I was the Chief service tech on this item at RCA. This device was actually a very good video entertainment device. Color and video was top notch , way beyond what off air Tv offered. It was a simple player operated with digital devices, way ahead of its time. The player was overpriced, $500 was an exhorbitent price to pay for video playback. If you liked vinyl you would have loved this disc player.
I grew up with this player, and desperately wish I still had a working one. At one point, my father had actually bought out the entire stock of a store that was liquidating at the end of the product line's life, so there are around 400 of them still in my grandparents' basement.
As someone who is obsessed with vinyl and think it's over all the best format of music, I would love to get a hold of one of these players and some of the discs someday. Signed, someone who is currently obsessed with mini portable TVs and figuring out a way to use them in today's day and age just for funsies
Hey my commercial was featured here! Fun Fact: It was recorded on a Toshiba V-S36 Betamax HiFi in 1983 using a radio station simulcast (the recorder had a Simulcast switch). The TV show was "Goodnight L.A." from KABC-TV, and the radio station was KLOS, both in Los Angeles. Goodnight L.A. was a local MTV videos show that featured stereo audio via the radio station. Same as NBC's Friday Night Video's, which I also have uploaded on my channel, also using the same stereo split.
Trust me- you will fall in love with this format if you find a good player with stereo. The sound quality is surprisingly good (it uses CX noise reduction which was also on the analog tracks of laserdiscs). Skipping isn't always permanent, often playing the skipping segment over and over will get rid of the skip. It definitely requires a lot of patience and tolerance to appreciate CED, but that's why I love it!
why watch a movie in a format that skips just for the sake of watching it when you could watch the movie quite easily for free online? I will never understand this idea.
@@scottziegler4238 I have parts of the stereo demo disc uploaded here, also “Eroticise” (which has gotten more views than anything else I’ve uploaded) is from a stereo CED.
Like 5 years ago, I came across a good lot of 3 CED players (All working), and about 100 movies (I think 150 discs) for $50, and then a couple weeks later, for $5 I grabbed 20 more movies at another yard sale. Havent seen any since. Busted the rear shocks in my car getting em home. All the players still work, and have remade needles in them. Why did I get them? Nostalgia...we had a CED player when I was a wee lad. Laserdisc is my preferred retro format though One of the issues with CED stems from improper storage. People instinctively stack them which is something you should NOT do. Stacking them can cause the grooves to flatten under the weight, it's the same with LPs actually. Flat discs will skip, freeze or get video virus (CED's laser rot.)
I still have mine . I own 3 players . The original SGT-100 , the SJT 100 and the premium model The SKT 400 . They all work great . The picture quality is pretty much an equivalent to VHS . I also own about 300 discs. Most of them I purchased as New Old Stock. The others were from private one owner collections hence, they were not played very much resulting in very good quality play. The first model I bought as a kid in the 1980's . I was told by the eager salesman that CED's were the wave of the future, Sadly , this was NOT the case. VHS took over and that was the end of that. I still use use them and enjoy them . My friends are baffled by them which in itself is entertainment in itself . Thanks for the post !
The look on people's faces when they see a completely analog player is priceless! They can't believe a record could play video. I own a humble RCA SFT 100, the basic end of the line and I love it! And despite being a LD junkie, I love the quaint feel and even working on the player (oiling, belt replacement, gear and needle fix) it's a format that was truly ahead of it's time and had the VCR not been available at the time, it would have been a lot more successful.
The memories of CED I have was watching at a friend's house his copy of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" with the stereo audio out of his Selectavision ran LOUD though his 100 watt system. It sounded awesome. And my Jr. College in 1981 bought a bunch of classic movies (Casablanca, a lot of James Bond, MASH) and players for our dormitory TV rooms for us students to enjoy. In about two semesters most of the discs were worn out from of the many times we played them. All the reliability problems this system had did this format in.
RCA lost a lot more than $600 million, they went bankrupt in 1986. Anything produced after 1986 with a RCA name badge was made by another manufacture as RCA was parted off and sold.
Your player is higher end than mine was; it had the eject/pause/play lever on the left and was fully mechanical. Yours has an automated eject button. The canonical lowest-end CED player is the Zenith VP2000 (as mine was) aka the RCA SFT100. Truly low end required you to shove the caddy in yourself and then yank it out and a lever in the back was supposed to latch onto the caddy and keep it inside. (Older players often this stops working and you have to go in and apply some grease to fix it, as I did on mine.) The problems you're having with yours loading probably has to do with the automatic loading going flaky. It's only 40 years old, damn yo.
It's interesting you mentioned Monty Python & The Meaning Of Life in this video Ben. About a decade ago? I was in a local second hand shop and got a pre-owned copy of that very film on the CED format for my dad. And mainly to display since the store had a player that looked very similar to the one you have. But it was $40 and was way too expensive for me at the time.
When I was in 2nd grade (1982-1983), we watched "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" in the gym on CED. There were several other times throughout primary school that we watched movies too, and it was always on CED. 6th grade (1986-1987) was the first time we watched a movie at school on VHS ("The Outsiders").
