Author Topic: The Official Pioneer LaserActive Player thread-  (Read 16675 times)

BlueBMW

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Re: The Official Pioneer LaserActive Player thread-
« Reply #15 on: July 21, 2011, 04:57:46 AM »
A bare LA unit can be had for $200 or less shipped.  Sega pacs used to be available for $50-$75 but they seem to be going up.  Might be because of the high failure rate on them due to faulty capacitors.  US Nec pacs are a lot... $400+  JPN Nec pacs seem to be about $250.
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Bernie

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Re: The Official Pioneer LaserActive Player thread-
« Reply #16 on: July 21, 2011, 05:06:55 AM »
Does it matter if I get a USA unit or a Japanese unit?  Meaning the LA itself, not the pacs.  I have seen em on ebay quite a bit.  How do I know which ones accept the pacs?  Seems to be quite a few models of LA units.  I'd hate to buy the wrong damn thing and be stuck with it.

SuperDeadite

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Re: The Official Pioneer LaserActive Player thread-
« Reply #17 on: July 21, 2011, 05:39:27 AM »
US/JP LAs will work with any PAC.  They are exactly the same machines.
PACs control region.
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DragonmasterDan

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Re: The Official Pioneer LaserActive Player thread-
« Reply #18 on: July 21, 2011, 06:16:49 AM »
Does it matter if I get a USA unit or a Japanese unit?  Meaning the LA itself, not the pacs.  I have seen em on ebay quite a bit.  How do I know which ones accept the pacs?  Seems to be quite a few models of LA units.  I'd hate to buy the wrong damn thing and be stuck with it.

There's only two models of laseractive units themselves. One made by Pioneer, and a Japan only unit released by NEC.

The PACs control the region as others have mentioned. There is no difference between a bare US or Japanese unit. If I have a US Sega PAC (and I do) and remove it to put in a Japanese Sega PAC. I enable the ability to play Japanese region games for Mega Drive and Mega CD (the LD games themselves are region free but can detect what region pack you have for language and title screen purposes). The packs are interchangable, you can put in one at a time. Similarly the NEC PAC that is Japanese takes PC Engine HuCards and the US one takes TG16 HuCards. Besides that they're identical.

Added in edit: Just keep in mind. Only two models of Laserdisc players are laseractives. Around 30 million Laserdisc players were produced, only 10,000 laseractives were produced.
« Last Edit: July 21, 2011, 06:19:32 AM by DragonmasterDan »
--DragonmasterDan

BlueBMW

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Re: The Official Pioneer LaserActive Player thread-
« Reply #19 on: July 21, 2011, 12:16:43 PM »
Only difference I could tell between a US and JPN Pioneer Laseractive was the text on the back of the unit for the connections etc, and the power cable itself seemed to be a bit smaller cable (physical diameter etc)  Functionally, they are identical.  The NEC unit looks slightly different cosmetically, and the only internal difference I found was one small add on PCB that was maybe 2" x 2".  Not sure what it's exact function is, but as far as I can tell the two units operate identical.

And like Dan said... any PAC will work in ANY laseractive.  And LD game will run on either region's PAC.  Genesis carts and sega CD games require a US Sega PAC, MD carts and Mega CDs require a JPN Sega PAC.  Though it might be noted that the region lock on Genny/MD carts is in the carts themselves and only on a handful of them.  So most Genny/MD carts will run fine on either region's PAC.

Of course TG16/PCE pacs have the same limitations that the consoles do.  The only region lock is on the hucard, which can in theory be overriden with a converter card (on US systems) or with a region switch... if you'd dare mod such a rare piece of hardware.
[Sun 23:29] <Tatsujin> we have hard off, book off, house off, sports off, baby off, clothes off, jerk off, piss off etc

Mathius

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Re: The Official Pioneer LaserActive Player thread-
« Reply #20 on: July 22, 2011, 04:32:05 PM »
I request a sticky to keep this thread from sinking into the bowels of the site.
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BlueBMW

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Re: The Official Pioneer LaserActive Player thread-
« Reply #21 on: July 22, 2011, 05:30:21 PM »
I request a sticky to keep this thread from sinking into the bowels of the site.

I'll keep adding stuff every few days to keep it alive :D  Though it might get messy...
[Sun 23:29] <Tatsujin> we have hard off, book off, house off, sports off, baby off, clothes off, jerk off, piss off etc

SuperDeadite

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Re: The Official Pioneer LaserActive Player thread-
« Reply #22 on: July 22, 2011, 06:20:45 PM »
If you don't own Virtual Cameraman 2, then you have no right to own a LaserActive.
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nat

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Re: The Official Pioneer LaserActive Player thread-
« Reply #23 on: July 22, 2011, 08:07:38 PM »
I request a sticky to keep this thread from sinking into the bowels of the site.

I'll keep adding stuff every few days to keep it alive :D  Though it might get messy...

Like I suggested before, feel free to create another LaserActive thread in the Repair/Mod section to keep the hardware repair/mod stuff separated.

McKie1

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Re: The Official Pioneer LaserActive Player thread-
« Reply #24 on: January 08, 2012, 10:08:14 PM »
Just thought I'd add my two cents. Coming from Australia we never had these available, so when I read about them about six months ago I thought wow what an unusual but interesting idea. A little while later I took the plunge and haven't looked back. I have been compiling a little write-up on the LA for the last couple of months and thought other members might enjoy reading about my experiences with my LA's, coming from a different corner of the globe. Let me know your thoughts!  p/w aussiearcade http://www.megaupload.com/?d=T9XOZQWL

TheClash603

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Re: The Official Pioneer LaserActive Player thread-
« Reply #25 on: January 09, 2012, 10:43:11 AM »
Congrats on getting a Laseractive.  The best gaming system in the history of video gaming :)

Talk about a study machine, with the exception of the wonky disc tray, this thing could withstand a bomb blast!

PS - I assume the .rar file is a horrible virus?

McKie1

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Re: The Official Pioneer LaserActive Player thread-
« Reply #26 on: January 09, 2012, 10:48:51 AM »
Unfortunately my pdf was bigger than the allowable limit so tht best to have it hosted somewhere. Pdf is about 1mb so can upload elsewhere if necessary. Has pics and my view/details of my 'luck' with the transporting of these things :(

esteban

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Re: The Official Pioneer LaserActive Player thread-
« Reply #27 on: January 09, 2012, 02:47:11 PM »
Unfortunately my pdf was bigger than the allowable limit so tht best to have it hosted somewhere. Pdf is about 1mb so can upload elsewhere if necessary. Has pics and my view/details of my 'luck' with the transporting of these things :(

I sent a PM.
  |    | 

McKie1

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Re: The Official Pioneer LaserActive Player thread-
« Reply #28 on: January 10, 2012, 08:52:12 AM »

McKie1

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Re: The Official Pioneer LaserActive Player thread-
« Reply #29 on: January 12, 2012, 01:26:18 PM »
I thought a few members would have a laugh at the lengths we have to go to down under.