CED VideoDisc and Player Discussion

[virus202]

Hello everyone- I just picked up my 6th player at Chateau de Goodwill, and SJT-300 for $9.99. It had turntable clearance issues, which were quickly fixed thanks to Tom's instructions on CED Magic. It plays now, but there are horizontal red and blue lines in the picture most of the time, and the overall picture is a little jumpy. I checked out the stylus, which appears to be like new (due to the screwdriver marks on the label near the stylus door, I know the previous owner replaced the original). I was thinking it may be the turntable being off balance, but then again, I have no idea what I am doing when it comes to troubleshooting these players. Any help or advice would be GREATLY appreciated. I do have a working -090 model that I would gladly gut to fix this one.

[RT9342]

If the red & blue lines you are talking about are thick, somewhat blurry bands, and if by jumpy you mean the picture jumps vertically, or scenes are skipping, then I would say that you probably need to check the stylus. Even if it were replaced, it might need to be replaced again if the previous owner used the player a lot. Or it just may need to be cleaned or reinserted (I once had one that wasn't working right - turned out the stylus wasn't properly centered).
But if the lines are fine lines, which may be more prevalent on the left side of the screen, and if the picture shivers horizontally, then you may have a stylus kicker problem. Again, it could be the stylus - there's a magnet on the back end of the stylus that fits into a coil when properly installed - if that magnet is dislodged, broken, bent, not properly seated, etc., it can cause trouble. But there's also an adjustment on the main board to control the stylus kicker. What happens is that imperfections in the disc (slight wobbling, slight warpage, etc.) cause timing errors in the video, which throw off the phase of the color carrier (thus causing the wrong colors to appear) and even shifting the video lines. The stylus kicker "kicks" the stylus back or forth at a high speed, with precision, to compensate for this.
I couldn't tell you for sure if either of those conditions is your problem, but that may give you a start. From your description, I'm suspecting the stylus kicker, but if I were you, I'd take a look at the stylus first.

[virus202]

Sorry to take so long to reply. Thanks for your advice, I will start by substituting another stylus to see if that clears it up. I did have to adjust the turntable height to begin with, it was making a horrible sound because the platter was bouncing off of the direct drive assembly below. Who knows how long the previous owner let it run like that. I will try your suggestions, and I do appreciate the help.

[RT9342]

Glad I could help. If you don't mind, please keep us updated as to what worked and what didn't. I'm sure it would help other CED player owners figure out how to pin-point problems with their players.