On a brighter note...

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While making my way through the swap meet earlier this beauty caught my attention while being propped up on box of POGs. Wizard Video's rare 1983 CED of I Spit on your Grave (Day of the Woman) (1978) distributed by Vestron Video. You could tell the seller was a "general" pop culture collector since he had an assortment of junk ranging from back issues of Heavy Metal magazines, sealed Power Ranger figures, Troll dolls, and manga graphic novels.

This disc seemed the only piece of cult film (or CED) "anything" at his table and he immediately exclaimed "Damn, I knew a horror fan would pick this up!" while pointing at my Friday the 13th t-shirt. He then went into a long spiel about wanting to get those behind the film to autograph it at a convention but never getting around to it. At that point, I was afraid to even ask a price with the big deal he made, but upon finally asking, the kingly sum of one whole dollar was reluctantly paid!

Dug out my working CED player for this quick clip...

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Found another CED player...that doesn't work...

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I tell ya, I got a knack for finding CEDs and their players. I have no idea what it is about my area, but I'll be damned if I don't run across this stuff on a semi-regular basis during my swap meet and yard sale escapades. This morning I grabbed another RCA Selectavision SFT100, the first model introduced in 1981, and a few select horror titles for $12. The one pictured is my working SFT100 found in July 2009 for $25. Both very decent prices along with a few other cheap dud players that were salvaged of their removable needle cartridges for reserve purposes (good to keep this in mind, these styli can go for nutty prices on eBay)

CED, or Capacitance Electronic Disc, was an analog video format introduced in 1981 by RCA that utilized a needle stylus and dense vinyl platters for video/audio playback. Basically, the format was the absolute limit of analog medium innovation before the widespread prevalence and obvious advantages of the laser revolutionized both home video and audio forever. The CED format was meant to be cheaper in end consumer cost in comparison to the others, so maybe my ease at finding this stuff reflects my region being populated by bums. Well, at least that's one possibility...

Sadly, the player either has a worn out belt that drives the servo arm along the disc for playback, think a record player's tonearm except motorized, or the arm motor itself has gotten goofy. The belt seems to have extreme difficultly with initially gripping the motor's spinning road but when it finally does the arm mechanism speeds along as if the fast forward button is engaged during what should be standard "Play" mode. I tried to "punch" and jiggle at the FF button to disengage it if that's the issue but there's no change. The rotating platter seems to have no problem spinning up to speed and otherwise the player appears to function properly.

Where I am going with this? Nowhere in in particular. I'm a talkative dork that just loves to overly explain things far past the point of anyone else caring. Plus this might help with this problem eventually and be useful reference in the future. I'm keeping the player for eventual repair or at least parts. The outward comestic condition matches my working deck.

Below are pictures of the odd CED loading system with Halloween II bought with the player. The vertical bar running across the top back of the machine is the servo arm with the white plastic gears and bits on right side (incorrectly) controlling it. The slender black "pull button" with the writing sticker around it on the arm is the stylus holder. You pull that black tab to the right and a latch door opens giving you access to a cream-colored plastic box of the thing containing the needle you can pull out and replace (or plastic bag for safe keeping). Be sure to check to see if it's in there before buying one. Most players have top access door on the cabinet, like this SFT100, that have be popped open without tools to check it.    
                 

cover off, no disc

cartridge fully inserted

cartridge pulled out with disc left in machine ready to play

cartidge re-inserted to retrieve disc after playback

The Perils of Buying Old Decks

[dork]funny pic, but I doubt a Sony SVO unit would eat a tape.[/dork]

Sometimes you just expect certain sellers at swap meets to have broken electronics. You know the types. The unkept fat guy holding an awful looking pizza slice at 8 a.m. in a beat up shaggin' wagon with Emerson DVD players and VCRs in a four foot high leaning stack and giant speakers with the woofers pushed in. The hick parents with three uncontrollable kids with a DVD player that seems splattered with an unidentifiable substance and remote featuring missing buttons. Regular A/V aficionados I'm tellin' ya!

Though this gets to be a crapshoot with some sellers. This morning I ran into a nice older couple with a JVC VCR in immaculate condition for $7. This damn thing looks straight out of the 1992 box, included the instruction manual, and cool LCD-screened remote with jog toggle. It's even made in Japan, people. JAPAN. Yet I'll be fucked if it'll play a tape without getting hungry. Every extraneous blank I threw into it ended up unspooled around every mechanical curve in the machine upon slapping the Eject button in rage. The Rewind command also can't compute, as the left reel remains frozen and the deck shuts down. Fuckin' baby boomers with their powers to destroy perfectly fine electronics yet somehow maintain that new Circuit City scent. I'll keep the remote and manual though, maybe I'll find another (working) JVC to monkey with.

