CED VideoDisc and Player Discussion

[274.54740150]

Hello everyone! I've had my Sears 274.54740150 for awhile now, and spent a few months working the kinks out of it. Unfortunately, many of my movies have portions of skipping which would take countless replays to get out. Is this normal, or is this an indication that the needle in my unit is on the way out? I'd like to know before I go spending $30+ on a needle for my unit, then finding that my movies still skip... TIA!
-Adam
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Adam Vaughn

Collector of obsolete computers, antique radios, vintage phones and other electronic equipment...
Visit my webpage at http://www.electronixandmore.com/adam/index.html

[Guest]

Don't worry- skipping is this format's trademark. It's common to see it happen at least once, even if the disc, player and stylus are in new condition. Check cedmagic.com for ways to at least minimise the problem.

[cedmagic]

Adam:

If you have some discs that play with no skipping and other that exhibit bad skipping, then the problem is with those discs, not the stylus cartridge. A worn-out stylus tip will skip on all discs.

Sometimes a new stylus cartridge plays worn discs better than one that has been used for some time because the brand-new sharp tip tracks the worn groove better and is less likely to get hung-up on gunk.

For a more detailed discussion on skipping, check out this Featured CED Patent:

http://www.cedmagic.com/museum/ced-patents/4145718-patent.html

--Tom Howe

[274.54740150]

Just about all of the disks I've tried so far have had periods of chronic skipping problems (ones not disappearing after the first play-through). Some of the disks even have points where sync gets lost altogether, and the picture goes to static. As often happens, it mainly occurs on my favorite and/or rarer movies, like Young Frankenstein and Back To The Future. My copy of Star Wars is pretty good on the first side, but the second side has many instances of chronic skipping. It has even occurred several times on a disk I bought which was not part of the original 29 acquired with the unit. I get the feeling that I might need a new stylus, since the old one isn't having much luck at removing skips through repeated plays. Any further opinions? TIA.
-Adam
_________________
Adam Vaughn

Collector of obsolete computers, antique radios, vintage phones and other electronic equipment...
Visit my webpage at http://www.electronixandmore.com/adam/index.html

[DaveK]

Your skipping getting worse on side two is probably a product of the discs being stacked flat instead of vertically. I have one disc that will skip badly during the closing credits because of damage close to the center of the disc. Many of the problems CED users have today are due to careless storage years ago.

[Matlab]

You may want to try scotch tap carefully on the end of the stylus. We found that it remove debris very well and regenerated a stylus in many cases.