The CED: RCA's Very Late, Very Weird Video Gamble (Pt. 1)

[@erin19030]

CED was my baby. Out of 800 engineers and technicians At RCA Labs, I was the only one who knew how to fix it mechanically and electronically for the first three years of its production.

Share more stuff with us! Stories! :)

[@adelaide7822]

I third the request for more stories. This is such an interesting story.

[@3bydacreekside]

I multiply these requests!

[@RussellNelson]

My ex-wife, Heather Helms, worked on this in Princeton one summer. 1979, I think.

[@DabuDave]

fake news

[@ggendel]

I was an engineer at RCA designing integrated circuits in the late 70s through it's demise in the 80's. When I first heard of the CED push, there were some early entry laser disk systems emerging. Most of us knew right away that the CED was doomed to failure. That said, it was a marvel. The original units didn't have freeze frame,. The latter units accomplished this with a little kicker that would bump the stylus back one groove. The stylus alone had a plethora of patents, the biggest one was it's shape. It was similar to a ship's keel and would keep it's area of contact even as it wore down. I'm not sure if this was the reason for RCA's fall, but it sure was a contributer. Some couple other things that contributed were: * It's wide range of holdings including Banquet Foods and Random House Publishers. Money kept moving around because each of these were cyclic in nature. * It's foray into mainframe computers. They made an IBM clone that ate up capital and got nowhere. * Bad management. Notable was Robert Sarnoff who ran RCA after David Sarnoff. The previous two problems came under his watch. * Bad corporate infrastructure. Everyone talked about the boardroom knock-down drag-outs and the private investigators members hired to get dirt on the others.

[@fixman88]

RCA owned Banquet? I've heard of diversification but man...

[@theannoyedmrfloyd3998]

Its - possessive, no apostrophe It's - contraction for It Is

[@ggendel]

@@theannoyedmrfloyd3998 Thanks for taking the time to read.

[@greggv8]

RCA never licensed a patent, until television. Before they butted heads with Philo Farnsworth they would either buy patents outright or would just go ahead and make the thing and dare the inventor to try and fight their deep pockets. Farnsworth was having none of that. Only after RCA's team they'd tasked with making their version work to prove they had electronic TV first produced a system essentially identical to Farnsworth's, and said that was the only way, did RCA for the first time license a patent. But they had dragged it out long enough they didn't have to pay royalties for long. Farnsworth's own television manufacturing company failed and RCA either claimed or strongly implied they were the inventors of television. See farnovision.com

[@ggendel]

@@greggv8 There were others like Edwin Armstrong that were caught off-guard by David Sarnoff's strong-arm tactics. This was a common theme at the time and the core reason why there is a need have checks on corporate capitalism to prevent runaway greed. We can find the same tactics by the big automobile manufacturers and other industries. Funny how the bad things get lost in the good ones. Without David Sarnoff, there probably wouldn't be public radio or television in the US.

[@wokthedragon]

Wow! I didn't know much of this history and I was one of the last engineers to leave the project. Myself and Tom Sasena designed the equipment that put digital information in the vertical interval and as needed filled the video portion with data. It was to be used for educational and gaming applications. Dungeons and Dragons was one of our customers. After spending another year at RCA New Products Division in Lancaster, PA where we were going to build a PC with a 2 chip set display processor designed at the Princeton Labs, I decided they weren't serious and went to Bell & Howell Columbia Paramount where I designed video tape loading systems.

[@Fopenplop]

Okay THIS is a story that deserves to be told in video form

[@wokthedragon]

To bad we didn't have photos or videos of the mastering area.

[@laughingman4236]

That's awesome

[@longnamedude3947]

Sounds like you have had a interesting life, and have worked with/on some interesting projects

[@alabasterscarf612]

By D&D you mean TSR? I'd heard they dabbled in some video stuff. Like in Dragon Strike.

[@Griffologee]

The most nostalgic part was recounting when the Government used to break up giant, monopolistic corporations.

[@Katherine-wt1oh]

HA! Was that really a thing? Before my time, at least

[@deathdeathrevolution3499]

dont worry, google is the government now

[@SnakesGames]

That's at least three decades before my time.

[@MACTEP_CHOB]

@@deathdeathrevolution3499 Google is god now

[@SinemaSurf]

When google break up another giant -US- it will be more nostalgic.

[@DaveChurchill]

Your video content and production quality rivals any educational TV show I've ever seen. 15-20 years ago to think that this was possible by a single person would have been crazy. Please keep up the amazing content

[@solarstrike33]

Hell, he arguably *surpasses* them.

[@stimpy_thecat]

Kids today have it great. When I was in elementary school we relied on filmstrips and slide projectors as media learning tools. It's probably why I'm so boring today 😂

[@jonothanthrace1530]

@@stimpy_thecat "BEEP The Radio Corporation of BEEP America was creaBEEPted when..."

[@stimpy_thecat]

@@jonothanthrace1530 that's it! How primitive...

[@sebastianelytron8450]

Single person?😂 Dude has a whole team behind him.

[@TechnologyConnections]

Hey! I broke out a new microphone / audio setup for this video! I know there's some more work I need to do to isolate the room acoustics from the mic, but I hope you find the audio to be a little clearer and with less noise! Let me know what you think!

[@KurosakiYukigo]

It is pretty good and clear, but the reverb needs some work, and the s's are pretty sharp.

[@baconcatbug]

IMHO the audio is a straight downgrade.

[@leostechnikkanal]

The aduio is great! In my opinion there is nothing to fix!

[@miawgogo]

Bit echoy and there seems to be a hum, but when that is fixed it will be good. What type of microphone is it?

[@Vitosi4ek1]

The audio just straight up became worse. There's a lot of humming and echoing, almost feels like being recorded on a smartphone mic in a rather large empty room. I'm listening on Logitech gaming headphones, though, it probably won't as noticeable on something cheaper.

