Almost forgotten video format

[Doramius]

A CED PLAYER




I finally got one, and for a good price too. $40 at a garage sale. Mine isn't as nice looking as this picture here, but it's the same one and actually plays. I even got a few stylus cartridges and some CED Discs with it: The Changeling (starring George C. Scott), Laurel & Hardy - The Flying Dueces, and a few other good ones.

It's basically a stylus record player that plays video instead. Totally analog. I've got to retro fit some composite cables to it so I can use it for backing up. (I'll probably a total of 15 times in my existence, but it's another format to check off on my "MUST GET" list. Only 2 rare video formats left. Who wants to guess which one's they are?

[bazooka]

I guess I was sleeping when those came out.

I do not remember it.

[Capmaster]

Kinda hard to transfer movies to that format though, isn't it? Are there still movies available for that?

[Doramius]

Yeah, there are still movies for it, but not many. They are all old. I don't think they make them anymore. LaserDiscs are still being made, too (much to my surprise), but in very limited quantities and not all newer movies. It's definitely phasing out. LaserDiscs are only regionalized by NTSC and PAL. They have no macrovision or any other special copyright protection. Makes it easier to back up though.

The transfer is not hard. As some already know, I search for EXTREMELY rare movies (that I like), but can't find on DVD, or even VHS. I have bought R2R (Reel-to-Reel) and even converted them to DVD (not the fastest or preferred method - painstakingly slow and time consuming on your own). I have a few Beta Transfers, and even some Super-VHS Carts (I got the player for $60 when my college was selling old equipment it didn't use anymore). I have 7 cassettes and used the player about 50 times.

Yes, I am the A/V geek. I would like to get a lot more R2R equipment and try to make home conversions, but right now I go to a local university and use their equipment. The conversion equipment is pretty dang expensive, so it'll be a while before I get it. I still have problems with Panavision reels, though. They run at high speeds and the reels are set and played on their sides for the widest available aspect ratio.

From the clues above, you can probably guess a bunch of video formats I already have. Anyone care to guess which 2 I still don't have?

[Rookie64]

I remember those - used to see 'em displayed in the malls.

Never wanted to get a player though...high priced discs at the time, limited availability of titles and knew people who had one and they all said it sucked.


http://search-desc.ebay.com/ced_DVDs-Movies_W0QQsofocusZbsQQsbrftogZ0QQfromZR10QQcatre...QsosortorderZ1

[Doramius]

They are very tempermental. Moreso than a regular Vynil LP player. This format was available in the mid 1970's.

[Doramius]

I found out just how tempermental this thing can be. Old CD-players took bumps and jiggles better. This is basically a high tech vyniyl record player that has video capabilities. It didn't take much connect it up. I'm running it through my VCR, but it can connect directly to the RF on the TV. If you remember the RCA style RF connector on the old Atari game consoles, this has the same connection. I cut off the ends and pot a standard coaxial tip on it and it looks beautiful. However, I had to keep my son from jumping in the same room because the thing would skip every time. The cool thing is you never touch the disc. The case is hard plastic and you slide it in with the disc. You press a button, listen for the clicking to stop, then pull out the case. Nice way to keep scratches off of the disc. It's kindda cool, but I can see why it wasn't a widely used video format. I prefer R2R over this. Cool thing is you can fit a full movie on one disc, though the quality is not quite what you'd want from a video source. THere are 4 titles for this format that I need to get, that are not available in any other format that I know of. Once I get them, this machine is going to be retired to gather dust in my video museum like closet.

[hech54]

Reminds me of DCC - Digital Compact Cassette...

[Doramius]

We had some of those at my college radio station. The things were awesome. It was easy to use, had excellent sound quality, made editing feel like childs play, and was able to add & remove sounds to different individual tracks. The Tapes were costly and for some reason it didn't make it very big. I think CD's and DVD's shut that unit out. But, dang, it was a quality machine.
I found a site that has some information on a Phillips DCC900 HERE!

This was one of the 4 units the station had, and the one I used most often.

[gshelley61]

CED's were an early competitive alternative to video laserdisc players. Laserdiscs had much better performance both in the video and audio department, and were more reliable. Even though laserdiscs eventually killed CED production, the LD format really never caught on either (except in Japan).

[Doramius]

Japan jumps on everything gizmo and electronic related. Odd thing is, they'd be nowhere near around what they are now, if it wasn't for England, Australia and the U.S. Some people here in the U.S. call them the far west civilization of the east. I still call them Japan.

[gshelley61]

I was fortunate to be able to live in Japan in the early '70's when they were beginning to emerge as a worldwide economic powerhouse. My dad was in the Air Force and we lived on a base just outside of Tokyo for about 4 years. They loved everything American and technology oriented then, too.

[Doramius]

I think they have since the late 1800's. There was a leader who embraced western technology in the early days and pushed it in Japan. The people loved it too and it became their culture seemingly almost overnight. 100 years to become a world leader in technology products is like a grain of sand in an hour glass compared to the amount of time they've been around. However, innovation is in their blood. They were innovative in their ancient history. It's seems like it stalled for a long period of time though.