1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:02,980 These two machines both have the same primary mission. 2 00:00:02,980 --> 00:00:04,880 Their mission, should they choose to accept it, 3 00:00:04,880 --> 00:00:09,120 is to play five compact discs in a row uninterrupted. On the left, we have 4 00:00:09,120 --> 00:00:16,360 a Sony CDP-C235, which accomplishes its mission in a completely ordinary and mundane fashion. 5 00:00:16,360 --> 00:00:19,300 On the right is a Pioneer CLD-M301. 6 00:00:19,300 --> 00:00:22,170 And it has a little robot inside to help it along. 7 00:00:22,170 --> 00:00:26,480 The Sony machine uses a boring ol’ carousel to do its work. When you press eject, after 8 00:00:26,480 --> 00:00:31,680 making a startling amount of creaking noises, the drawer opens with a single CD front and center. 9 00:00:31,680 --> 00:00:36,469 Pressing Disc Skip spins the circular inner portion 72 degrees to present you with 10 00:00:36,469 --> 00:00:41,420 the next disc. Each depression for a disc is handily marked in stylish print. 11 00:00:44,520 --> 00:00:47,520 (Just in case the vacuum fluorescent display wasn’t enough.) 12 00:00:47,530 --> 00:00:52,149 Pressing eject on the Pioneer machine presents you with this monstrous and confusing tray, 13 00:00:52,149 --> 00:00:56,559 littered with tiny little markings, details, and indentations. At least you can see all 14 00:00:56,559 --> 00:01:01,640 the discs at once, I guess. But wait. There’s a 6th spot in the middle. And what’s with 15 00:01:01,640 --> 00:01:06,900 all the little felt pads everywhere? Also, this is just one solid piece of plastic. How’s 16 00:01:06,900 --> 00:01:12,180 the machine supposed to select a disc if it can’t move? Ah, well that explains the robot. 17 00:01:12,180 --> 00:01:16,741 The machine from Pioneer isn’t just a CD player. It’s also a Laserdisc player. Now 18 00:01:16,741 --> 00:01:20,610 if you don’t know what Laserdiscs are, you must be pretty new here, as I’ve made an 19 00:01:20,610 --> 00:01:25,180 entire exhaustive series on the format which should be appearing in the corner pretty soon. 20 00:01:25,180 --> 00:01:28,060 I’ll warn you, it’s a long series. 21 00:01:28,060 --> 00:01:30,350 In two sentences Laserdiscs were the first 22 00:01:30,350 --> 00:01:35,420 consumer optical disc, released in test markets at the tail of 1978 and therefore beating 23 00:01:35,420 --> 00:01:38,980 the CD by nearly 4 years. These 12 inch-- 24 00:01:38,980 --> 00:01:40,140 a little late there, are we?-- 25 00:01:40,140 --> 00:01:46,200 These 12 inch discs contain up to an hour of near-DVD quality analog video per side, and although they stuck 26 00:01:46,200 --> 00:01:49,940 around until the first year of the new millenium, their market penetration in North America 27 00:01:49,940 --> 00:01:54,590 was an abysmal 2% at its peak which probably explains why you haven’t heard of them before, 28 00:01:54,590 --> 00:01:55,640 if you haven’t. 29 00:01:55,640 --> 00:01:57,680 OK that last sentence was a bit of a runon. 30 00:01:57,680 --> 00:02:03,220 The Compact Disc, released in 1982, was a near-immediate success (unlike Laserdisc). 31 00:02:03,220 --> 00:02:08,709 By 1984, Pioneer was making Laserdisc players that could also play CDs. They wanted in on 32 00:02:08,709 --> 00:02:13,590 that action, and some executive (probably) wisely thought, why not make a twofer, and 33 00:02:13,590 --> 00:02:18,069 maybe spur along the sales of Laserdisc. Sadly it didn’t really help the sales of Laserdisc, 34 00:02:18,069 --> 00:02:22,969 but by the early nineties, the Compact Disc was all the rage. How lame you were if you 35 00:02:22,969 --> 00:02:26,290 didn’t have a CD player by the time Home Improvement hit the airwaves. 36 00:02:26,290 --> 00:02:29,910 Not long into the first years of being on the market, the CD changer was developed to 37 00:02:29,910 --> 00:02:34,519 allow for playing multiple discs at once. I couldn’t find any info on exactly when 38 00:02:34,519 --> 00:02:38,420 the first CD changers were released, but I can tell you that 1991 seems to have been 39 00:02:38,420 --> 00:02:43,051 a pretty important year as this was the first year Pioneer made a machine like this. Not 40 00:02:43,051 --> 00:02:47,349 wanting to miss out on the new wave of CD changers, Pioneer decided, by golly, we can 41 00:02:47,349 --> 00:02:49,430 squeeze that into a Laserdisc player! 