Beta Max was superior to VHS but VHS won out for a number of reasons that had nothing to do with quality. The film industry used Beta Max for years after VHS won out on the "civilian" side. Why? Why did the film industry use Beta and regular joes use VHS? Why did HD-DVD lose out to Blu-Ray ya know?
Quality has nothing to do with how successful a video format is. Everyone knows the porn industry has a big role in that. But odd yet accurate facts aside it is true. Convenience and durability are what decide formats. If this launched in 1964 like it was supposed to it would of been wildly popular, but it didn't it launched in 1981. What would you rather do, put a tape in and watch the whole movie or load a big huge disc in and get an hours worth of playback?
I had one of these when they were just released and it was really neat but it kept breaking down and in about 1983 I bought one of the newer models with direct drive and stereo sound. I still have it and it still works fine. Also I have about a hundred or so discs sitting around. Don't know what to do with them! Star Wars Return of the Jedi is rare and I have that also.
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
Fascinating technology. One major downfall to the CD was the fact that, despite being developed before the Laserdisc, it wasn't released to the public until a few years after the Laserdisc, so LD had caught on.
I have a Sears stereo player from around '83. It's a re-branded Hitachi. The CED system is pretty cool. For it's time it had very good quality video. Laserdisc was actually out first, but at the time this format was comparable.(Although laserdisc eventually surpassed it. I would equate a a good CED to a better than average VHS tape. You won't have the head-switching noise at the bottom and the 'tracking' is always correct on a CED. CED >>> VHS (unless you need to record)
I remember It was a good machine. My junior high best friend's family bought one of these and we'd watch entire movies after school sometimes. The picture and sound were great compared to VHS or Beta (my family had a VHS Panasonic machine). It's only drawback was that it didn't record unlike a VHS or Beta machine.
I remember when local Sears had this monstrocity on display...At the time it looked very futuristic. Months later I would visit the display and see discs laying all over the floor...kids would run around and play with them...I don't think employees knew what these things were....
Notice how the screen cuts away when demonstrating the pause function? That's because the player had no still screen pause due to the fact that it read 4 frames per rotation and had run at a constant 450rpm.
@wakaratwakawaka exactly. Laserdisc was out years before CED. They are both analog at the core. Laserdisc did have PCM audio tracks latter in it's life (CD audio, DTS digital) and also had a modulated version of AC-3 Dolby digital 5.1 present on some disks (though this required several pieces of external hardware to decode). Many CEDS of the later years were recorded with Dolby Surround matrixed on to the stereo tracks. Thus, a Pro-Logic decoder can reproduce 'surround sound' from certain disks.
@daiatlus79 Nope. You are wrong. Laserdisc is entierly analog aside from the 2 stereo PCM tracks of audio that may or may not be present. Laserdisc video is analog, just like CED video. In fact, laserdisc video is stored as an analog composite signal on the disc (chroma and luminance combined). So it 's quality is largely based on the player's/reciver's/tv's comb filter that is used to separate the signals.
Well I dug a little deeper, and I found that due to internal conflicts at RCA, while it was technically conceived in 1964 the CED didn't come out until 1981 and laser disc came out in 1978, BUT that was 2 years after the release of VHS in 1976.
yet both CED and Laserdisc were commercial flops due to the popularity of VHS and Beta , and timing/planning, after all, no one wants to flip an monster disc halfway through a movie when you can just pop in single VHS and watch a movie in one sit-down
Wow! Video on vinyl! Sweet! Sadly, it did not work. :( I think the format would have lasted longer if it was issued when it was originally conceived (late 1960s), but due to issues with technology and corporate politics, it was not available until the early 1980s, the era of VCR and Laserdisc. Since CED was obviously an inferior system, it only lasted 5 years on the market (1981-1986). Kinda sad, really.
All kidding and joking about this format aside, the Video Disc player by RCA was affordable and better quality than VHS or BETA or Laser Disc at the time. I actually think it is kind of cool that I bought a Unit and 40 disc collection of movies on ebay for about $75.00. It is a great conversation piece. Of course it is nothing compared to everything else but you have to put things in perspective of the day it was introduced.
@MroffthechainzV2 Laugh all you want. but watching a laserdisc from the early 80's that was released at the same time CED was out, and you will understand what the poster is saying. Return of the Jedi on CED ,for example, looks better than than the original Star Wars does on laserdisc to me. The laserdisc I have of Star Was is from '92, and the CED is from '86.
@tbluemer Actually, LaserDisc technically had better picture and sound(420 scan lines and CD-quality audio, as opposed to 240 lines and analog sound on CED, roughly the same as VHS.).
It's a pity CED didn't come out earlier. Stupid patent arguments delayed it's release be about 13 years, so it was already pretty much outdated when it came out. If it wen into production earlier, I'm sure it would have been *much* more sucessful.
@tbluemer As far as video quality goes, LaserDisc was actually better (CED had about the same resolution as VHS, it just didn't the same tracking problems VHS did).
