Having problems with my LaserDisc player and need suggestions on how to fix

[FulciLives]

Hello!

I recently bought a Pioneer CLD-D502 from eBay and it seems to have an "odd" issue when using it.

I noticed that when I put in a LaserDisc and it first starts to play that the video is very "clean" looking but as it gets near the end of that side of the LD that the image gets very poor with a lot of strange "video noise". I've only test 2 LaserDiscs so far but both did it.

Again it is OK at first (either side) but as it gets closer to the end of whatever side it is on the video get slowly worse and worse looking.

I'm thinking it has something to do with the spinning of the disc and maybe a belt inside or something like that needs adjusted or fixed etc.

Also I don't think this is a heat problem ... I let it play one LD and on Side A it looked good at first but then it got very bad towards the "end" ... when it auto flipped and started Side B it was clean looking until again it got towards the end then it was "ugly" looking again.

Both LaserDiscs were CLV discs and I do know that the speed changes when playing back a CLV from slow to fast or maybe it is fast to slow ... I forget now.

The problem almost seems like some sort of "tracking" problem which made me think about the speed thing and hence the belt replacement etc.

This is my 4th LD player and I I've not seen this phenomena before.

The person that sent this to me got insurance on it ... I'm tempted to "cash in" on it but I have no idea if it was like this before or not. And no of course they didn't have the transit screw (I asked about it) so it is possible something got loose or damaged when it was shipped to me.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[fatbloke88]

Hi,
just a long shot but if its anything like a dvd/cd player if they start to skip i genrally open them and clean the grease off the two rails that the laser runs on with alcohol,I find that the grease hardens with age and causes tracking errors at the end of the disks.

[FulciLives]

Hi,
just a long shot but if its anything like a dvd/cd player if they start to skip i genrally open them and clean the grease off the two rails that the laser runs on with alcohol,I find that the grease hardens with age and causes tracking errors at the end of the disks.

Interesting ...

I forgot to mention that when I first plugged in the LaserDisc player and opened it that there was a LD inside and it had this odd glob of grease on it near the outer edge ... kinda clear/white looking grease ... almost like CRISCO or something.

I don't know who ships a LaserDisc player with a LD inside of it (shakes his head).

I'll have to open it up and see what I can see but I have no expeience poking around inside of anything other than a computer.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[FulciLives]

I looked inside but I can't make head or tails out of what I am looking at ... *sigh* ... this is the second time in a row I bought a video component off of eBay that didn't work correctly.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman