Customer Reviews

PIONEER CLD-V2600 LASERDISC PLAYER with REMOTE

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

They say bigger is better, and that is the case here. DVD's are so small and wimpy; real men choose to heave hefty One-Footers (as we call 'em) into chunky reinforced trays and eat steak while watching one of these bad boys. Has Super-video out, which grants those fortunate enough to be nearby a vision of perfection that will awe and inspire.
If you are still watching DVD, or those so called "Blu-ray" discs, you owe it to yourself to step up to a LaserDisc player and see movies the way they were meant to be seen; on twelve shiny, spinning inches of pure, untamed bliss.

I had my Pioneer LaserDisc Player since '92 & have probably played over 500 LD's on it, and I haven't had a single problem with it yet! During that time period I probably went thru 4 VCR's, & each of those took less of a beating than the LaserDisc Player did!!!

I bought a Pioneer LD player with the karaoke option in 1991. This is great since I love to sing but the songs don't love me. So I stay at home so that the mob won't sent somebody to terminate me. Used it at parties in my house and it's been well used and abused. It's as rugged as the discs it plays.

The Pioneer CLD-V2600 was released by Pioneer in 1991 and originally retailed for around $1,400.00. As a result of LaserDiscs (or if you (like me) prefer the original name "DISCOVISION") never really catching on you can take one of these home for a tenth or less of their original price!

We received ours from a seller in Texas; the unit was packed as well as you would think any device of this nature should be packed, but arrived broken. There was something moving around inside it. Being the adventurous types (and knowing these are hard to come by so a return simply wouldn't do), my husband and I took ours apart to find the laser eye (the thing what reads the discs) track (the thing the laser eye moves along) was by design not actually screwed down. That is to say, any harsh enough shaking will dislodge the laser eye track from it's base and render the player useless until the laser eye track is carefully snapped back into it's proper position. This is a fairly trivial procedure to complete for anyone technically inclined and patient. If you are not one of those people, make sure you alert your seller of this fact or you will very likely receive an inoperable device!

Once our laser eye track had been re-seated and the device was put back together, we ran into another major issue. The outputs on this (and most other) LaserDisc player(s) are as follows: Composite (Right Channel Audio [Red], Left Channel Audio [White], Video [Yellow]), or S Video. Those are your options. Many television sets these days don't support those two formats and after searching two stores for non-existent Composite or S-Video to Composite or HDMI converters, we had to buy a TV Tuner card for our Media PC to get video from our LaserDisc player to our projector. These converters do exist online, purchasing one (if needed) with your LaserDisc player would be a wise decision. Things to bare in mind!

The video quality is excellent! All videos on LaserDisc are in a 4:3 (standard square-ish TV ratio) format; any LaserDisc claiming to be "Widescreen" is actually in Letterbox.

One other note; the Remote Control is MASSIVE; it barely fits in my hand. There is no stop button labeled; but the "Reject" button functions as one (and does not "reject" the disc). There is also no power button on the remote, the logic behind which defies mortal comprehension.

All in all, I love this device. I couldn't ask for a better priced player, and would recommend it highly to anyone looking to buy one.

I bought my 1st laser disc player 20 years ago or so - long before I even had a VCR. But both of my players were Sony's and both were always temperamental - mostly mechanical/laser glitches. The last one essentially stopped playing all together and that's when I went trolling for a replacement.

The Pioneers always got the best reviews but the Sonys were prettier. Now I know why. Apparently built like old glass tube TV's to run continuously for 20 - 25 years, it runs like a charm. It also seems to generate a somewhat better picture on the Samsung DLP I'm running it through. My only disappointment is the huge unweildly remote. It seems to have been designed for a 7 year old and really doesn't do anything you can't do from the front panel of the machine, unlike the Sony remotes.

I now have about 300 to 400 laser discs (they are so cheap now - I never bought them new or used in the 1990's when they were still making them) and needed 2 players. After my travails with my 2nd Sony, a fancy one where the laser flipped over to play the 2nd side of the disc (my 1st one still plays fine once you get the disc in the machine - the door hinge sticks) I'm trilled with the Pioneer. I've never really had a problem with getting up to flip the disc over - the players' only disadvantage versus VCR's.

No problems with the shipping or packing. I recommend this vendor wholeheartedly for anyone in the market for a Pioneer player.

My question is: who is gonna be smart enuf to design an "upconverting" laser disc player for the 21st century? If they can do it with DVD players, then of course they can with a laser disc player. There are many many of us who would buy one and pay a premium to get it.

Other than a 2 sided player you can't get better than this. THis player is listed as an 'industrial' machine and it is just. Bought this model at a swap meet for 20 bucks to review some of my laserdisc collection and it is completely solid. Probably been banged around a lot but upon hookup it has worked perfectly. Recently cleaned the lense since I am a smoker and it still plays perfectly. Even tried it with older Discovision titles and plays them without a hitch. If you need a player for laserdisc this is the one. Doesn't offer DTS but don't know of a laserdisc player that does. Also, If you mess with the Dip switches on the back you can play audio discs at much higher bitrate. Very nice player.