My dad had one of these, most likely purchased when the players went on clearance in 1984. We had a whole stack of discs because by 1986, people were practically giving them away. Eventually it stopped working (probably a bad belt or stylus) and my dad got rid of it. I was always fascinated by that thing, though I didn't find out how it actually worked until much, much later.
Thanks for making this video. I first learned about CED players when I was reading the wiki entry for Urgh! A music war, and it absolutely fascinated me. It actually makes me a little sad that it became a dead end format, but there you go. Thanks again!
For end of 60s would have been ground breaking, for early 70, still ok, for 1981 ? this concept was died. RCA managment failed miserably, you got the idea, GO FOR IT ... NOW, they spent so many years to approach the final concept that ended spoiling the effort. VCR was superior but also very complex by the time it was released. CED machine and mass produced discs were cheaper and RCA bussines was CLEARLY being a film distributor for home consumers, like it did with music, thus, holding a good amount of money from selling titles. The player was not the real deal form them. Just the tool to leverage the bussines.
Our family was a fan of it until the VCRs, tapes and particularly tape rentals came down in price - as you noted - and remember this was when 20 dollars in 1981 was worth over 60 today (meaning that 80 dollar tape was over 250.00 today - hence why rentals were more common until the very late 80s / 1990s). When we got our first player it was less than 1/3 the price of a VCR, and the movies were 1/5 (or less) the price of buying a pre-recorded film on tape. Rentals were less than 1/3 price. This was all before cable became widespread in our area so it fell right into a nice niche for about 4 years for us including providing stereo support on video (also rare in either broadcast, cable or even tape). If it'd come out in the 70s it might have caught on, but the finite shelf-life of the discs themselves with that silicone lubricant wasn't going to make a movie copy last forever by any stretch (until they came up with another method / formulation). *also laserdisc players were insanely expensive - around 1200-1800 - I never knew anyone who had one until those had a resurgence in the early 90s when those came down in price and were combined with CD player mechanisms. **another fun bit of CED lore - RCA scored a 1 year exclusive on Star Wars (their first stereo release too if I'm not mistaken) ahead of it's release on VHS/Beta. So for a year our household played host to many 'Star Wars' viewing parties.
Thank you very much for a great series of videos on forgotten objects and programs from the past. I have a suggestion for an episode or series if you think it would be a good idea. I wonder what your thoughts are on cartoons that have been redrawn and filmed in color. This happened in the late 1960s to early 1970s where Warner Brothers, NTA and in the 1980s Ted Turner sent copies of popular black and white cartoons to Korea to be redone in color. I have found these fascinating since I was a child and I just would love to have a video of you detailing the history of them, cartoons with glaring retracing errors (A Coy Decoy, Porky's Road Race, and most of the series contracted by Radio and TV Packagers) and ones that were actually quite well remade (The Case of the Stuttering Pig, most of the Betty Boop series). I would love to hear your thoughts on the redrawn color reissued cartoons.
22:38 - Or find out too late it's.... porno..... graaaaphic!! I wasn't hearing that wrong, was I? Was THAT a reason we needed a CED player at home? Dang, Ben better get with that promised part 2 in the next 5 years!
+DanZero77 I think they meant they saw that Debbie Does Dallas was playing at the local Bijou, and they thought it would be a Football movie, but when they sat down they saw the infamous shower scene...
back when parents monitored and cared about the movies their kids went to; it was not uncommon for parents to attend a film first to ensure it was suitable for their family. Those that didn't risked having to walk out if the film got too risque...there was nudity in even PG films for a number of years.
CED's were a novel idea but in execution they were lacking. I have some experience with them from working at a local university and cleaning out their a/v gear in the drama department to reclaim one of the storage rooms for new computers. Like Ben said in this video they are a pain in the ass to load and play back quality is horrendous.
I have an auto-load player. Every couple of months I'll drag one of these out for fun. It's usually not a rewarding experience. A Who disc I have was doing some serious skipping and scrambling - taking the disc out and wiping it down with tap water appeared to solve this. Odd. I WANT that Let it Be disc. I have no idea why. My SJT-200 has started doing that loading BS as well. I had to push it in as you demonstrate here.
I've got the SGT-200 Stereo CED Player (ca. 1982) like at 2:55 in your video. I bought it used in 2007 at a flea market for $75. Still works. It's just in my Dad's basement at the moment, with no where to (easily) plug it in where I'm living now. I remembe when CED first came out in March 1981.
Also, love the memory of the two openings; "Pictures at an Exhibition" (the one shown with your good movie at the end), and RCA's in house music one from earlier.
