Since I'm an incurable nostalgic, in the future, I intend to get me an Laser Disc Player. There where ever manufactured multisistem (P.A.L. and N.T.S.C.) L.D. Players? Who manufactured the best L.D. players? Since the grooves at an L.D. are bigger than at an C.D/D.V.D.., theoreticaly an scratch at an L.D. shouldn't be so bad; but practly, how it is? How hard is to find today a helium-neon laser for an L.D.P.?

I think Pioneer made the best ones and IIRC, they kinda dominated the market for a long time. That's about all I know about them other than the fact I have 5 of them.....somewhere:scratch2:

I have a couple of Pioneer LD players, they are nice machines. The biggest concern with media is not scratches, it is "laser rot". Some of the media disintegrates with time and becomes unplayable. One of my LDs has this issue, it basically starts skipping at a certain part. The players themselves are pretty robust. You probably want one of the newer players with digital audio (it will still play discs with analog audio but won't choke on the newer discs). The really old (early 80s) players are huge and have an actual helium-neon laser tube. Those tend to be top loaders (you open the top and put the disc inside). The newer players use a laser diode like used in CD/DVD players, and they usually have a tray to put the LD into. If you seek out the fanciest LD players you can find ones with auto reverse or DVD playing capability.

It is likely that European-market LD players could handle NTSC discs as well as PAL but they probably did not do any format conversion. You would need a multi-system TV to watch an NTSC disc. US-market LD players probably would not read PAL discs at all. (Multi-system TVs were very rare in the US but more common in Europe.) I also do not know if SECAM LDs/LD players were ever produced.