[@mon1114]

You have solved a mystery that has bugged me for years. I remember my foster parents having one of these when I was very young, I even remember seeing Back to the Future on it. But I've never met anyone else who had ever heard of or seen this technology. Happy to finally know that I wasn't imagining the whole thing.

[@unnamedchannel1237]

It was all a dream and the government made this video to keep you in the dream Like state

[@J.DeLaPoer]

It was pretty obscure. My grandparents had this system (grandpa was an AV enthusiast) but I've never yet met anyone else who had or heard of it either, outside the internet at least.

[@thesuperpunmaster6369]

@@unnamedchannel1237 yes, and they keep us in a dream like state so we believe Wyoming actually exists

[@forceablepizza764]

i was born in 88 and ive never heard of this tech until today, made worse by the fact that i am a tech

[@lunamooncat7926]

@@thesuperpunmaster6369 that's funny. There is this joke that the German city of Bielefeld doesn't exist and it's basically just a government hoax.

[@seanshea8596]

CED disks were my secret weapon as a Rave Video DJ in the 90s. They could be FF and RWDed without any scan lines which made them SCRATCHABLE. With two of them and some vcrs and a video switcher, I could loop video back and forth.

[@HeartTribe]

That's so cool.

[@BossDrSample]

DUDE as soon as I saw this video i was like 'hmm i wonder if you could scratch these like vinyl'

[@petess10page]

@@BossDrSample they spin at 450rpm, that would be like scratching a CD

[@unchained576]

​@@user-vm9wv4gj9pme too

[@alexhobbs2209]

DUDE, ITS LIKE, PROTO-YTPs!!

[@justpaul899]

Little did I know this humble video would reveal the origin of the Flux Capacitor!

[@nowionlywantatriumph]

Great Scott!

[@RCAvhstape]

Whoa! That's heavy, Doc.

[@carldurrell9943]

If a CED Disc is a Flux Capacitor perhaps reconstructed Deloreans to look like from Back to the Future should have CED player where the y shaped flux capacitor is. A Time Machine with RCA at its Heart❤️~♾~

[@Motrhed289]

I think that was a stretch. Normal capacitors are used in electrical circuits, where we describe electrical flow (the movement of electrons) with volts and amps. Flux is a term that describes a magnetic field's magnitude and direction. Electrical transformers convert current in the wires (amps) into flux in the transformer's core (magnetic field). Many time-travel concepts revolve around bending space-time, which could be done with gravitational or maybe magnetic fields. Thus I've always believed the 'flux capacitor' was a device that stored or accumulated a magnetic field, much like an electrical capacitor stores electrical charge.

[@RedmarKerkhof]

Flux is also what blacksmiths use to prevent oxidation of the metal. I've seen people use WD40 as a way to get the flux deeper into the grooves of the workpiece, thus better capacitating its functioning. WD40 is a flux capacitator.

[@dwreid55]

I thought I'd add a bit of context to this presentation. I was always an early adopter but also poor. Price was a huge part of why people bought these players and disks. At the time, movies, as you pointed out, were selling in the $20 - $30 price range. The same movies on VHS tape were selling for $90 and up. The players were about $530 compared to VHS and Beta decks which were selling in the $900 to $1500 range. So, for the money conscious consumer, it was a better buy for the same picture quality. Add to that, RCA had a HUGE push on to provide a large catalog of content. At one point there was something like 7,000 titles available, including interactive games as well as movies and TV episodes from popular series such as Star Trek. Renting CED disks was about $2 for an overnight rental. RCA also licensed their technology and pushed the players into every major retail store. Sears, JC Penny, Radio Shack, and so forth all sold CED players, often under their own brand names. Were they perfect? No. Not at all. Most of the new disks played well when new. Often with no glitches at all. If not stored properly or mishandled, they quickly deteriorated. But that being said they were a low cost way to enter the "video on demand" world. I later transitioned to LaserDisc because of the improved quality and life of the media but for a poor guy with aspirations of a library of video content of my own, this was a great way to start. I still have a player with autoload and a few of the CED disks around just as a reminder. Thanks for the great presentation!

[@terrafirma9328]

That's nastalgia gold dude. I'd love to own one just for the real flux capacitor feature alone. But I digress, if I did own it, would probably be like eh, whateves, lol🚗

[@Just.Kidding]

Laserdisc doesn't exactly have a long life. They're all in the process of degrading and will be destroyed in an estimated 10-20 years, iirc. This is very unfortunate because laserdisc actually caught on in Japan in a HUGE way, and as such, there are many anime series in danger of becoming (and that already ARE) lost media because they were only printed on laserdisc.

[@DGP406]

''why is youtube recommending this to me? I'll just watch a min or two then move on...'' 23 mins later, here I am craving for more retro tech history

[@hellelujahh]

You're infected. This is your life now. (It's amazing :D )

[@futureshock7425]

Syber-VHS it’s an excellent documentary isn’t it

[@daveshaw9344]

KZbin knows you better then you know yourself

[@ralphjosephacobo8014]

@@daveshaw9344 given how much KZbin I watch, that's kinda scary

[@lazyrmc]

Same here

[@lorencarlin2087]

Got one of these in the late 80's at the local Goodwill. Paid $5.00. Power supply board was shot. Fixed it, then had to go find the disks. They were plentiful. Eventually, gave the machine away and all the disks. Wish I'd kept the crazy thing. Lol!

[@TextileGeorge]

Wish you could find amazing stuff like that at Goodwill these days, everything is so picked over by resellers 😢

[@thomasrussell4674]

I love the thought of technology like this where there's just barely enough to have some players and playable content in the right format left over, just enough for enthusiasts, artists, nerds and collectors.