I just saw Ben's SNES and Genesis. I expect a video on your collection for both consoles. Perhaps you could cover some of the "oddities" in each system's library? :P
the loading issue is likely due to extra physical resistance in the load drive mechanism causing higher current in the motor, which the drive mechanism recognises as it having stopped at the end of the travel and hence reverses the load. Its REALLY common in a lot of load mechanisms and not that hard to fix
Omg thank you so much I haven't checked your channel in a while but I happened to have some curious it's about CEDs recently and this was like the best coincidence to come back to after checking your channel for the first time in almost two months
A successful product is one that solves a problem that everyone has. "Has this ever happened to you?!?!" VCRs were a solution for every household with a TV; how to time shift. With a VCR you could record when you weren't home, you could record something while watching something else, you could rewatch something over and over again. It was the first DVR. IMHO, the technological shortcomings of CED are overplayed. It failed simply because the idea of renting or purchasing titles for one's home video library didn't exist and that isn't how VCRs were originally marketed. That's why it isn't ironic or strange that RCA sold a VHS machine alongside their VideoDisc system. Look at the ads for the first VCRs and there is literally nothing about renting or buying movies or the availability of prerecorded titles. The first VHS player my dad bought was called the Quasar "Time Machine," for example. The closet thing to a time machine you could buy! Time shifting - that's what that VCR market was all about in the early days. LaserDisc and VideoDisc were answers to questions that consumers didn't even know to ask; e.g. how can I have my own video library? BTW, taking a decades old CED player and disc and declaring they skip all the time isn't really an accurate understanding of how they preformed at the time. I knew a family that had a VideoDisc player (the dad worked at RCA after all) and those discs never skipped and the picture looked great. Take a 35 year old VHS tape and play in back in a 35 year old VCR and then compare it to RCA's VideoDisc. CED failed and LaserDisc never captured more than 1% or so of the home video market because they were selling to costumers that didn't exist. CED didn't last as long because they couldn't ramp up like LD (somewhat) did. The time, money and push for wide distribution to every RCA dealer in the country on day 1 meant it had to be a blockbuster success and when trying to establish a new market...a new costumer base...that wasn't likely going to happen. Ironically, RCA sold many more discs per player sold than they had anticipated so (the limited amount of) people who bought the machines were obviously happy with them.
I have two CEDs still sealed, The Dectecive and Coma along with a few James Bond titles with very nice exclusive artwork. I also miss the older TGIFs :(
There was a player at goodwill about a year and half ago and I didn't click with me what it was until I got home. When I got back to the store, it was gone. Whoops.
Consider yourself lucky to have gotten ahold of one of the 2nd-gen models... as they make use of a direct-drive turntable, eliminating the need for a long rubber belt. But watch those that remain, which are part of the auto-loading mechanism... cleaning-up the remains of the previous belt during replacement will require use of cotton swabs & a strong alcohol-based solvent. Plus, the loading mechanism includes a small fork-shaped plastic part that manipulates a steel lever... And if that ever gets broken, Lord help you in all aspects of replacing it!
Was in LIma ohio. Found fair radio. Found my first CED system . So every time I went to army reserve meeting. I'd stop there. They had stacks and stacks of video. The teenage daughter put "two" Disc in and trashed the whole thing. Good as it lasted.
I had a CED player in my hands at one time, but I ended up giving it away due to being unable to make it work, and to also free up space in my room for my first LaserDisc player
Interesting, my CED player model i'm sure is older than yours since it has a manual switch you switch up or down to turn on, play, pause and allow for ejection, plus wood finish. It does also has rewind/fast foward buttons to.
I have an SGT-250 which is manual load (and stereo). I prefer the manual and your example of the auto load function is why I wouldn't want an auto load unit. I do however enjoy the format as flawed as it is. Great video! This has prompted me to take a gander at your other videos. Cheers!
I remember one of those restaurants that had TONS of stuff affixed to the wall. It was called "The Family Buggy." One of my brother's first jobs was as a dishwasher there (I think he bussed sometimes, too).
i am really enjoying this series. Sorry you own one of the newer models. The older models you really push the caddy in and then pull it out... My roomate has had her's for years, since she was a kid, still in working order!
That'd be cool if you could do a video on the elusive Baird Phonovision... but I realize there were no commercial models and probably very little info on it of any sort
I think the main reason C.E.D. failed was since RCA was not innovating in 1964, and were instead banking of an already existing technology(records) this meant that when the delay happenned, JVC and Sony were already ahead of the game.
The CED disc was the only thing this high school student could afford to own movies. I have a soft spot for it. The caddies art was sometimes exceptional.
My dad got the family both a CED and VCR when we were kids and told us if we want a movie we had to choose to have it on the CED or video tape. I've chosen my He-Man Masters of the Universe cartoons on CED because I thought that they were better. It wasn't long until our CED player stopped working. Over the years we kept with the VCR and thought they are more better!
My father acquired a CED player (the model at 3:46) and something like 300 discs for it. We had a VCR with only a couple movies and some video babysitters because my parents already had the CEDs and didn't believe in rentals, but as a kid in the 90s I watched (and rewatched) the Disney, Charlie Brown, and Muppet discs a lot. We had a pretty broad variety of movies and concerts as well.
