From: marklc@umbc.edu (Mr. Mark L. Cohen)
Newsgroups: misc.forsale
Subject: Summary: Laserdisc recommendations
Date: 23 Jan 1993 12:28:36 -0500
Organization: University of Maryland, Baltimore County Campus
NNTP-Posting-Host: umbc4.umbc.edu

Thanks for all the responses that I got.  Here's a summary:

Original Message:

>Hello again networld!!!
>
>    I also had a question about laserdisc players.  I was thinking about 
>purchasing a laserdisc player and I wanted to get some opinions about which
>ones are good/bad/indifferent and what the differences are between each.
>I am mainly concerned about audio quality, but I would also like to get
>"auto-reverse" (forgive the cassette term) if possible.  Finally, price is
>important as well, but I want to get something that I am happy with (i.e. I
>don't want to get something that costs $50 and breaks every other day.)


Responses:


First, if you want it to be *inexpensive* and doing *autoreverse* you've got
a big contradiction. It usually costs about $300 more for autoreverse feature.
So think again. Does it bug you that much to get up after an hour to flip
the disc over?

I have a Sony MDP-455 and I love it. No autoreverse, though. And sound
quality is good, as far as I can tell. Sony makes one of the best DAC chips
around. But usually in their CD only player this is compromised very heavily
by the use of very cheap analog stage (mica PCB, 5532 opamps, etc.) I opened
my MDP-455 up and saw no such sign inside, instead I saw 2-sided PCB and 
surface mount parts. Seems like the"video" engineering division at Sony is
doing a much better job than the "audio" engineers.





Hey no sweat ! I have an M990. This is a cheaper model and doesn't play
both sides but the price was right (Pioneer brought in a new model to
replace it so dealers were blowing them out last year). Pioneer has
lots of models so they are constantly upgrading them.

I have only had it a month and have had no problems. A friend bought
a Pioneer last year (I forget the model # but it is the one that plays
LDs and doubles as a 5 CD carousel player). My friend uses his player
for LDs (and he watches a lot of movies) and for CDs (he has a large
CD collection). He has had no problems with it in the year he has had it.

The M990 doesn't have s-video out but this is not a big deal in practice.
You still get all the extra resolution. It can play CDs as well (one at
a time). Having to flip the LDs over isn't that big a deal. Most discs
are extended play and have an hour on each side so its a nice break to
go to the bathroom, get more munchies, etc.. If they are the standard play LD
(most are not) then each side is 35-40 min and typically require 2 discs
(3 sides - the 4th usually has no material on it). This means you still
have to change discs somewhere along the way. I'm sure Pioneer is working
on a multi LD disc player. In the meantime though, I don't find disc
changing that big a deal.




Pioneer: Usually have better picture quality and can handle slightly damaged
 	discs better than other brands. They would be the instant choice, but
	ever since the -90 series (last year's models), their players have had
	software bugs that may or may not have been fixed with the new models.
	These bugs usually manifest with only a few discs, and by replacing a
	chip in the player, most of them can be fixed (but not all).

Sony:Praised almost universally. Although judged slighly inferior to Pioneer in 
	picture quality, this to me is *very* subjective. The old model
	didn't have any problems, except for a sticky door. The new models,
	especially the MDP-455 look really impressive, and include special
	circuitry to better the image.

Panasonic: Not really problematic, but below Pioneer and Sony quality. 

My recommendation:

   I would not hesitate to buy the Pioneer models if the bugs have been 
fixed. The jury is still out on that one, but so far, I've only heard
of one person with problems, versus a lot of happy customers. If you can't
wait for certainty, then by all means, buy the Sony. It looks like a really
nifty player.




>Pioneer is the company that stuck with LD and has been evolving the
>technology. They have quite a wide range of models including
>ones that play both sides ('auto reverse'). I would check them out
>first. 

That's a common mis-conception.  It is true that Pioneer stuck
with the LD in the 'consumer' market, but both Sony and Hitachi
were building LD players for the industrial market for quite a
long time.  Sony goes back to the beginning.  And their
industrial units have been some of the finest built.

Pioneer has had some problems with many of the consumer
machines built after the *070 series.

Check ALL the manufacturers out.  There are at least 10 'name
brands' on the market now.    They come from at least 4
different manufacturers.





 I just posted an article about my Sony Multi Disc Player
and I like it a lot. I plays both sides, 18 sec ave flip time.
THe sound is great! It just doesn't reeze frame when paused
at the 1 hr per side standard. Pioneer is good, but I thing it sound    
'grainy'.




bout a year or so ago I purchased a Sony MDP610 I think.
I really like it, has good picture, options, shuttle
FF and REV, similar to a VCR. I only wish it had pause
still frame for the longer STD of decoding. The 1/2 hr
per side of disk STD (I don't remember the STD's name)
does still frame when paused, but the 1 hr per side of disk
does not. I get a blue screen. That can be kinna awkward if
you are into freezing and analyzing the scene for discrepancies,
facts, starship names and NCC#'s etc. I end up transferring that part to 
tape and then freezing that. But that is all the bad things I can say
about it. It plays things my top of the line Dennon would not play
(CD wise) with just as good a sound as it has. And it has already
outlived the maintenance record of the Dennon player which was it the 
shop 6 months after I purchased it for constantly skipping.