CED Digest Vol. 4 No. 4

CED Digest Vol. 4 No. 4 • 1/23/1999
From: StereoBoy
Date: Sun, 17 Jan 1999 10:09:02 EST
To: ceds@teleport.com
Subject: CED Skipping

In a message dated 1/17/1999 7:19:01 AM Mountain Standard Time,
ceds@teleport.com writes:

<<  skipping is, has been, and always will be CED's trademark, and
 the main reason for its quick demise >>

Yes, and it was the one big problem with the CED format that was publicly
acknowledged by the company... which I find astounding.  Honestly, if a new
video format were released today that had a skipping problem like CED, there
would be an uproar heard from consumers and I'm sure many, many lawsuits.
Yet, with CED, the problem was pretty much dismissed, even by the mainstream
video magazines...the only people who defended the skipping were CED owners
who were desperate to justify thier investment in such a terrible format.
Yes, I collect CED's, because I think they are neat, but it was a terrible
format, and if it was around today, I wouldn't want anything to do with it. 

Another problem that CED had was the terrible dot-crawl and cross-color
artifacts from the cheap comb filters RCA used in the players to extract the
buried chroma from the luminance signal. They really ruined the picture with
that "crosshatch pattern" everywhere. I think if CED had survived a bit longer
we might have seen players with better comb filters or even players with Y/C
outputs. SCARY!  It's also interesting to wonder about how, if CED had
survived, RCA would have 'upgraded' the format to accomodate features that
videophiles now demand, such as digital PCM sound, AC-3, DTS, etc... not to
mention improved picture quality due to luminance carrier shifts. RCA would
have fixed the skipping problem, but from what I've heard, the "fix" they had
implemented in the labs was a new type of disc, with deeper grooves and a
slightly different diameter stylus coupled with a new type of tracking system
and kicker-coil circuit. It really was a 're-engineering' of the format and
not a simple player improvement that would have translated into no skipping on
existing discs.  One thing funny about the CED format is it's basically a
series of "fixes", for one aspect or another...it's not an 'elegant' system by
any means, nor is it as simple as LaserDisc or as RCA wanted consumers to
believe...it's like RCA was determined, NO MATTER WHAT, that they were going
to play movies with a needle, physics and reality be damned!  Too bad RCA
didn't swallow thier pride and combine thier system with JVC's VHD (Video High
Density) format. That was a truly elegant capacitance disc system and provided
all the benifits of the optical formats with the very low coss of a 'stylus'
based system...plus, the discs did not skip and the wear factor on both the
stylus and discs was reduced by about 1000 times over that of CED. Plus, the
VHD disc was smaller (10-inches) and thus cheaper to produce...JVC's mastering
and replication technique was also much cheaper...the final cost of a packaged
VHD disc was around $1.50.  Of course, the VHD (and it's 'sister' format AHD-
Audio High Density) would not be around today, even if it had been introduced
in the US...optical disc techniques have simply left any 'contact' based
system in the dust.

My best to every one!
Ty Chamberlain 

------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "McGee"
To: "Tom Howe" <ceds@teleport.com>
Subject: Re: CED Digest Vol. 4 No. 3
Date: Sun, 17 Jan 1999 09:50:03 -0800

I have an RCA Selectavision unit, Model SFT 100 W, that I'd like to sell for
parts.  $50.

Rex McGee
TEL:  817-645-6848

------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Daniel Cayea"
To: "Tom Howe" <ceds@cedmagic.com>
Subject: Project Update
Date: Sun, 17 Jan 1999 14:10:21 -0500

Just keeping everyone up to date on the  project. The project is
going great, I have just purchased some more discs  to keep the
collection growing.  The collection now holds about 190 movies on 240 
discs.  A database of the movies is available in anyone of  the
following formats:  Microsoft Works 4.0 HTML ASCII  To recieve a
copy of the database in either Works,  HTML, or ASCII format please
email me at cayead@westelcom.com and place CED  Database [FORMAT] in
the subject line and you will recieve it the next time my  server is
connected to the internet which is multiple times daily. If you
would like a copy of the database in all available formats send an
email to cayead@westelcom.com with All CED  Databases in the subject
line.  Here is a sample "CED Database Microsoft Works  4.0" and you
would get a copy of the database in Microsoft Works 4.0  format.
Thanks Daniel P. Cayea

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From: Beaumontj
Date: Sun, 17 Jan 1999 22:36:05 EST
To: ceds@teleport.com
Subject: Re: CED Digest Vol. 4 No. 3

Thanks to all the helpful individuals who responded to my last post. I really
appreciate the information and kind words.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: junkfellow
Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1999 19:19:55 -0500 (EST)
To: ceds@teleport.com
Subject: Rescuers CED

Hey

Is rescuers out on CED? I didnt see it on the list. Would the naked lady be
on the CED or was that just on the tape

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1999 16:02:33 -0600 (CST)
From: Drew Atari Fuehring
To: ceds@teleport.com
Subject: Attn: resrvordog@earthlink.com

Looking to get a hold of this person....Mail got returned.  I am trying to
send you a list of my ceds...

THANX, DREW
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