If I ever have enough money, I'm going to have like an entire building filled with obsolete and unusual formats of audio and video LOL and just for grins and giggles I did check out that website, it looks like it was set up in 1984 LOL
I had that same player and NEVER had a loading or unloading issue. I also owned the SJT 400, the fancy player that DID do freeze frame, but had some drawbacks with that. Neither player ever had issue loading or unloading a disc and were completely automatic. Your play had to have had a belt that was loose. That was a big issue for these players. Also, you didn't mention Jane Fonda Workout. THAT disc is why the exercise craze started on home video. It also sold quite a few players. CED was also the first system you could take home commercial free episodes of Star Trek, the Fugitive and other TV shows for under 20 bucks for two episodes. It was a technically inferior system but was ahead of its time in other ways.
Has anyone tried using the 'wood glue' technique of cleaning LPs on a CED? CEDs are made of a PVC composite so it should be stronger than vinyl, and skipping CEDs are caused dirty grooves and not scratches.
One of these just popped up on my city's 24 hour bidding page on FB. Probably doesn't work and getting a CED disc will be impossible but it would be cool to see it in action.
We had two players. One of the originals and a more top of the line version of yours. To be honest, it didn't help the discs that the original players, when you switched the lever to unload the disc, would just move up the caddy level and grind the discs to a halt. (I later learned this when my friend, whom my parents ended up giving our second player and discs to when it malfunctioned on us finally [when going to eject a disc after briefly watching a scene or two of one disc], bought a second-hand version of our original and I saw how it worked when he had the top off it.) I now feel bad that I was constantly one day moving the level slowly, and hearing it grind rhythmatically against the caddy thing. I ended up ruining a disc almost completely from that. Btw the more top-of-the-line versions of yours, when you hit eject, you could hear the motor slow down and come to a stop before it brought the disc to caddy level and allowed you to return it to the sleeve.
I can see why it had antenna in and out. It's because TV's back then had a limited number of inputs. This was before stereo TV so most of them likely did not have basic A/V inputs.
I love the 1981 SelectAVision opening audio so much that I made an MP3 of it so I can listen to it any time I wanted. The 1982 fanfare version cannot compare to the futuristic sounds of Tomita's rendition of Promenade from Pictures at an Exhibition. Also, if you are curious what that 1981 version sounds like, check out: czcams.com/video/-WRXU1Fsi4o/video.html
*Dozens of potential styluses have auditioned.. Only one will be crowned. Who will it be? Find out on 'Styli Idol!'* (Premieres 20 Dec, 9.00 PM on BBC)
I was the Chief service tech on this item at RCA. This device was actually a very good video entertainment device. Color and video was top notch , way beyond what off air Tv offered. It was a simple player operated with digital devices, way ahead of its time. The player was overpriced, $500 was an exhorbitent price to pay for video playback. If you liked vinyl you would have loved this disc player.
I grew up with this player, and desperately wish I still had a working one. At one point, my father had actually bought out the entire stock of a store that was liquidating at the end of the product line's life, so there are around 400 of them still in my grandparents' basement.
As someone who is obsessed with vinyl and think it's over all the best format of music, I would love to get a hold of one of these players and some of the discs someday. Signed, someone who is currently obsessed with mini portable TVs and figuring out a way to use them in today's day and age just for funsies
@@EmeraldCityVideo my player still works great.
@@heatherr0420 You can always head over to fleabay. Maybe the Techmoan effect has relaxed and the prices are a bit cheaper.
CED failed for ONE reason alone: it started Development in 1964 and launched in 1981.
It hit the market 20 years TOO late.
Hey my commercial was featured here! Fun Fact: It was recorded on a Toshiba V-S36 Betamax HiFi in 1983 using a radio station simulcast (the recorder had a Simulcast switch). The TV show was "Goodnight L.A." from KABC-TV, and the radio station was KLOS, both in Los Angeles. Goodnight L.A. was a local MTV videos show that featured stereo audio via the radio station. Same as NBC's Friday Night Video's, which I also have uploaded on my channel, also using the same stereo split.
My Grandpa worked at RCA and wrote blueprints for the remotes to these players...
Beautiful designs too.
Gramps was a boss
This is the kind of stuff I come here for, old obscure tech.
Trust me- you will fall in love with this format if you find a good player with stereo. The sound quality is surprisingly good (it uses CX noise reduction which was also on the analog tracks of laserdiscs). Skipping isn't always permanent, often playing the skipping segment over and over will get rid of the skip. It definitely requires a lot of patience and tolerance to appreciate CED, but that's why I love it!
why watch a movie in a format that skips just for the sake of watching it when you could watch the movie quite easily for free online? I will never understand this idea.
@@123666yeah do you even realize how many movies are not available online
@@romulusnr I can find virtually anything online...just have to know where to look
I'd like to hear what the stereo players are like, but they just look too "normal." My first generation RCA player just looks so wacky under the TV.
@@scottziegler4238 I have parts of the stereo demo disc uploaded here, also “Eroticise” (which has gotten more views than anything else I’ve uploaded) is from a stereo CED.
That intro was way funnier than it should have been.
+Wolfgang Ervin
I thought I had caching problems lol... the stuttering
+Nik Neuy I thought my version of Chrome was about to crash, or my CPU was about to crap itself.
I thought my Wi-Fi was screwing up
This was my primary means of watching movies as a child, and that intro was both comforting and traumatic.
