Hello and welcome to Technology Connextras Sights and Sounds.
It has been too long since I've done one of these.
This is only the second one ever and we're gonna jump right in with a look at the CLD-M301.
I should say a closer look since we saw some of this in the last video
but this is the Pioneer laserdisc player which also functions as a 5-disc CD changer.
And we are going to be looking at some footage in this video that was taken as b-roll for the video of this machine itself
that happened a long time ago...
uh, but first I'm going to do a general operational overview.
So the very first thing I'm going to do is turn on the television then power up the machine,
open the tray and close it without a disc in place
so you'll be able to hear the sequence it does while looking for discs.
[clunky sounds and whirring motors as machine boots up]
[a long and pronounced whirr as tray opens]
[same whirr as before]
[a new, higher pitched whirr with two pronounced clicks as it happens]
[we hear the same whirr repeatedly with the motor which moves the disc tray intervening in spurts. Also lots of clicking]
So that was it not finding any discs.
Now I will actually have the machine play a laserdisc.
[before tray opens, we hear that high whirr and clicks]
[clunk]
[tray whir]
[a similar but wavering whir as disc clamp engages]
[laser moves and clicks as it checks for disc]
[disc begins spinning up]
[at speed, we hear a squirrely whistling in spurts as laser attains tracking]
Okay and now we have a picture on the screen.
Now in the previous video I went over a lot of the general disc transport using this machine.
At this point we're gonna skip ahead to the actual cd changing mechanism so
I'm gonna load the machine up with five CDs and then we will go through what the machine sounds like as it plays them
and moves between them.
So first I will be ejecting the laserdisc and putting it away then you will be hearing me put the five discs onto the tray.
[disc rapidly slows down]
[more of the whirring heard before]
[disc tray whirs in and the motor makes a few short bursts at varying speeds]
[high pitched whir]
[a similar one]
[tray motor moves twice slightly]
[second whir again]
[now tray motor moves as if playing a disc]
[click, disc spins, laser makes seeky noises]
[music begins]
Now I'm going to have it move from disc 1 which it has been playing to disc 3.
[a similar sequence as before - the tray motor moves]
[high pitched sounds, two tray motor move maneuvers]
[high pitched whir with two clicks]
[double tray motor]
[high pitch]
[tray motor moves to play disc]
[and now laser clicks, disc spins-up, laser seeks and music plays]
just going to skip ahead some tracks
[laser seeky noises]
[we hear the same tray motor, second motor, tray motor X2, third motor, tray motor X2, second motor, tray motor to play position sequence as before]
We just moved from disc 3 to disc 5 and it began playing disc 5.
okay and now i'm going to have it eject the disc tray
[we hear the same multi-motor shenanigans before the disc tray opens]
An important thing to make clear about this disc tray is it is a normal laserdisc-sized disc tray
so 12 inches or 30 centimeters across however
inset within that tray are spaces for five CDs.
They go around the perimeter of the tray forming almost a complete circle except there isn't a cd at the very back
because that is where the hole is for the laser mechanism to read the discs.
Now that I've ejected it I'm going to place a laserdisc on top of the five CDs.
A somewhat unique thing about this machine is that the CDs can just hang out there no matter what
and you can put whatever else you might want to in the center position whether that is a sixth CD or a laserdisc.
[in this case, the sequence is exactly as it was before we played CDs - the second and third motors don't really come into play and it simply starts playing after loading]
Alright so we have the picture and while it is playing this disc
there are five other CDs just chilling out below the laserdisc. It's pretty wild.
Alright at this point we are looking at old footage from the original video.
We have the Pioneer machine sitting next to a conventional 5-disc CD changer from Sony.
At this point I'm opening the disc trays to show that on the Sony machine you only have complete access to
one disc at a time whereas the pioneer machine shows you all five discs
and you can just reach out and grab 'em.
Here the Sony machine is moving its discs towards the disk reader in the back left-
the cover is off this machine and we are witnessing the actual discs being moved around and then brought to the disk reading mechanism.
So i will let you hear those noises now.
[disc spins up]
[disc stops, a sort of creaky sound is heard as the disc is released]
[whir as carousel moves]
[the same creaky sound is heard as it picks up the disc, then disc spins and we hear laser seeky sounds]
[A similar-sounding motor/creaking is heard as the tray moves]
This is demonstrating the Sony machine's ability to play a disc while you load the other four.
This is something that the laserdisc player cannot do.
