I had Magnavox Laser Disc player and - wow - was that thing a piece of junk! They had a program where you could send it back to the factory and they'd give you a new one, which I tried - and it still skipped, and, worked terribly. I'm not even much of a movie buff but, at the time, I had a lot of discretionary income and I was amazed by the technology. It all seems so funny, now. The thing cost about 500 bucks, in 1981 - it's crazy how things change. Still have some discs...
I found it interesting that the video disc came out before the compact disc. I remember though watching Jaws on one of those video disc trying to figure out how it was able to read the data.
It's just a shame they never caught on like compact discs did.
The extraordinary thing about this and Video tapes is you never use to be able to watch a uncensored commercial free movie in your house unless you were more of a hobbyist about it. When these hit the market it was a big deal... hence they promoted it as a "movie party"
We had the classic battle of the big discs with Laser Disc winning out - I think it was the Pioneer 1750 player which could play both NTSC & PAL which made it happen, of course sadly both formats are now dead. I still have a Pioneer 725 machine (up market with auto reverse Dobly Digital AC3 output) and around 130 discs. No none of them are for sale.
So far, every optical-disc-in-a-case format has failed (not counting ones where you can put a protective case on yourself, of course ). That goes for UMD Video, as well: Do you know any non-PSP devices that can play them?
@Drac39 *duh*, right? I was having a hard time finding them. Thanks, I have found some although it took a few searches. I now own Barbarella and a slightly well loved Star Wars ;)
This format failed because it tried to compete with the VCR, which it couldn't do.
Laserdisc on the other hand also tried to compete with the VCR at the beginning and almost died trying to do so. But when Pioneer got LD, they decided to market it as a high end product for videophiles and not to compete with the VCR.
I HAVE THE MOVIE AIRPLANE WITH LESLIE NIELSEN FOR THIS SYSTEM AND WOULD SELL IT IF ANYONE HAS ONE OF THESE AND I ALSO HAVE SOME OTHER MOVIES FOR IT IF ANYONE IS INTERESTED JUST GO TO MY PAGE AND SEND ME A PRIVATE MESSAGE AND MAYBE WE CAN WORK SOMETHING OUT
@enomarekim Yes, you had to re-insert the sleeve, turn the disc over, and re-insert it to play side 2. If a movie was over two hours long, the rest would be on a second disc.
Even with Laserdisc (which actually pre-dated the CED by 3 years), you had to manually turn the disc over.when side 1 finished, unless your LD player had "both side play" -- this would rotate the laser pickup to play the other side. Even then, you sometimes had to change discs, because many movies used more than one LD.
@cdx873v Today it's "500 cents," maybe -- CED players and discs are so niche and such a b!tch to move, that they can often be found dirt cheap. (Most people don't even know what a CED is!)
you have to consider, that that price was actually cheaper than VHS or Beta at the time. Home video was brand new, and people where willing to shell out major bucks to get on the band wagon.
@lcvd1 recording was the killer app for video tape players, but the failure of CED was waiting so long that by the time selectavision was ready, most people had already made the investment into vhs or beta. sort of the thing going on now with blue ray. almost everyone is happy with dvd, so blu ray is struggling.
@Guacatechs I agree, I also think that BlueRay came to late to market, b/c the disc formats will be facing steep competition from usb flash memory stick. I already use memory stick in my car stereo and I don't have to be changing cds. I have my entire library of music on the go! Can you imagine Hollywood bundleling movies into this format in the future? ---I can.
@lcvd1 Digital downloads wont take over physical formats like DVD and Blu-ray, not till everyone can download/stream movies at a reasonable speed for a reasonable price.
@funkymunky65 The government is too bloated and incompetent to even ensure net neutrality. Without that, digital downloads will never take off, because content providers will have to pay Comcast and AT&T through the nose, and pass those charges to the consumer.