Like 5 years ago, I came across a good lot of 3 CED players (All working), and about 100 movies (I think 150 discs) for $50, and then a couple weeks later, for $5 I grabbed 20 more movies at another yard sale. Havent seen any since. Busted the rear shocks in my car getting em home. All the players still work, and have remade needles in them. Why did I get them? Nostalgia...we had a CED player when I was a wee lad. Laserdisc is my preferred retro format though
One of the issues with CED stems from improper storage. People instinctively stack them which is something you should NOT do. Stacking them can cause the grooves to flatten under the weight, it's the same with LPs actually. Flat discs will skip, freeze or get video virus (CED's laser rot.)
I still have mine . I own 3 players . The original SGT-100 , the SJT 100 and the premium model The SKT 400 . They all work great . The picture quality is pretty much an equivalent to VHS . I also own about 300 discs. Most of them I purchased as New Old Stock. The others were from private one owner collections hence, they were not played very much resulting in very good quality play. The first model I bought as a kid in the 1980's . I was told by the eager salesman that CED's were the wave of the future, Sadly , this was NOT the case. VHS took over and that was the end of that. I still use use them and enjoy them . My friends are baffled by them which in itself is entertainment in itself . Thanks for the post !
The look on people's faces when they see a completely analog player is priceless! They can't believe a record could play video. I own a humble RCA SFT 100, the basic end of the line and I love it! And despite being a LD junkie, I love the quaint feel and even working on the player (oiling, belt replacement, gear and needle fix) it's a format that was truly ahead of it's time and had the VCR not been available at the time, it would have been a lot more successful.
Here's an interesting fact: the very first CED to be manufactured, upon the format's 1981 launch, was Race for Your Life Charlie Brown.
It was one of the first video discs we bought as well.
Good grief
The memories of CED I have was watching at a friend's house his copy of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" with the stereo audio out of his Selectavision ran LOUD though his 100 watt system. It sounded awesome. And my Jr. College in 1981 bought a bunch of classic movies (Casablanca, a lot of James Bond, MASH) and players for our dormitory TV rooms for us students to enjoy. In about two semesters most of the discs were worn out from of the many times we played them. All the reliability problems this system had did this format in.
RCA lost a lot more than $600 million, they went bankrupt in 1986. Anything produced after 1986 with a RCA name badge was made by another manufacture as RCA was parted off and sold.
Thomson
That CSA sticker means it was sold in Canada. CSA = Canadian Standards Association
Your player is higher end than mine was; it had the eject/pause/play lever on the left and was fully mechanical. Yours has an automated eject button. The canonical lowest-end CED player is the Zenith VP2000 (as mine was) aka the RCA SFT100. Truly low end required you to shove the caddy in yourself and then yank it out and a lever in the back was supposed to latch onto the caddy and keep it inside. (Older players often this stops working and you have to go in and apply some grease to fix it, as I did on mine.)
The problems you're having with yours loading probably has to do with the automatic loading going flaky. It's only 40 years old, damn yo.
yup - the drive belt for the auto feed has turned to sludge. A quick replacement belt will fix that easily enough.
It's interesting you mentioned Monty Python & The Meaning Of Life in this video Ben. About a decade ago? I was in a local second hand shop and got a pre-owned copy of that very film on the CED format for my dad. And mainly to display since the store had a player that looked very similar to the one you have. But it was $40 and was way too expensive for me at the time.
Apropos of nothing - Dave Madden aka Reuben Kincaid from The Partridge Family doing the narration for the RCA VHS commercial.
When I was in 2nd grade (1982-1983), we watched "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" in the gym on CED. There were several other times throughout primary school that we watched movies too, and it was always on CED. 6th grade (1986-1987) was the first time we watched a movie at school on VHS ("The Outsiders").
My dad had one of these, most likely purchased when the players went on clearance in 1984. We had a whole stack of discs because by 1986, people were practically giving them away. Eventually it stopped working (probably a bad belt or stylus) and my dad got rid of it. I was always fascinated by that thing, though I didn't find out how it actually worked until much, much later.
Same here. I mentioned the two my parents bought, and the intricate workings of the load/unload process that I learned about later than I should've.
Thanks for making this video. I first learned about CED players when I was reading the wiki entry for Urgh! A music war, and it absolutely fascinated me. It actually makes me a little sad that it became a dead end format, but there you go.
Thanks again!
For end of 60s would have been ground breaking, for early 70, still ok, for 1981 ? this concept was died. RCA managment failed miserably, you got the idea, GO FOR IT ... NOW, they spent so many years to approach the final concept that ended spoiling the effort. VCR was superior but also very complex by the time it was released. CED machine and mass produced discs were cheaper and RCA bussines was CLEARLY being a film distributor for home consumers, like it did with music, thus, holding a good amount of money from selling titles. The player was not the real deal form them. Just the tool to leverage the bussines.
Our family was a fan of it until the VCRs, tapes and particularly tape rentals came down in price - as you noted - and remember this was when 20 dollars in 1981 was worth over 60 today (meaning that 80 dollar tape was over 250.00 today - hence why rentals were more common until the very late 80s / 1990s).
