CED Digest Vol. 8 No. 43

CED Digest Vol. 8 No. 43 • 10/25/2003
20 Years Ago In CED History:

October 26, 1983:
* The U.S. government reports a record federal budget deficit of $195.4 billion
for the 1983 fiscal year, which ended September 30.

October 27, 1983:
* President Kenneth David Kaunda of Zambia, unopposed, wins reelection to a
fifth term.
* President Reagan states that the Grenada invasion took place just in time to
prevent the island nation from becoming a "Soviet-Cuban colony."

* RCA PRESS RELEASE:
RCA Offers Free Six-Pack of Stereo Discs with Purchase of Any Stereo Video Disc
Player

Buy an RCA stereo video disc player before Christmas and get a free six-pack --
of stereo music discs, that is.

The free six-pack offer is part of RCA's Holiday Bonus Promotion which will run
from October 27 to December 24, according to Herbert J. Mendelsohn, Division
Vice President, Marketing, RCA VideoDisc Division.

Mr. Mendelsohn said the six-pack represents a $150 value at retail.

"We have seen a strong resurgence in the music industry, sparked by video
technologies such as cable, cassettes and discs. The music-video revolution has
opened new opportunities for performers and created a new business in home
entertainment," Mr. Mendelsohn said.

"This promotion is aimed directly at the 18- to 34-year old market, which
accounts for approximately 39 percent of the population, but which buys 80
percent of all audio records and tapes sold in the United States," he
noted.

He said RCA will support the promotion with 60-second commercials on cable
services that cater to this audience, such as MTV and NBC's "Friday Night
Videos." This will be supplemented by print ads and point-of-purchase
posters.

Participating dealers will stock the six-packs so consumers can take them home
with their players.

Under the terms of the promotion, purchasers of the monaural SJT 100 video disc
player will receive a $50 factory rebate, while those buying any of the three
stereo player models will have a choice of the $50 rebate or the six-pack.

There will be a choice of two six-packs. A Pop/Rock six-pack contains the
following discs: "Flashdance," "Kenny Loggins Alive,"
"Fleetwood Mac In Concert-Mirage Tour of 1982," "Diana Ross in
Concert," "Paul McCartney Rockshow," and "The Doobie
Brothers." The second six-pack contains the following rock hit albums:
"Flashdance," "Rush-Exit Stage Left," "Totally
Go-Go's," "Pink Floyd at Pompeii," "Duran Duran," and
"The Who-The Kids Are Alright."

October 28, 1983:
* The U.S. vetoes a UN Security Council resolution condemning the invasion of
Grenada as a "flagrant violation of international law."
* An earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter Scale, the strongest in the
contiguous 48 states since 1959, hits Idaho and seven other northwestern
states.
* Future CED title in widespread theatrical release: Under Fire.

October 29, 1983:
* Soviet officials leave Beijing after the third round in a series of ongoing
talks with Chinese officials aimed at eventual restoration of normal relations
between the two countries. No progress is reported on China's demands that the
U.S.S.R. withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, stop supporting the Vietnamese
occupation of Kampuchea, and reduce its military force along the Sino-Soviet
border.
* "Islands in the Stream" by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton becomes
the No. 1 U.S. single.

October 30, 1983:
* Paul Alfonsin, candidate of the Radical Civic Union, is elected Argentina's
first civilian president in nearly eight years. His victory over Itako Luder
ended the Peronists' decades-long domination of argentine politics. Alfonsin, a
co-founder of the Argentine Permanent Assembly for Human Rights, promised that
he would annul the amnesty that the military had granted itself to avoid
prosecution for often flagrant violations of human rights.
* A major earthquake strikes eastern Turkey devastating dozens of villages; the
death toll is estimated to be at least 2,000.
* Jesse L. Jackson states during a television interview that he will seek the
1984 Democratic presidential nomination.

October 31, 1983:
* Representatives of Lebanon's principal religious and political factions
convene in Geneva for talks that, it is hoped, will lead to an end to the civil
war that has been ravaging the country for almost a decade.
* A federal jury in Kansas City, MO, overrules an August jury decision that TV
newscaster Christine Craft had been the victim of sex discrimination; he throws
out the $500,000 award and orders a new trial.

November 1, 1983:
* All-India Radio reports that more than 1,400 people have been taken into
custody in violence-racked Punjab state during the previous two weeks.

* RCA VideoDisc Releases for November 1983:

10 to Midnight
Alice's Restaurant
Animal Crackers
Bandolero!*
Barefoot in the Park
Black Stallion Returns, The** [RCA]
Black Stallion, The**
Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw
Breathless
Carlin at Carnegie
Chained Heat
Cheech & Chong "Still Smokin"
Daffy Duck's Fantastic Island
Deer Hunter, The (2)**
Defiant Ones, The
Dial M for Murder
Dolly in London*
Dot and Santa Claus
Eddie Murphy Delirious**
Entity, The**
Great Santini, The
Hunger, The
Jason and the Argonauts
King Kong (2) [1976]
Klute
Lawrence of Arabia (2)**
Little Women
Lone Wolf McQuade
Lords of Discipline, The
Man Who Came To Dinner, The
Matter of Time, A
Max Dugan Returns
MGM Cartoon Magic, Vol. 1
Mr. Magoo in Sherwood Forest
My Little Chickadee
Nana
Never Give A Sucker An Even Break
Nothing Personal
Nutty Professor, The
Peter-No-Tail
Pink Floyd The Wall**
Prince's Trust Rock Gala, The*
Raiders of the Lost Ark**
Redd Foxx: Video In A Plain Brown Wrapper***
Reefer Madness
Return to Boggy Creek
Rio Bravo (2)
Staying Alive**
Steve Miller Band Live*
Stroker Ace
Tales of Hoffman, The (2)*
Three Musketeers, The [1981]
Tubby the Tuba*
Vacation
WarGames** [RCA]
Where's Pappa
Without A Trace