@thatguyontheright1 They still won't (or shouldn't if we are smart consumers) take over physical formats even if people can stream 100 GB/s to their homes. Give me a copy I can hold in my hands any day opposed to one that could be accidentally erased at the simple click of a mouse button.. (or the producers whim), There is inherent value in owning a hard copy of anything that does exist with a simple digital representation on a hard-drive. I would never pay money for a digital copy.
@Maskddingo They probably wont, the hard copy thing for collectors will always be there, but the basic consumer likes to do things easily. If all they have to do is put in one disc and watch any movie they want without having to fumble with alot of cases and scratched discs, then they'll go with that.
@Kitsuneranger Uh, CED never came out in Japan. They did have a similar format called VHD which used a 10-inch disc. CED did come out in England very briefly, using the same discs but of course in PAL format instead of NTSC.
$35-$60 for a movie in the 80s! Plus a few grand for the payer itself, and viola, for the price a car you can now watch the same movies you have on VHS, but the quality is marginally better.
@StabbyTheClown The player was a few grand? Where did you get that from. From what I remember, even the best player was only about $500.(about he same as a good quality VHS of the time). This real difference was not that VHS was better quality, or even cheaper, but that VHS could record from TV and CED couldn't
Even older -- Capacitance Electronic Disc. I only knew one person to own that system. It was actually read by a stylus instead of a laser.
pmgodfrey 1 month ago
Dam things are bigger than lp's LOL!
junkyturd 1 month ago
these are CEDs, I have a couple of them I found at yard sales
videoaa99 1 month ago
I had Magnavox Laser Disc player and - wow - was that thing a piece of junk! They had a program where you could send it back to the factory and they'd give you a new one, which I tried - and it still skipped, and, worked terribly. I'm not even much of a movie buff but, at the time, I had a lot of discretionary income and I was amazed by the technology. It all seems so funny, now. The thing cost about 500 bucks, in 1981 - it's crazy how things change. Still have some discs...
guymerritt 1 month ago
I found it interesting that the video disc came out before the compact disc. I remember though watching Jaws on one of those video disc trying to figure out how it was able to read the data.
It's just a shame they never caught on like compact discs did.
texasghost 1 month ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Where can I get one?
elkabong1961 1 month ago
Where can I get one?
elkabong1961 1 month ago
these are so cool!
TheUltraCoolDude1 1 month ago
The extraordinary thing about this and Video tapes is you never use to be able to watch a uncensored commercial free movie in your house unless you were more of a hobbyist about it. When these hit the market it was a big deal... hence they promoted it as a "movie party"
joenewbie316 2 months ago
hell i am 30 and i have one of those players still :P they are pretty awesome i got it free though from a friend about 10 years ago lol
Shippo1883 2 months ago
Nice machine ^^
i never saw one of this well i am onley 22 years old
but i love old stuff. Is it still possible to buy one of this things?
with movies?
666nargarothfreak666 2 months ago
incredible...this is what i've been looking for HAH!
roddigga34 3 months ago
Less than $500? as in $499.99? LOL
MrMovieNight 3 months ago
This cost under $500! My Blu-ray 3D player cost around 120 GBP!
iplikator 3 months ago
Was it 15 0r 50?
ConfusedSponge 4 months ago
We had the classic battle of the big discs with Laser Disc winning out - I think it was the Pioneer 1750 player which could play both NTSC & PAL which made it happen, of course sadly both formats are now dead. I still have a Pioneer 725 machine (up market with auto reverse Dobly Digital AC3 output) and around 130 discs. No none of them are for sale.
mikeismad61 5 months ago
Awesome haha
doomslayer133 6 months ago
So far, every optical-disc-in-a-case format has failed (not counting ones where you can put a protective case on yourself, of course ). That goes for UMD Video, as well: Do you know any non-PSP devices that can play them?
BDF5K 8 months ago
@BDF5K Magneto-optical discs and cartridge'd DVD-RAMs have done OK, at least in the professional market...
spacehelmetforacow 8 months ago
Couldn't they just have the bbq and the movie after?