The main advantage it *did* have was that it was dirt cheap for it's time.
I must be strange... i'm 21 and i have 3 players SJT-100, SKT-100, and SJT-300 and 50+ movies. all work and my friends are amazed. especially at how "futuristic" the loading of discs is. now i just bought a literal car full of beta tapes and VCRs, so looks like i have a lot more information to dish out to curious friends my age who BARELY remember VHS. compare that with my dad who won't use a scratched CD/DVD ('cause that'll wreck the needle) long live the last true all-american video format!
I had one of these things! They were so frikkin cool! Pictures by far surpassed VHS! But sometimes they skipped and shit like a record.
Thanks for the upload. Been trying to find this for sometime. When I tell people we had 'videodiscs' in the 70's, nobody believes me. Here's the Proof!
grey untis were added towards the end of the CED's lifecycle, in it's last couple years. Most purchases of CED videodiscs took place in its first couple years I believe.
Laserdiscs didn't need to be since they were a lot more durable. When DVD was in development Blockbastard Video wanted them to come in a caddy like some CD-ROM drives use, but the companies said no.
I remember this thing back in the early 80's video quality is ok not as good as VCR or DVD
11AlexanderPictures 6 days ago
I can't believe I'm just now finding out about this
whatsuphotdog 2 weeks ago
i want this thing
billyv2000 4 weeks ago
Dose anyone else thing this would have been better if it had been designed with a sliding "window" like a large 3" floppy discet?
Disthron 2 months ago
Rant aside it does look like a fun retro piece of equipment to have and would definitely make a killer conversation piece.
BakkaAmerican 2 months ago
Beta Max was superior to VHS but VHS won out for a number of reasons that had nothing to do with quality. The film industry used Beta Max for years after VHS won out on the "civilian" side. Why? Why did the film industry use Beta and regular joes use VHS? Why did HD-DVD lose out to Blu-Ray ya know?
BakkaAmerican 2 months ago
Quality has nothing to do with how successful a video format is. Everyone knows the porn industry has a big role in that. But odd yet accurate facts aside it is true. Convenience and durability are what decide formats. If this launched in 1964 like it was supposed to it would of been wildly popular, but it didn't it launched in 1981. What would you rather do, put a tape in and watch the whole movie or load a big huge disc in and get an hours worth of playback?
BakkaAmerican 2 months ago
CLASSIC VIDEO :')
juanpablo6toon 2 months ago
I don't know why but this crazy thing looks awesome in a very retro way.
MattTheSaiyan 5 months ago 2
isn't it like a steampunk machine?
Just give player and casing some good Victorian style, an there you have it - Dr. Grordbort's Extraordinary Capacitance Electronic Disc Visiongraph.
Tollaneri 7 months ago
Oh shit, you can pause? Damn I never knew my parents had that ability from what they say when they were kids you had to hand spin the discs!
organicalistic 7 months ago
That doesn't look at all easy to use.
tiberianfiend 11 months ago 3
I had one of these when they were just released and it was really neat but it kept breaking down and in about 1983 I bought one of the newer models with direct drive and stereo sound. I still have it and it still works fine. Also I have about a hundred or so discs sitting around. Don't know what to do with them! Star Wars Return of the Jedi is rare and I have that also.
hankyhoyo 1 year ago
thumbs up if you remember the times when the pause button was considered a feature
xHAZARD78x 1 year ago
sounds like Herschel Bernardi narrating!
siciliano66 1 year ago
ME HAZ BOMB!
0M9H4X 1 year 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
Fascinating technology. One major downfall to the CD was the fact that, despite being developed before the Laserdisc, it wasn't released to the public until a few years after the Laserdisc, so LD had caught on.
Wartler 1 year ago
WTF is that piece of sh!t?
tbcpuebla 1 year ago
I have a Sears stereo player from around '83. It's a re-branded Hitachi. The CED system is pretty cool. For it's time it had very good quality video. Laserdisc was actually out first, but at the time this format was comparable.(Although laserdisc eventually surpassed it. I would equate a a good CED to a better than average VHS tape. You won't have the head-switching noise at the bottom and the 'tracking' is always correct on a CED. CED >>> VHS (unless you need to record)
Maskddingo 1 year ago
I remember It was a good machine. My junior high best friend's family bought one of these and we'd watch entire movies after school sometimes. The picture and sound were great compared to VHS or Beta (my family had a VHS Panasonic machine). It's only drawback was that it didn't record unlike a VHS or Beta machine.
That's why they never caught on back then.
Lalo3001 1 year ago
Amazing.
I remember when local Sears had this monstrocity on display...At the time it looked very futuristic. Months later I would visit the display and see discs laying all over the floor...kids would run around and play with them...I don't think employees knew what these things were....
viclis11 1 year ago
I just bought two titles at the flea market just for the hell of it.