------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: marks4q2
Date: Mon, 20 Oct 2003 12:05:41 -0400 (EDT)
To: digest@cedmagic.com
Subject: cleaning discs

when i wrote this forum requesting input from other members concerning
cleaning of the discs, i never thought there would be so many points of
view on this subject.
  i was hoping after all these years someone would have found a safe way
to  eliminate the skipping etc found on most ceds.
  
  20 yrs ago i attended a service class sponsored by my local rca
distributor.
 in those days this was how a service center(tv store) received their
training.
 we were told to fast scan and back over locked grooves and then remove
and reinstall the ced so any hairs etc would be removed.
  we were then warned against touching the disc itself being our finger
prints could add to the problem and never remove the coating on the
disc!
   then the instructor recommended copying the ced to tape if you tried
cleaning by any other manner and not play the disc again after that.
                          barry marks

------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: SonyFan13
Date: Mon, 20 Oct 2003 15:12:50 EDT
Subject: Re: CED Digest Vol. 8 No. 42
To: digest@cedmagic.com

>Does anyone repair the Radio Shack CED player?  I have a couple that have
>the CED and the spine stuck inside.  I have removed the cover have moved
>the main circuit board but can find no gear to release the cover and
>spine. Or can someone guide me through removing these by myself?  I
>would  hate to give them up because one of them is one of my son's
>favorite CEDs!

The Radio Shack CED player is based on the Hitachi platform, to which there are
two versions of this chassis.  The RS players have typically used the older
Hitachi platform.  The drive gear for the load-elevation mechanism is
underneath the disc.
 
What you may have to do is open the player up, undo the screws that mount the
circuit and support framing to the bottom section of the plastic chassis and
flip the framing/circuit combo up like a lid.  The screws you will have to
remove to flip the mainboard up are at the lower left and lower right, assuming
that the player's front is facing towards you.  DO NOT remove any of the screws
on the main circuit board itself.
 
Make sure the pickup arm is out of the way and in its parked position.  If it
isn't, you will have to move it manually to the parked position, which is to
the far left of the player.  To the upper left of the player chassis with the
front of the player facing towards you is the gearing for driving the pickup
arm.  Rotate the larger wheel to drive the gearing to move the pickup in the
parking space.  More than likely, the belt used to drive this gearing is
deteriorated beyond use and will have to be replaced.  When the pickup is out
of the way, carefully take the disc out from the top. 
 
There will be two white wheels or one small white wheel and one large black
wheel to the lower right next to the disc spindle motor inside the chassis.
The smaller wheel will be attached to a motor and a larger wheel is the one
driving the main mechanism.  More than likely, the belt that is used on the
small and large wheels will either be a pile of goo or stretched out beyond
use.  In either case, you will have to turn the larger wheel to move the
elevator up all the way.  Once it is up as far as it can go, carefully place
the disc back to where it was within the spine.  Then, insert the caddy to
unload the disc.  - Reinhart

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 24 Oct 2003 19:22:34 -0800
Subject: Bill Shoemaker - the VideoDisc Jockey
From: Tom Howe <tom@cedmagic.com>
To: digest@cedmagic.com

Hello All:

You may have heard of the passing of famed horse racing jockey Bill
"Willie" Shoemaker a couple weeks ago. He, of course, was the host
for the interactive RCA VideoDisc title "A Week at the Races." I have
since added a page about him to Who's Who in VideoDisc:

http://www.cedmagic.com/mem/whos-who/shoemaker-bill.html

This prompted me to add other celebrities (besides Tom Brokaw) who have
specifically promoted the CED system, and I could only think of two others,
Gene Kelly and Gary Schwartz:

http://www.cedmagic.com/mem/whos-who/brokaw-tom.html

http://www.cedmagic.com/mem/whos-who/kelly-gene.html

http://www.cedmagic.com/mem/whos-who/schwartz-gary.html

Gary Schwartz played the butler in the interactive title "The DisneyDisc
of Mystery and Magic," on which he provided a tutorial on operating the
SJT400 player. Can anyone think of any other celebrities who have promoted the
CED system? There's Jane Fonda, but I've never seen her specifically plug CED
rather than just her videos in general.

If you're having a Halloween party this coming Friday, "The DisneyDisc of
Mystery and Magic" would make for good entertainment. It includes many of
the familiar Halloween motifs including a haunted house, a witch, a vampire, a
werewolf, and ghosts.

--Tom
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