LD Player having trouble playing CAV??
Cathy Weeks
I'm having an odd problem. My laserdisc player (Pioneer 505) is having a
wierd problem. It has no problems at all with CLV discs. However, it
often has trouble playing the end of a CAV discs. The problems always
start near the end of a side, with horizontal lines appearing across the
screen. It often progresses to skipping, playing *backward*, and a Max
headroom-like stuttering effect. sometimes the player just quits. Here's
the wierd part: it's inconsistent. On Jurassic park, it did it horribly
at the end of the first platter, not at all on the second, and only
moderately on the third. Same for Aliens. It did it horribly on my CAV
Toy Story, but only moderately on a friends copy. The player plays both
sides of the disc, and the problems often start again at the end of the
second side of the platter.
I'm especially frustrated because it just came back from circuit city
repair (it's under an extended warranty, which just paid for itself since
they claimed to do $150 worth of repairs and maintenance). However, they
didn't fix the problem at all. I'd like to know if anyone has had any
experience with this, so when I take it back to the store, I can tell them
what to look for.
Any suggestions? Does anyone know what the problem is? I've ruled out
problems with the disks, because I'm on my third copy of JP, and my other
disks have played fine in the past (and I know Aliens often has trouble
with laser rot, but since it has the SAME problem as it does on the other
disks, I suspect it's the player not the disk. I've sent it to a friend's
house who has a player, and he's going to test JP on his machine, just in
case.
Cathy Weeks
JASON & FREDDY
Hi,
I have the exact same problem you have. My player is CLD-S201. It was a
cheap model but has been reliable in the past 5 years. However, more than a
years ago, I finally saved enough money to buy the execllent Criterion The
Killer CAV set. I have this problem on Side 1. I decide to exchange a new
copies directly thur. Criterion. About two months later, I have gone thur
about 3 or 4 different copy (Criterion had a very friendly exchange policy
in the past). Some people (including a guy from Criterion) said that it was
possible that the discs are wrapped. But it don't make sense to me at all,
why it all happen in the same place in 3 or 4 copies?
Some people in this newsgroup suggest that the player need re-aligment or
something like that, which make more sense to me. I went to a shop ask about
the repair and the cost semms don't justify a cheap like this one. I decdie
I will buy a new player whenever I can.
I have quite many CAV LD. Only some of them have problem to play to the end.
I have no problem with Toy Story CAV. Aliens CAV or any other Criterion CAV.
I do have problem with the CAV side of DieHard2 THX. CAV side of Cuttthroud
Island, And the Side 2 of ThunderBall THX.
My guess is the engineering design problem with player. Some players has a
smaller range of tolance than other players do when picking up signal. So
that a small variation in the signal the player will not able to pocess it
correcty. I guess its time to get a different player. Of course, this is
just my opinion.
Jason
Cathy Weeks wrote in message <6kenip$1ae6$1...@news.missouri.edu>...
Kurtis Bahr
The problem that you are having is due to the focus of the laser lens matching
the height or distance between the LD and laser pickup. With older units you
could adjust the focus and correct this. The average shop will not have the
expertise to know how to begin to do this. For the newer machines this is a
factory only adjustment. The service manuals say nothing about adjusting focus.
The problem can also be with CLV discs if you get one made bad enough. When the
discs are made they are specified to have a specific depth that the information
(actually pits that produce an FM signal) are to be impressed at. If this
varies from the optimal position the strength of the recovered signal will vary
and may go below the required level to track properly. This can be corrected in
the field on the industrial players but not the Consumer versions like yours. It
will be hard to find any repair shops that spend enough time with equipment to
learn about this problem or how to properly correct it.
Kurtis
kb...@erols.com or kurti...@lmco.com
JASON & FREDDY wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have the exact same problem you have. My player is CLD-S201. It was a
> cheap model but has been reliable in the past 5 years. However, more than a
> years ago, I finally saved enough money to buy the execllent Criterion The
> Killer CAV set. I have this problem on Side 1. I decide to exchange a new
> copies directly thur. Criterion. About two months later, I have gone thur
> about 3 or 4 different copy (Criterion had a very friendly exchange policy
> in the past). Some people (including a guy from Criterion) said that it was
> possible that the discs are wrapped. But it don't make sense to me at all,
> why it all happen in the same place in 3 or 4 copies?
>
> I have quite many CAV LD. Only some of them have problem to play to the end.
