From: (Neil Wagner) - CED Magic

upon the DAXI code in the vertical interval. The LaserVision unit of
course was optical and sensitive to depth of field issues while the CED
being a mechanical process was seneitive to particulates, etc. The
caddy was responsible for protecting the disc during handling as well as
loading of the disc.
The production process used for the discs was identical to that used for
the old 33 audio discs. Basically, a "puck" was formed by the loaded
plastic and placed into the press. Under a lot of heat and pressure the
puck was formed into the disc, the flash cut off the edges and the disc
placed upon the spindle. This was all done automatically without humans
touching the disc. The stack of discs (all the same title) were then
sent to a holding area where a sample was taken and played upon a
realtime tester. I designed all the circuits for the data acquisition
portion of the tester.
The area that was used for pressing the discs was not at a clean room
level. As I recall it was either class 10,000 or 1,000 environment.
Not much cleaner than a typical home. Handling was the biggest issue
with CED as well as setting the press operating parameters. Low
production costs were a big issue and a modification of the vinyl
process used at RCA records on 30th Street should have been effective in
the long run.
The J line players were refered to as the "features player". These
units had many operational features. Most of you are probably aware.
At the same time that development was underway on this product, RCA and
Hitachi were developing a digital control bus for controlling TV's,
stereos, videodisc, AM/FM receivers, etc. The negotiations for the
standards were going slower than we in player engineering and engineers
at the labs wanted so I suggested an alternative. I believe it was
included in the release. The standard was called MAV which stood for
Multiple Audio Video.
At the same time that videodic was in development, the IBM-PC was
introduced and the Apple II was going full guns. We decided to
implement an RS-232 interface on the MAV port. Basically, the videodisc
player "woke up" in the MAV mode. However, if the device connected to
the videodisc asserted a "break" or an extended space on the line, then
the unit would switch to the RS-232 mode. The commands were ASCII
equivalents for FF, REV, etc. One should be able to communicate with
the port using a PC and the terminal program in Windows or Procomm or
some other communications program. The command sent by the PC will
cause a response by the player. I left RCA before J line was released
or I might have the command set. The commands were one or two letters
and were the obvious combinations for the function that you want. FF for
fast forward, etc. Give it a try but the interface needs to be 0 to 5v
unless the boys put the clamp diode in the input circuit.
Again these "memories" are my best recollections. Lots of good stuff in