42 00:02:49,430 --> 00:02:53,659 And they did! And this is the result. Now, Pioneer faced a bit of an odd problem when 43 00:02:53,659 --> 00:02:56,900 designing a combo CD changer and Laserdisc player. 44 00:02:56,900 --> 00:02:59,329 See in CD changers like this Sony, 45 00:02:59,329 --> 00:03:04,139 the actual CD reader is shoved in a corner inside the machine. The CDs themselves are 46 00:03:04,139 --> 00:03:08,849 brought to it when the carousel turns. But that can’t be done in this machine because 47 00:03:08,849 --> 00:03:13,359 it also needs to be able to play a Laserdisc. For this machine, the actual disc transport 48 00:03:13,359 --> 00:03:15,120 has to be in the center. 49 00:03:15,120 --> 00:03:19,040 So Pioneer, the manufacturer brave enough to design a little ferris wheel to lift the 50 00:03:19,040 --> 00:03:23,840 laser to the top side of a Laserdisc to allow for laying both sides of a single disc, decided 51 00:03:23,840 --> 00:03:28,300 to just use a robotic arm to pick up the disc and bring it to the center. Why not? 52 00:03:28,300 --> 00:03:32,320 Take a look at this in action. This spot here is disc 1. Watch what it does. 53 00:03:32,320 --> 00:03:39,120 (various mechanical sounds) 54 00:03:39,120 --> 00:03:42,840 OK, that’s pretty impressive. Now let’s select disc 5 over here. 55 00:03:42,840 --> 00:03:54,100 (more various mechanical sounds) 56 00:03:54,100 --> 00:03:56,860 I love how this machine works, but it’s hard to get a good view 57 00:03:56,870 --> 00:04:00,889 of what exactly it’s doing. Nothing a screwdriver can’t fix! 58 00:04:00,889 --> 00:04:02,400 At first glance, this may not look like much. 59 00:04:02,400 --> 00:04:05,180 This black plastic circle functions as the upper clamp. 60 00:04:05,180 --> 00:04:08,840 In many optical disc drives, the spindle motor works with a piece like this 61 00:04:08,840 --> 00:04:14,379 to actually clamp the disc down as it spins. Together, they essentially form an optical 62 00:04:14,379 --> 00:04:18,970 disc sandwich. Usually these clamps are pretty loose and spin freely, and sure enough… 63 00:04:18,970 --> 00:04:22,590 so does this one. But you’d be wrong to think this is any ordinary optical drive disc 64 00:04:22,590 --> 00:04:26,570 clamp. This is in fact how the player picks up the CDs. 65 00:04:26,570 --> 00:04:30,430 If I start turning this drive belt by hand, you’ll see that the clamp moves towards 66 00:04:30,430 --> 00:04:35,379 the end of the arm where it would be positioned above a CD. But once it stops, if I keep turning 67 00:04:35,380 --> 00:04:41,460 eventually these three little fingers will pop out here. These hold on to a CD through the center hole. 68 00:04:41,460 --> 00:04:46,510 Holding a CD from the center meant that even the 80mm mini cd was compatible. 69 00:04:46,510 --> 00:04:50,920 Rather ingeniously, the fingers lock in place once the motor reaches its end stop. 70 00:04:50,920 --> 00:04:55,740 When the motor is reversed, the disc clamp returns to the center, bringing the disc along with it. 71 00:04:55,740 --> 00:04:59,520 Only when it’s back to the center and the motor keeps spinning further do the fingers 72 00:04:59,520 --> 00:05:04,410 retract into the clamp and let the disc go. At this point it can play the disc. 73 00:05:04,410 --> 00:05:08,759 When it’s time to put the disc back, the player will first reverse the motor even farther, 74 00:05:08,759 --> 00:05:13,620 which re-engages and locks the fingers. Then it spins forward and travels to the end, with 75 00:05:13,620 --> 00:05:17,639 the fingers locked in place the whole time. This time, running the motor beyond its end 76 00:05:17,639 --> 00:05:22,229 stop disengages the fingers, which lets go of the disc, and then reversing the motor 77 00:05:22,229 --> 00:05:23,360 brings it back to the center. 78 00:05:23,360 --> 00:05:28,300 I’m glad I took this apart because it revealed a very elegant simplicity to this mechanism. 