[@the_hamrat]

"Those wibbly wobbly wibble wobbles" I honestly snorted tea out my nose there

[@Roalethiago]

I wonder how many takes that took lol

[@CptGreedle]

I'm not surprised someone named Nigel was drinking tea and watching videos about outdated media formats.

[@Desmaad]

I take it he's been watching Jay Foreman.

[@the_hamrat]

@@CptGreedle again I snorted tea out my nose at that comment I'm more British than the Queen herself

[@TheZerok666]

At least it wasn't timey wimey stuff

[@phoenixnightowljr.2333]

I remember WORKING on 1 of those players in 1982! I was amazed st the mere fact that it really DID work at all! But it DID work, in full color, & stereo sound, too!

[@nobody8685]

I'm getting my degree in engineering and I can say it's mindblowing. Not impossible, but unexpected. I wouldn't have thought of that in 1982 or earlier.

[@pathynes4835]

@@nobody8685 engineers have been very smart since the roman times. people forget how smart doctors and engineers were in the 1910s and 20s. doctors and engineers were really really smart in the 60s and 70s too. still the most critical yet underrated invention to modern medicine is the MRI machine which was invented around the 60s and 70s. ive become fascinated by local history and the school i work for is a big time engineering schools. we need smart responsible engineers in the futures, not ones who play cleanup for the big irresponsible corporations. all the best!

[@misterquantum9840]

My family owned one of these and we actually were able to rent discs from a local store that had a small selection of titles available for a couple years.

[@electrictroy2010]

Same here. I still have the records; no idea if the player still works (probably not).

[@andracatheduckking257]

@@electrictroy2010 only one way to find out!

[@richardklug822]

Our local Blockbuster rented titles for $2 a night. My father loved new gadgets so he, my brother and I each got a player for Christmas. Dad would also buy discs of titles he liked. We inherited his collection when he passed on. I can't remember a single time when a disc didn't skip or freeze during play back. Eventually all three players broke and we dumped the disc collection at a garage sale.

[@scott8919]

About four or five months ago I was going through a stressful period and I couldn't go to sleep. So I turned on TC and watched video after video to keep my mind occupied and focused on something other than my life. Long story short, listening to Alec explain technology has become my nighttime routine since then, particularly this five-part series. Entertaining but equally soothing. I know. It's weird. But these videos are comforting for me. I decided tonight to join Patreon because it's time I thank him with something other than just views.

[@jacobhargiss3839]

And here I was thinking I was the only one

[@MrKeepsOnTickin]

Same here with me Scott. Let's hang on together, I'm sure things will get better for us! Love you guys ♥️

[@Orincaby]

facts

[@nils9853]

These RCA series is also one of my favorite ones to fall asleep when my mind is restless...

[@pokepija]

I thought I was the only one too. How bizarre

[@dylandreisbach1986]

How is that RCA intro feel so nostalgic even though this is the first time I have ever seen it?

[@Garbongoloid]

I definitely think it was based off of a hymnal that I remember singing in church as a kid

[@travdump209]

Maia Garbett The music is “Promenade” by Modest Mussorgsky.

[@eleithias]

It's an amazing song, very regal.

[@Garbongoloid]

@@travdump209 oh yes!! My dad used to play that on piano!!! That's where I heard it 😆 thank you

[@The2x4]

Probably just a combination of the picture and sound quality, and the style of intro, which together bring up memories of similar intros from childhood memories. On a side note, a family friend had a collection of Roadrunner cartoons on video discs back on the early 90s. Fun memories.

[@RickinBaltimore]

"I hear Channel 62 is good" I see you too are a fan of UHF

[@Raatcharch]

He's a shareholder of U62, no doubt.

[@Christophthegeek]

Oh I’m a fan for life now.

[@fishmonger1526]

Well, they do have it all on UHF

[@psiiota6004]

I love that you put that opportunity in...

[@ccateni28]

Who isn't?

[@sophrapsune]

“...simultaneously a technical marvel and a technical monstrosity”, as was Frankenstein’s monster! This is why I love this channel: a comprehensive, well-communicated exploration of technological history, telling stories of marvellous human innovations that I had no idea existed. And I lived through the 70s and 80s. Great job, thanks. “It’s alive, it’s alive!”

[@masonr1666]

My dad had a video disc player, which he bought with Star Wars. What convinced him to go with the video disc rather than VHS was the video disc had stereo sound, when VHS did not.

[@Bruce_Wayne35]

He probably had a laser disc format. I don't think the CED video disc players had stereo sound capability.

[@No_True_Scotsman]

I agree with the other commentor with the whacky name -- it was probably LaserDisc.

[@PaladinErik]

@@No_True_Scotsman Do you see his nick as "@user-vn8sx8kp4s", because it is strange how I have seen a lot of profile names like that for a while. What is going on?

[@captaintrips2980]

@@Bruce_Wayne35 yes they definitely did. I'm looking right now at red and black RCA phono jacks on mine.

[@Bruce_Wayne35]

@@PaladinErik It's just something KZbin started doing very recently. If you don't choose a nick name, you automatically get assigned one and that's the one they assigned to me.

[@DavidMcCoul]

Say it with me now: “Character encoding schemes of which Morse Code is one”. Exactly what I was going to say!

[@gagekieffer772]

"Morse c- oh."

[@username6a]

I feel like the high production quality of your content is like a super complex layer of irony that we're not quite ready to comprehend yet.

[@gavinisdie]

You mean a super complex joke?

[@SeveralGhost]

@@gavinisdie jokes can be ironic

[@erikhendrickson59]

Obviously it's cuz he recording on vinyl

[@thethirdtype]

My dad worked at RCA on this tech. We had lots of these videos growing up. I've heard really interesting stories about this including the precision required when creating the records.

