CED Digest Vol. 3 No. 2

CED Digest Vol. 3 No. 2 • 1/10/1998
Date: Sat, 03 Jan 1998 16:32:13 -0800
From: Neil Wagner 
To: CED Digest <ceds@teleport.com>
Subject: Videodisc History Returns!

I finally made it back to my parents' house and pored
over the early 80's copies of Popular Science I had
left there.  These magazines had a cornucopia of news
briefs and feature articles relating to CED's.

About a year ago I presented the first 9 parts of this
series (CED digests vol. 1 no. 4 through vol. 2 no. 6).
Without further ado, I now reintroduce this series to
the CED digest.  ENJOY!

Videodisc History, Part 10

=================================================================
>From the January 1981 Popular Science - 

[This article deals primarily with Pioneer's first Laser
 Disc player, and as such is not generally on topic.
 However, there are a few lines worth quoting to give the
 reader a basis of comparison with the CED players of the
 day. - Ed.]

Video-disc player - instant movies with push-button options
by W. J. Hawkins

  Video-disc players are not new - PS has been following
their growth for five years and even devoted a 1977 cover
to them.  But now they're out of the labs, out of the limited
test-market stage, and, by the time you read this, into some
46 major cities throughout the country.  Surprisingly, the
first mass producer is Pioneer, the hi-fi manufacturer.
Pioneer calls its $750 video-disc player Laser Disc.

==================================================================
>From the February 1981 Popular Science -

[This brief also is not directly on topic.  However, it shows
 that RCA wasn't solely dedicated to CED technology. - Ed.]

Science Newsfront - Data disc
by Arthur Fisher

  Two engineers at RCA Laboratories have received a patent on
the disc storage system shown above.  Dr. Robert A. Bartolini
and Dr. Allan E. Bell developed the 12-inch disc, which can
hold 100 billion bits of information - enough, they say, to
store the entire contents of a multivolume encyclopedia, and
10 to 20 times the storage capacity of currently used magnetic
discs.  Information is recorded and retrieved by laser, in a
way similar to that used in some video-disc formats.  Key to
the RCA patent is a very thin layer of tellurium metal in the
coating of the plastic disc.  To imprint information, engineers
use an intense beam of a new semiconductor laser, recently
developed by RCA, to burn a series of microscopic pits in the
tellurium.  The information is later read by a less powerful
beam from the same laser.  The beam passes through the pits
and is reflected into an electronic light detector by a layer
of aluminum situated below the tellurium.

-- 
Neil - nw@ix.netcom.com

------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: LLP33 
Date: Sun, 4 Jan 1998 13:18:31 EST
To: ceds@teleport.com
Subject: Re: CED Digest Vol. 3 No. 1

if you do not like people on here talking about remanufacture, then ignore it,
because when you bring up the fact that you dont like it, you are only
perpetuating the discussion further, because that discussion until now was
over a little while ago.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 5 Jan 1998 16:54:46 -0500 (EST)
From: return
To: Tom Howe <ceds@teleport.com>
Subject: Re: CED Digest Vol. 3 No. 1

Subject: The repairing of machines, and technical support.

  Its nice to know that I'm not the only one out there that is alone
trying to champion some sort of " sanity " in regards to "basic common
sense" about getting your machines repaired when they breakdown!!
  I have over the past 4 Digests tried to rally the cause for setting up a
toll-free support line, Some sort of tech assist-line, or a list of
Service centers in "all of our" areas and regions to help and assist us!

   It is good to see someone else that does have some "Fore sight" that is 
pointing out the looming problem that all will face when machines
breakdown.  I've pointed out repeatly, how there needs to be equal access
and oportunity for "ALL" persons to get machines repaired, or to get
technical assistance with machine problems.

 I'll quote one recent person who has also stated this cause with me, "One
use of this newsletter would be to encourage the writing of a manual, the
establishment of a network of service centers, a voluntary hotline, the
warehousing of parts that are available and the creation of contacts at
RCA
or Thomson."

  If I could elaborate just a bit, it is important that we find someone
who has particular experience on these types of machines, because some
Tech's don't have this specific skill on these types of machines, but I'm
very sure there are enough out there who are skilled enough with
background on these machines to help the people out on this page.  To be
there when we all need assistance by telephone, or a repair policy set at
a very resonable rate to ship our machines to be repaired there if we so
desire.
   If we don't address the problems at hand, then there won't be much of a
future in this thing.
  So, I recommend that we get ourselves networked, and organized together
to began addressing this problem inorder to come up with a working
solution to this. (instead of some of us sitting back on our duff's)
    "I mean look at all the people that e-mail into this Digest that need
Technical help with machines"  I think the need has been established. 
To reiterate the last statement from the previous Digest volume, "Yes, we
do need and deserve technical and repair service for what we have!!

Mark.............

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 6 Jan 1998 10:15:37 -0800 (PST)
From: Phil Frakes 
Subject: WANTED: Linda Ronstadt in Concert
To: ceds@teleport.com

Looking for copies of the CED disc "Linda Ronstadt in Concert".
Willing to pay top dollar. Email me at pfrakes@rocketmail.com.

Thanks.
-Phil Frakes
405-340-9062

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 7 Jan 1998 17:32:49 -0600 (CST)
From: "Jason P. Ramsey" 
To: ceds@teleport.com
Subject: WANTED: A good player and/or movies

I would like to purchase or trade for a good CED player.  It must be in
very good working order.  I would prefer it to be a later model with a
remote.  I'm also looking for any Disney, James Bond or Star Wars related
films.
Please email me if you have any of the above.  I have a few movies that I
will trade with.  LMK what you want, off the top of my head I know I have
a few Pink Panther movies, Pink Floyd from Pompei, Rush: Exit Stage Left,
The Who: the Kids are alright, The Go-Gos Live and a few others.

Thanks,
Jason
ramsejp@mail.auburn.edu

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 09 Jan 1998 22:51:16 -0800
From: Tom Howe
To: ceds@teleport.com
Subject: VideoDisc Auctions

Fellow CED'ers:

The explosive growth of the auction web site http://www.ebay.com has
resulted in CED's nearly always being up for auction there. Basically
people list their items and a starting price, then others bid on them,
generally for seven days. It's rather interesting to see how widely the
prices vary. Sometimes there will be no bids on discs with starting prices
of $3.00, and at other times discs that at first thought might seem
uninteresting are bid up, like a Mary Tyler Moore disc that went for $18.
Out of curiosity, I put the Beatles "Let It Be" up for auction, because
it's been long out of print and is probably one of the most collectible
titles. Right now, there's someone with an Elvis disc with a minimum bid
of $100. It will be interesting to see if someone actually bids on it. I
recently updated the CED FAQ question "Where can I find RCA VideoDiscs
and players?" with some suggestions for using Ebay.

--Tom
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