CED Digest Vol. 8 No. 48

CED Digest Vol. 8 No. 48 • 11/29/2003
20 Years Ago In CED History:

November 30, 1983:
* Dutch brewery chairman Alfred H. Heineken and his chauffeur are 
freed by police from an unguarded warehouse in Amsterdam, where they 
had been held by kidnappers for three weeks.
* President Reagan in effect vetoes legislation dealing with social 
reforms in El Salvador by not signing the bill within 10 legislative 
days after receiving it from Congress.

December 1, 1983:
* As the holiday season approaches, the most sought-after - and 
fought-over - toys are dolls called Cabbage Patch Kids. These male 
and female dolls have soft-sculptured bodies, chubby faces, detailed 
fingers and toes, and belly buttons. No two are exactly alike. Each 
comes with its own name, a birth certificate, and adoption papers. 
Handmade, cloth-faced Cabbage Patch Kids were created by Xavier 
Roberts in the late 1970's. Beginning in mid-1983, a less expensive, 
vinyl-faced version became available.
* Rita Lavelle, dismissed February 7, 1983 as head of the U.S. 
Environmental Protection Agency's toxic-waste cleanup program, is 
found guilty of perjury and obstructing a Congressional inquiry.
* A federal district judge orders the state of Washington to pay 
between $800 million and $1 billion in raises and back pay to female 
state employees.

* RCA VideoDisc Releases for December 1983:

Best of Terrytoons, The (Mighty Mouse et. al.)
Boy Named Charlie Brown, A
Breaker Morant
Children's Treasures Christmas Collection
Country Girl, The
Court Jester, The
Dark Crystal, The**
Euryythmics: Sweet Dreams the Video Album
Evil Under the Sun
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Vol. 2
Intermezzo
Jaws 3***
Little Big Man (2)
Lovers and Liars
Making Michael Jackson's Thriller*
Mandingo
Mechanic, The
Michael Nesmith in Elephant Parts*
Murder, Anyone?
Night with Lou Reed, A*
North to Alaska
Octopussy (2)**
Pride and the Passion, The (2)
Raccoons' Adventures, The
Risky Business**
Six Weeks
Snoopy Come Home
Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone*
Superman III (2)**
Survivors, The
Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines (2)
Twilight Zone-- The Movie**
We're No Angels
Windwalker
Wizard of Oz, The* [1982]
XTRO
Yoga Moves*

December 2, 1983:
* The U.S. Labor Department reports a November unemployment rate of 
8.4 percent, a two-year low.
* Future CED title in widespread release: Thriller (MTV debut).

December 3, 1983:
* "Can't Slow Down" by Lionel Richie becomes the No. 1 U.S. album.

December 4, 1983:
* During a series of air strikes against Syrian antiaircraft 
batteries east of Beirut, Lebanon, two U.S. warplanes are shot down. 
One pilot is killed, and another, Navy Lt. Robert O. Goodman, is 
captured by the Syrians.
* Jaime Lusinchi of the Democratic Action Party wins a landslide 
victory in Venezuelan presidential elections. He will succeed Luis 
Herrera Campins, who had held the position since 1979.
* The 6th Annual Kennedy Center Honors are held featuring the 
honorees Katherine Dunham, Elia Kazan, Frank Sinatra, James Stewart, 
and Virgil Thomson.

December 5, 1983:
* A car bomb explodes in a Muslim section of Beirut, killing 14 
people and injuring more than 80 others.

* RCA PRESS RELEASE:
RCA Signs Video Disc Agreement with Bally Midway for First Arcade Use 
of New Random Access Player

CHICAGO, December 5 -- The first use of RCA's new random access video 
disc player in the arcade game market was announced today in an 
agreement with the Bally Midway Manufacturing Company.

RCA will manufacture and supply both the players and discs to be used 
in the new Bally arcade game to be introduced later this month.

In a joint announcement, David Marofske, President of Bally Midway, 
and Dr. Jay J. Brandinger, Division Vice President, RCA Disc 
Operations, said the initial agreement will result in Bally using 
several thousand random access players in the arcade market. RCA has 
begun initial shipments of the player, which can provide interactive 
applications for the user, with the balance to be delivered during 
the coming months.

Mr. Marofske said the arcade game business has demonstrated a 
potential for further sales growth with the introduction of advanced 
games that take advantage of video disc features and technology. "The 
public has shown it is willing to pay higher prices for games that 
are more challenging and visually exciting," he said.

Mr. Brandinger, who is also responsible for the direction of RCA's 
development, manufacturing and marketing efforts in the area of 
interactive video discs, said the agreement with Bally "marks a 
significant expansion of the capabilities of the company's 'CED' 
video disc system."

He noted that RCA had promised the company's first random access 
player, introduced in late August, "would have applications in the 
educational, institutional, game and consumer markets."

The random access player employs several digital microcomputers to 
provide a variety of interactive applications for the user. In 
addition to playing interactive discs for arcade games, RCA offers 
discs that are banded to allow access to any desired segment using 
the random access player. RCA plans to release all future stereo 
music discs in the banded format.

RCA expects that by the end of the year more than 500,000 "CED" 
players will be in consumer homes along with 10 million discs sold 
since the introduction of the system in March 1981.

