Laserdisc - Exploring the World's First Pioneer Laserdisc Player - The Soundtracker
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- Опубліковано 30 січ 2025
- The Pioneer VP-1000, is the very first "Laserdisc" player. Laserdisc was a term made by Pioneer for Laservision (a.k.a. Discovision,) which is the actual name of the Laserdisc format. "Laserdisc" was just such a popular term for the format that the name stuck, the same way most people call tissues "Kleenex." Let's see what an early player can do!
"As an initial purchaser of LaserDisc, you are a special customer indeed."
Hah, yeah, the documentation from this player is pretty on-the-nose.
They saw us coming on the short bus. 😅
I purchased this model from La Belles in Mesa, AZ back in 1981 for $699.95 and the remote for $49.95, very expensive in those days, it took 3 exchanges before I got one that worked, the problem was skipping at the end of the disc. This unit did not have CX noise reduction but I purchased an external CX decoder. I purchase a Pioneer CLV 919 in 2001 which plays both sides automatically plus you can freeze the video in CLV mode as well as CAV mode. I also purchased a Pioneer PR 8210 back in 1986 and I still have it today and it still works. Laser disc were popular in the 90's and you were able to rent them as well, but in 1997 the format died when DVD'S came out.
I have the exact ancient model that worked sometimes. You wonderfully described the quirky connection issues that seemed contrary to logic. I kept the thing as a piece of digital history. One of these days I'll plug the thing in to what might match and see if it still works. It was a hand me down from friends that cost me nothing.
28:00 DTS is stored on the digital tracks and it's only compatible with later model LD players. Optical/digital 2.0 tracks are PCM.
38:48
_"So, the services rendered were 'replace the H.U. block, and I have no idea what that is on this machine..."_
That would be the H.V. block ... the high voltage block. That's likely for the helium neon gas tube laser power supply. If that part went out, that would explain why the player stopped playing discs back at that time.
The first run of VP-1000 units supposedly had a design flaw in the laser power supply that had the potential to fail so catastrophically that it could result in a fire. Revised players were known as the VP-1000A. VP-1000 units with the old design that were brought in for service or repairs would supposedly be refitted with redesigned parts. In addition to the H.V. Block, the label in the repair receipt was possibly for the sticker denoting that the player has the revised parts installed.
Oh, and check out the old style LASER DISC logo on the remote at 20:51. Of course, the player itself has the newer style LaserDisc logo.
We hired the players and films back In the 70's. It was the Phillips top loader. Buying was beyond our means at the time, as my wages were £25 per week In the UK. I still have some Laserdisc's, just nothing to play them on. I have Toshiba CED players that sill work, and 400 disc's to put In them. This was playing Films from Vinyl Records. I keep all the Documentation and recipes In the box's as well. Nice to know they are still out there and working.
This is refreshing for me, I had almost forgotten renting a player was a possibility. My family wound up doing that once when we were between VCRs, and it was a similar situation, not a lot of money in the house and you only spend on what you need when you don't have a lot.
I've started collecting a lot of formats because I've been interested in how home video has changed over the years, and it's easy to find working units that many are willing to part with because they want to declutter. I'm glad so many have still kept working, and it's a real bonus to find documentation as well :) I'm curious, do you still throw a CED on every now and then?
@@OfficialSoundtracker Hi Glad It made You remember the time You had to Rent Machines and The Films. Yes I still watch films on CED, as some of the titles never came out on anything else so far. I had a Sony C7 Betamax Machine, but the heads went on It, Impossible to find replacements, pity I loved that player. I still have a Toshiba Super VHS 6 heads and still working.
The college bought on of these players around 1980/81. It got a lot of use and was abused by the college students. It had a few problems but managed to keep going for years. The college bought a few more advanced front loaders later. The college had a huge collection of media in LaserVision format.
That is a great catalog. Makes the unit look like the player is from another world.
Great review, I had no idea laserdisc came out in 78. My mother's best friend from high school was a regional manager for Pioneer in the Toronto area, I remember she had a lasrdisc player that could play 3 different sizes of discs, Laserdisc, CDs and a size in between that I don't think ever made it into production.
Thanks very much!! I was surprised too when I first started reading about it, discs were In production from 1978 to 2001, when DVD took over the market.
And that is awesome, I love hearing stories like this. I have a few other players that have similar cutouts, they play CDs, 12 inch (full size LD) And another size thst is less common, 8" LD. the 8" ones were usually promo material or Music videos, I have only come across one in my collection. Perhaps I should use it :)
Yeah. December 1978.
I like the old retro look of the first Laserdisc Player from Pioneer. It's really hard to find one in mint condition. I liked the demonstration.
Caught this quite late. But PCM adapters output a B&W "checkerboard-and-bar" pattern that is modulated by the input audio. This is recorded onto videotape (and the reverse on playback). This was used to master early CDs, since it was the only way (at the time) to store the equivalent of 650MB.
