CED Digest Vol. 3 No. 27

CED Digest Vol. 3 No. 27 • 7/4/1998
From: "Colasanti" 
To: ceds@teleport.com
Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 23:52:50 -0500
Subject: Re: CED Digest Internet Mailing List

Let me make this short & quite possibly sweet for CED collectors out there:

We have between 1200 & 1500 CED's, mostly RCA SelectaVision titles, all in 
good to excellent condition, as well as a dozen or so CED players.  We would 
like to sell as a single lot.  So ...

Make an offer.  All serious inquiries entertained.

						Thanks / lmc
Lou Colasanti
Fern Hill
1680 Upper Notch Rd.
Bristol, VT  05443
 phone: {802} 453-5124
MAILTO: fernhill@sover.net

------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Daniel P. Cayea" 
To: "Tom Howe" <ceds@teleport.com>
Subject: The TCE Preservation Project
Date: Sun, 28 Jun 1998 14:04:01 -0400

Dear  CED Enthusiasts:  Many  remember the debate to get CED going again,
well the race is on. Telecom  Capacitance Electronics is now the first on
the reactivation battlefield first  starting with a complete media preservation.
To subscribe to the TCE  Newsletter send email to tti@westelcom.com with TCE
Subscribe in the  subject line and you will be added to the mailing list.
If you  would just like a list of currently preserved titles you also send email
to tti@westelcom.com however put TCE Database  in the subject line. I hope that
many of you will take interest. Thanks for the support.  
Sincerely Daniel  P. Cayea TCE/TTI

------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: MELBANEW
Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1998 09:37:12 EDT
To: ceds@teleport.com
Subject: CED'S   For Sale

FOR  SALE --- Entire CED collection, consisting of  1200 - 1300  different
cataloged disc--- 500 - 700  miscelaneous disc  ---   many players and parts.
Will sell the whole collection for $2,000.00.      
Billy F. New
1155 Edith Drive                             Phone: 904 252-1783	
Daytona Beach, FL 32117               Email:  BILLYFNEW@AOL.COM

------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Beaumontj
Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1998 21:28:55 EDT
To: ceds@teleport.com
Subject: Re:  jerky picture

i have a panasonic sgt 200 which plays discs fine until about the 30 minute
mark, when the movie (and audio) seems to skip frames. it's definitely the
player. any suggestions about how to fix it? thanks.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Daniel P. Cayea" 
To: <ceds@teleport.com>
Subject: Active Channel for CED Magic
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 1998 11:09:17 -0400

Dear CED Enthusiasts & Tom:

Would it be possible to have CED Magic an Active Channel for Internet
Explorer 4.x and  up?

Daniel P. Cayea

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 03 Jul 1998 21:54:31 -0700
From: Neil Wagner 
To: *CED Digest <ceds@teleport.com>
Subject: Videodisc History Part 29

>From the February 1984 issue of Popular Science -

VIDEO TEACHERS
A new RCA interactive videodisc player offers much more
than just movies.  It plays games, lets you select scenes
from its repertoire, and even functions as a teacher.
(Yes, it also gives you a test.)  And an unusual future
probably awaits it.

by William J. Hawkins

[Part 1 of this article appeared in CED Digest vol. 3, no. 26.]

   Interactive-disc playing is a first for the RCA capacitance
electronic disc (CED) format, which uses a stylus.  But its
competitor, the laser disc, has had interactive capability for
some time.  (Scooting a laser beam of light over a disc surface
was technically easier to do than moving a mechanical stylus to
a precise point on a CED disc.)
   In comparing the two systems, I found little difference in
access time (the longest it took to find a particular section
was about 30 seconds), ease of use, and picture quality on a
conventional TV.  However, the SelectaVision 400 did have a few
new programming features.
   Besides being able to start at specific bands, you may also
choose specific scenes by entering the minutes and seconds at
which they begin and end.  (The playing time is digitally
recorded on the disc and can be displayed on the screen for
reference.)  The 400 then plays just that portion of the disc,
allowing you to view specific material--or merely watch your
favorite scene of a movie over and over.
   One other handy feature is a button called "Memory."  When
you press it, it electronically marks the scene you are seeing
(by storing its location by time in a memory).  You can auto-
matically return to it later.
   Naturally, you also can manually hunt out a scene by using
a visual-search button (you see the images at 16 times normal
speed) or a high-speed button for scanning at 120 times normal
speed.

Computer match-up?
   There's one other way you can find specific areas of an
interactive disc that RCA isn't talking about yet:  with your
home computer.  At the rear of the 400, there's a small connec-
tor.  The brochures don't mention it; the instruction manual
for the 400 simply says it's for future use.  But the technical
manuals (for servicing) show that it is a serial interface
(connection) for a computer.
   Combined with a home computer, the interactive capabilities
are limitless:  video games that never play the same way twice;
disc-based encyclopedias containing thousands of pictures and
facts that pop up on the screen in response to your keyboard
query; and teaching aids that progress with each student's
abilities.
   Why doesn't RCA advertise this computer capability?  My
guess is that RCA is saving that bit of information for when
it introduces its own home computer.  (RCA has just reorganized
and created a "Special Products Division" that sounds suspi-
ciously like home-computer development to me.)  If I'm right,
remember that you read it first in "Popular Science."
   Right or wrong, however, it's clear that the variety of new
discs and imaginative concepts that is bound to come will soon
give a whole new meaning to "home entertainment."
   The price for the SelectaVision 400 is $500.  Interactive
discs will be approximately $20 to $30 each.  Besides "A Week
at the Races," two mystery discs--"Many Roads to Murder" and
"Murder, Anyone?"--are currently available.

[The title photograph shows a SelectaVision 400 {I presume},
 with a rather bulky remote, a CED titled "A Walk Through The
 Universe," and in the background, a TV monitor showing the
 main menu of said disc.  The infrared remote has three columns
 by 6 rows of buttons on the left half, and two individual
 colums of 6 buttons each on the right half.  The picture is
 too small to make out the writing above any of the buttons.
 Overall, the remote appears about 6 inches square.]

[An accompanying diagram shows the "Videodisc recording format"
 --it looks like a pizza sliced 8 ways--and notes that "odd
 sectors contain audio-control information," "even sectors
 contain band information," "one video field per sector", a
 "vertical blanking interval" between each sector, and "audio
 information located on line 17 of each vertical field."]

[A series of photographs has this caption:
   "Each videodisc contains digital information about its
    contents {diagram discussed above}.  One piece of data
    may tell the player to freeze frame.  Other data tell it
    to reproduce stereo sound or add CX noise reduction.  The
    disc also contains time and band numbers used for inter-
    active play; the photos above show how to proceed through
    information about early astronomers.  The player's connec-
    tions {final photo} are for RF, video, and audio--and
    'control.'"
 The same "A Walk Through The Universe" disc was used for
 demonstration of the menu structure in the series of photos.]

-- 
Neil - nw1@gte.net
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