine oil to lube them.

[Hawkwind]

Sound like it's out of alignment. I had the same problem with Blade Runner CAV. 2 US copies plus one Japanese and they all broke up at the same spot on side 4 during the end credits. Solution was to replace the player...

Ask here also: LDDB.com

[BenM86]

Originally Posted by ARC Tech-109

Sounds like the pickup is hanging up on the end of the rack, old grease with dust or dry rails will do this. CAV is going to need more energy to track given the constant speed to follow the program and the rack motor may not have the muscle to overcome the drag.
I used to run a 800 grit wet sandpaper across the rails to cut the dead lube and crap off in the older LD players then use a light synthetic engine oil to lube them.

Originally Posted by Hawkwind

Sound like it's out of alignment. I had the same problem with Blade Runner CAV. 2 US copies plus one Japanese and they all broke up at the same spot on side 4 during the end credits. Solution was to replace the player...

Thanks guys! I think I have made as much progress as I can with it. I lubed up the rails and that made it quite a bit quieter when seeking and def needed to be done anyway, but didn't make much difference in the skipping. I read on some old BBS posts I found from the 90's that focus adjustments can really affect issues like these. So I worked with the focus a little and it helped quite a bit. While I was doing this though I realized the disc that was giving me the most trouble had quite a bit of wobble. After some trial and error with my discs I realized it was all down to the wobble. My fresh balanced discs will play back flawlessly especially with the focus adjustment all the way through, and the older more warped discs can have some issues at the end.

Makes complete sense watching them play, but im new to laserdiscs still and it didn't occur to me at first since they all look the same out of the player. Wish it had a window in the top so I could see the discs spinning without taking it apart, but alas at least I know whats going on. Most of my discs play perfectly now so im happy lol.