From: thad@thadlabs.com (Thad Floryan)
Newsgroups: alt.home-theater.misc,alt.video.laserdisc
Subject: Re: Have laser discs gotten worse?
Date: 17 Jul 1998 23:18:30 GMT
Organization: ThadLABS; serving the computer industry for over a quarter-century
Message-ID: <6oom46$32l$7@nntp2.ba.best.com>

[...]

Even better than the Elite CLD-99 (and for the same price, imported from Asia)
would be Pioneer's HLD-X9 which has a better laser (narrower-beam since it uses
a visible and not IR diode), better voltage regulation (47 discrete ones among
its many, many PC boards in the player), 5-way parallel Y/C separation, etc.
and the ability to also play MUSE HiVision laserdiscs.

I liked the HLD-X9 so much (solely for "normal" laserdisc playback) that I
bought a second one and relegated both my CLD-99 and CLD-D704 players to a
"backup-only" status.  The HLD-X9's onscreen displays and the remote are in
English but the manual is written in Japanese; if you've used any other
Pioneer player you'll have no problems connecting or operating the HLD-X9.

Note you'd have to get a 120 VAC to 100 VAC stepdown transformer to operate
Japanese-only players on USA voltage.

The Pioneer LD-S9 is also available (in Asia) and its playback is reputed to
be better than the Elite CLD-99.  I cannot comment further about the LD-S9
but many in the alt.video.laserdisc newsgroup would be happy to tell you more.

Both the HLD-X9 and the LD-S9 are laserdisc-ONLY players.  This has the
decided advantage the hub-clamp is optimized for LDs and is not the compromise
(for CD play) as found in USA-only laserdisc models.

>From Pioneer's Japanese web page at URL:

        http://www.pioneer.co.jp/ld/newpro-1/index.html

today's MSRP (converted from Yen) are approximately:

	HLD-X9    US$2,400
	LD-S9     US$1,200

Street prices in Asia are better.  With the cost of two international FAXes,
bank wire fund transfer, UPS Express 2-day shipping, import duties, AND the
120:100 VAC stepdown transformer, I paid less than the above MSRP just last
month.

Note also that LDs are still "big" in Japan and if you do have a large LD
collection it's prudent to have a new player to tide you over the next 10-15
years.

FWIW, the HLD-X9 operates at 100 VAC, 56 W  50/60 Hz, and it weighs 40 lbs.
It also has all the outputs of the CLD-99 (two sets of analog audio, composite,
and S-Video, plus AC-3 RF, coax and optical digital SP/DIF) and two sets of
MUSE HiVision laserdisc video outputs.

One caveat: you may be in a sticky situation re: warranty and/or general
servicing for players imported from outside the USA.  If you're willing to
take that possible risk, the rewards are worth it for laserdisc playback.

Thad