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."