79 00:05:28,300 --> 00:05:33,729 Notice how the drive gear engages with this track. At each end, the track is fragmented. 80 00:05:33,729 --> 00:05:38,180 These sections here can actually move when this pin is released, and are pulled by the 81 00:05:38,180 --> 00:05:42,849 same motor which moves the grabby clamper. These plastic hook things are what actually 82 00:05:42,849 --> 00:05:46,900 engage and disengage the fingers that hold the disc, and they’re attached to these 83 00:05:46,900 --> 00:05:51,879 small moveable sections of track. When the clamp reaches the end of its travel, it hits 84 00:05:51,879 --> 00:05:57,070 the lock pin which frees the small track section and allows it to move. But ingeniously, by 85 00:05:57,070 --> 00:06:01,699 this point the drive gear is already off the stationary track segment, meaning the gear 86 00:06:01,699 --> 00:06:06,889 is only engaged with the moveable piece. With the small section of track now free to move, 87 00:06:06,889 --> 00:06:11,610 the motor works to pull it towards the clamp, which pulls the hook thing along with it. 88 00:06:11,610 --> 00:06:16,860 This pushes or pulls on small tabs above the clamp, and these extend or retract the disc 89 00:06:16,860 --> 00:06:21,319 grabbing fingers. When the motor reverses direction, it first pushes the track back 90 00:06:21,319 --> 00:06:25,289 to it’s normal position where it locks in place, and after the track has stopped moving 91 00:06:25,289 --> 00:06:29,620 and locked in, the gear can now move the disc clamp along the track. 92 00:06:29,620 --> 00:06:33,290 Arranging the track like this allowed for a single motor to move the clamp and engage 93 00:06:33,290 --> 00:06:37,890 the fingers. This is really genius engineering in my humble opinion. It echoes the both side 94 00:06:37,890 --> 00:06:43,490 play mechanism from the CLD-D502--the same motor which moves the laser along the rails 95 00:06:43,490 --> 00:06:47,700 sends it to the top, too. You can see the tracking gear spinning as it reaches the top. 96 00:06:47,700 --> 00:06:51,919 At the end of its travel, it engages with the linear teeth here to move the laser towards 97 00:06:51,919 --> 00:06:55,560 the center of the disc. By the way, I’m pretty sure these could be considered rack 98 00:06:55,560 --> 00:06:58,860 and pinion systems, with this the rack and that the pinion. 99 00:06:58,860 --> 00:07:03,600 As cool as this machine is, it suffers from being both a sub-par Laserdisc player as well 100 00:07:03,600 --> 00:07:05,880 as a sub-par CD changer. 101 00:07:05,880 --> 00:07:09,130 Let’s put the Disc Grabber 9000™ back in place and compare 102 00:07:09,130 --> 00:07:11,069 operation of these two machines. 103 00:07:11,069 --> 00:07:15,750 When compared to a carousel CD changer, the Pioneer machine is significantly slower to 104 00:07:15,750 --> 00:07:21,220 change discs. Let’s do a race. We’ll switch from disc one to disc 2 on both machines. 105 00:07:21,240 --> 00:07:28,460 (even more various mechanical noises) 106 00:07:29,720 --> 00:07:31,920 Yeah that wasn’t even close. Also, the Sony machine 107 00:07:31,920 --> 00:07:36,300 has the advantage of being able to spin the carousel backwards. If you want to go from 108 00:07:36,300 --> 00:07:41,030 disc 1 to disc 5, the Sony machine will simply rotate counterclockwise and get straight to 109 00:07:41,030 --> 00:07:46,349 disc 5. The Pioneer has to travel all the way around to do the same thing. The farthest 110 00:07:46,349 --> 00:07:51,159 the Sony machine ever has to travel is 2 spaces away, whereas the Pioneer will always have 111 00:07:51,159 --> 00:07:56,069 to travel the relative distance between discs. However you could argue that the Pioneer machine 112 00:07:56,069 --> 00:08:00,330 is more convenient to load up, so long as the convoluted tray isn’t a bother, as you 113 00:08:00,330 --> 00:08:02,509 have access to all 5 discs at once. 114 00:08:02,509 --> 00:08:06,539 Oh, but the Sony does have a neat party trick courtesy of its disc tray. You might have 115 00:08:06,539 --> 00:08:11,180 noticed that the access cutouts for the laser transport are slanted. This is to allow for 116 00:08:11,180 --> 00:08:18,020 the disc ex-change system. The Sony will allow you to swap out the other 4 discs while it’s playing the fifth. 