Videodisc format, precursor to LD - anyone remember this? (1 Viewer)

[Paul Sandhu]

Are there any pictures of the actual disc? And are the sleeves cardboard? What if your sleeve got wrecked?

 

[Larry Sutliff]

Movies Unlimited, a local place that was the premiere video dealer in the country during the eighties, used to have a big display of CED discs. I used to go there very frequently at the time, and I remember walking in around '86 or '87 and all of the CED discs were gone. They still had the big display a week before. This format really did die a quick death.

 

[Larry Sutliff]

If I'm remembering correctly, the sleeves were a very hard plastic.

 

[Damin J Toell]

VHS came out in the 70s, too. It was introduced in Japan in 1976.

DJ

 

[Tony Kwong]

I think the reason for any disc based video format is duplication time. Duplication on tape takes a long time compared to stamping a master like in LP.

 

[Ian_H]

The tour video was bizarrely fascinating. I don't think I have heard the word "insertion" as much as heard it in that program.


--Ian

 

[MikeEckman]

This turned out to be a good thread. I watched that whole video and that commercial and now I want to get a player.

Theres a couple nice ones on ebay right now, including a brand new never before used one!!

 

[Tony Kwong]

There was another format similar to CED. That was VHD. It's US releases was aborted because of all the competing disc format wars of the early 1980's. I did think it was a much better system than CED.

I was a VHD user myself.
For more info about VHD visit
VHD DiscWorld

 

[Tom Brennan]

These were in plastic caddies. You insert the caddy into your player and then pull it back out, while the mechanism inside unlocks the portion that holds the disc. You never actually handle the disc, which is a smart idea.

I have Superman - The Movie on CED. It's a mono 2 disc set and may use a different transfer than the pan and scan transfers at the time. It's definitely different than the ABC broadcast from that era. The close ups of the Phantom Zone criminals eyes are not scrunched on the CED as they were on ABC and all of the extended TV broadcasts.

 

[Paul Sandhu]

So RCA did the CED and JVC did the VHD? Was CED the only format that was like a record?

 

[Tony Kwong]

VHD and CED were both "like" plastic PVC records, just VHD didnt use grooves and is smaller. It has "pits" that guide a stylus. This made it much more durable compared to grooved CED with disc wear. All of my VHD's still play perfectly fine, but a majority of my CED's have skipping problems.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

I got a VHD of Rambo from someone on Ebay, but I've never been able to find a player. The few times I've seen them on Ebay they've gone for more than I could afford (I got most of my CED players for practically nothing, my first one was only $15 at the flea market!) Since VHD was only sold in Japan, everything probably has Japanese subtitles on it anyways.
I've seen questions about CED from people first discovering it come up on this site before, so I propose a new area of Home Theater Forum devoted to Retro Home Theater Equipment and its releases, I'll be the moderator!

 

[Jeff_CusBlues]

During the summer after my freshman year at Purdue (EE) I worked as a summer technician at RCA in Marion, Indiana. This was 1981 and The VideoDisc was a new RCA product. All of the technicians were interested, but none were big enough movie buffs to buy one. At the time, I really wasn't a movie buff either but I remember thinking that it would be nice to be able to own movies (remember, VHS wasn't really big at the time either). Anyway, most of the older technicians couldn't understand why anyone would would pay so much money just to watch movies and predicted a quick end to the VideoDisc. I always think back to how right they were, but for the wrong reason.

Edit: RCA in Marion was not involved with the VideoDisk product. We designed and built picture tubes.

 

[Tony Kwong]

You have to remember that during production of video disc, there was very few movies available on any format. When VHS came out the tapes were expensive, until mom/pop rental stores came out. Video disc formats were originally made to be cheap (under $30), easy to stamp and owned by the consumer.

Now DiscoVision was originally a inexpensive product. But they did not count on other problems like air and glue sandwiched in multi-sided disc. This is what cased all these rot problems. Refinements in both added much more time and expense to produce the final LaserDisc product.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

It's also ironic to note that most people at the time preferred to rent movies rather than buy them. While there were a few places that rented CEDs (and an even smaller number that rented laserdiscs, increasing only by the format's 'renaissance' in the 90's), VHS rentals were the most widespread, Beta being a close second- I remember most stores in the early 80s carried most titles on both VHS and Beta, with the smaller Beta covers placed on the shelves in front of the larger VHS's. I wanted a VHS at the time though since not all stores carried Beta, and some titles were only on VHS.
So, it's interesting that with DVD the masses finally went for the concept of buying movies. I always wonder how much better laserdisc would have done if it had a lot more marketing behind it than it did, though.

 

[Gary->dee]

That's a matter of pure economics. If you remember back in the late 70's and early 80's the VHS format was very expensive with movies averaging between $60-80 a pop. My family bought a JVC VCR for $1,000 in 1984. So the rental market took off because most people didn't want to spend that kind of money on a movie. Especially when some places were renting movies for a $1 a day and they could just copy a videotape if they had 2 VCR's(the macrovision and similar copy protection weren't around in those days). Cable TV was also offering a good selection of movies so that helped people resist the urge to spend $79 on a videotape. And they could easily record movies from cable. It wasn't until the late 80's that the price of VHS movies began to come down to around $30 or less.

Once the DVD format arrived and became widely accepted the price of buying a movie became much more affordable. Now in some cases it's cheaper to buy than to rent.

Anyway back to CED's: my uncle, who probably owned every format of audio and video technology dating back to the early 70's, had a HUGE collection of videodiscs. I fondly remember the days when we would gather at his place to watch the latest videodisc on his projection screen TV.

He would dub movies I liked for me such as Raiders and Star Wars from videodisc to videotape. As others have pointed out there was a frequent skipping problem with the videodisc format. That was annoying. But from what my uncle told me the one advantage is that some titles were released on videodisc that either never made it to laserdisc or DVD.

Another memory I have of the videodisc format is being in a mall in Torrance(L.A.) back in the early 80's. Apparently the mall had set up a makeshift theater in an empty store space by setting up a big screen TV and videodisc player. So I walk by and there are all these people gathered sitting on a sofa, the floor or standing around and they're all watching a videodisc of Jaws 2.

Then all of a sudden the movie stops, a cute little animation plays on the screen along with a chiming-type of noise signaling the need to flip over the disc or change discs.

Anyone remember that?? (Jesse needless to say I'm sure you know all about it)

 

[Mike Williams]

I remember two stores in my little town had videodiscs. They would rent the player and the discs, so I would rent Star Trek TV episodes, take them home and copy them, since I wouldn't have to edit out the commercials by taping them off TV -- TV episodes didn't exist on VHS yet. I wanted a Videodisc player so badly, but never had enough money and I'm so thankful I never got it, since it has gone the way of the 8-track tape, but at the time (along with 8 tracks), I thought they were really cool. Ahhhhh, the early '80s. *sigh*

 

[Jeff_HR]

I believe you would be better served by buying a Laserdisc player instead.

 

[Kevin M]

If you could get one for $10 including a few discs I would say go for it but my abiding memory of it from back in the day (my uncle was a tech junky who just had to have every new format that came out) was that it looked ok but was rather buggy & the noise the damn thing put out was considerable.......granted, it was only a bit louder than LD players from back then.

 

[Bob-R]

I say if the person wants a CED player, then gosh darn it, I say he should get one

I like all of them, CED, laserdisc, DVD, and sometimes VHS.

To me, CED is better than VHS, I think CED discs live longer and VHS tends to have a brighter look to the picture, sometimes it washes out the color. Of course laserdisc has a slight edge over CED but you have to admit that CED players and discs are still fascinating, and, after all these years, CED is still surviving.