CED VideoDisc and Player Discussion

[pamperchu]

I have been collection laser discs for 7 years now but i found a bunch of CEDs at a thrift store. i like to mess around with the old video stuffs. i have U-matic, beta, LD, and i just started to tweek with CRT projectors.

so hears what i got for 99c each, did i get anything good?




o and i dont have a player yet for the CEDs so i dont know if they are any good.

[Jesse Skeen]

Most of those look like they're in very good condition. The Playboy ones are ridiculously dated, definitely at the top of my favorite CEDs list.
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Videodisc and stereo sound- there's no better value around!

[RT9342]

Wow! I used to have several of those before the flood got them. I rarely see these in that good of condition (though I can't tell from looking at the caddy if the discs themselves are good...but if the caddies are that clean, chances are the discs are okay). Just make sure that you have all of the discs for each movie. Since you're into laserdiscs, I know you're familiar with two disc movies, but CEDs can be a little trickier for a new collector, since the discs don't come packaged in the same sleeve like laserdisc titles. I do want to make sure that you are aware, however, that the picture quality on these won't be as good as laserdiscs. I used to collect both formats, but now I'm sticking mainly with laserdiscs for my old PR-7820 DiscoVision player.

[pamperchu]

yah i do know about the 2 disc movies. im still looking for a player to play these movies. i have never seen the picture quality of CED but im shur it would be like VHS.

[cedmagic]

Your pictures were a great addition to the forum, as they revealed a new retail CED title, the first to emerge in eleven years! I had never seen that particular cover on the RIO LOBO disc, meaning it is an unknown CBS/Fox re-issue of the original MGM/CBS title. Here is the original 1981 version:



I did a search on eBay and immediately found the CBS/Fox re-issue, an indication that it's not probably super rare, just that nobody has ever noticed the two versions before:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320109779660

The MGM/CBS disc was pressed at the RCA plant in Indianapolis, while the CBS/Fox disc was pressed at the CBS plant in Carrollton, Georgia. After the new studio alliance, CBS had planned to re-issue all the MGM/CBS titles, but got interrupted by the plant closure in 1984. Since a definitive master list has never emerged from the Carrollton plant, these re-issues have mainly been identified by visual comparison.

It's possible there are more unknown re-issues out there, so it will be helpful if everyone looks at all the titles in their collection that have a CBS/Fox logo on the front cover. Then compare those to the pictures on the CD-ROM or at the LDDB site:

http://www.lddb.com/

I'll post a poll on this new CBS/Fox RIO LOBO release to get an assessment of it relative rarity to the MGM/CBS version.

--Tom Howe

[pamperchu]

yay i found something good!

[rsrendfeld]

Did the CBS plant in Carrolton Georgia have mastering equipment or were all the masters made by RCA at the Rockville Rd plant?

[Jesse Skeen]

I noticed that "Rio Lobo" disc wasn't on the CD-ROM. I'm not much of a westerns fan and there's too many other similar titles already (like Rio Bravo) but I managed to spot it a couple years ago and pick it up.

Does anyone have that "Fort Apache: The Bronx" disc from Vestron WITHOUT the 'rainbow' border on the front cover? That's one of the few discs left that I'm still trying to find.
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Videodisc and stereo sound- there's no better value around!

[RT9342]

Just thought I'd mention - despite what some claim about the CED picture format, I still believe that the picture quality is actually better than VHS. Actually, it's probably somewhere in between VHS and LaserDisc. The main problems I see with the CED picture quality is that low brightnesses tend to get dark blue or yellow blotches in it, sort of like what you would expect on VHS. Also, the color carrier can be quite noticeable in bright colors, and like LaserDisc, some vivid colors, like yellow and blue, tend to get off-tint stripes through it (though I think the SJT and SKT players have less of this problem), but unlike LaserDisc, you won't see those nasty gray speckles in the bright colors. If you like the movies you found, I'd recommend trying to get a hold of an SJT or SKT player - shouldn't be too hard to get one - I've seen them on eBay and in thrift stores.

[krbsforty]

I am curious as to whether or not any more of these "Rio Lobo" discs have turned up lately. I do not own either version of this movie on CED.



Speaking of unusual CEDs, I noticed some pictures on the new CEDatum web site with some pictures of some discs from a company called Blackhawk Films; they are not included in the title database slide show.

[dr8track]