Enigmatism415 8 months ago
so starnge i never heard of this whats next oh youtube
masmotors 9 months ago
I remember seeing these in the store years ago as a kid. Thanks for posting!
thegreatbungholio21 9 months ago
my sister threw all of mine away !!!! where can I get them ? I had STAR WARS !!!!! UUUGGGGGHHHHH!!!! wahahahaahahahha
skrinkle2000 9 months ago in playlist vintage audio
@skrinkle2000 Ebay
Drac39 7 months ago
@Drac39 *duh*, right? I was having a hard time finding them. Thanks, I have found some although it took a few searches. I now own Barbarella and a slightly well loved Star Wars ;)
skrinkle2000 7 months ago
never even heard of one of these until now lol
sethious1 9 months ago
That woman is incredibly ugly
Drac39 10 months ago
@Drac39
She looks like Tootsie, and not in a good way! XD
sgraem 7 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
This format failed because it tried to compete with the VCR, which it couldn't do.
Laserdisc on the other hand also tried to compete with the VCR at the beginning and almost died trying to do so. But when Pioneer got LD, they decided to market it as a high end product for videophiles and not to compete with the VCR.
rkoguy 10 months ago
I HAVE THE MOVIE AIRPLANE WITH LESLIE NIELSEN FOR THIS SYSTEM AND WOULD SELL IT IF ANYONE HAS ONE OF THESE AND I ALSO HAVE SOME OTHER MOVIES FOR IT IF ANYONE IS INTERESTED JUST GO TO MY PAGE AND SEND ME A PRIVATE MESSAGE AND MAYBE WE CAN WORK SOMETHING OUT
fishin25530 1 year ago
I remember going down to the library to borrow movies for that old machine when I was a kid
peckerwood321 1 year ago
Haha, That thing looks bigger than a large pizza.
CoolConejo 1 year ago
I had one...I also had a least 100 titles. Then in 1995 I lost it all to a fire...those were the days.
sweetlorel 1 year ago
I saw one of these the other day at the Goodwill
16mmDJ 1 year ago
Holy Coke Bottle Glasses batman!
crocodile2006 1 year ago
Why didn't they just have another laser on the other side. Did you really have to manually flip it like a record.
enomarekim 1 year ago
@enomarekim Yes, you had to re-insert the sleeve, turn the disc over, and re-insert it to play side 2. If a movie was over two hours long, the rest would be on a second disc.
Even with Laserdisc (which actually pre-dated the CED by 3 years), you had to manually turn the disc over.when side 1 finished, unless your LD player had "both side play" -- this would rotate the laser pickup to play the other side. Even then, you sometimes had to change discs, because many movies used more than one LD.
DrLove0378 1 year ago 2
maybe she meant 500 cent's, lol!!
cdx873v 2 years ago 7
@cdx873v Today it's "500 cents," maybe -- CED players and discs are so niche and such a b!tch to move, that they can often be found dirt cheap. (Most people don't even know what a CED is!)
DrLove0378 1 year ago
Less than $500!
Holy Cow i need to get one!
mclaine33 2 years ago
you have to consider, that that price was actually cheaper than VHS or Beta at the time. Home video was brand new, and people where willing to shell out major bucks to get on the band wagon.
Guacatechs 1 year ago
o really. I didn't know that. thanks for letting me know.
mclaine33 1 year ago
@Guacatechs People wanted to record programs, no way this was a hit just for buying movies you could get on BETA.
lcvd1 1 year ago
@lcvd1 recording was the killer app for video tape players, but the failure of CED was waiting so long that by the time selectavision was ready, most people had already made the investment into vhs or beta. sort of the thing going on now with blue ray. almost everyone is happy with dvd, so blu ray is struggling.