When we got our first player it was less than 1/3 the price of a VCR, and the movies were 1/5 (or less) the price of buying a pre-recorded film on tape. Rentals were less than 1/3 price. This was all before cable became widespread in our area so it fell right into a nice niche for about 4 years for us including providing stereo support on video (also rare in either broadcast, cable or even tape). If it'd come out in the 70s it might have caught on, but the finite shelf-life of the discs themselves with that silicone lubricant wasn't going to make a movie copy last forever by any stretch (until they came up with another method / formulation).
*also laserdisc players were insanely expensive - around 1200-1800 - I never knew anyone who had one until those had a resurgence in the early 90s when those came down in price and were combined with CD player mechanisms.
**another fun bit of CED lore - RCA scored a 1 year exclusive on Star Wars (their first stereo release too if I'm not mistaken) ahead of it's release on VHS/Beta. So for a year our household played host to many 'Star Wars' viewing parties.
Thank you very much for a great series of videos on forgotten objects and programs from the past. I have a suggestion for an episode or series if you think it would be a good idea. I wonder what your thoughts are on cartoons that have been redrawn and filmed in color. This happened in the late 1960s to early 1970s where Warner Brothers, NTA and in the 1980s Ted Turner sent copies of popular black and white cartoons to Korea to be redone in color. I have found these fascinating since I was a child and I just would love to have a video of you detailing the history of them, cartoons with glaring retracing errors (A Coy Decoy, Porky's Road Race, and most of the series contracted by Radio and TV Packagers) and ones that were actually quite well remade (The Case of the Stuttering Pig, most of the Betty Boop series). I would love to hear your thoughts on the redrawn color reissued cartoons.
22:38 - Or find out too late it's.... porno..... graaaaphic!!
I wasn't hearing that wrong, was I? Was THAT a reason we needed a CED player at home?
Dang, Ben better get with that promised part 2 in the next 5 years!
+DanZero77 And sadly there was NO porn on CED, unless you count a few Playboy titles.
+eyeh8nbc or by some miracle you can put video files from you're computer onto a CED disc.
+DanZero77 I think they meant they saw that Debbie Does Dallas was playing at the local Bijou, and they thought it would be a Football movie, but when they sat down they saw the infamous shower scene...
+Albert Giesbrecht Somehow I think that the naked cheerleaders before the shower scene should have tipped them off.
back when parents monitored and cared about the movies their kids went to; it was not uncommon for parents to attend a film first to ensure it was suitable for their family. Those that didn't risked having to walk out if the film got too risque...there was nudity in even PG films for a number of years.
Still kicking myself for not taking that free plsyer 10+years ago.
Just received a Texas Chain saw Massacre CED disc...Its actually a cool item.Thank god for this video that showed me how the open it.
CED's were a novel idea but in execution they were lacking. I have some experience with them from working at a local university and cleaning out their a/v gear in the drama department to reclaim one of the storage rooms for new computers. Like Ben said in this video they are a pain in the ass to load and play back quality is horrendous.
I have an auto-load player. Every couple of months I'll drag one of these out for fun. It's usually not a rewarding experience.
A Who disc I have was doing some serious skipping and scrambling - taking the disc out and wiping it down with tap water appeared to solve this. Odd.
I WANT that Let it Be disc. I have no idea why.
My SJT-200 has started doing that loading BS as well. I had to push it in as you demonstrate here.
Pretty hilarious that Let It Be never got a DVD release but it did get a CED release.
I've got the SGT-200 Stereo CED Player (ca. 1982) like at 2:55 in your video. I bought it used in 2007 at a flea market for $75.
Still works. It's just in my Dad's basement at the moment, with no where to (easily) plug it in where I'm living now.
I remembe when CED first came out in March 1981.
Also, love the memory of the two openings; "Pictures at an Exhibition" (the one shown with your good movie at the end), and RCA's in house music one from earlier.
I just saw Ben's SNES and Genesis. I expect a video on your collection for both consoles. Perhaps you could cover some of the "oddities" in each system's library? :P
+GTVNewsForGamers Pretty sure Ben already did a video showing off his SNES and Genesis.
My mom had a bunch of these tucked away in a closet when I was a little kid. I always tried to get the disc out, fun times.
I'll be damned! Never seen one before and I was around in the time these were out! Keep the strange and obscure coming!
the loading issue is likely due to extra physical resistance in the load drive mechanism causing higher current in the motor, which the drive mechanism recognises as it having stopped at the end of the travel and hence reverses the load. Its REALLY common in a lot of load mechanisms and not that hard to fix
Can I just say that I LOVE this Show! The intro was HILARIOUS
This show is so relaxing. Thank you.
Omg thank you so much I haven't checked your channel in a while but I happened to have some curious it's about CEDs recently and this was like the best coincidence to come back to after checking your channel for the first time in almost two months
A fascinating look at an antiquated video device. We never got one, opting instead for a VHS VCR back in the 80's.
Definitely the first time I've subscribed to a channel because of the opening titles.
