CED Digest Vol. 2 No. 35

CED Digest Vol. 2 No. 35 • 8/30/1997
Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 02:54:44 -0700 (PDT)
From: Jesse Skeen
To: Tom Howe <ceds@teleport.com>
Subject: Re: CED Digest Vol. 2 No. 34

Here's a good reason to have "The Bette Midler Show", from Embassy Home 
Entertainment, which is a shot-on-video special for HBO from 1976. The 
beginning has the "Special Presentation" intro that HBO used during that 
time, it has some really cool music! I recently played the intro over and 
over about 10 times, it is just so cool! I think HBO still shows their 
famous movie intro (the metal HBO logo flying in space) but this one is 
so dated I'd be surprised if they still used it. HBO is like CED 
videodiscs in a way because to me it's something that served a useful 
purpose when it was new but is now no longer needed. I had it for a while 
just because my roommate wanted it, and I hardly ever watched it. They 
take forever to get new movies when they've already been available on 
laserdisc for a long time, and they never show anything in letterbox 
format! They sometimes put voice-overs over the end credits too, this is 
completely unacceptable and led to my dumping cable altogether! I 
remember when it was cool just to see recent movies "on TV" with no 
commercials, but now that there's so much prerecorded stuff out there 
it's just not necessary to have movie channels like this. Lots of people 
have at least 2 VCRs now too, so they don't even need HBO to record 
movies from when they can just copy rental tapes.
What amazed me about the Bette Midler special was that it was in true 
stereo! Stereo TV was miles away in 1976, I don't even think they did FM 
simulcasts back then either (before they had stereo TV I remember a lot 
of cable and regular TV shows, mostly music-oriented, being simulcast on 
FM stations so you could hear them in stereo.) So does anyone know the 
story on why they did this in stereo, and who actually got to hear it 
when it was first shown?
I have a few other videotaped shows on CED that I'm amazed are in stereo, 
Neil Diamond's "Love at the Greek", which looks like it was made for 
network TV since there are fade-outs for commercial breaks, was also made 
in 1976 and is in stereo. But what really wows me is "Who's Afraid of 
Opera," which there are 3 volumes of, which was produced for television 
shot on video in 1973 and is in stereo! What's the story on this one?
BTW, I have some "phony" stereo CEDs too, "The First Barry Manilow 
Special" is labeled "stereo" and has a stereo signal, but is really in 
mono. That was also a TV special, from 1977. "Fraggle Songs," a 
collection of songs from the HBO show "Fraggle Rock," is labeled Stereo 
but is really in that processed synthesized stereo that a lot of TV 
stations used during mono shows when stereo TV first came out (thank god 
most of the stations here quit doing that! It was annoying as heck!) If 
you listen to just the left channel of this disc, the sound is mostly 
low-pitched and the right channel is higher-pitched. The CED as well as 
the first release in other formats of Disney's "Pinocchio" uses another 
kind of this synthesized stereo.

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Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 09:25:24 -0600
From: David Potochick
To: ceds@teleport.com
Subject:  2 CED Players For Sale!!!

-2 CED Players For SALE - 

SJT - 090      $30.00 

Very basic model. Has play/pause, fast forward and stop functions.
works great!!! 

SJT -090 $15.00

Unit is missing the face plate but I have labeled the buttons. It works
great!!! 

I just found a Hitachi VIP1000 model CED player for $5.00 at a flea market
in mint condition. Never used, never taken out of the box, the needle
guard and shipping screws were still in place and it works great. So,
now I have two CED players for sale. 

Later,

Dave.

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Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 14:28:08 -0400
From: Jay Jones
To: Tom Howe <ceds@teleport.com>
Subject: SJT 400 takes the disc, but will not play

Jay Jones writes,

My SJT 400 will take in a disc, but then it "hangs up."  It won't play
and it will not eject.  Any ideas about how to solve this problem?

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Date: Tue, 26 Aug 1997 20:16:26 -0700
From: Rene & Richard 
To: ceds@teleport.com
Subject: Used CED disks

Does anyone deal in the buying and selling of CED disks. I have lots of
movies I'd like to sell.
Write me at martucci@mother.com
- Richard

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From: RedCircus
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 1997 16:51:40 -0400 (EDT)
To: ceds@teleport.com
Subject: More CED's For Sale

RCA SelectaVision VideoDiscs for sale -

$15 each (ppd)

2010
THE BIRDS
BLUE HAWAII (Elvis)
THE BREAKFAST CLUB
CREEPSHOW
FRANKENSTEIN (1931)
GREAT WHALES & SHARKS (National Geographic)
PLANET OF THE APES (RCA release)
QUEST FOR FIRE
TIME BANDITS
WAR OF THE WORLDS 
THE WIZARD OF OZ

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Date: Thu, 28 Aug 97 01:14:55 UT
From: "GEORGE BUTTS"
To: ceds@teleport.com
Subject: RCA Selectavision SJT 300 Not Playing

I recently purchased an RCA Selectavision SJT 300 at a thrift store. I would 
be very grateful if someone with some expertixe on these machines could give 
me some advice on how to get it running.  When I brought it home and took off 
the top I discovered the loading mechanism belt was gone and the CED turntable 
had come out of position.  I replaced the belt and put the turntable back in 
what I am assuming is it's proper position.  When I powered the machine up it 
went into the L mode.  The front door opened enough to easily insert a CED.  I 
inserted the CED and it seemed to load properly.  At this point, with the top 
off so I could observe what's going on, the following happened;
1. As soon as CED loaded the needle moves into position over the CED, the - - 
indicator came on and for a short time the Side 1 indicator came on.  After 
about three seconds the Side 2 indicator also came on.  So, the window read - 
- and both side 1 & side 2 lights were on.
2.If I press PLAY nothing happens.
3.If I press REJECT the needle moves back off the CED, but nothing more 
happens.  - - indicator is still on, Side 1 & 2 still on.
4.If I press POWER off, the machine powers down.  When I press POWER on, the 
needle moves into position again.  All indicators the same, - - in window and 
Side 1 & 2 lights lit.  REJECT once again moves the CED back.
5.If I manually move the large gear on the left side of the machine (where the 
belt that controls the loading mechanism is) I can get the front door to open 
and the L load light to come on.  
6.With the load light on nothing happens when I press REJECT.  Nothing happens 
when I press PLAY.  Nothing happens if I press POWER once.  However, when I 
press POWER a second time the front door closes, the needle moves into 
position, the - - lights come on, the side 1 & 2 lights come on and I'm right 
back where I started from.
7. The CED never spins.  I can't get it to go into the play mode and I can't 
get it into the Unload mode.  I now have the CED stuck in the machine.
8. All gears seem to be in excellent condition, no rods are broken or bent, 
can anyone tell me what I might try to get the machine functioning properly? I 
would appreciate any advice.  Thank you.

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From: starr33
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 1997 18:57:10 -0700
To: ceds@teleport.com
Subject: cleaning discs

Is there any way of cleaning discs without causing permanent damage? 
Possibly to cut down on some of the skipping that seems to be a major 
problem with ced technology.
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