CED Player Specifications

CED Player Specifications

This document provides an explanation for the specifications given for each player in the CED Player Reference Guide.

Year Introduced: The year that particular player model became available for purchase.

OEM Equivalent: The Original Equipment Manufacturer player closest to the model illustrated on the page. All CED players were made by only four manufacturers: Hitachi, RCA, Sanyo, and Toshiba. All the other name brands are clones with styling or feature changes. Among these feature changes are the presence or absence of a remote with the player, the ability of the player to accept a remote, one less search function on the front panel, or the presence of a digital time display in addition to the analog display.

Sound: "Monaural" means the player as packaged by the manufacturer could only produce one channel of audio. "Stereo" means the player produces two channels, and also incorporates noise reduction circuitry for CX encoded discs. Some monaural players have a back panel jack into which a stereo adapter box can be plugged.

Dual Audio: "No" means the player as packaged by the manufacturer cannot play the "B" channel on dual audio discs, only the "A" channel will be heard. "Manual" means the player has a slide or push button switch that the owner can use to manually choose channel "A" or "B" or in some cases a mixture of both. "Auto" means that when the player is turned on and a dual audio disc is inserted, the unit will recognize the disc as dual audio and set itself to play the "A" channel. A push button on the front panel or on some remotes will toggle between channel "A" and channel "B."The stereo adapter boxes mentioned under Sound above also permit the manual selection of channels "A" and "B."

Outputs: "RF" means the player only has a Radio Frequency output that transmits on one of two broadcast channels selectable by a switch located on the player. "RF & A/V" means the player also has separate baseband Audio/Video outputs which can be connected to TV's having A/V inputs for better quality than is possible with the RF output. All stereo players have A/V outputs since that's the only means to get separate left and right audio channels. Monaural players have a single audio connector that mixes the two channels when stereo discs are played, which is also always the case with the RF connector.

Remote Control: "No" means the player as packaged by the manufacturer has no means of being controlled remotely, only the front panel buttons can be used. "Wired" means a socket is provided to remotely control the player with a corded remote. "IR" means the player can be controlled by a wireless infrared remote. Players that could be controlled with a IR remote always included the remote, while the wired remote control was sometimes an optional accessory. The individual player pages state which players had an optional wired remote.

Visual Search: The speeds at which the player can search Forwards and Backwards with the image still visible on the TV screen. For example, 2.5xF means the player can search at two and one-half times normal playback speed in the forward direction only, and 16xF/R means the player can search at sixteen times normal playback speed both Forwards and Backwards. Some players have three visual search speeds but only two buttons for either direction. The third, highest speed is attained by simultaneously depressing both visual search buttons in the direction desired.

Blanked Search: This refers to a search forwards or backwards where the TV screen is blank with no image as the stylus is lifted from the disc surface. Some players did not offer blanked search, and instead substituted a high speed visual search.

Pause: "Yes" means the player has a button that causes the stylus to be lifted from the disc and a blank TV screen to be displayed. A second press of the button, or a press of the separate play button (when present) causes the player to resume playback at the same point.

Time Display: "Analog" refers to a single LED attached to the pickup arm that moves across a bar indicating elapsed minutes the disc has been played. "Digital" refers to a conventional 7-segment, 2-digit LED indicator that displays elapsed minutes of play.

Side Display: "Yes" means the player has two LED's that indicate which side of the disc is being played. The side sense switches detect this from the plastic spine, so the LED indicators will be wrong if the spine is in the caddy backwards but the disc is not.

Page Mode: This refers to the playback condition where the stylus plays the same VideoDisc groove over and over. This results in the same four video frames being displayed over and over which approximately results in a still image if there was little movement in the original scene. Some players require two buttons to be held down continuously for the player to be put in page mode. while others remain in page mode until the play button is pushed or the page mode feature times out.

Page Advance: Players that do not require two buttons to be held down continuously are also capable of Page Advance. In this mode each press of a button on the front panel or sometimes on the remote will advance the stylus one groove forward. A press of a different button will move the stylus one groove back. Page advance can also be used to clean VideoDisc grooves. For more information, see the question Is there a way to safely clean the grooves on CED's? located in the RCA SelectaVision VideoDisc FAQ.

Repeat Mode: J/K players (except the 400 models) can be placed in Repeat Mode by holding down the PAUSE/PLAY button while turning the player on. In this mode the entire disc side is played, and the player mechanism moves to the unload position. After 15 seconds, the mechanism moves back into the play position and this process repeats indefinitely until the player is turned off. This mode was intended for store demos, where the player could be left in unattended play all day long. The 400 J/K models are also capable of Repeat Mode by using the remote to program any desired time segment from 1 second up to the entire length of the disc side with the repeat option enabled.

Screen Display: The RCA 400 series players have an internal character generator that puts up an on-screen display of elapsed time, band number, and other information. For more information see the RCA 400 Series Owner's Manual.

Turntable: "Belt Driven" means the turntable is spun by a large rubber belt attached to an adjacent motor. "Direct Drive" means the turntable is an integral part of a four-phase motor and is magnetically driven by the electrical fields generated in the motor.

Turntable Timing: "Line Frequency" means the 450RPM speed of the turntable is derived from the 60Hz frequency of the AC power source. "Quartz" means the 450RPM rate is derived from a crystal oscillator inside the CED player. The turntable in PAL players spins at 375RPM which is always a quartz-derived rate.

Stylus Sweep: All CED players have a felt pad over which the stylus is drawn to wipe off any dust particles. Some players perform this operation when the disc is Loaded, others when the disc is Unloaded, or at both Load and Unload. A few players have a second stylus sweeper, a small rubber pad adjacent to the stylus tip in the pickup arm. This sweeper activates whenever the player is put in pause and also automatically activates when carrier distress of 3 seconds duration is detected.

Motorized Load: Some players have motor-assisted load where the player automatically draws in the caddy after it is inserted 3/4 of the way, then returns the empty caddy. Other players require the caddy to be fully inserted and withdrawn by hand.

Video Standard: NTSC refers to the video standard used in North America, and PAL refers to the video standard used in Australia, Great Britain, and Europe. NTSC players can only play NTSC discs, and PAL players can only play PAL discs.

Power Source: 120V, 60Hz is the North American standard, while 240V, 50Hz is the standard in countries where PAL players were available. Some players can operate at a line frequency of either 50Hz or 60Hz and only require a step-down transformer to supply the correct voltage, while others can operate at either 60Hz or 50Hz, but not both.

Power Consumption: The power consumed by the player during normal play back measured in Watts.

Dimensions: The Width, Height, and Depth (W x H x D) of the player measured in inches.

Weight: The weight of the player measured in pounds.

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