Cassette Sciences Film Player
- "Cassette Sciences Film Deal Aimed at Home Entertainment. New York
- Cassette Sciencies Corp. has acquired the video-cassette rights to the
extensive film library of the Trans America Film Corp. The exclusive agreement
was negotiated between Gerald Dorfus, president of Cassette Sciences, and C.E.
Feltner, chairman of the Board of Trans America Films. It involves the
exchange of undisclosed amount of cash and Cassette Sciences common stock.
Cassette Sciences plans to select a number of well-known films from the 1,400
titles in the Trans America catalog, and produce them in Super 8 film
cassettes for the home entertainment market. The film cassettes will be
playable in the Cassette-Vision audiovisual system developed by Cassette
Sciences. The player reproduces through the screen of a standard home
television set. The Cassette Sciences/Trans America Films agreement extends
over a seven-year period, and covers, in addition to the full-length features,
more than 1,000 short subjects. As part of the transaction, Cassette Sciences
also purchased outright, all rights to a library of 80 educational films used
primarily by public schools, colleges and libraries. The Cassette-Vision
system which carries a $495 price tag includes the Cassette-Vision player, and
an audio cassette player, both of which are interacted by a remote computer.
According to Dorfuss, both components can function indepentdenly." (Text from
'Billboard' magazine, July 29, vol 84, num 31,197, page 27).
- "Cassette Sciences Bows Film Player. New York - Cassette Sciences Corp.
has developed a home entertainment/education center that utilizes a player for
showing films on a television screen, as well as a terminal that uses the
telephone to bring computer program into the home. The unit, which, according
to Benjamin Zitron, chairman of Cassette Sciences, will become available to
the consumer market by the end of this year, will be produced in both Super 8
mm, and 16 mm formats. Both versions will carry price tags of $495. Zitron
said that both versions of the player will accommodate cassettes or open-reels
in playing lengths of up to 1,200 feet. "This", he added, "would facilitate up
to 60 minutes of programming on a Super 8 cassette, or 33 minutes of
programming on a 16 mm. The Cassette Sciences executive explained that with
the use of an adapter, the units could be made to accommodate 2,000 foot reels,
resulting in playing times of up to 100 minutes for Super 8, or 56 minutes for
16 mm". Many programs for the mass consumer market will be culled from the
2,400 feature and educational film library of Trans America Films, which is
available to Cassettes Sciences. Other applications planned for the system
include home management, marketing, customer services and professional uses.
For these the computer terminals will be utilized. Zitron explained that the
computer terminal unit contained an acoustic cradle for a telephone receiver,
and a 50-key typewriter style keyboard. He said that to contact the computer,
the telephone number of the local Cassette Sciences time-sharing computer must
be dealed. The telephone receiver is then placed on the terminal's cradle, and
a code for the particular computer program is punched into the terminal's
keyboard. Zitron continued, "Once the program is selected, all communications
with the computer are viewed on the television screen. Communications with the
computer are ended by hanging up the telepone". Among the computer programs
that will made available will be family financial planning, income tax
preparation, and golf. The units will be marketed in the U.S. by Direct
Marketing Co. of America, a subsidiary of Beneficial Standard Corp. The
first 12,00 players will be delivered to South African buyers through an
agreement between Cassette Sciences and Cassette Television, PTY of South
Africa." (Text from 'Billboard' magazine, July 07, vol 85, num 27, 1973, page 50).
- US patent 3,836,706 - Fying Spot Scanning System - filed in June
18, 1973 - patented in September 17, 1974. Abstract: "A flying spot scanning
system includes a flying spot scanner arrangement utilizing a multi-facetted
prism, such as an 18-sided prism, for scanning a movie film and producing
color video signals therefrom for display on a conventional color television
receiver. Red, blue, and green photomultiplier tubes in conjunction with a
dichroic mirror arrangement provide the color signals which are gamma
corrected, and phosphor corrected and processed to provide the composite color
video signal. The film preferably contains a separate audio track which is
separately processed and mixed with the color video signal to provide the
composite video signal. The control for the flying spot scanner is provided by
a digital synchronizing generator which utilizes the color burst frequency as
the basic timing reference signal for generating all of the control signals
for the television receiver, the scanner, and the synchronizing signals for
ant external devices, such as a computer terminal and a computer, to lock
these external devices to the scanning of the flying spot scanner, which
digital signals are utilized to directly drive analog circuitry. Specifically,
the digital synchronizing generator generates the vertical sweep drive and the
horizontal sweep drive signals for the cathode ray tube flying spot scanner,
the composite sync, chromo clamp, video clamp, color burst, and composite
blanking signals which are provided to the flying spot scanner and
subsequently to the television receiver in the composite video signal, and the
horizontal sync and vertical sync signals which are utilized for external
control of video so as to lock the external device to the television sweep
provided from the digital synchronizing generator. The audio portion of the
signal is processed through an audio FM modulator utilizing a field effect
transistor to modulate an LC oscillator, the field effect transistor being
utilized as a phase variance circuit. The gamma correction circuitry utilized
in the system is substantially temperature independent. The phosphor
correction circuitry and chroma processing circuitry utilize multi function
elements to increase efficiency."