$7 remote...dammit. expecting the screen to read "sucker"...

Next up and much to my surprise, I found another CED player, this time a Montgomery Ward GEN10301 with a corded remote (high tech early '80s!). This one was from one of those shady van dudes, but rain clouds were were looming so he dropped the price to five from ten. It's condition is pretty battle tested, but c'mon for five bucks? I arrive home and plug it in. No power. I open it, bridge the two wires on the power switch, and get green and red lights on the front. Load up a disc and unfortunately an unseen motor inside incessantly buzzes when pressing Play. No spin up or playback, but there is a silver lining. The stylus in this player is the same model found in my working RCA player. I swapped them out and the needle seems fine while playing in the RCA. So it's like I got a back-up stylus (that you could blow several Hamiltons for on eBay) and a dumpster run for $5.

at least it can act as a cat backwarmer

UPDATE: It appears the three belts in the Wards CED player have melted and the buzzing noise is the loading motor trying to lift the spindle up to meet the disc...cool thing is I can order replacements!

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CED Magic Arrives to BoGD!

(images except mine from the uber-interesting, CED Magic)

Opting to go to my regular swap meet haunts instead of traveling out-of-state this morning was a great idea. The very first place I go my little eye spied a CED player resting on a table within minutes of being there, doey eyed as it watched everyone pass it by. It's an RCA SFT-100W, the first CED player produced back in 1981, with a $20 price was taped to the top. After some haggling I got it down to $10. The woman said she was tired of moving it and just wanted to get rid of it. I had the sense of mind to pop the service port off on the top of the unit and check to see if the stylus was there. Intact and the internals that I could see were clean. Still, I bought it figuring it probably wouldn't work, but the rarity of finding one "in-the-flesh" was worth the chance alone. It got rather heavy carrying it back to the car being a hefty twenty pounds.

Arriving home I carefully plugged it in and moved the lever on the right side down to LOAD/UNLOAD. After the simple LED display flashed "88"; the letter "L" began flashing which I can only assume stands for "load". The player only has basic Antenna IN/OUT jacks with a Channel 3/4 switcher on the back. I cleaned the player and hooked it all up. I was so freakin' scared to load a disc not knowing what to expect. I pulled out a so-so disc, Embassy's The Shout, and the player sucked out the vinyl plate and left me with an empty plastic case.

The top plate was off and I could see the disc actually spin up to speed and the display starting counting minutes, but no picture. Stupidly, I forgot to tune to Channel 3 after a long period of checking connections and fumbling in the TV's set-up menus. Finally I got picture and sound! The viewing experience is best described as something like watching a VHS on Laserdisc. It's soft and fuzzy like VHS but little fleeting line drop-outs like the ones seen on LD are present. Of course, I have no idea how much abuse the stylus took in its prior life and disc itself looked smudgy in spots.

I'm unsure how much I'm going to play with it though. I do come across discs from time-to-time (usually in lots) and maybe one day I'll do a "Classic in Obscure Retro" of Wizard's fabled Texas Chainsaw Massacre CED. Yet who knows, all I have to do is run across a buttload of Horror CEDs...hehehe....

"fuck you VHS!!!"

1981 meets DLP.

barely there jack pack

stylus control box and steel platter, you can remove the stylus from the latched top.

Swap Meet Finds

Lady Street Fighter (1985) -- Rare Unicorn Video edition
Seizure (1974)
Alice, Sweet Alice (Communion) (1976) -- sealed, weird art
Raw Force (1982) -- Rare Media edition, this one sounds crazy
The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976) -- Rare Warner edition, last SP version before falling into EP hell via GoodTimes Video.
Troma's War (1988) -- Uncut Media VHS, on DVD, but never seen it and it was only a buck
Slumber Party Massacre II (1987) -- Got it on DVD, but it was a buck
The Night of a Thousand Cats (La noche de los mil gatos) (1972) -- Sadly cover is heavily damaged, tape is mint, no publisher named anywhere.
The Rue Morgue Massacres (El jorobado de la Morgue) (1973) --Rare All Seasons Entertainment big box
Angel of H.E.A.T. (1983) -- Vestron Video CED, amusingly I found this at a church sale amongst inspirational books and tapes.

Inside the doomed format

For the curious, the jet black vinyl disc from Embassy's CED of 1978's Magic starring Anthony Hopkins. Check out the greatest resource for the format found anywhere, CEDMagic.

The Saw on Video Vinyl

Picked up Wizard Video/Vestron's 1983 CED of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre! It's a little nicked up, but it's incredibly hard to find, along with Wizard's VHS, they're the first home video releases of the film. It only was two dollars!

Look what your brother did to the damn door! (click for biggin' as usual)