[@thetechsavvy01]

The fact you could get video out of vinyl is truly incredible

[@HAHb-zc2dp]

Analog is analog kiddo

[@Attmay]

Laserdisc managed to combine the best of both worlds in the moment.

[@grillbuster1519]

TV was analogue signal for many years

[@ynotw57]

General Electric. My favorite wartime general.

[@killerkitten7534]

Mine was always General Mills

[@journeytree]

@@nobodys_winds6580 Y'all never heard of my homie General Nutrition.

[@red2theelectricboogaloo961]

what about general atomics? come on y'all.

[@MorgoUK]

What about the guy from Intelligence? - General Knowledge

[@locke103]

@@killerkitten7534 captain crunch is crying in a corner.

[@Alnakar]

I'd never heard of CED before, so it was absolutely fascinating to get to learn another piece of AV history!

[@ironcito1101]

@Maytemberr You probably mean kzbin.info/www/bejne/faamlaaveLygqpo It's not specifically about CED, but it's included.

[@kriswingert1662]

I used to repair these, along with LaserDisc players.

[@dummptyhummpty]

I remember watching one of these at summer camp in the mid 90's. I thought I had imagined it for the longest time until I saw TechMoan's video on it.

[@markpenrice6253]

Both excellent videos... beat me to the punch with mentioning the Techmoan one at least

[@themoviemaniac8416]

@@kriswingert1662 - I still do....

[@BenGoldNYC]

The guy in the RCA ad is my grandfather!

[@pandakicker1]

Ben Gold Oh! That’s awesome! You look very much like your grandfather! (:

[@fourteencrows1244]

Weird flex.. But ok

[@JasontheFolf]

Cool!

[@F0X_H0UND]

He's my grandfather too.

[@UNPOCOLOCO444]

He’s my grandpa too.

[@derekchristenson5711]

Thank you SO MUCH for making this! I used a CED player as a kid while staying at a lodge deep within the wilds of rural Canada round about 1990, and I thought it was Laserdisc. Nobody I knew owned a Laserdisc player until I realized that the family of a friend of mine were long-time Laserdisc enthusiasts, and I saw them at their house and was very puzzled why they weren't in cartridges. Friends said I must have imagined what I described, even though I have very clear memories of how it operated. But now, I finally know! I was a CED videodisc player!! I didn't imagine it!! EDIT to add that I also remember the skipping caused by disc damage. My viewing experience (Loony Tunes cartoons, IIRC, but cartoons in any case) was exactly what you showed.

[@Yarjka]

I watched all of my movies on this in my early childhood. I don’t remember any skipping issues. We called them “round rounds.” 😁 I’ve always been confused about why no one else seems to know about them.

[@951258tike22]

"a mere 17 YEARS later..." I've said it once and I'll say it again, Technology connections is my favorite because you come for the nerd stuff and get treated to comedy gold as a bonus.

[@bcj842]

I love the opening music. That is from Isao Tomita’s arrangement of Pictures at an Exhibition done on the Moog synthesizer. A fundamental album for someone getting into electronic music.

[@TheScreamingFrog916]

I loved it. Was one of my favorites, back when first released, along with Wendy Carlos, and a few others. I was very excited about electronic music. Now I have a wall of synthesizers, I love to make noise/music with. Life is good 🎶🎹⚡😻

[@bcj842]

@@TheScreamingFrog916 Same. I have made the mistake of cheaping out on the keyboard stand and with 3 tiers she's starting to get pretty wobbly. Had to shim the front feet,

[@TheScreamingFrog916]

@@bcj842 I have started building custom wooden stands and tables, in my garage wood shop, to accommodate my ever expanding synth collection. Desk/laptop synths are piling up on my couch too, LOL. Fun hobby, good times :-)

[@claysweetser4106]

Thanks for pointing this out! I never even knew music like this existed - now I'm going to have to listen to all Isao's music.

[@bcj842]

@@claysweetser4106 So glad you found out! They are nothing short of masterpieces especially for their time.

[@bupsonator]

RCA was once the most powerful company in America... and now their name is slapped on bootleg MP3 players for Dankpods to laugh at

[@Attmay]

Disney, this is your future.

[@KSupes]

fellow Dankpods enjoyer, g'day to you

[@AirDOGGe]

RCA was never the most powerful company in America. They were the most powerful electronics and communications company in America.

[@maxandroverinc.]

@@KSupes I say the same thing

[@commscan314]

@@AirDOGGe That'd probably go to AT&T, they literally had a complete monopoly over telephony in the United States and pretty extensive reach in Canada before Bell Canada's divestiture in 1975 and then the forced divestiture of their US regional operating companies in 1984.

[@alphadawg81]

It made me smile as you played "Murder by Death", a fantastic movie! I'm glad there are others showing appreciation for this classic.

[@SantaCllaws]

This channel has to be one of my most favorites, seriously I’ve spent over 13 years on KZbin now and this man honestly impresses me the most out of just about anyone else I’ve seen, his style is simply perfect, with a blend of ‘fanciness business like’ in the overall setting and a homey feeling which is simply damn impressive. Well done keep these videos coming!

[@matthoward8546]

the kid is good.

[@Attmay]

I'm not even halfway through the video and I'm already impressed.

[@knightcrusader]

UHF movie reference - check Anders Enger Jensen Retro Grooves album - check Review of video player my dad has under his bed at home, quite literally - check Using Star Trek The Motion Picture for examples - check I see why this is my favorite channel

[@nyccollin]

knightcrusader you forgot to mention the nonstop whining and complaining 😂

[@andriypredmyrskyy7791]

Your captions are always amazing. These are wonderful. I'm not hard of hearing, but even for me the cc improves the experience.