117 00:08:18,020 --> 00:08:21,479 The recess for whichever disc is in the back left corner has its cutout 118 00:08:21,479 --> 00:08:25,780 go straight back and lines up with the reader mechanism, allowing room for the laser carriage 119 00:08:25,780 --> 00:08:30,169 to travel beneath it. This means that the disc tray can move outward while it holds 120 00:08:30,169 --> 00:08:34,010 on to the disc it’s playing. The machine is even smart enough to present the discs 121 00:08:34,010 --> 00:08:38,539 two at a time, so that you never even see the spot for the disc it’s currently playing. 122 00:08:38,539 --> 00:08:42,000 Though often times it has to do a bit of a shuffle to reassure itself what position its 123 00:08:42,000 --> 00:08:44,980 actually in before it closes the tray. 124 00:08:47,560 --> 00:08:52,540 Aside from this feature, the Sony is just overall better at being a CD changer. Its 125 00:08:52,540 --> 00:08:57,029 faster, the display is far more comprehensive and there are many more controls on the machine 126 00:08:57,029 --> 00:09:02,320 itself. Perhaps most importantly, it's a heck of a lot quieter. Pioneer again used clever 127 00:09:02,320 --> 00:09:06,820 cost saving and simple engineering, and the machine uses the same motor that drives the 128 00:09:06,820 --> 00:09:12,130 disc tray for lifting and lowering the disc grabber thing. Again I admire the simplicity, 129 00:09:12,130 --> 00:09:16,580 but that motor is loud! And because of the way it operates, it makes a plethora of distinct 130 00:09:16,580 --> 00:09:19,800 noises and in general is just bizarre sounding. 131 00:09:20,180 --> 00:09:28,500 (A plethora of distinct, bizarre sounding noises) 132 00:09:31,240 --> 00:09:35,000 By the way, the Sony machine isn’t a goodwill find, it was the CD player I grew 133 00:09:35,000 --> 00:09:37,680 up with. It’s always made that creaking sound. 134 00:09:37,680 --> 00:09:41,480 (pronounced creaking sound as the disc is lowered) 135 00:09:41,480 --> 00:09:44,649 But its still far less intrusive than all this nonsense. 136 00:09:44,649 --> 00:09:49,920 (yet still more various, bizarre, distinct mechanical noises) 137 00:09:49,920 --> 00:09:54,620 So then, how does it do as a Laserdisc player? Well, it’s not bad. There’s nothing inherently 138 00:09:54,630 --> 00:09:58,860 wrong with its performance, although there are plenty of players with better video performance. 139 00:09:58,860 --> 00:10:03,290 And they combined the CD changing aspect into it rather well. Pioneer actually marketed 140 00:10:03,290 --> 00:10:07,660 the fact that you can leave your favorite CDs in place when you want to play a Laserdisc. 141 00:10:07,660 --> 00:10:12,320 Also perhaps less known is that you can place a 6th CD in the center which it will play, 142 00:10:12,320 --> 00:10:16,350 but it does prevent using the changer. But this means you can leave your 5 favorites 143 00:10:16,350 --> 00:10:21,130 in place, and play a 6th disc individually. I can actually see the appeal for that. 144 00:10:21,130 --> 00:10:25,780 But what the CD changer makes impossible is a both-side play mechanism. There simply is 145 00:10:25,780 --> 00:10:30,550 no way to fit the top rails for the laser and this robot thing in the same case without 146 00:10:30,550 --> 00:10:35,120 extensive modification of both systems. You can see that the construction of these machines 147 00:10:35,120 --> 00:10:38,710 is very similar, with the one on the right having a both side play mechanism rather than 148 00:10:38,710 --> 00:10:43,610 a disc changer. I think the only way to combine these two systems together would be to stack 149 00:10:43,610 --> 00:10:49,970 them and design a claw-machine like apparatus to grab a CD through this space. Even if they 150 00:10:49,970 --> 00:10:54,290 pulled it off, the machine would likely be hideously expensive and comically tall. 151 00:10:54,290 --> 00:11:00,000 So, to buy this machine means getting a less-than-ideal