CED Digest Vol. 8 No. 6

CED Digest Vol. 8 No. 6 • 2/8/2003
20 Years Ago In CED History:

February 9, 1983:
* In a media conference, President Ronald Reagan comments on the economic
turnaround that appears to have begun. He cites a number of factors, including
an inflation rate of 3.9 percent for 1982 (vs. double digit for the prior two
years), an increase in production of 22 percent over the prior quarter,
increasing wages and employment, and an index of leading economic indicators
6.2 percent higher than the figure nine months earlier.

February 10, 1983:
* Leaders of the Independent Truckers Association (ITA) call off an 11-day
strike. The truckers had been protesting new federal legislation increasing the
registration fee for large trucks.
* Canada and the United States sign an agreement permitting the U.S. to test
unarmed cruise missiles in northern Alberta.
* U.S. Vice President George Bush completes a 12-day visit to Europe that
included stops in West Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy,
France, Great Britain, and the Vatican. Bush tells reporters that the Western
allies spoke with one voice when they urged the U.S. to be flexible during
negotiations with the Soviet Union on arms reduction.

February 11, 1983:
* Ariel Sharon resigns as Israel's defense minister in the wake of a state
investigating commission report that the nation's top civilian and military
leaders bore "indirect responsibility" for the massacre of
Palestinians by Lebanese Christian Phalangist militia in September 1982. Sharon
is asked to stay in the cabinet as minister without portfolio, and Moshe Arens
is chosen as his successor in the defense ministry.
* Future CED title in widespread theatrical release: The Sting II.

February 12, 1983:
* The coal carrier "Marine Electric" capsizes in a blizzard east of
Chincoteague, Virginia; 33 crew members perish.
* Representative Phil Gramm of Texas wins election to Congress as a Republican
after resigning January 5 to switch parties.
* Esmat Sadat, the half brother of the late Egyptian president Anwar Sadat
as-Sadat, is convicted of corruption by a court of ethics and sentenced to one
year in prison.
* NASA officials state that the launching of a space telescope that will let
astronomers see to the edges of the universe may be delayed by up to a year
beyond is scheduled launch date in February 1985 because of manufacturing and
testing problems.
* Eubie Blake, the American ragtime composer and pianist, dies one week after
his 100th birthday. Blake's 315 compositions included such hits as "I'm
Just Wild About Harry" and "Memories of You." An RCA press
release concerning Eubie Blake and the Broadway CED title "Eubie!"
appeared in CED Digest Vol. 7 No. 11:

http://www.cedmagic.com/home/ced-digest/ced-digest-vol-07/ced-digest0711.html

* "Down Under" (CED) by Men At Work becomes the No. 1 US single.

February 13, 1983:
* Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain arrives in Jamaica for a four-day visit.
* Spyros Kyprianou, a member of the Democratic party, is reelected to a
five-year term as president of Cyprus with 57 percent of the vote.

February 14, 1983:
* Nigeria states that 1.2 million West Africans have left the country since it
ordered the expulsion of foreign workers four weeks earlier, with the largest
number going to Ghana. other sources put the number expelled as high as 2
million.

February 15, 1983:
* United American Bank of Knoxville reopens as a unit of First Tennessee
National Corporation after it closed February 14 in one of the largest bank
failures in U.S. history.
* After months of negotiations with the Lebanese government, the Christian
Phalangist militia and their supporters withdraw from East Beirut and take up
positions outside the city. Their departure gives the government control of the
entire capital for the first time since the mid-1970's.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 02 Feb 2003 13:08:10 -0500
From: Darrick Burch <dburch1>
To: digest@cedmagic.com
Subject: DAXI codes

Hello there,

I had read the article concerning the DAXI codes embedded into the VBI on the
CEDs and I was slightly curious: do they get filtered out of the video output?
I was browsing the documentation for Microsoft's DirectShow API (It's part of
DirectX and controls video playback and capture.)  and it appeared as though
there are facilities for reading data off the VBI.  I thought it might be a fun
project to make a program that reads these codes from a video capture card and
displays them. Maybe it'd be useful to know what frame number the player is on,
and how often it is skipping, and what not.

Of course, I don't even know if this is even feasible.  I had only seen it
while browsing the MSDN site some time ago, but since the DAXI codes were
brought up, I thought it'd be a good time to ask.  Is there even enough
information about the CED format to make this happen?  Any ideas out there?

Thanks,
-Darrick

------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Rix" <rixrex>
To: <digest@cedmagic.com>
Subject: PART ONE AND PART TWO DISCS
Date: Sun, 2 Feb 2003 21:13:56 -0600

I still have these several part 1 and part 2 disks that came with purchases of
group sets of disks, and the sellers either knew it and didn't say, or just
didn't realize it was half a movie.
 
Anyway, I will be happy to trade or swap, to give away or get the other half of
these movies.  I will swap one disc for another, either a separate movie or one
of these half-movies, for something of the same.  We each pay our own shipping.
I'm open to any suggestions, just want them to go where they are needed!
 