[@Snowpanel]

As a non-native speaker, I couldn't agree more!

[@elendiastarman]

Absolutely! As a deaf person, I adore his dedication to excellent captions.

[@rickfeith6372]

I hear great...should I be doing this too? I feel like I'm missing out.

[@BrianJamesTemple]

I received what I've assumed were laserdiscs of the movie The Lion in Winter (one of my faves) a couple years ago as a gag gift. I never bothered sliding the discs out of the hard plastic sleeves as I don't have a laserdisc player. After watching this video I realized what I have aren't laserdiscs at all--turns out I have The Lion in Winter on vinyl video! What a surprise!

[@larkefedifero]

TLIW is about as close you can come to Shakespeare in the modern vernacular! Were they CED's or some other type of video-on-vinyl??!? 😮

[@SpudMackenzie]

Calling the VCR's SelectaVision gives me flashbacks to Microsoft Surface being their large scale touch tech before becoming their tablet line.

[@Clara_Page]

I remember that as well, Microsoft's product naming this century will still be mocked in 50 years time

[@Nadia1989]

Hey, my company bought and loves those Surfaces, they're great for conference calls via Skype

[@looneyburgmusic]

The Surface Pro line is hardly a "tablet"... My Surface Pro 6 is the center piece of my entire audio/visual workstation now...

[@merbst]

Eeew, Micro$oft! *shudders* I switched to FreeBSD / Devian Linux in 2002, and after a decade, I was finally free of the beast!

[@bandombeviews6035]

Matt Erbst that’s so cool, tell me more about your computer operating system

[@JenniferEliseAtchiso]

I had a CED player, it was better quality than VHS and it was stereo!

[@danieldaniels7571]

I have an SGT-200, the first stereo CED player. It was a while until VCRs came out that beat it for sound quality.

[@Perktube1]

Me too. I had a few discs too. Star wars, torn, mash last episode.

[@personperson9591]

Say it with me now!: "character and coding schemes, of which morse code is one" You're a goddamn troll, and I love it!

[@NZIsaacNZ]

Encoding*

[@lowpowerlarry9957]

Character encoding scheme

[@seanshea8596]

I was a rave VJ in the 90's and this system was my Little Secret. At a time when FF and RWD on video tape was blurry and had lines in it the CED was pretty flawless on FF and RWD and on the Still setting. So I was able to loop videos and scratch them like a DJ would with audio vinyl. It was a fantastic system for me at the time. Also most of the titles were Classics so I had a lot of good animated and sci fi titles to choose from

[@milkapeismilky5464]

Eureka!!! I grew up watching an RCA CED at my grandparents! My brother inherited it and we always assumed it was a laserdisc player. BTW, all but one of the 60 movies still play extremely well!

[@KurosakiYukigo]

I get CED's in my thrift shop surprisingly often! Seems some poor saps did buy into the things.

[@stevenjlovelace]

My family did.

[@5roundsrapid263]

My wife remembered this. Her friend’s father actually had one.

[@thatguyontheright1]

My family did and we used them regularly into the early 90s.

[@prufrockrenegade]

I work at a record store and we've had people trying to trade these in surprisingly often lately. After the store's owner looked up what they go for on eBay he wants nothing to do with them anymore though hahaha

[@jasonblalock4429]

@@prufrockrenegade Heh, sounds like a format that bored hipsters would like. Ananchronistically analog and completely pointless, but the media is super-cheap in thrift shops.

[@sinisterthoughts2896]

Bless you for making that U62 reference! I truly feel the world gets just a little better every time someone references UHF.

[@6-stringbender719]

I never knew that this technology existed before this video, such a fascinating piece of equipment!

[@faizanrana2998]

I'm calling BS

[@Punttipate62]

@@faizanrana2998 on what??

[@notavailable9919]

We had literally 200 movies on this, watched them up till the late 90s.

[@KeatonsCarlott]

Bet it worked well too

[@notavailable9919]

@@KeatonsCarlott with a few exceptions, Yes it did! Great quality too.

[@gavinisdie]

Imagine a timeline where this came out before VHS and Beta(max), we'd probably see Vinyl Based Video Game Consoles

[@liyifenn]

@@gavinisdie Not possible after the PS1.

[@gavinisdie]

@@liyifenn ik

[@nothanksguy]

The weird al "UHF" reference made me smile

[@shazib21]

I was wondering if that was the reference, glad someone else saw it too 😊

[@twothreebravo]

It's the reason television was invented

[@dexta32084]

Seems like the CED is a business study in the sunk cost fallacy.

[@KaiserTom]

Perhaps but like he said, RCA had decent reasons for trudging on, in the form of much cheaper manufacturing costs of both the player and the record, which was still much cheaper than VHS at the time despite the changes. While VHS may have been inevitable, it still had a few years so RCA could at least cut their R&D losses of it by still selling something for much higher margins than VHS would be. Better to be out $100 million rather than $200 million on the project, or whatever the costs were. And god knows whether some breakthrough, market or research wise, could have still happened. They accepted the risk, they hedged it against VHS when it came out, the risk went poorly, and yet RCA was still a big name.

[@mariokarter13]

"You all laughed at me, you told me to give up, but guess what, I did it. And just in time to get beaten to the punch by LaserDisc, three years earlier."

[@apetersenALT]

Hey, I'm learning about fallacies in college.

[@JFrameMan]

I would argue there are a lot of technologies like CEDs that had a lot of time invested in them for the sake of being low cost alternatives and they succeeded. Most of the computer industry is like that. CEDs just got unlucky because they took so long to get working, understandably so, and eventually everything else got cheaper too.

[@brettknoss486]

@@JFrameMan I agree that they took to long. I think the other problem was that it was impossible to determine costs because they were unaware that a home video market needed to be invented.