> I have no problem with Toy Story CAV. Aliens CAV or any other Criterion CAV.
> I do have problem with the CAV side of DieHard2 THX. CAV side of Cuttthroud
> Island, And the Side 2 of ThunderBall THX.
>
>
>
> Jason
>
Gojira9
>The problems always start near the end of a side, with horizontal lines
appearing >across the screen. It often progresses to skipping, playing
*backward*, and a Max
>headroom-like stuttering effect. sometimes the player just quits. Here's
>the wierd part: it's inconsistent.
I just came across my first problem with this! Picked up at clearance
Lumivision's ANIMATION CELEBRATION VOL 1 and all 3 sides do this -- the line
appears towards the end, the sound & picture start to stutter, picture goes to
black, then the player stops. I've never had a problem like this before with
any other movie, CLV or CAV. And since it happened on both discs, 3 sides, I
was wondering if it was related to it being CAV. Now there's almost no doubt.
I've had my player for about 4 years now (a Sony MDP-455) and I've noticed a
few signs in it getting fussy over whats played in it. Nothing major yet, but I
have one double-feature set that I was after for a long time, finally found,
and it can't find Side 2 (even tho it plays fine on other players). On some
others it takes longer than usual to find the starting point....it never did
this before.
Needless to say, we've been seriously looking at the Pioneer combo DVD/LD
players for a while, but this just reinforces the thought of buying one.
Especially if repairing an LD-only machine might become prohibitively
expensive.
mark
|||||||||||||||||||||
Mark Rollie
Mpls, MN
"monsters, matinees, and Mandan, ND's Showboat Cinema - what a childhood"
Jim Davidson
goj...@aol.com (Gojira9) writes:
> >The problems always start near the end of a side, with horizontal lines
> >appearing across the screen. It often progresses to skipping, playing
> >*backward*, and a Max headroom-like stuttering effect. sometimes the
> >player just quits. Here's the wierd part: it's inconsistent.
> I just came across my first problem with this! Picked up at clearance
> Lumivision's ANIMATION CELEBRATION VOL 1 and all 3 sides do this -- the line
> appears towards the end, the sound & picture start to stutter, picture goes to
> black, then the player stops. I've never had a problem like this before with
> any other movie, CLV or CAV. And since it happened on both discs, 3 sides, I
> was wondering if it was related to it being CAV. Now there's almost no doubt.
>
> I've had my player for about 4 years now (a Sony MDP-455) and I've noticed a
> few signs in it getting fussy over whats played in it. Nothing major yet, but I
> have one double-feature set that I was after for a long time, finally found,
> and it can't find Side 2 (even tho it plays fine on other players). On some
> others it takes longer than usual to find the starting point....it never did
> this before.
This, alas, isn't unusual with LD. My previous player, a 3090, developed some
severe problems tracking the outer parts of discs. It was fixed (with Pioneer
paying part of the cost), but I've since replaced it with a 704. That's been
pretty reliable, but has sometimes had problems with the two-sided play.
Building a mechanism that can manipulate such large discs and maintain
appropriate tracking is tricky...
-Jim
ed_gu...@my-dejanews.com
Cathy,
I have also experienced the EXACT same mentioned problems on 3 of my CAV
discs. I thought that this was an advanced form of laser rot but now I can se
how it could be player incompatibility of some sort. The discs affected in my
collection are Blade Runner Director's Cut (very bad), Interview With A
Vampire (at end credits) and Aliens (end credits). I have not checked the
other CAV discs in my collection as yet.
Thanks for posting and bringing this to the group's attention. I would love
to keep using my old Pioneer CLD-980 but if I need to upgrade...
Ed G.
In article <6kenip$1ae6$1...@news.missouri.edu>,
ccc...@sp2n09.missouri.edu (Cathy Weeks) wrote:
>
>
> I'm having an odd problem. My laserdisc player (Pioneer 505) is having a
> wierd problem. It has no problems at all with CLV discs. However, it
> often has trouble playing the end of a CAV discs. The problems always
> start near the end of a side, with horizontal lines appearing across the
> screen. It often progresses to skipping, playing *backward*, and a Max
> headroom-like stuttering effect. sometimes the player just quits. Here's
> the wierd part: it's inconsistent. On Jurassic park, it did it horribly
> at the end of the first platter, not at all on the second, and only
> moderately on the third. Same for Aliens. It did it horribly on my CAV
> Toy Story, but only moderately on a friends copy. The player plays both
> sides of the disc, and the problems often start again at the end of the
> second side of the platter.