[whirring with clunks as the carousel changes direction]
[creaky tray motor creakily motors tray and finishes with a clunk]
This is just some pretty b-roll of the disc markers on the carousel.
Labels, I suppose.
[disc tray creaks in]
[as carousel rotates, it slows slightly as the trays pass the reader]
[creaky creaking as disc clamp engages]
that was the machine checking to see if it had any discs in it and quickly discovering it does not.
[tray moves out]
[disc placed on it]
[tray moves in, carousel whirs]
[the motor stuggles until...]
[POP]
Ah, so this clip of b-roll... a quirk of this machine is the alignment of the carousel as it moves
is not always great so what happened was the disc clamp kind of got stuck
and didn't grab the disc correctly and suddenly popped into place
it, uh, happens a lot on this machine it makes quite the terrible noise.
[whirring as carousel moves]
[disc is placed, then carousel motor whirs and finally the tray closes]
Just there I loaded another disc while it was playing the original disc.
[motor struggles after disc is in position]
[SNAP]
And there is another example of it not grabbing the disc correctly.
I'm actually fiddling with the tray to try to get it to be aligned a little better.
That made it worse.
I'm trying to get a clean shot of the disc going into the machine
and the clamp picking it up which is what's going on here.
Finally we got one.
Okay now we have the laserdisc player again put next to a tv
i selected disc 3 and while it was moving the mechanism it displays a graphic for
"DISC 3" on the television it's ...
pretty clever.
It doesn't look great but it's clever.
Okay, and now we're finally going to look at the inside of the machine.
I'm pretty proud with the follow-through shot you are about to see.
What is wild with this machine is that there is a small robotic mechanism
sitting above the disc tray which actually reaches out, grabs each disc, and brings it to the center to play it.
It is such a wild mechanism and it's amazing that it got put into a consumer device.
We are watching it move around and pick discs up and move it to the center
and it's just...
Man if you aren't able to see this it's hard to describe how bonkers this is that it got...
that it made it to production.
But now we're gonna be looking at a number of different shots
showing the same action from different angles and I will just let these sounds speak for themselves.
[we have the same sequence of sounds as before, but now we can see what each part is doing]
[the disc tray motor is also responsible for lifting the tray AND the robotic arm]
[a second motor moves the grabby thing to the end of the arm, and a third rotates the arm around the disc tray's edge]
[now it's apparent why the disc tray motor made two quick spurts - it's lowering and lifting the robot arm to pick up or replace discs]
Okay now we have the machine partly disassembled and we are looking at the underside of the robotic arm.
And I have a couple of test leads attached to it so I can power it back and forth manually
So this is not the machine doing this it's me just reversing leads from a power supply
but that's what you're hearing and seeing
[the sounds consist of a whirring as it moves and a few sharp clicks at each end]
An important part of what's going on here is when the mechanism reaches each end of its travel.
There are little plastic fingers that are extending out of the center of the disc holder.
They actually reach into the center hole of a CD and spread out so that it can be picked up.
This shot is revealing an interesting sliding cog or I guess you would call it a rack
that was put in to actually engage those little grabby fingers at each end.
And I should say one of the... the most clever thing about grabbing the cd from the center
is that the changer can handle small CDs or even non-standard shaped CDs so long as they
will be centered in the tray somehow it can grab them.
I don't have a great way to describe what is on screen except that there is a gear traveling over a rack
and part of that rack can move.
So when it gets to the end of its travel it actually pulls the rack towards itself
and that moves the grabby fingers that would grab the cd it's very very clever
but... just wild.
And here we are looking at a side-on shot of the laserdisc
and the reason why I included this in the video is it shows rather small clearances between both the discs below
but more importantly the sharp edges of the robot mechanism above the laserdisc.
There is maybe five millimeters of clearance between the disc which is spinning
VERY fast and a sharp piece of steel so that's very fun not at all anxiety inducing.
And that's about it!
This is a shot of me manually manipulating the robot arm and actually
revealing it and picking it up out of the machine and flipping it over
but there's nothing really to hear because it's just me moving my hands around but
I hope you enjoyed this further look at the CLD-M301.
It's a fascinating machine I just cannot believe it exists.
Well actually I can believe it exists because as I said in the video I understand Pioneer wanting to try to make a laserdisc player a more justifiable purchase
but the lengths they went to turn the laserdisc mechanism into a CD changer
are just so above and beyond what you would expect and it's amazing that's... that it is a consumer product
but also pretty amazing that it still works 30 years later or whatever it is.
So thanks for watching!