Pioneer CLD-1500

Many thanks to Guido Schluetz for the pictures.
Pictures copyrighted material of Guido Schletz. Please ask for permission to use them.

Many thanks to Sascha for the picture.

** Please read article below before continuing with any modifications as we have had reports that NTSC laserdiscs placed into the CLD-1500
will not play and produce a error message. If this is the case, there is no point carrying out the modification. **

If you have a multi-standard TV you can get a much better picture by modifying the player to output the real NTSC signal.

This mod is extremely simple, no service-manual or obscure components required, one little switch is all you need. You don't even have to loosen any boards.

To make it easier understanding I have drawn the mod:

Remove the top-cover and view the player from it's right side. The mod is done on the board on the top, the one with the Scart-connector on it. You need to find jumper J168 and J195 and jack CN71. The wire who goes to pin 1 on CN71 you must cut off, and soldered a bit of wire which goes to the switch. Then cut jumper J168 in the middle, and solder wires to both pieces of it, going to the switch. (Be very fast when soldering to the pieces of the jumper, or else they will loosen on the other side - or use a pair of tongs to take the heat away.) Lastly, solder a wire to jumper J195 (this is ground-connection) going to the switch.

Drill a hole on the back-panel above the Scart-connector, mount the switch and that's that.

When the switch is set to "PAL" everything is exactly like before the mod - you get the same Pseudo-PAL signal out. When set to "NTSC" all the conversion-circuitry are by-passed and the player delivers a superb NTSC picture.

If you now test it out with an NTSC-disc and find that you get a black and white picture when switched to "NTSC", well, then your TV wasn't multi-standard after all.

Note: When playing PAL-discs you should set the switch to "PAL." If set to "NTSC" all playback not in the right speed (i.e. trick-play with CAV-discs) will give a black and white picture.

And why stop there, it's possible to get an even better picture out of this player - at least theoretically. The two video-outputs are not identical, as one might assume. The Video Out on the Scart-connector is better than the RCA Video Out. That's because the RCA output has a much longer signal-path, it goes through two jacks (the CN71 mentioned above is one) onto another board, and also drives the RF output. The Scart is a lousier connector than the RCA, yes, but it could be worth trying it out.

Thanks to Michael Holin for the manual pages.