LaserDisc player

Most LaserDisc players required the user to manually turn the disc over to play the other side. A number of players (all diode laser based) were made that were capable of playing both sides of the disc automatically; at the end of the first side, or at the viewer's command, the machine would reverse the direction of the disc's rotation, simultaneously moving the laser pickup head to the other side of the disc, and then initiate playback. Since LDs are made up of two single sided discs glued together, the auto-reverse player would center each disc side individually. LaserDisc players used either a simple U-shaped reversing mechanism, known as "Epsilon Turn", or technique known as "Gamma Turn", where the player physically rotated the laser reading head 180° as it moved from one side of the disc to the other, ensuring that the laser retained the same playback orientation on both sides of the disc. Some players even had twin laser reading circuits to eliminate excessive servos.

The Pioneer PR7820 was the first mass-produced, industrial LaserDisc player, sold originally as the MCA DiscoVision PR-7820. This unit was used in many GM dealerships as a source of training videos and presentation of GM's new line of cars and trucks in the late 1970s and early 1980s. After MCA DiscoVision shut down, Pioneer continued to sell the player under the Pioneer name as the Pioneer Model-III. The unit was a full Level-III player and could accept a data-dump from discs themselves. It could also be controlled by an external computer and could be gen-locked to external video sources.

The 7820 was the only player ever sold to either the industrial or consumer market that was entirely designed and engineered by the technicians at MCA Disco-Vision and contained all of their preferred design approaches, such as playing the disc with the laser on top (instead of underneath) and moving the disc radially to provide tracking instead of moving the laser radially. MCA engineers designed the player at the DiscoVision labs in Torrance, California and Universal-Pioneer mass-produced it in Japan. The 7820 was such a high quality player that MCA themselves used it at their DiscoVision disc pressing plant in Carson, California for quality control checks of both master discs and finished sets. Unfortunately, this caused problems because the 7820 could easily play discs that the poorly designed and quite primitive consumer player, the Magnavox VH-8000, simply could not cope with.

In 1980, Discovision Associates released a factory update, which could also be retrofitted to existing 7820s, that reduced disc search times to less than three seconds, and added the ability to jump up to 99 tracks during vertical blanking, giving essentially "instant" searches. An external computer interface box was also made available at the same time which contained additional memory that increased the total size of a disc-based computer program the 7820 could store and execute to 256k.

The 7820 was the first LD player to use solid-state tangential tracking: instead of a tangential tracking mirror, the 7820 used an electronic CCD delay line to provide tangential tracking corrections, giving the player superb color quality. It was not until 1985/6 that the tangential mirror began to be replaced by electronic correction, first by Yamaha in their first consumer LD player, and eventually, by Pioneer themselves.

MCA DiscoVision had no suggested retail price for the PR-7820; depending on the number purchased, it varied from $3,500 to $2,200 per unit if more than 1000 were bought at once. Fully functional 7820s are not easily available on eBay and are nearly impossible to find in fully functional condition. Because they have a steel chassis, weight is a shipping problem.

Most players made after the mid-1980s were capable of also playing audio CDs. These players included a 4.7 in (12 cm) indentation in the loading tray, where the CD would be placed for play. At least two Pioneer models (The CLD-M301 and the CLD-M90) also operated as a CD-changer, with several 4.7 in indentations around the circumference of the main tray.

In 1996, the first model DVD/LD combi-player (and first Pioneer DVD player, for that matter) was the Pioneer DVL-9 released in Japan. The Pioneer Elite DVL-90, an updated version, followed by a similar, though supposedly lower-end model, the DVL-700, were released in 1997. Successors to this model include the Pioneer DVL-909, Pioneer DVL-919, and the Pioneer Elite DVL-91. Although the DVD/LD combi players offered competent LD performance, they paled in comparison to high-end LD players such as the Pioneer Elite CLD-99 and the Pioneer Hi-Vision/MUSE HLD-X9.

The Pioneer DVL-909 lacks support for DTS output. However, a modification to the player can allow this player to support DTS streams on DTS discs, essentially turning the DVL-909 into a Pioneer Elite DVL-91.

The last model DVD/LD player was the Japanese only DVL-H9, but the older DVL-919 is still sold in the U.S. and appears on Pioneer's North American website. However, it has not been actively marketed since the late 1990s. The DVL-919 supports DTS output. The DVL-919's DVD section is unremarkable by modern standards, and does not support progressive scan (480p) even though it has component output. As noted above, the LD section, while competent, is inferior to earlier high-end LD players. A few Pioneer dealers offered North American specification DVL-919s, and a unit purchased in April 2004 had a manufacture date of December 2003. Manufacturing of the DVL-919 continued until January 1, 2009, when Pioneer announced[2] that production would cease after a final production run of 3000 DVL-919 and other model laser disc players.

Certain Japanese models of Pioneer players are considered by enthusiasts to be of higher quality or capable of higher-quality playback than North American models. These include the CLD-R7G, LD-S9, HLD-X9 and HLD-X0.

The LD-S9 and HLD-X9 share a highly advanced comb filter, allowing them to offer a considerable advantage in picture quality over most other LD players when the S-Video connection is used. The comb filter present in these players is unique and is purportedly the finest comb filter ever used in consumer A/V gear: it is still in use in Mitsubishi's top-spec CRT rear-projection television sets (the Diamond and now defunct Platinum series sets) and Pioneer's Elite line of rear-projection televisions.

In addition to the advanced comb filter, the HLD-X0 and HLD-X9 contains a red-laser pickup, which significantly reduces crosstalk and picture-noise levels compared to players with the traditional infrared laser; it can also read through all but the worst cases of laser rot and surface wear. The HLD-X0 and HLD-X9 were also MUSE players, capable when properly equipped of playing back high-definition video LaserDiscs, called Hi-Vision or MUSE discs in Japan.

Pioneer CLD-01 (1992）

Pioneer LaserActive (1993)

Japanese

• Pioneer LD-1000, Pioneer's first Japanese-market LD player (released in 1981)
• Pioneer HLD-X0
• Pioneer HLD-X9
• Pioneer LaserActive, a converged device that plays LaserDiscs and Compact Discs, as well as console games for the Mega Drive (Genesis) and PC Engine (TurboGrafx-16)
• Pioneer LD-S1, released in 1986
• Pioneer LD-X1, also called the Pioneer LD-S2 in North America
• Pioneer CLD-01, CD/LD Compatible Player (1992)

American

Pioneer CLD-D703 (1994)

• Pioneer VP-1000, Pioneer's first consumer player for North America (released in 1980)
• Pioneer LD-1100, Pioneer's first North American player to have built-in CX Noise Reduction (released in late 1981)
• Pioneer CLD-1010, first player capable of playing 5-inch (130 mm) CD-Video discs (released in 1987)
• Pioneer CLD-D703
• Pioneer CLD-97
• Pioneer CLD-99

European

• Pioneer CLD-1050, PAL only
• Pioneer CLD-2950, PAL- and NTSC-compatible.
• Pioneer CLD-D925, PAL- and NTSC-compatible.
• Pioneer DVL series, capable of playing both LaserDiscs and DVDs

• DVD player
• VCR/Blu-ray combo
• VCR/DVD combo
• Videocassette recorder