CED VideoDisc and Player Discussion

[Diskman]

Broke down and decided to play a still-sealed disk. Player wouldn't load from caddy Side 1 but no problem Side 2. So tried some well-played disks. No problem with those. Tried new disk again—same problem. Tried one used disk again and no problem but after ejecting disk, attached to caddy front end was a small piece of black, rectangular-shaped plastic about 1" long, 3/16" wide and 1/8" deep. It was sticky on one long edge which explains how it adhered to the caddy. Obviously I'm thinking this is a component that belongs to the player innards. Should I be concerned? After this, I played Side 2 of the new disk for about ten minutes, then tried Side 1 again and it then played perfectly. I've tried several other disks since and the player seems to be fine. Does anyone have any ideas why the new disk wouldn't initially play on one side and is this black plastic piece that's been "sucked" out of the player a harbinger of a future problem?

[SelectaVision420]

was it a white caddy? some of the older caddys are fussy with auto loading players, i have had a disc or 2 straight from the cello not want to unload in my sjt-400, or get hung up in reject, but in my sgt-250 they were fine... please share a pic of the "black thing" and we can tell you what it is... hopefully it wasnt one of the caddy lock defeat tabs...
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Sears 274 & 934(80150,10&11350),sft100,sgt250,sjt090,100,101,200,300,400,vp550, VP4000!
caddy.daddy.fleetwood@gmail.com

[Rixrex]

I too would like to see a photo of this plastic piece. Perhaps it was something on the caddy initially that stopped side one from loading into the player, and not from the machine. Can you also point out where on the caddy it was found, and on the back or front?

If it were one of the lock defeat tabs broken off, then I suspect no caddy would unload properly and would get hung up in the player at a slight angle, with one side released and the other side not released.

I cannot offhand think of an internal part that would be sticky on one side.

[Diskman]

The caddy is indeed the white style, actually an RCA disk of an original RKO movie, Out of the Past with Robert Mitchum.

As requested I'm posting a photo of the component that a caddy appeared to extract from the player. As you'll see it's jet black and you can't tell this from the photo but it's not made of rigid plastic. It's somewhat bendy but not as flexible as, say, a rubber band. It's sticky on one wide face as though it was meant to adhere to something.

Photo is here:

http://bit.ly/1bKwC31

[Rixrex]

There are three of those adhesive pads located inside of the SJT/SKT players.

Two are located on top of the support cross bar that has the "CAUTION" label on it, one on each side of the caution label. They are there to help dampen cover vibration and give it some support.

There also is one located on the top of the upper receiver spindle that moves up and down to catch the disc center hole and keep the disc in proper alignmentas it lowers or raises, as a sort of protective bumper if the spindle ever hits the top of the case.

Im sure it is likely that, but could be one of the two on the cross bar.

[Diskman]

Thanks. I'll open her up and check to see which one is missing. Of course what I'm now thinking is why one of them would attach itself to the caddy. Maybe it's important to note that although I mentioned in my first post that it was attached to the front end of the caddy, the pad was stuck to the disk holder part of the caddy as opposed to the case. And although sticky, it's not as sticky as one would hope to keep it in place. I guess for something that's more than 30-years-old, it's not too shabby. I'm thinking I'll clean off the goo and replace it with some double-sided tape before placing it in position.

[Rixrex]

The pad could have slipped down the spindle receiver enopught to get caught on the front of the disc as it was going in.

Anyway, if it is not very sticky any longer, best to use a couple of drops of super glue to put it back in place. It really never needs to come off.

[SelectaVision420]

yep its one of those adhesive dampeners, glad it wasnt anything crazy!
_________________
Sears 274 & 934(80150,10&11350),sft100,sgt250,sjt090,100,101,200,300,400,vp550, VP4000!
caddy.daddy.fleetwood@gmail.com

[Beetlescott]

[SelectaVision420]

i agree with scott, its nice to have an F and a G series player ( or any non auto loading player ) because they'll take just about any disc, and the j/k's wont take even a broken corner...
_________________
Sears 274 & 934(80150,10&11350),sft100,sgt250,sjt090,100,101,200,300,400,vp550, VP4000!
caddy.daddy.fleetwood@gmail.com

[Diskman]

I took another look at the caddy that was problematic. I checked it in every plane with a steel straightedge and with the naked eye at least, it's perfect which I find remarkable given its age. I don't how tolerant the player would be for inherent warping of a caddy but presumably it would be of a magnitude visible against a straightedge with the naked eye. In any event, as I said in an earlier post, after playing Side 2 for about 15–20 minutes, Side 1 then played perfectly without any balking whatever. This made me suspect it might be temperature related. At this time of year, room temperature in the home is maintained at about 73º. The operating temperature of the "warmed up" internal environment of the player is going to be somewhat higher so I figured once the caddy was warmed up, whatever stopped Side 1 being played was rectified. Only one thing wrong with this theory: trying the same caddy several days later from cold, Side 1 plays without a hitch. So it seems we have something of a mystery.