CED VideoDisc and Player Discussion

[gabriel_moonstar]

Hi. I have an RCA CED SFT-100 W. It was skipping quite badly and going back and forth between a very clear picture and wierd rainbow-ey effects. A new stylus fixed the skipping problem, but is there anything I can do about the color issue? A friend suggested there may be some capacitor screw tuning adjustment that can be made. Is that true?

[cedmagic]

> going back and forth between a very clear picture and wierd rainbow-ey effects.

The rainbow effect you describe is almost certainly due to an out-of-spec turntable speed causing the video signal to periodically lose its chrominance component. The CED VideoDisc Turntable Speed Check Strobe can be used to verify this:

http://www.cedmagic.com/tech-info/strobe.html

Two things you can do right now are adjust the position of the turntable belt and lubricate the turntable spindle. The belt should be riding on the center or crown of the motor drive pulley. If the belt is riding at the top or bottom of the pulley flange, the screw holding the motor in place can be adjusted to re-position it. To lubricate the turntable spindle, either remove the turntable or lubricate it following the procedure in this repair tip:

http://www.cedmagic.com/tech-info/repair-solutions.html#fg-unlubricated-turntable-shaft

If neither of the above correct the problem, the next thing to try is replacement of the turntable belt, which is available from CEDatum. If the problem still persists, adjusting the motor poles can be attempted, although doing this accurately requires the RCA Synchronizer Plate Gauge (Stock # 153308), which is difficult to find. In the end, it could turn out that some of the integral magnetic poles in the turntable are damaged, which at this point in time can only be corrected by replacing the entire turntable.

--Tom Howe