So, it's assumed the Pioneer had planned video-only LDs w/ just such content encoded on them. And I'd bet that they dropped the idea when the CD was announced.
Soo damn unreal to see something that has the internals of a CD player inside, but 70s woodgrain and 300 Ohm antenna terminals outside. This thing is like from a alternate timeline. I found your video because I heard these players use a real laser tube instead of a laser diode. I was hoping you would show the insides, but anyway interesting video!
A very nice review, thank you. I had one after getting a Magnavox 8000 in December '78. This was in the Atlanta test market and the machines worked well. (Essentially these first machines were handmade and after a year, they offered me a new one to take the old one back and see what the wear was like) The discs back then were probably 75% defective with the CAV DiscoVision discs so there was a frustration with it. New discs became nearly non-existent until Pioneer hit the market with that machine and I sold the magnavox for the Pioneer one, which I thought played better.
The "ADAPTOR OUT" jack on your player is for connection to a video-based PCM digital audio decoder.
This was in anticipation of digital audio discs that used the bandwidth of the video signal to store the digital audio recording in EIAJ format. The adapter output would put out a pure signal that did not go through any video muting circuits nor any video dropout compensation circuits, since those measures would get in the way of proper playback of PCM with the digital audio decoder. Of course, such digital audio discs would not have watchable video. And, you couldn't just hook the adapter output to a digital coax input of a D/A converter because the adapter output will not be in S/PDIF format, which is what a modern decoder would be looking for. This provision of allowing digital audio albums was rendered obsolete with the introduction of Compact Disc.
Also of note, this was well before the discovery that digital stereo sound could be stored in a space of available bandwidth below the video signal baseband on the LaserDisc, allowing CD quality stereo sound without sacrificing the video.
Excellent video, thanks for sharing! Big LD fan, subbed your channel :)
Thanks very much! I'm a big LD fan as well, and have a few other players I want to showcase, so there's a lot more Laserdisc stuff coming up! I'm curious, what is your main machine? Lately I've been using a Denon LA-2300
@@OfficialSoundtracker I'm in the UK so our top player was the cld-d925 which is my main, then I have a few backs ups a cld-s315 single sides and a PAL only cld-1200 :)
Nice just got one that's yellowed but works perfectly with a bunch of disc
Great long play video!!! ❤
I first used a laser disk player back in 1987 while I was stationed in Osaks, Japan. It was a Yamaha CLV 1. The very first disk was Airport featuring the fictious Lincoln International with Burt Lancaster and Dean Martin. The spin-up was like a space+ ship taking off.
Later I built up a whole library of movies including Indiana Johnes and the temple of doom, Close encounters of the third kind, Sindbads seventh voyages as well as many music videos.
After my return the player burned out. Now I got a Pioneer CLD S315. This also plays PAL disks. Japan uses NTSC.
Important: use a professional converter when digitizing laser disks. Cheap composite to HDMI converters spoil the video.
The Laser vision produces the sharpest picture of the standard resolution TV, more than twice as clear as VHS.
The soundtrack to this gives me strong Jazz Jackrabbit vibes.
I had one of these that a local shop I worked for gave me back in 1985. Worked great. Wish I would have kept it. We also sold Magnavox and I remember the Magnavox demo disc with Leonard Nimoy and the talking rock. VCA-001 is listed as a high voltage block. This was the power supply for the helium-neon laser. My memory is a bit foggy on this, but I think we maybe service one with this fault.
I bought one when they first came out in December 1980. It asking sub the software had failure issues. Pioneer came out with an update. It was the vp 1000a. Pioneer swapped the unit for me for free. It worked for years until the power supply for the helium neon failed.
The Dragons lair arcade machine used Laserdisc
5:21 The original logo for the system was interesting, I think better than what they settled on. I think also HU block was actually HV Block as voltage could be an issue.
Your video is awesome and so appreciated. I also own a VP 1000, bought it at the electronics store where I worked. How can I troubleshoot a problem I have that it does not want to start on the first time I press play? It wants to just open up and not start to spin.
Awesome player, and heavy AF.
Agreed, it may lack a lot of features of modern players but it has very quickly become my favorite. And yes, it's like 40 lbs!
I only ever saw a laserdisk player once, a store demonstration of a Philips machine in 1981.
I'm curious, what was the demonstration like? Did they have a rep there or just a player showing a demo disc?
@@OfficialSoundtracker Can't remember seeing any reps there, but it was a special display stand with signage for the Philips Laserdisc. And it was showing on a large TV, the Death Star attack and blowing up scene from Star Wars.
We had no intention of buying, as our family was already renting a VHS VCR.
Thank you.
I have the 2nd generation pioneer ld-1100 1982 I love it
I've only ever seen them in photos, but I love the design of those as well, Pioneer made some great players.