[@Verlisify]

When I hear about old technology being super expensive like $1500 for a VCR I reactively "oof. Who could afford that?" But then I think about how its not much different than high end new emerging technology today. $1000 for your yearly iPhone, thousands for large ultra high definition TVs, etc

[@jones6686]

It's pretty weird to think someday future generations will look back and loudly and deeply "OOF" at the idea of spending so much on a big screen you can't even taste 🤦🏾‍♂️🙄

[@lucifer2b666]

@@jones6686 I mean it's stupid that anyone even buys expensive TVs to begin with. I can't tell the difference really and when I do, I get a headache because it looks like playdough and too hi def and ultra saturated.

[@cessnafun5385]

Well, $1500 in the early to mid 80's was around $6000 in today's money, so in fact, it was way more expensive than anything we buy today that is considered to be excessive.

[@pravda9646]

@@lucifer2b666 well, everyone else can tell :/

[@Darth_Tater69]

@@cessnafun5385 what he's mentioning was 1500 bucks after conversion, not before

[@letsgoOs1002]

Techmoan did a good version of this as well

[@AltimaNEO]

Yeah, it hit me once he used the caddy in the player.

[@bigjaffa02]

Flippin' 'eck

[@cityseby]

When this showed up on my feed I thought it was a new Techmoan video lol

[@C0Ntro11Da7rail]

yes and quite concise though unlike this (maybe) dodnt go into much detail.

[@adriandumay4501]

And the oddity archive

[@MadMamluk88]

0:01 That rendition of Pictures at an Exhibition is a work of beauty.

[@OmnibusRecords-y4y]

I remember playing that song in the 6th grade orchestra

[@rick420buzz]

I remember RCA using 'SelectaVision' branding on their VCRs too. I still remember the tagline "It's not just television, it's SelectaVision!"

[@David-ln8qh]

I keep coming back to this CED video series, it's honestly maybe my favorite thing on youtube.

[@mgabrysSF]

I keep pointing people here when CEDs come up in the (very odd) conversation. Then I get sucked right back into watching the whole thing again. It's so well done.

[@David-ln8qh]

@@mgabrysSF I'm watching it again!

[@David-ln8qh]

I'm back again!

[@HermanVonPetri]

My uncle seemed to have every single electronic gizmo from the 70's and 80's, including one of these. I never knew how expensive they were!

[@danieldaniels7571]

Herman Von Petri at the time of release they were the cheapest video format and were comparatively popular in 1981 & 1982

[@edumaker-alexgibson]

So to achieve retro perfection I need a DeLorean DMC-12 with an onboard CED playing BTTF. Gotcha.

[@edgeeffect]

These videos just get better and better... a perfect mix of information and humour, really well presented.

[@ShakeItLittleTina]

I’ve seen this so many times that I have “Character encoding schemes of which Morse Code is one” memorized down to your exact tone

[@ShakeItLittleTina]

Watched this for the first time in years and my spider sense tingled then before I even knew it I was speaking the line with you

[@J.DeLaPoer]

My grandparents had one of these; I remember watching movies on it as a kid. Grandpa was a home cinema and audio buff, or what passed for one back before that was really a thing I guess, and had every high-end AV system known to man from the 60s up to the early 1990s. I still have some of his old disc players and VCRs in storage, complete with wired remotes!

[@quietcorner293]

Great show! That's the machine I remember as a kid. I was at an electric store owned by a friend of my dad. I remember him showing us a machine where you slid a disc that was in a case into a machine.

[@billhudgens7843]

Thanks for showing the "stylus needle" on the RCA. I never knew that!

[@castromanist]

I stumbled across your channel during the first lock down in Germany, watched every single video and now they're running in the background to soothe my nerves. Thanks for making weird times bearable

[@ValexNihilist]

Love everything about your videos. Your writing, jokes, editing, timing. You put sooo much work into these and it shows. Thanks for the great content on interesting topics

[@stevenjlovelace]

My family had a SelectaVision CED player. I remember renting the discs from our local video store in southern Illinois.

[@claudeabraham2347]

One of my engineering college classmates worked on the RCA development team for the CED player. I haven't seen him in 40 years. If I ever catch up with him, I hope he can enlighten me.

[@luciferbox5577]

I had one of these and it came with quite a few discs when I bought it, namely "Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country", "The Dark Crystal" and "Victor Victoria". It was a different player here in the U.K. but definitely CED, and it was certainly something very different. I do remember that having to turn the disc over during a film was a minor annoyance, but at the time, it seemed pretty cool.

[@Attmay]

*Star Trek VI* came out in the 90s. How could that be on CED?

[@luciferbox5577]

@@Attmay So maybe I made a mistake about Star Trek VI. People do make mistakes. Even you I would imagine. It was a long time ago.

[@vesnea]

6:38 "This phonograph record contains a very long spiral groove with walls that move up and down and all around, and when you put it on a turntable, then put a stylus inside the groove, and give the record a good spin, those *wibbly wobbly* grooves will make the stylus go all *wibbly wobbly* , too. And thanks to the phonograph's cartridge, those *wibbly wobbly wibble wobbles* turn into electrical signals." _immediate like_

[@daexion]

Reminded me of Dr. Who describing time travel.

[@seraaron]

20:12 no matter how far back you go, people will always claim that vinyl is "a little better"

[@DOCTOR_SONG]

Well, it is

[@bennylofgren3208]

Doctor Song ...n’t.

[@Varangian_af_Scaniae]

Vinyl is much better than digital media. Vinyl has soul. But you are a heathen so please go on listen to your mp3 with mass-produced corporate popular music, aka trash.