Laserdisc player and a less-than-ideal CD 152 00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:03,640 changer. Now, I understand that there were plenty of single side machines being sold 153 00:11:03,640 --> 00:11:08,649 that didn’t even have a CD changer inside. Both Side Play was really a high-end item. 154 00:11:08,649 --> 00:11:11,959 But then you have to ask, is its clunky CD changer worth it? 155 00:11:11,959 --> 00:11:14,100 To that, I’d say yeah... 156 00:11:14,100 --> 00:11:17,040 This was a pretty clever move by Pioneer. They seem to have 157 00:11:17,040 --> 00:11:21,240 priced this model just a hundred dollars higher than a basic Laserdisc player. 158 00:11:21,240 --> 00:11:27,220 Abe’s of Maine apparently wanted just seventy bucks more for it over a CLD-S201, a basic Laserdisc 159 00:11:27,220 --> 00:11:31,589 player. That made it significantly cheaper than buying two devices. But, and this is 160 00:11:31,589 --> 00:11:37,510 a BIG but, it was still more than double the price of a basic CD changer. In fact, it’s 161 00:11:37,510 --> 00:11:43,790 more expensive than ANY of these CD changers, including the Sony CDP-C910 which accommodates 162 00:11:43,790 --> 00:11:45,930 10 CDs in a cartridge magazine. 163 00:11:45,930 --> 00:11:50,491 I think Pioneer’s intent with these machines was to try and ride the wave of the CD changer 164 00:11:50,491 --> 00:11:55,139 and spur sales of Laserdiscs at the same time. Laserdisc did receive a bit of a boom in the 165 00:11:55,139 --> 00:11:59,240 late 80’s and early 90’s as the home theater scene came into light. If someone was looking 166 00:11:59,240 --> 00:12:03,290 for a CD changer, why not take a look at a machine that can play Laserdiscs, too? 167 00:12:03,290 --> 00:12:07,610 But I’m sure it was still a hard sell. And not just because of the price. Unless you 168 00:12:07,610 --> 00:12:12,160 had already integrated your TV into your home stereo, having a CD player hooked into your 169 00:12:12,160 --> 00:12:17,940 TV isn’t exactly ideal. I suppose it’s nice, but it won’t sound great. That said, 170 00:12:17,940 --> 00:12:22,350 this player does produce a neat graphic on screen when changing discs. Yipee. 171 00:12:22,350 --> 00:12:28,110 Oh, and one last unsettling thing. Laserdisc are heavy and spin at very high speeds--up 172 00:12:28,110 --> 00:12:33,910 to 30 revolutions per second, or 1,800 RPM. I am not a fan of how close the disc changing 173 00:12:33,910 --> 00:12:39,050 mechanism is to the disc’s surface. That sharp metal thing is awfully close to that 174 00:12:39,050 --> 00:12:44,040 scratchable disc. In fact, this machine has the tightest clearances I’ve ever seen in 175 00:12:44,040 --> 00:12:48,680 a Laserdisc player. With a Laserdisc playing above a tray full of CDs, it’s not even 176 00:12:48,680 --> 00:12:52,310 a centimeter above them. That’s a tad scary. 177 00:12:52,310 --> 00:12:55,320 Thanks for watching, I hope you enjoyed this video. If this is your first time running 178 00:12:55,320 --> 00:12:59,949 across the channel and you like what you saw, please consider subscribing! And a big thank 179 00:12:59,949 --> 00:13:05,310 you to everyone who’s subscribed. This channel just passed 100,000 subscribers! I never really 180 00:13:05,310 --> 00:13:09,959 thought that would happen, and I’m truly blown away. The folks on Patreon deserve huge 181 00:13:09,959 --> 00:13:13,820 thanks for making that possible--it’s with your support that I’ve been able to go part 182 00:13:13,820 --> 00:13:18,210 time at work and make videos more regularly. Without that, I’m sure this wouldn’t have 183 00:13:18,210 --> 00:13:22,000 happened. If you’d like to become one of the awesome people who make this channel possible, 184 00:13:22,000 --> 00:13:25,300 please check out my Patreon page. There’s a link on your screen, or you can find it 185 00:13:25,300 --> 00:13:28,600 down below in the description. As always, thanks for your consideration, 186 00:13:28,600 --> 00:13:31,080 and I’ll see you next time. 187 00:13:31,080 --> 00:13:31,580 188 00:13:31,580 --> 00:13:43,080 (sound of the Disc Grabber 9000™ traveling back and forth)