"Walk path"? What in the heck is a "walk path"?! I remember when Simba was serviced by trams... but the wait could be up to 15 minutes, so it hardly seemed worth it!
Great post, VDT -- I love the 1984 movies booklet! I think it was '82 or '83 when I eagerly plunked down $98 for a Beta Alice in Wonderland at DL's Emporium. They had 3 (count 'em, three!) copies on display, on a high shelf behind the register in the southeast corner of the store. That was the only trip to DL when I didn't mind going home -- I could hardly wait to pop it in the Betamax and revel in the 250-scan-line goodness! (Anyone remember the Channel in those days, when you got all the vintage Disney you could tape, with no burned-in corner logo or lower-third promos? *sigh* ) :)
CED's? I don't know anything about them. They were movies played on a disk with a needle? Wow, that sounds so kooky. How is the picture quality? You know those disks would wear out and get scratches just like an LP. I want to learn more about those!
Progressland, calling it a “walk path” is a bit of an over statement on Disney’s part. It’s more like a “service path” between the parking lot and the hotels, most of it you are just walking thru the parking lot or on a service road, bad show….
Mr. Wiggins, $98 for Alice, amazing isn’t it. I have a $100 Dumbo VHS myself; at least it came in a nice plastic container!
Major; CED’s are great fun to collect; I have almost all of them. My entire linen closet is a CED library! Quality, well, I would rate it just slightly higher than VHS, lower than Beta or LaserDisc. It does support stereo, and that’s a few years before VHS did.
They do have a groove, actually 9,500 grooves per inch; Sound LP’s have a few hundred per inch. However, the “top” groove on the CED is actually a clear “smooth” groove. The “needle” glides in this groove just to keep it aligned with the “data” groove layer below it. The “Data” layer is similar to an LP’s groves, recording sound thru vibrations that vary as peaks and valleys in the groove. In the CED, the sounds and video are encoded in the same way, just much smaller and protected by the smooth “top” groove layer.
As the needle glides thru the clear smooth groove, it measures “capacitance” of the data groove below the clear layer. Essentially, it measures the peaks and valleys in the data groove. It does not use vinyl for this process; the “data layer” is carbon-loaded, thereby creating a conductive layer to measure the “capacitance” of the groove. This varying capacitance is then converted (analog style) to an Image and Picture.
It’s pretty amazing machine. I am surprise it even worked given the 1970’s technology. As far a s wear, they are supposed good for over 1,000 plays since the needle just glides thru a smooth groove. When they do wear, they tend to “skip” like an old LP. Dust is the main culprit for skipping. These disc are kept in a hard plastic case, you insert the whole case into the machine and then pull out just the case as the “CED” disc itself stays in the machine, You never actually see the disc.
It’s failed of course for a couple of reasons. #1 you cannot record and VHS/Beta could and they had been on the scene already for a few years. #2, manufacturing the CED disks was difficult and costly. 9,500 grooves per inch and the “top” layer are both tricky to manufacture in large quantities. By the time they had the process down, the war was over, VHS won.
Please check out this website, it’s a great source on CED’s:
http://www.cedmagic.com/home/cedfaq.html
Thursday, 20 March, 2008
Today's post is something a little different and not a ticket, but it is becoming Vintage.
This is a little booklet full of Walt Disney's Home Video selections from 1983/84. Most title's are available on VHS and Beta, also select titles available on Laser Videodisc and CED Videodisc. I collect 3 of these 4 formats (sorry Beta) with CED being my favorite.
CED (or Select-a-vision) disc's are 12" disc's that play Video and Sound, these are not laser disc's, the players have a micro needle and the disc's have a groove. They are like audio 33rpm LP's except they play at 450rpm's and have 10,000 groove's per inch, they are from 1980 thru 1984, but I digress. (If your interested in CED's check out this web site - CEDMagic.com)
I've posted the front cover and a few select pages of the movie booklet. The entire booklet can be downloaded here:
My work brought me within 3 miles of Disneyland yesterday so I just HAD to stop in and ride Pirates of the Caribbean for its 41st birthday. I guess about 50,000 other people had that idea too!! These are cell phone pictures, pardon the low quality.