Guacatechs 1 year ago
@Guacatechs I agree, I also think that BlueRay came to late to market, b/c the disc formats will be facing steep competition from usb flash memory stick. I already use memory stick in my car stereo and I don't have to be changing cds. I have my entire library of music on the go! Can you imagine Hollywood bundleling movies into this format in the future? ---I can.
lcvd1 1 year ago
@lcvd1 Digital downloads wont take over physical formats like DVD and Blu-ray, not till everyone can download/stream movies at a reasonable speed for a reasonable price.
thatguyontheright1 1 year ago
@thatguyontheright1 or until the government make the internet free...
they could install a bunch of WiFi routers on street polls. then anyone with a wifi adapter or wifi enabled device could get on the internet, FREE!!!
funkymunky65 1 year ago
@funkymunky65 Then you have to deal with network congestion, which is almost impossible to do without charging money to maintain servers.
thatguyontheright1 1 year ago
@funkymunky65 The government is too bloated and incompetent to even ensure net neutrality. Without that, digital downloads will never take off, because content providers will have to pay Comcast and AT&T through the nose, and pass those charges to the consumer.
YukoAsho 1 year ago
@YukoAsho Ya thats true, I heard Australia paid ($38 Billion AUS was it?) for free internet.
If i had a say in it I would tell the service providers to fuck off.
But i don't see that happening any time soon.
Gotta love greed huh?
funkymunky65 1 year ago
@thatguyontheright1 They still won't (or shouldn't if we are smart consumers) take over physical formats even if people can stream 100 GB/s to their homes. Give me a copy I can hold in my hands any day opposed to one that could be accidentally erased at the simple click of a mouse button.. (or the producers whim), There is inherent value in owning a hard copy of anything that does exist with a simple digital representation on a hard-drive. I would never pay money for a digital copy.
Maskddingo 1 year ago
@Maskddingo They probably wont, the hard copy thing for collectors will always be there, but the basic consumer likes to do things easily. If all they have to do is put in one disc and watch any movie they want without having to fumble with alot of cases and scratched discs, then they'll go with that.
thatguyontheright1 1 year ago
@mclaine33 less than $500 usually means $499, hahaha
lcvd1 1 year ago
@lcvd1
I know HAHAHA!
mclaine33 1 year ago
Less than $500! Oh yeah!
Optics233 2 years ago
right when the movie got good you had to flip it over to play like a cassete
1early1974 2 years ago
AKA Selectavision I have two non-working players and about 25 vids. Its a video rekee player, uses a stylus needle like for vinyl LPs.
umajunkcollector 2 years ago
Thanks for posting this- I've never seen this commercial! I have several working players and EVERY title that was put out on this failed format!
eyeh8nbc 2 years ago 9
@eyeh8nbc Every title? Good lord, I only have 135 of em.
thatguyontheright1 9 months ago
@eyeh8nbc The format isn't a failure technically
Ever since the failed US attempts of the format, Japan has made it a popular format
Kitsuneranger 6 months ago
@Kitsuneranger Uh, CED never came out in Japan. They did have a similar format called VHD which used a 10-inch disc. CED did come out in England very briefly, using the same discs but of course in PAL format instead of NTSC.
eyeh8nbc 6 months ago
15 bucks a movie? I had one of these and each movie cost between 35 and 60 bucks at Woolco...
joadhenry 2 years ago
The newer movies were priced around $30, older movies and stuff like educational videos were priced lower.
eyeh8nbc 2 years ago
$35-$60 for a movie in the 80s! Plus a few grand for the payer itself, and viola, for the price a car you can now watch the same movies you have on VHS, but the quality is marginally better.
God only know why they didn't sell like iPods...
StabbyTheClown 2 years ago 2
@StabbyTheClown it was released too late, had it been released in 75 when it was originally set instead of 1981, it would have done so much better
thatguyontheright1 1 year ago
@StabbyTheClown The player was a few grand? Where did you get that from. From what I remember, even the best player was only about $500.(about he same as a good quality VHS of the time). This real difference was not that VHS was better quality, or even cheaper, but that VHS could record from TV and CED couldn't
Maskddingo 1 year ago