These are the ones that I have:
 
Coming Home, part 1
Close Encounters, part 1
Silverado, part 1
Red River, part 1
Deer Hunter, part 1
2001, Space Oddysey, part1
 
A Star is Born (Striesand), part 2
Ordinary People, part 2 (two copies)
Murder on the Orient Express, part 2
Silkwood, part 2
Godfather 2, part 2
Lord of the Rings, part 2
Raging Bull, part 2
Birdman of Alcatraz, part 2
King Kong (1976), part 2
 
Well, that's it.  Hope I can help someone out with their collection or visa
versa!  Thanks, Rix.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 03 Feb 2003 09:58:05 -0500
To: digest@cedmagic.com
From: "James M. Long" <jmlong>
Subject: CED

While I do agree with Allen that there is a certain quality about the CED
system that cannot be had with other consumer playback formats, I have to note
that it is nothing short of a miracle that the system made it to the market at
all - never mind surviving for five years.  "Winner" is not quite the
word I would pick to describe the project.  I won't get into the details here,
but I just a few weeks ago finished Margaret Graham's book _The Business of
Research: RCA and the Videodisc_.  Bibliographic details can be found on Tom's
site, or just do a Barnes & Noble search (down with Amazon!).  It is a
fantastic read, not too dense or tedious, and details just how precarious the
whole project was from the word "go".

Don't get me wrong: I labor over my SJT300s like they were precious, delicate
jewels.  I built up a collection of discs that I am quite happy about.  I
exasperatedly try to deal with some associates' questions and remarks like
"Why would you purposely own something so obsolete?" and "They
have this stuff on DVD, you know."  You would never catch me trading by
CED collection or players for the fanciest DVD setup on the block.  But after
reading Graham's book, the most fantastic detail of the CED system is the fact
that it ever appeared at all.  A topic for a healthy debate, I believe.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Robert Bernhardt" <rbernhar>
To: digest@cedmagic.com
Subject: 
Date: Wed, 05 Feb 2003 01:20:32 +0000

I am looking for some older RCA parts.  One of witch is a tweeter for the RCA
Dimensia Speaker SPK400  You know where to get this?

Regards

Robert-A..Bernhardt

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2003 23:41:43 -0800 (PST)
From: Mark Edwards <mark62334>
Subject: Lana Clarkson RIP
To: digest@cedmagic.com

Lana Clarkson is the actress shot by music producer
Phil Spector the other day. She's been in a few CED
movies one of them Deathstalker, she's the one being
held by the monster on the front jacket of that disc.
In Fast Times At Ridgemont High she's the dream wife
of oddball teacher Vargas at the end of the movie.
Look her up at her web site www.lanaclarkson.com while
its still around.
Murder suspect Phil Spectors also on CED. He's The
Pusher at the start of Easy Rider to the accompanment
of the same Steppenwolf song. If you have ever seen
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, that crazy Z-Man
character who makes the end of the movie is supposed
to be what Spectors like in real life.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Michael" <mreynolds>
To: <digest@cedmagic.com>
Subject: RCA Selectavision 
Date: Wed, 5 Feb 2003 20:22:45 -0600

I have a model SFT 100W RCA Selectavision Video disc player.  It was a part of
a theatre for the family which could be used  by  using a channel selector .
Because of the many connections and  lack of  replacement discs it was set
aside. The wife says to  make room.  Thought I would see if anyone out there
would be interested in it.
          disc collection  are following
Fiddler on The Roof
The Pirate Movie
Spacehunter : adventures in the Forbidden Zone
Commando
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Mary Poppins
Ghandi
Man on the Moon
Wargames
A View to a Kill
Asia in Asia
Raise The Titanic
Twilight Zone the movie
Tron
Superman the Movie
SupermanII
Star Wars
Ghostbusters
Star Trek the Motion Picture
Time Bandits
Star Trek Trouble with Tribbles/Tholian Web
Star trekII Wraith of Khan
Silverado
Star Trek the Menagerie
Star Trek Balance of Terror/Mirrop Mirrop
The Muppet Movie
Return of the Jedi
Rocky IV
Robin Hood
Starman
The Phantom Tollbooth
Cartoon Classic Donald
Annie
Krull
The Empire Strikes Back
The Man With the Golden Gun
Diamonds are Forever
Octopussy
The Last Starfighter
Dragonslayer
Pale Rider
Jewel of the Nile
The Guns of Navaronne
Close Encounters Special Edition
Alien
Yor the hunter from the Future
Christine
Escape from Alcatraz
The Blackhole
Star Trek the Search for Spock
Rumpelstilskin
Beauty and the Beast
Romancing the Stone
Rapunzel
Hansel and Gretel
              This unit and discs is located in Decatur Illinois.
              Will not ship as discs are heavy. You pick up.
                       $ 300.00 for everything
 
Michael E, Reynolds
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