>
> I'm especially frustrated because it just came back from circuit city
> repair (it's under an extended warranty, which just paid for itself since
> they claimed to do $150 worth of repairs and maintenance). However, they
> didn't fix the problem at all. I'd like to know if anyone has had any
> experience with this, so when I take it back to the store, I can tell them
> what to look for.
>
> Any suggestions? Does anyone know what the problem is? I've ruled out
> problems with the disks, because I'm on my third copy of JP, and my other
> disks have played fine in the past (and I know Aliens often has trouble
> with laser rot, but since it has the SAME problem as it does on the other
> disks, I suspect it's the player not the disk. I've sent it to a friend's
> house who has a player, and he's going to test JP on his machine, just in
> case.
>
> Cathy Weeks
>
-----== Posted via Deja News, The Leader in Internet Discussion ==-----
http://www.dejanews.com/ Now offering spam-free web-based newsreading
Ren...@my-dejanews.com
Well Cathy, I don't have a very solid answer for you but I do have a
question... Have you checked the frame numbers on the discs that you have
had problems with? For example, is JP starting to have problems at 20000
frames on the first disc while maybe the second disc isn't as long? This
would point to a problem with the laser head alignment as it approaches the
outside of the disc. Also, is the problem consistent whether you are playing
the A or B side (according to the player.) This could point to an alignment
problem with the side "flipping" mechanism.
-Scott
mlma...@my-dejanews.com
In article <6kfloi$coc$1...@nnrp1.dejanews.com>,
ed_gu...@my-dejanews.com wrote:
>
> Cathy,
>
> I have also experienced the EXACT same mentioned problems on 3 of my CAV
> discs. I thought that this was an advanced form of laser rot but now I can
se
> how it could be player incompatibility of some sort. The discs affected in
my
> collection are Blade Runner Director's Cut (very bad), Interview With A
> Vampire (at end credits) and Aliens (end credits). I have not checked the
> other CAV discs in my collection as yet.
>
> Thanks for posting and bringing this to the group's attention. I would love
> to keep using my old Pioneer CLD-980 but if I need to upgrade...
>
My CLD-980 developed this problem about two years ago. I took it to an
authorized Pioneer repair depot. They checked it out and declared that for a
mere $180, they would replace the laser and pickup. I declined and bought a
(very lightly) used CLD 704 for $475. The 980 is hooked up to the TV in the
living room while the 704 is in the home theater.
Matthew
mlm Matthew L. Martin <m...@REMOVEMExedia.com>
------------------------------------------------------------
I'm a contractor. If you want an opinion, I'll sell you one.
Here's a free sample: DIVX, the Electric Edsel
jjs
I had this problem as well, a few years ago. I started with Interview
with a Vampire. This is a known problem with the first pressing of this
disc, it played on some models but not on others. I waited until the
second pressings were out and exchanged the disc, unfortunatly it was
another first pressing. I contacted Warner Brothers, and they sent me a
second pressing which played fine, and explained the problem as follows.
He told me that the thin cardboard of the sleeve is not always enough to
protect the disc from very minor warping that can occur when the disc is
shrink-wrapped, and that some players are more sensitive to this. He said
they used a heavier cardboard on the second pressing sleeves and this
corrected the problem.
However, after a year or so this started happening with other discs,
always CAV, always in the last ten minutes of the side, always in exactly
the same spot. They played on our second machine just fine. All our
players have a service contract with Sears, so I had them come to the
house and look at it. The door was also sticking, but would open if I
tapped it with my knuckles.
The repair man open it up and said it was out off alignement, and showed
me a screw inside which he turned and lined up with a mark. He used a
spray lubricant on the door. It then played CAV discs it had never played
properly before just fine, but within a few days the door was sticking
again, and I went back to rapping on it. A few weeks later Sears was
back. The door would not open at all, and all the rapping had knocked the
screw out of alignment again. The spray lubricant had pulled bunny fur
out the air, where it combined with the grease and glued the door shut.
My player went to the nice clean shop, where there are no bunnies, and got
cleaned and realigned and has been working just fine!
A long story, but I've learned sometimes it's the disc, sometimes it's the
machine, and very minor mishandling can mess up sensitive electronic
devices.
Donna