Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Pioneer LD-V8000 Laser Disk Player

This is topic Pioneer LD-V8000 Laser Disk Player in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 08-07-2003, 08:37 PM:

Went browsing through the electronic junkyard today and saw the LD-V8000 Player for 5 bucks, as is. Very good exterior condition. Figuring I could not really lose - I bought it, brought it home and gave it a bath.

Plugged it in, and it has a better picture than some DVD's have.

Anyway, does anyone know of any "issues" with the V8000? It seems to be of very good quality engineering, and is very stable.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 08-07-2003, 10:54 PM:

Does this thing have a modem port or something? Seems to be a specialized LD player. Maybe this is the player that was used in arcade machines such as Dragon's Lair, Space Ace, Cobra Command (Thunderstorm), and Road Avenger.

Advantages:
Digital video memory:
   Enables the last image displayed to remain displayed during a search

Fast search speed:
   Less time spent waiting for a search to complete

On Screen Display (OSD):
   Easy set-up of LaserAce via monitor.

Disadvantages:
DSP processing of the video signal results in the player being a little slow in completing short searches of 130 frames or less

ASCII mnemonic communications - slower than binary/hex
Will reject discs that have bad laser rot or bad scratches

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 08-07-2003, 11:04 PM:

Yes, Joe. That could be possible. It has a "D" connector on the back (I don't know how many pins except it is the size of a game joystick port) called "interface connector" along with some BNC connectors for sync output for a gen-lock system, sync input for "C" sync in (whatever the hell that is) and some RCA connectors for video output (2 RCA outputs for that) and 2 sets of RCA stereo audio outputs. However, it does not have an RF pass-through input or outputs like that other hunk of crap I had. It is strictly composite video outputs.

By judging the performance of this thing, I was finally in the right place at the right time. Since I am so damn cheap I figured the price was right. The picture it produces is crystal clear. The best I have seen with a laser disk player in general.

Furthermore, I don't think it was orginally designed for home entertainment systems. I think it fits the catagory of arcade machine hardware as you suggested. I am also under the impression that it was designed for a possible rack-mounted enviroment option.

It seems to be a very nice player. I just ran some of my laser archives in it, and I am highly pleased! It seems to look equal to or better than DVD on the TV monitors. It is actually too close for me to call.

In any event, for 5 bucks I think I got one helluva deal. [Wink]

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 08-08-2003, 12:52 AM:

The LD-V8000 was the workhorse for years for many special venue theatres at Universal and other places. I personally designed venues and installed well over 500 of those machines.

The big advantage is that they are a 24/7 workhorse and had great LaserDisc reproduction and digital audio capability as well as serial control features. It could also generate color-frame/phase accurate sync or lock to other players for synchronous playback (with the Iwerks mod). This was used many times for multi-channel digital audio playback all over the world.

Their only weakness is they tend get gummed up on the laser reader sliders and skip. Easily fixed with cleaning.

If I remember right, I think the drivers for their control protocol is included with "WINDOWS" ..it's that popular of a protocol system that other players, including DVD players had adopted.

>>> Phil

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 08-08-2003, 12:56 AM:

Phil, that info is good to know. Thank you.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 08-08-2003, 02:04 AM:

Do you have a picture of this player that you can post, Paul?

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 08-08-2003, 07:29 AM:

Pioneer LD-V8000:

16 Players in phase-accurate sync for multi-channel digital audio playback (About 10 years ago...long B4 digital audio was common):

>>> Phil

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 08-08-2003, 11:15 AM:

Joe, Phil beat me to it.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 08-09-2003, 03:58 PM:

Hmmm Complete with QSC's EX amplifiers and CE's MS-100 monitor with custom channel label!

Steve