Dorothy on old RCA 'CED' disc

[NewVista]

Box says this player was for store demonstration unit.
Seems player prefers a TV with slow AFC for steady pic.
No picture in 'Pause' mode for screen photography.

[Phil Nelson]

I restored a Wards (Toshiba) CED player a few months ago. Are you referring to horizontal jitters? My player looked wonderful on the older 27" CRT set that I have on my workshop. When I moved it upstairs and connected it to a new flat screen TV, the picture jiggled horizontally a little, making me wonder if something had gone wrong with it already.

They do make a nice picture when working right.

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

[NewVista]

Yes, depends on TV, some H stability shake, needs slower time constant ?

[wa2ise]

RCA dropped about $570 million trying to market that thing. I used to work at the Smirnoff R&D lab where they invented it. It may be the reason GE corporate takeovered RCA, it wasn't pretty...

[Eric H]

Originally Posted by wa2ise

the Smirnoff R&D lab where they invented it.

Well that explains a lot!

[old_tv_nut]

It makes me shake my head, but when you look at formats that succeeded and those that didn't, there is a correlation to whether porn was available or not. The most shocking thing on CED was "Barbarella."

[Title17]

I swore I'd never mess with CED, then someone had a SJT-100 for sale for $5.

Had to replace some belts in the transport mechanism but it works perfect now. Pretty interesting format that pretty much everyone has long forgotten about.

[Ed in Tx]

Wow! The discs still play! I worked on those in the early '80s when they would come into the shop still in warranty. Usually a new pickup stylus fixed the problem. Had a copy of "Mash" for my test disc. I recall the theory was the silicone lubricant on the disc would eventually dry up and make them unplayable. So much for that! Anyway, pretty cool!

[Sandy G]

The problems w/CEDs were sort of "Soft" pictures, & the "Skipping"- Occured even when a disc was brand-new out of the wrapper. VERY aggervating to pop in a movie, sit down, & the damthing started skippin' 30 seconds into the show..

[lnx64]

Originally Posted by old_tv_nut

It makes me shake my head, but when you look at formats that succeeded and those that didn't, there is a correlation to whether porn was available or not. The most shocking thing on CED was "Barbarella."

I have LaserDisc and the only thing I had ran into was anime porn. Yea, not real stuff, just animated. lol

Not that I'm trying to look for either. I'm just going through the boxes of LD's when I'm at the flea market.

[Ed in Tx]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

The problems w/CEDs were sort of "Soft" pictures, & the "Skipping"- Occured even when a disc was brand-new out of the wrapper. VERY aggervating to pop in a movie, sit down, & the damthing started skippin' 30 seconds into the show..

I think the CED resolution was about par with a good VHS. Maybe 240-250 lines or so. Competing Laserdisc much higher 5-6 mHz from the video out, 400-500 lines. But they certainly had their own issues.

[lnx64]

I don't think I understand the concept of TV lines.

For example, if VHS has around 240-250 lines, why is it still interlaced with over 400 visible lines?

[Ed in Tx]

Originally Posted by lnx64

I don't think I understand the concept of TV lines.

For example, if VHS has around 240-250 lines, why is it still interlaced with over 400 visible lines?

Relates to how many parts each horizontal line can show, making vertical lines in the picture. Equates to about 80 lines per mHz. The higher the video frequency the finer detail each horizontal line can resolve, making up vertical and overall picture detail. If that makes any sense!

[lnx64]

Makes a little more sense. So it's basically describing how defined the horizontal line is. So for example, like 240x480 for example would be 240 lines, right?

[Phil Nelson]

Originally Posted by Ed in Tx

Wow! The discs still play!

Indeed, they do. This article describes how I refurbished my player.

http://www.antiqueradio.org/WardsGEN...ideoPlayer.htm

There is an active CED collector community. The CED Magic website has extensive information about the format, specs and restoration tips for every player, a discussion forum, and so on.

I feel like CED nerds are in about the same position as TV nerds who collected 1940s TVs in the 1960s and 1970s. The players and discs are available cheap or even free at garage sales, etc., and ordinary people look at them funny for wanting to preserve this obsolete rubbish, much less use it.

I will haul my player back to the workshop and try it out on that older 1980s TV, to investigate the shakiness issue. My son was all excited to see the player working when he visited here during Thanksgiving, but disappointed when every disc looked unstable on the new flat screen.

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html