A successful product is one that solves a problem that everyone has. "Has this ever happened to you?!?!" VCRs were a solution for every household with a TV; how to time shift. With a VCR you could record when you weren't home, you could record something while watching something else, you could rewatch something over and over again. It was the first DVR. IMHO, the technological shortcomings of CED are overplayed. It failed simply because the idea of renting or purchasing titles for one's home video library didn't exist and that isn't how VCRs were originally marketed. That's why it isn't ironic or strange that RCA sold a VHS machine alongside their VideoDisc system. Look at the ads for the first VCRs and there is literally nothing about renting or buying movies or the availability of prerecorded titles. The first VHS player my dad bought was called the Quasar "Time Machine," for example. The closet thing to a time machine you could buy! Time shifting - that's what that VCR market was all about in the early days. LaserDisc and VideoDisc were answers to questions that consumers didn't even know to ask; e.g. how can I have my own video library? BTW, taking a decades old CED player and disc and declaring they skip all the time isn't really an accurate understanding of how they preformed at the time. I knew a family that had a VideoDisc player (the dad worked at RCA after all) and those discs never skipped and the picture looked great. Take a 35 year old VHS tape and play in back in a 35 year old VCR and then compare it to RCA's VideoDisc. CED failed and LaserDisc never captured more than 1% or so of the home video market because they were selling to costumers that didn't exist. CED didn't last as long because they couldn't ramp up like LD (somewhat) did. The time, money and push for wide distribution to every RCA dealer in the country on day 1 meant it had to be a blockbuster success and when trying to establish a new market...a new costumer base...that wasn't likely going to happen. Ironically, RCA sold many more discs per player sold than they had anticipated so (the limited amount of) people who bought the machines were obviously happy with them.
I like coming back to the episode that got me started on this series for a little nostalgia.
I have two CEDs still sealed, The Dectecive and Coma along with a few James Bond titles with very nice exclusive artwork.
I also miss the older TGIFs :(
my newborn son loves oddity archive and Ben's voice, btw this is his favorite video.
Lol I can imagine DJ's scratching the hell out of these discs.
+Nik Neuy Tried it, doesn't work. The whole signal goes out if the turntable isn't at the right speed.
Is Ben's CED player mounted on a VHS tape?
I decided I would take a shot everytime you said "sacrificial disc." I'm now dying of alcohol poisoning.
The messing up footage at the end looks like a youtube poop to me
There was a player at goodwill about a year and half ago and I didn't click with me what it was until I got home. When I got back to the store, it was gone. Whoops.
Consider yourself lucky to have gotten ahold of one of the 2nd-gen models... as they make use of a direct-drive turntable, eliminating the need for a long rubber belt. But watch those that remain, which are part of the auto-loading mechanism... cleaning-up the remains of the previous belt during replacement will require use of cotton swabs & a strong alcohol-based solvent. Plus, the loading mechanism includes a small fork-shaped plastic part that manipulates a steel lever... And if that ever gets broken, Lord help you in all aspects of replacing it!
Also, that musical number on top of the TV and player looks like something out of my t-break dreams.
You do such a great job with these. Thank you!
Laserdisc is the ultimate retro video format
Was in LIma ohio. Found fair radio. Found my first CED system . So every time I went to army reserve meeting. I'd stop there. They had stacks and stacks of video. The teenage daughter put "two" Disc in and trashed the whole thing. Good as it lasted.
I had a CED player in my hands at one time, but I ended up giving it away due to being unable to make it work, and to also free up space in my room for my first LaserDisc player
Wow the intro was just like watching most of the CEDs that I have lol
To me It’s kinda like listening to old scratched up CDs on my Home CD Player
"Or find out too late it's pornographic"?
+RandyPantheGoatBoy i rewound it back like 4 times and i hear that everytime.
Enlighten me on what you think is pornographic?
Ben, for science, you must post a video dump of that Stooges disk.
It's almost like a CZcamsPoop that made itself
Interesting, my CED player model i'm sure is older than yours since it has a manual switch you switch up or down to turn on, play, pause and allow for ejection, plus wood finish. It does also has rewind/fast foward buttons to.
LOVED your VED-ized opening! 😁
Hey. A Super Nintendo.
Wait, what were we talking about again?
I have an SGT-250 which is manual load (and stereo). I prefer the manual and your example of the auto load function is why I wouldn't want an auto load unit. I do however enjoy the format as flawed as it is. Great video! This has prompted me to take a gander at your other videos. Cheers!
Having not seen this episode yet, for a second the intro had me thinking my iPad had shit itself
I've got two Hitachi CED players one with a remote control both have a new set of belts and a massive box of films
@ 2:19 TGIF? Or Momma's Pancake Breakfast... Either way, welcome to the 90s!!!
Speaking of the 90s, that's about how long it's been...
Excellent video you've made there!!! I really enjoyed it :)
I remember one of those restaurants that had TONS of stuff affixed to the wall. It was called "The Family Buggy." One of my brother's first jobs was as a dishwasher there (I think he bussed sometimes, too).
My Grandfather had an early version of this and we always watched old Disney Cartoons on it.
bastard! LOL it took me almost the entire opening to realize what was going on...