[@bennylofgren3208]

Varangian af Scaniae That is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. Well okay, it isn’t. But it’s up there. The only “soul” coming from vinyl is the noise from dust, scratches and static. The rest is up to the actual music, and any digital media (with sufficient sampling rate and bit resolution) is superior to old-school analog in quality any day of the week. You can play it a thousand times and make a million copies and they will all sound exactly the same. Do that with a vinyl record and you’ll have worn a hole through it. Anyone listening more to the media carrying the music than the actual music is nothing but a snobbish audiophile. And there is nothing good in that.

[@jackiemu161]

@@Varangian_af_Scaniae Cool opinion, cause that's all it is haha

[@BlackFlagHeathen]

That intro is so comfy. I’ve never actually seen a CED in person in my life, and yet that startup jingle makes me so nostalgic and at home.

[@2bitnerd]

Watching this series again for the 20th time, not just because of the content,but because your delivery and style makes for great ambient noise.

[@comradegarrett1202]

wow wait a second it's like a spinning theremin neat

[@audiodood]

didnt realize that

[@apetersenALT]

3:41 "Actually, before the war, in 1904, what rhymes galore!" LOL

[@Ghosthunt64]

I suspect someone's already mentioned this but the music clip at the start is The Promenade from Isao Tomita's performance of Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. IT'S A REALLY PAINFUL EDIT THOUGH. Squozed an 11/4 peice to fit in 5 4/4 bars, ew...

[@lettersnstuff]

Heard it and immediately was like oh shit is that Tomita? Always had super recognizable tones

[@jamser40]

NO ITS ANIMUSIC

[@dogsandyoga1743]

I have the LP 😚

[@Feorn3665]

Thank you!!!! I was going crazy, I couldn't figure out what that was from.

[@muddro420]

Once I know they used the CED's marketing for the VCR, I think that tells me that they probably saw the writing on the wall. It seems they maybe realized CED may not work out, but they had so much in it that they wanted to launch it and try and recoup some of the investment. It's also possible they saw these as different products with different purposes, where one of them seems made to record something and rewatch it, while the other would presumably present a prepackaged film at higher quality.

[@mgabrysSF]

Not really - tapes to reproduce were INSANELY expensive. Rental shops paid 90 and over 100 80s dollars per-tape (over 400 today). To rent a movie was 5 bucks a tape. CED cost 20 bucks to buy, 3 bucks to rent (or less). It was a great deal for the time before pre-recorded movies on tape came down and that didn't happen for another 4 years after CED perished. (1988, but really didn't get cheap until the 90s). Tape still required an array of recorders to make the while thing work. While CED just needed to press discs from a plant in Indiana by the score. In fact that's why the VHD CED system in Japan lingered well into the 90s. Cost.

[@ramzagtzo]

RCA: "Trust no one. Not even yourself." *insert meme of guy pointing the gun at himself*

[@ihartmacz]

This is the video I've wanted since your Closed Captioning video. It's great!

[@BlueNeon81]

And in mid 70s, there was TED in Germany, 15 mins flexi discs.

[@sebastianelytron8450]

Tell us more!

[@ChristianKoehler77]

We were thinking the same just at the same time. I have written a comment (see above) with some additional information on TED.

[@Markle2k]

Oh dear, now you've escalated the EBay bidding war between TC and Techmoan over obsolete technology.

[@moconnell663]

@@Markle2k Twice now I have very-quickly listed obsolete tech on eBay to capitalize on the nostalgia-fever sparked by videos those two have released! My laserdisc player went pretty quickly.

[@crashbandicoot4everr]

Yes. Watch the demonstration by the Databits channel here on youtube.

[@TheSmokeofAnubis]

I love it how I'm often left gobsmacked at the level of ingenuity and inventive discovery when looking back at things like this! The miniscule grooves that get read by a titanium stylus.. still blows my mind. Great video!

[@cessnaace]

I bought two new CED players back in the early 80's, and I can tell you that even brand new discs had the same playback problem, newly un-shrink wrapped. I had bought an RCA SelectaVision VET-650 VHS VCR new as well ($1,500). I also adopted the LaserDisc format, but not until 1984. For the 'record,' the VHD VideoDisc format, created by JVC (and released only in Japan) was another capacitance format that was superior to RCA's CED format. In fact most of my VHD discs still play fine.

[@Vamosalabaralrey]

I wish I was around 1984

[@captc502]

I love this damn channel. I feel like I am getting a history and mini physics lesson in one! And I love how it is catering to someone with no tech knowledge like me and probably engineers within the cloud who would understand the significance of these wavelengths. Please keep making more!

[@teknowil]

18:11 great scott! a flux capacitor!

[@heckell4181]

Bird likes your videos. A unique style and enjoyable personality. Great explanations. Stimulating yet relaxing. No obnoxious music. Very nice. Even subjects I know about aren't just rehashed, always a new bit of info to learn. Entertaining. Your parent's microwave was a bit depressing since I'm reminded we can't get nice stuff anymore. EDIT: I had that exact RCA cassette machine. Funny, I don't feel old. I still want to know, who is that stranger in the bathroom mirror. I also had to eplain to my wife how she ruined a new movie cassette putting it on the electric cord.

[@jamielee8991]

I’ve recently found your channel and have been catching up on your videos. I like the references that you use. The one that caught my attention in this on was UHF 62, Wheel Of Fish was one of my favorites

[@RhayaderGoesToTown]

I love how you put context into explaining a technology. It's super interesting. And also, wibbly wobbely wobble.

[@robertsyrett1992]

Am I a weirdo for wanting to see more of the CED glitching out? This is some unique glitchiness that I have not seen before, a delicate combination of analog and digital crust.

[@vcolinc]

Agreed, and the color looked warmer on the CED compared to the laserdisc

[@ebinrock]

You could make an avant garde art video out of glitches and snow.