December 6, 1983:
* Leaders of the ten European Community (EC) nations end a three-day 
summit in Athens, Greece, without an agreement on key financial 
issues. The body is said to be on the brink of bankruptcy.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Steven S. Wierman" <sswierman>
To: <digest@cedmagic.com>
Subject: Subscribe
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2003 01:36:47 -0800

Hello, I am so very glad that I have found you, we recently, 
purchased a RCA SFT 100W Selectavision Video Disc Player that still 
works.

It does skip some and I am looking for replacement needle cartridges. 
It is a great machine and it is fun to watch the movies on the large 
discs.  When playing the picture seems clearer than that of a video 
tape.

Thanks for providing your newsletter.

Most appreciatively,

Steven S. Wierman

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2003 10:17:34 -0500
From: Dj3928
To: digest@cedmagic.com
Subject: Replacement Remotes for Videodisc Players

Hello all,

   Being in the CED Player Reconditioning service, I was very 
interested in the Replacement Remote website Tom talked about in the 
last issue of Digest.

   Like Tom, I have searched high and low for Remote Controls for the 
Videodisc Players. While the Random Access Remotes are available 
periodically on ebay, the SGT250/SJT300's are hard to find. I called 
Replacement Remotes that Tom had mentioned,  They do not have either 
one of the SGT250 or SJT300 Remotes.  In fact, the lady on the phone 
simply said  "STOCK ZERO ON BOTH" , so I assume they have never had 
them in stock.  I have tried several websites that list both USED and 
RECONDITIONED Remotes on their web page, but so far none have any 
stock on these 2.

  It was worth a try.   Everyone, KEEP LOOKING!

                        Darrell @ cedcentral

------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: uh-clem (Robert Armentrout)
Date: Sat, 29 Nov 2003 21:45:41 -0800 (PST)
To: digest@cedmagic.com
Subject: For sale

I have the following items for sale:

1.  Toshiba Video Disk Stereo Adapter
Serial number 48280045.  Attached cable and electric plugs.  Right and
left audio input.  Face plate has power switch, stereo switch and ch-A
and ch-B switches.  Minor scratches on face.  Works fine.

2.  Toshiba Wired RemoteControl-RM 100.  Face plate has Super Scan
Play-Fast Forward-Reverse, Rapid Access forward and reverse, and Pause
buttons.  Minor scratches on face and back-works fine.

Will take best offer on one or both items until Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2003.
Buyer to pay Shipping & Handling costs.
Will ship from Fair Oaks, CA, 95628.
(Not a dealer.)     Robert Armentrout

------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Tom Howe <tom@cedmagic.com>
Date: Sat, 29 Nov 2003 23:16:43 -0800
Subject: RE: Picture shudder on VP2000
To: digest@cedmagic.com

>the picture "shudders" every few seconds, and colors keep
changing
>back and forth between normal and multicolor rainbow-type effects.
>Audio is normal.  Closest I found to this problem in the tech section
>at cedmagic.com was loss of color caused by improper turntable speed,
>in turn possibly caused by excess friction in the bearings. (I did
>have to "stretch out" the new belt as it was initially too tight
to
>allow the turntable to spin up to full speed.)
>
>Is the procedure for turntable removal and bearing lubrication for this
>model documented anywhere on the Net? Anyone know of any other possible
>causes for this problem?

I've added an alternate method of lubricating the F/G turntable shaft 
to the Repair Solutions page that does not require removal of the 
turntable:

http://www.cedmagic.com/tech-info/repair-solutions.html

Go to the entry "Unlubricated Turntable Shaft (F/G)" to see how this 
can be accomplished from the bottom of the player. It seems the main 
problem people encounter with removing the turntable via the service 
manual procedures is getting the two screws off the yoke. They are 
easily stripped or may already be in a stripped state, which requires 
grinding out and re-tapping with a Dremel tool and slightly larger 
tap.

Note that lubricating the turntable shaft and/or setting pole spacing 
to factory spec may not correct the color-shift issue. There are 
instances where this problem is in the 16-pole magnetic ring around 
the turntable's inner circumference, caused either by an overall 
decrease in magnetic field strength or damage to two adjacent poles. 
Never "play" a disc in an F/G player that does not have a turntable 
belt installed. In this state the turntable motor is spinning away, 
generating its alternating magnetic field, but the turntable is 
stationary, with two of its poles in constant proximity to the two 
motor sync poles. Prolonged proximity of this sort may de-magnetize 
the two adjacent poles on the turntable ring.

There are a couple ways in which it may be possible to fix a damaged 
or weak magnetic ring on the turntable. One would be to re-create the 
apparatus RCA originally used to magnetize the ring in the first 
place. I've never seen pictures of this, but would guess it consisted 
of a ring of sixteen powerful electromagnets that fit precisely 
inside the turntable inner circumference. Each turntable would have 
been put into this and "zapped" by energizing the electromagnetic 
ring.

The other method would require de-magnetizing or removing the 
existing 16-pole ring and then gluing sixteen pieces of precisely cut 
thin magnetic material to replace it. These pieces could be cut from 
flexible anisotropic sheet which has positive poles on one side and 
negative poles on the other.

--Tom
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