CED VideoDisc and Player Discussion

[Rixrex]

I recently bought a DVDO interlace to progressive scan conversion unit for my Laserdisc player to play LDs on the HD widescreen TV I got, and decided to run my VHS, Beta and CED players through it since it has both S-video and composite inputs. It greatly improved the images of all 3 formats, but it dramatically improved the VHS using the S-video input when compared to the composite input, so I thought it might be possible to somehow pull the luminence and chrominence signals with their respective grounds from a CED player somewhere in the circuitry and create a S-video output. Does anyone know if this is possible, and if so, how? By the way, I would recommend to anyone with a modern TV with component inputs who's considering improving the viewing of their collection, check out the DVDO/silicon image/I-scan units, as they are well worth it! I decided to keep my current mix of tapes, CEDs and laserdiscs rather than spend a lot to move to DVDs. The LDs really rival the DVDs with this device, and the VHS tapes using S-video out are like viewing LDs now. And of course the super-Beta Hi Fi were always really good anyway, and now they are great.

[cedmagic]

Here's a quote from a post a couple of years ago on this same subject. I haven't since heard of anyone getting a CED S-video output functioning.

>>>
A number of years ago I found my first Commodore 64 No. 1702 S-video
monitor in a thrift store and had the idea of interfacing it to a CED
player. I never got an S-video image to display and have not
revisited the concept since that time. In hindsight, one thing I
didn't try was to sever the chrominance and luminance pins on the
video converter IC from the CED circuit board and have them go
directly to the S-video monitor, as it's possible the signals were
too attenuated to drive both the monitor and the remaining video
circuitry on the CED signal processing board. Severing these pins
will prevent the composite video and RF outputs on the player from
functioning.

If you want to experiment with this, all RCA player use the same
24-pin CA3216E Chroma Processor integrated circuit labeled as U3402
on the circuit board, and here are the relevant pins:

Pin 8 - Substrate Ground
Pin 10 - 3.58MHz Chroma Output
Pin 21 - Luminance Output

--Tom Howe

[Franklin]

I just asked the same question today about an S-video connection. I am not a tech, and didn't know about the 24 pin connector, but it seems like its on the right track. Certainly we should all be interested in this possibility with HD here today. If its as simple as disabling two pins, and adding an s-video jack then it is a very simple experiment that would only cost pennies. I am not equiped with testing equipment or more than one player that could be used to cross check for confirmation of results and research. It seems to me that if it worked OK somebody could easily take a short S-video extention cord and put a 24 pin female or reciever plug on the other end for less than a buck, and sell it for twenty dollars. I would buy one right now. photojournalist@malibuonline.com