Enjoyed this and keep up the good work with your videos
In March you'll be on your 100th episiode!
i am really enjoying this series. Sorry you own one of the newer models. The older models you really push the caddy in and then pull it out... My roomate has had her's for years, since she was a kid, still in working order!
5:50 Given the speed the discs played at, this often resulted in a loss of fingers.
That'd be cool if you could do a video on the elusive Baird Phonovision... but I realize there were no commercial models and probably very little info on it of any sort
I think the main reason C.E.D. failed was since RCA was not innovating in 1964, and were instead banking of an already existing technology(records) this meant that when the delay happenned, JVC and Sony were already ahead of the game.
The CED disc was the only thing this high school student could afford to own movies. I have a soft spot for it. The caddies art was sometimes exceptional.
My dad got the family both a CED and VCR when we were kids and told us if we want a movie we had to choose to have it on the CED or video tape. I've chosen my He-Man Masters of the Universe cartoons on CED because I thought that they were better. It wasn't long until our CED player stopped working. Over the years we kept with the VCR and thought they are more better!
I started laughing when I saw Torgo in the opening sequence. 😄😄
My father acquired a CED player (the model at 3:46) and something like 300 discs for it. We had a VCR with only a couple movies and some video babysitters because my parents already had the CEDs and didn't believe in rentals, but as a kid in the 90s I watched (and rewatched) the Disney, Charlie Brown, and Muppet discs a lot. We had a pretty broad variety of movies and concerts as well.
Happy 2016 Ben. I have high expectations for Oddity Archive.
+Michael J. Caboose :3 : :DDD
If I ever have enough money, I'm going to have like an entire building filled with obsolete and unusual formats of audio and video LOL and just for grins and giggles I did check out that website, it looks like it was set up in 1984 LOL
I didn't know Moe Howard was in Modern Times.
I had that same player and NEVER had a loading or unloading issue. I also owned the SJT 400, the fancy player that DID do freeze frame, but had some drawbacks with that. Neither player ever had issue loading or unloading a disc and were completely automatic. Your play had to have had a belt that was loose. That was a big issue for these players. Also, you didn't mention Jane Fonda Workout. THAT disc is why the exercise craze started on home video. It also sold quite a few players. CED was also the first system you could take home commercial free episodes of Star Trek, the Fugitive and other TV shows for under 20 bucks for two episodes. It was a technically inferior system but was ahead of its time in other ways.
Wait what
That last line of the song in the closing credits... "Find out too late it's porno-graaaaaaphiiiiiiic"
Is that unedited? Seriously?!
Has anyone tried using the 'wood glue' technique of cleaning LPs on a CED? CEDs are made of a PVC composite so it should be stronger than vinyl, and skipping CEDs are caused dirty grooves and not scratches.
One of these just popped up on my city's 24 hour bidding page on FB. Probably doesn't work and getting a CED disc will be impossible but it would be cool to see it in action.
I love the opening segment to your videos :)
We had two players. One of the originals and a more top of the line version of yours. To be honest, it didn't help the discs that the original players, when you switched the lever to unload the disc, would just move up the caddy level and grind the discs to a halt. (I later learned this when my friend, whom my parents ended up giving our second player and discs to when it malfunctioned on us finally [when going to eject a disc after briefly watching a scene or two of one disc], bought a second-hand version of our original and I saw how it worked when he had the top off it.) I now feel bad that I was constantly one day moving the level slowly, and hearing it grind rhythmatically against the caddy thing. I ended up ruining a disc almost completely from that.
Btw the more top-of-the-line versions of yours, when you hit eject, you could hear the motor slow down and come to a stop before it brought the disc to caddy level and allowed you to return it to the sleeve.
Love the OddityArchive, Thank you
Gee-eez, CED's are Gli-iiitchy.
I can see why it had antenna in and out. It's because TV's back then had a limited number of inputs. This was before stereo TV so most of them likely did not have basic A/V inputs.
From sometime in 1982 to early 1984, this WAS home video for me.
It should have launched in 1968, it likely would have dominated the market.
I love the 1981 SelectAVision opening audio so much that I made an MP3 of it so I can listen to it any time I wanted. The 1982 fanfare version cannot compare to the futuristic sounds of Tomita's rendition of Promenade from Pictures at an Exhibition.
Also, if you are curious what that 1981 version sounds like, check out: czcams.com/video/-WRXU1Fsi4o/video.html
I love the CED styled intro
RCA should of pulled the plug when Discovision/Laserdisc came out in 78!
Awesome! I've never heard of this format. Now I must collect for it!
I have an RCA, but I don't know if it works, as I don't have a CED to try in it. :p
Was CED the first format to support multiple languages on one disc or did the Laserdisc have that prior to the introduction of stereo CEDs?
Imagine Max Headroom being heard on one of these things (the real Max, not that stupid pirate).
*Dozens of potential styluses have auditioned.. Only one will be crowned. Who will it be? Find out on 'Styli Idol!'*
(Premieres 20 Dec, 9.00 PM on BBC)
2:09 Looks like care bears unlock the magic
Grumpy didn't not wake up with this alarm clock