That demo disc mentioned must have been “Laserdisc- What it Is and How it Works.” Must explain why there’s a decent number of copies out there. If you sent in that warranty card you also got the Sears 1981 catalog on disc which is much harder to find now.
From the description of the PCM output you read from that website, it sounds like they were planning to encode the PCM audio onto the video signal, not the audio signal. Which means such a disc would be audio-only. Clearly no such format was ever developed.
You may be right, if I remember correctly there are PCM adapters for some VHS and Betamax machines, and the PCM signal is recorded onto the video band in those cases for the higher bandwidth available. Maybe early prototypes were trying to use the video band as the standard due to the other PCM Adapters on the market at the time?
@@OfficialSoundtracker
There are plenty of videos outthere on PCM adapters to use with VCRs.
PCM adapters would generate a video feed for VCRs to record. The image almost resembled the "snow" you'd see, when your tuner hadn't been tuned into a station, but it would be contain elements in the picture, which the adapter would be able to read as digital data to use to recreate the sound recorded to the VCR.
That is why you were able to see Zorro play on your TV - it's basically a video output intended for a PCM adapter.
But since Compact Disc was already close to come to fruition, I guess there was no need to produce software for the VP1000 to play.
Also, PCM adapters found a more fitting home with VCRs, since you were able to record your own material to tape. And it didn't matter whether it was a mono or hifi unit, as long as it could produce a nice, clean image.
Use to repair these things years ago and use oscilloscope to calibrate them too. Still have a laserdisc player too. This one in this video needs a service because I bet it needs some components looked at and the laser path needs checking, etc.
Probably so, it's about 42 years old, and probably overdue for a servicing. I wish I had the equipment and the knowhow to take care of it, because I'd really like to see it in it's full glory.
I'm curious, can you tell me anything about the "Replace the H.U. Block" towards the end? I mentioned finding paperwork with the player in the video, and I've been dying to know what that bit was that was replaced.
@@OfficialSoundtracker yeah the HU block is the laser unit. Helium unit block which was used in these early players. It could do with a clean re oil parts and capacitor check, they are the main things that can leak and cause damage. If it’s had it’s HU block change then it must of had a service, because you can’t just change it without it being set up on an oscilloscope if you know what one of them is ? But you need one to put a laserdisc player at tip top.
I can imagine this being sold in the department store in the Dawn of the Dead shopping mall.
Replace your fire alarm battery.
I noticed at the bottom of the receipt said "ALL SALE FINAL NO REFUNDS" this would have been a deal breaker for me!
Well, yes and no about this being the world's first Pioneer LaserDisc player.
The VP-1000 was Pioneer's first consumer LaserDisc player, but Pioneer's very first LaserDisc player that was ever mass-produced was the PR-7820.
Yep,the PR-7820 was technically their first LD player!It was branded as MGA at the time,but produced by Pioneer!It was released in 1978/1979.
@@SurgemanX The PR-7820 was first branded as MCA DiscoVision. It would later bear Pioneer branding.
I intended to buy my VP-1000 on the first day it when sale at Macy's but ultimately ended up getting it for free! I went to buy it at their White Plains NY store on the first day, but they still didn't get their shipment in stock yet, so I ordered it for delivery (est 2 weeks) for $799 and went home dejected! About 3PM later that day, they called me and said their 34th St Manhattan Store had them in stock, and if I could get there by that night they would hold one for me! When I arrived, I was told I needed to go up to the Customer Service office and cancel my current order then go back to the TV Dept and repurchase the new unit, which I did and left with my new VP-1000 in hand! About 2 weeks later I got a call from their shipping Dept that the original order was going to be delivered the next day I informed them I had already canceled that order, and after she did a little checking said yes she found the cancelation order and the shipping order was a mistake and canceled that! I thought that was it until I got my bill from my Credit Card! It showed a charge for 799 (plus tax) a credit for it Another Charge an credit for the same amount canceling out both charges! I spent months both with Macy's and my CC Co trying to get them to make the appropriate charge to correct this but they never did!
It's not an hu block. It's an hv block. Hv meaning high voltage. High voltage was needed for the helium nein laser.
Este tipo de aparato fue usado en video juegos por rs232
Ffs change your smoke alarm battery
💥💥💥💥🤘🤘🤘🤘
Rush ESL & AFTK = Nice 👍
I hope you replaced your smoke detector battery since then.
this is entertaining and informative and thank you for sharing , but dude , for the love of god ,please change the batteries in your smoke detector before recording videos .
Thanks, I appreciate it! And sorry about that, I was hoping I could get away with the mic not picking up the chirp. They've since been replaced.
Exactly the kind of autistic LaserDisc content I’m looking for, but for the love of God replace the batteries in your smoke alarm!!!
Hah, thanks :D And I needed to pick up new ones, the alarms are still beeping even with new batteries.
What is Jesus doing on UA-cam?! 🤔🤷
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