From: (Neil Wagner) - CED Magic

Subject: Re: CED Magic Update
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 1997 04:04:27 GMT
On Sat, 11 Jan 1997, Tom Howe wrote
to the CED mailing list:
> The CED Title Database has also been fully linked to
> the Internet Movie Database. The site URL is:
> http://www.teleport.com/~ceds/selectavision.html
Hey, Tom, this sounds great. I'm off to check it out.
Neil - nw@ix.netcom.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: (Neil Wagner)
To: ceds@teleport.com
Subject: Videodisc History, Part 7
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 1997 04:04:31 GMT
Here's a big one. A full two page article with photos and cutaway
diagrams from the July 1980 Popular Science. (Sorry, I don't have
the capability to reproduce the pictures on the computer.)
Optical vs. mechanical:
the coming battle of the
VIDEO-DISC PLAYERS
Several incompatible disc machines will
tease the eager buyer next year.
--------------------------------------by
John Free
If you're confused by ads citing advantages of one video-*tape*
machine over an incompatible competitor, brace yourself. More
befuddlement is brewing. Early next year, makers of two--and perhaps
three--mutually incompatible video-*disc* players will each be
shouting the virtues of their products while cleverly knocking the
others.
Battle lines between two differing disc technologies took shape in
the early 1970's with demonstrations of early lab prototypes. Despite
attempts at standardization, the lines hardened for two types of disc
players. Optical, involving touchless disc playback with a laser
beam, and mechanical systems, requiring contact between the disc and
pickup stylus.
Proponents of the mechanical system point out the basic simplicity
of their approach and its low costs for mass marketing. Those favoring
optical systems stress the no-wear advantages of laser-beam
playback. (Lasers last over 10,000 hours.) Proponents of the optical