burntwolf Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 weird http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2012/03/march-22-1981-rca-selectavision-spins-briefly-into-stores/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enjoytheride Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 i wonder what the video quality of this was like. Wonder if theres videos on youtube about this thing. Never heard of it before Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whitemage Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 I have these of Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings It is basically like a LaserDisc but in a cartridge type case. The video quality sucks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3fingersdown Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 Wow really interesting article, how exactly did these things work? It says through capacitance but that doesn't really compute. I assume these grooves are not like record grooves that mimick waveforms, but more like a CD or DVD pumping out binary information? Either way thanks for the article + pictures, I've literally never heard of these before! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serum7 Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donlombardo Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 I've always wondered if this was a possibility. Now I know thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fattacus Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 Wow really interesting article, how exactly did these things work? It says through capacitance but that doesn't really compute. I assume these grooves are not like record grooves that mimick waveforms, but more like a CD or DVD pumping out binary information? Either way thanks for the article + pictures, I've literally never heard of these before! You're partially correct. The grooves in these discs don't mimic waveforms. Instead, there are pits in the grooves that cause the needle and disc to act as a capacitor when the needle travels over them. This capacitance is then used to generate a FM signal containing the audio and video. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocknroll76 Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 The Salvation Army by me has stacks of these. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burntwolf Posted March 23, 2012 Author Share Posted March 23, 2012 Was this before VHS and Betamax? FM signal had to look like ass Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajxd Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 I disnt read the link, but is this just talking about laser discs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burntwolf Posted March 23, 2012 Author Share Posted March 23, 2012 No Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3fingersdown Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 Wow really interesting article, how exactly did these things work? It says through capacitance but that doesn't really compute. I assume these grooves are not like record grooves that mimick waveforms, but more like a CD or DVD pumping out binary information? Either way thanks for the article + pictures, I've literally never heard of these before! You're partially correct. The grooves in these discs don't mimic waveforms. Instead, there are pits in the grooves that cause the needle and disc to act as a capacitor when the needle travels over them. This capacitance is then used to generate a FM signal containing the audio and video. Ahhh, very cool. I couldn't imagine being one of the engineers for this thing back in the day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
almightyseancore Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 i remember AVGN making a video about these a few years ago. you cant really see the record, because it's inside that plastic case, and is only ever removed inside the machine. i've heard the quality isn't amazing, but it's better than VHS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petgrief Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 I had a video disc player for a few years, along with a hundred or so discs. Picked it up at a thrift store while I was going through my 80s nostalgia freak-out phase. This is arguably the best way to watch Teen Wolf or Caddy Shack. The technology is intriguing, but boy do these things suck. The mechanics inside are incredibly complicated and the machine weighs a ton. They use a motor driving rubber wheels to draw in the entire plastic case, spit the empty case out, load the disc, and start playback. The discs can get skips in them just like LPs, and when it skips the movie jumps around or freezes up. The tiniest amount of dust can cause skipping, which is why they engineered the player to remove the disc from the case for you. There is a stylus that actually does ride in a groove like a turntable. But the grooves are insanely small. You can barely even see them when you look at the disc. Like seancore said, quality is okay... better than VHS but worse than Laserdisc or DVD. It's an interesting curiosity, but that's about it. I really wanted to have one of these hooked up to an early 80s front projection big screen, in a room with nothing made past the late 80s. (Those TVs that had the red, green, and blue lamps out in front, projecting on a screen) Something like a retro entertainment room. But I got married and my wife vetoed the shit out of that idea... EDIT: One of the more interesting discs I had was "Urgh, A Music War" which featured live performances by Dead Kennedys, Echo and the Bunnymen, Gary Numan, and a bunch of other. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
controlthebleeding Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 It's an interesting curiosity, but that's about it. I really wanted to have one of these hooked up to an early 80s front projection big screen, in a room with nothing made past the late 80s. (Those TVs that had the red, green, and blue lamps out in front, projecting on a screen) Something like a retro entertainment room. But I got married and my wife vetoed the shit out of that idea... we had one. it would shoot off the mirror onto the screen. very bulky. we sold it after several years, but we had a videodisc player as well. i hated having to get up and reverse the damn thing like a 7" and it was time consuming to do so, as they just didn't shoot out in seconds. it literally took like a few minutes to do so. we eventually went back to just using the vhs deck because the video quality wasn't really that much better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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