Posted by M.I.5� on 01/05/07 08:11

"JoeBloe" <joebloe@thebarattheendoftheuniverse.org> wrote in message
news:gparp2t4rbmfg2952ucgiqcq4853263cc5@4ax.com...
> On Thu, 04 Jan 2007 10:05:13 -0600, chrisv <chrisv@nospam.invalid>
> Gave us:
>
>>JoeBloe wrote:
>>
>>>LD is too huge, too bulky, and it presents the hardware designers
>>>with too many technical hurdles to make good gear for it. The wobble
>>>at the edge of a twelve inch platter can be huge.
>>
>>Too bad that the market didn't go for the "needle and groove" video
>>disk that RCA tried to make work, eh?
>>
>
> That's not what it was.
>
> It was a capacitive pick up stylus. No needle at all. No groove.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SelectaVision

The 'needle' is just a synonym for a 'stylus' left over from the 78 era.
Selectavision used a stylus riding in a grove. The stylus was long enough
that it only travelled along the crests of the undulations in the grove. It
read those undulations, as you note, capacitively.

So it had a grove and it had a needle or stylus. Its just that the stylus
didn't look anything like what most people would recognise as a needle.

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