[@vcolinc]

@Trey Stephens When were you thinking about getting CED? Now or in the early eighties? 😀

[@ohger1]

I sold those when they came out in 1981. The cartridges were a bit finicky and fragile but the machines themselves were bullet proof. If you find one today, you might find the rubber belts have gone gooey but the cartridge is the item most likely to cause a playback problem. Unfortunately, cartridges are impossible to find nowadays. EDIT: blems in the discs was actually fairly common back when these were new. We had about a 5% exchange rate on new discs, but most discs had an occasional blip here and there. Most customers loved the CED format and understood most discs had occasional blips and didn't complain about a brief playback glitch.

[@-dazz-]

Love the little easter eggs in the subtitles. "Capacitavely smooth jazz" @ 22:27. LOL

[@veradalton5960]

Thanks to your video series on the CED, I knew what I was looking at when I found one at a yard sale this weekend. Ended up with an SFT100 player and 67 discs for $25. Very cool to own a piece of oft-forgotten video history!

[@alloutofbubblegum8165]

My aunt purchased something like three or four of those machines back in the early 80's from a place called Tom Peterson's (Wake up! Wake up!) Plus she had almost the whole library that went along with them. After that she moved on over to VHS tapes, having a library of hundreds movies before she passed away. I think she had Disney's complete catalog at one point.

[@KidultTV]

DUDE i have been watching this channel for atleast 9 months and i have to say i love this i learn so much about all kinds of old tech i always wondered how it worked, also ur kookie personality and nerdy ways make me feel good about learning, great job brother, cant wait to check out the TECHNOLOGY CONTEXTRAS TOO!!

[@zipbangcrash]

My grandparents had a first gen VCR (I think it was a Magnavox top loader, though) and it worked like new until their deaths in the early 2010s. That thing was a beast! I loved the feel of operating it. So delightfully tactile and satisfying! I wonder what happened to that machine... I should ask my mom. 🤔

[@ketonicdude]

Excellent video. You've done a lot of research on the topic and it shows. You might want to give your styus a good cleaning. I host an annual CED Videodisc workshop in Indianapolis where we teach how to repair players. You should come some time.

[@nyccollin]

Josh Gibson He'd probably complain the whole time just like he did in the video. I don't think you'd want him there.

[@VoidHalo]

There's a big difference between complaining, and constructive criticism. People who complain don't generally produce valid points to back up what they say.

[@danieldaniels7571]

I would love to come! I only have one player now, but used to have several, and have a very impressive collection of discs.

[@eponymous_graphics]

Gen X here. Watched all the way through. I remember having a dinner at my uncles house back in the early 80s for a movie night; it was a big deal to go over and watch a motion picture movie (saw "popeye" with robin williams on channel z and Creature from the Black lagoon in 3D hosted by mistress of the dark all at family gatherings). We saw "Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind" on one of these discs as I remember my uncle having to do the flip over routine and it did snag in play (skip) but only early in the movie and only once. I remember that specifically 'cause all the adults jump on it (the moment) at the time it skipped. Great series. Moving on to part II. thumbs up.

[@mgabrysSF]

discs - at the time - usually only skipped if stored flat - and even a dust intrusion could be 'unjammed' with a simple fast forward before playing (which we did with rentals as habit). The nice thing about CEDs is we could rent them and transfer them to VHS - which meant we got a large movie library pretty fast with the CED matching the VHS output (at the time before SVHS showed up).

[@username-tv6uw]

"1904 what rhymes galore" is the reason I subscribed and absolutely love this channel.

[@TYSofficial]

Thank you for breaking my habit of calling VCR's, VHS Players 😂

[@kutsumiru]

"Character encoding schemes of which morse code is one" I love this channel

[@williamreid6255]

Fun fact: That’s how the Titanic sent out her SOS signals! And, after seeing the masterpiece of a movie from our friend James Cameron, I decided to teach myself Morse code!

[@Mysteri0usChannel]

Imagine an alternate reality in which, somehow, the CED was released in 1972, with about 2 hours worth of film on it, both sides combined. CDs, DVDs, Blu-Rays and HDDs would've been invented MUCH earlier.

[@drewgehringer7813]

HDDs already existed; the IBM 305 'RAMAC' was released in 1956, the idea of keeping data on a stack of rigid magnetic disks is surprisingly old.

[@fluxoff]

'Imagine' was already published, too.

[@TheRarenth]

This is one of your best videos, I'd love to see more big long-form documentary style stuff like this from you someday. I totally get that's a huge ask and a huge timesink and it's no-effort november but dang you pulled it off

[@FrankKlawuhn]

Video starts with a tune from Isao Tomita Picture at an exhibition😍 I am hooked!

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

Thay was what RCA thought would work for a suitable intro.

[@Cubelightfilms]

@@ChristopherSobieniak And it worked. I remember that intro well.

[@mspysu79]

Yes, Tomita was an RCA recording artist, so it was just a short conversation with the folks at RCA records classical division to get the piece. RCA later had it's own "CED fanfare" with a different animation.

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

@@mspysu79 Yep, I found a copy of "The Tomita Planets" at a thrift store under RCA's label. It was a convenience for then to use it then!

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

@@spacemoose4671 Going further, Tomita also visited the suite for Osamu Tezuka's 1966 animated film of the same name.... kzbin.info/www/bejne/qJ-7cpyebtB1Zq8

[@AliHSyed]

"... character encoding scheme of which Morse code was one.." rolls right off the tongue

[@prfo5554]

I just found a book at my local library about the history RCA CED format while shelf reading. It is titled RCA & The VideoDisc: The Business of Research and is written by Margaret B.W. Graham.

[@RussellNelson]

Yes, he cites that book at the end.

[@andrewhanson1180]

Very wholesome content. This reminds me of something I could catch on TV when I was younger.