[Image] Awesome weather at the park, does Disney order it that way?
Here's a warning for you, avoid the Simba Parking Lot! Unless you like to walk A LOT! I was in the far corner of this lot (in Buena Park I think) and they make you walk around the Paradise Hotel and thru Downtown Disney to get to the park. Not too bad on the way in, but OUCH my feet hurt on the way out!
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Close this window Jump to comment form"Walk path"? What in the heck is a "walk path"?! I remember when Simba was serviced by trams... but the wait could be up to 15 minutes, so it hardly seemed worth it!
Wednesday, 19 March, 2008
Great post, VDT -- I love the 1984 movies booklet! I think it was '82 or '83 when I eagerly plunked down $98 for a Beta Alice in Wonderland at DL's Emporium. They had 3 (count 'em, three!) copies on display, on a high shelf behind the register in the southeast corner of the store. That was the only trip to DL when I didn't mind going home -- I could hardly wait to pop it in the Betamax and revel in the 250-scan-line goodness! (Anyone remember the Channel in those days, when you got all the vintage Disney you could tape, with no burned-in corner logo or lower-third promos? *sigh* )
:)
Thursday, 20 March, 2008
CED's? I don't know anything about them. They were movies played on a disk with a needle? Wow, that sounds so kooky. How is the picture quality? You know those disks would wear out and get scratches just like an LP. I want to learn more about those!
Thursday, 20 March, 2008
Progressland, calling it a “walk path” is a bit of an over statement on Disney’s part. It’s more like a “service path” between the parking lot and the hotels, most of it you are just walking thru the parking lot or on a service road, bad show….
Mr. Wiggins, $98 for Alice, amazing isn’t it. I have a $100 Dumbo VHS myself; at least it came in a nice plastic container!
Major; CED’s are great fun to collect; I have almost all of them. My entire linen closet is a CED library! Quality, well, I would rate it just slightly higher than VHS, lower than Beta or LaserDisc. It does support stereo, and that’s a few years before VHS did.
They do have a groove, actually 9,500 grooves per inch; Sound LP’s have a few hundred per inch. However, the “top” groove on the CED is actually a clear “smooth” groove. The “needle” glides in this groove just to keep it aligned with the “data” groove layer below it. The “Data” layer is similar to an LP’s groves, recording sound thru vibrations that vary as peaks and valleys in the groove. In the CED, the sounds and video are encoded in the same way, just much smaller and protected by the smooth “top” groove layer.
As the needle glides thru the clear smooth groove, it measures “capacitance” of the data groove below the clear layer. Essentially, it measures the peaks and valleys in the data groove. It does not use vinyl for this process; the “data layer” is carbon-loaded, thereby creating a conductive layer to measure the “capacitance” of the groove. This varying capacitance is then converted (analog style) to an Image and Picture.
It’s pretty amazing machine. I am surprise it even worked given the 1970’s technology. As far a s wear, they are supposed good for over 1,000 plays since the needle just glides thru a smooth groove. When they do wear, they tend to “skip” like an old LP. Dust is the main culprit for skipping. These disc are kept in a hard plastic case, you insert the whole case into the machine and then pull out just the case as the “CED” disc itself stays in the machine, You never actually see the disc.
It’s failed of course for a couple of reasons. #1 you cannot record and VHS/Beta could and they had been on the scene already for a few years. #2, manufacturing the CED disks was difficult and costly. 9,500 grooves per inch and the “top” layer are both tricky to manufacture in large quantities. By the time they had the process down, the war was over, VHS won.
Please check out this website, it’s a great source on CED’s:
http://www.cedmagic.com/home/cedfaq.html
Thursday, 20 March, 2008