Too bad I missed my chance to get a free player a few years ago.
wakaratwakawaka 1 year ago
OMG you can pause and rewind!!!!
stads24 1 year ago 3
Notice how the screen cuts away when demonstrating the pause function? That's because the player had no still screen pause due to the fact that it read 4 frames per rotation and had run at a constant 450rpm.
HaakonAnderson 1 year ago
wow, i know laserdisks were out in 78 i would dthink these were also
deadpool0311infantry 1 year ago
laserdisc is digital.. these are analog
daiatlus79 1 year ago
Laserdisc is actually analog as well. Only the sound has been digital since 86.
wakaratwakawaka 1 year ago 2
@wakaratwakawaka exactly. Laserdisc was out years before CED. They are both analog at the core. Laserdisc did have PCM audio tracks latter in it's life (CD audio, DTS digital) and also had a modulated version of AC-3 Dolby digital 5.1 present on some disks (though this required several pieces of external hardware to decode). Many CEDS of the later years were recorded with Dolby Surround matrixed on to the stereo tracks. Thus, a Pro-Logic decoder can reproduce 'surround sound' from certain disks.
Maskddingo 1 year ago
@daiatlus79 Nope. You are wrong. Laserdisc is entierly analog aside from the 2 stereo PCM tracks of audio that may or may not be present. Laserdisc video is analog, just like CED video. In fact, laserdisc video is stored as an analog composite signal on the disc (chroma and luminance combined). So it 's quality is largely based on the player's/reciver's/tv's comb filter that is used to separate the signals.
Maskddingo 1 year ago
@Maskddingo then they are not completely analog .. well the ones with Dolby PCM Audio. i miss CED...
daiatlus79 1 year ago
that pause feature is second to none lmao! :D
intheblues 1 year ago
I never knew this existed learn something new every day.
Silvertrine 1 year ago
That's one huge 8-track player!
RkivUnderground 1 year ago
the AVGN has one of these It sucks
Nick3889 1 year ago
seems like a good idea the fact that u dont have to touch the disc itself...well at least at that time.
What was before this??
digitalrbn 1 year ago
Laser disc, and befort that a little thing known as the VHS video Cassete.
Keimori12 1 year ago
wasnt this product before VHS? and if not what was before the vhs? nothing i guess that was the time of the 8 track.
digitalrbn 1 year ago
Well I dug a little deeper, and I found that due to internal conflicts at RCA, while it was technically conceived in 1964 the CED didn't come out until 1981 and laser disc came out in 1978, BUT that was 2 years after the release of VHS in 1976.
yet both CED and Laserdisc were commercial flops due to the popularity of VHS and Beta , and timing/planning, after all, no one wants to flip an monster disc halfway through a movie when you can just pop in single VHS and watch a movie in one sit-down
Keimori12 1 year ago
Wow! Video on vinyl! Sweet! Sadly, it did not work. :( I think the format would have lasted longer if it was issued when it was originally conceived (late 1960s), but due to issues with technology and corporate politics, it was not available until the early 1980s, the era of VCR and Laserdisc. Since CED was obviously an inferior system, it only lasted 5 years on the market (1981-1986). Kinda sad, really.
cartoonfan1920s 2 years ago
I saw a handful of these discs at a local flea market recently. Even having grown up in the 80's, I didn't have a clue what they were! :)
Zycyzyx 2 years ago 5
COOOOOL. I as someone who was born in 1990, who has just started collecting records, I say that this is pretty high up on the cool scale
mikeb1444 2 years ago 3
All kidding and joking about this format aside, the Video Disc player by RCA was affordable and better quality than VHS or BETA or Laser Disc at the time. I actually think it is kind of cool that I bought a Unit and 40 disc collection of movies on ebay for about $75.00. It is a great conversation piece. Of course it is nothing compared to everything else but you have to put things in perspective of the day it was introduced.
tbluemer 3 years ago 15
@tbluemer Better quality than LaserDisc? Haha.
MroffthechainzV2 1 year ago
@MroffthechainzV2 Laugh all you want. but watching a laserdisc from the early 80's that was released at the same time CED was out, and you will understand what the poster is saying. Return of the Jedi on CED ,for example, looks better than than the original Star Wars does on laserdisc to me. The laserdisc I have of Star Was is from '92, and the CED is from '86.
Maskddingo 1 year ago
@tbluemer Actually, LaserDisc technically had better picture and sound(420 scan lines and CD-quality audio, as opposed to 240 lines and analog sound on CED, roughly the same as VHS.).
It's a pity CED didn't come out earlier. Stupid patent arguments delayed it's release be about 13 years, so it was already pretty much outdated when it came out. If it wen into production earlier, I'm sure it would have been *much* more sucessful.
spacehelmetforacow 1 year ago
@tbluemer As far as video quality goes, LaserDisc was actually better (CED had about the same resolution as VHS, it just didn't the same tracking problems VHS did).
The main advantage it *did* have was that it was dirt cheap for it's time.
spacehelmetforacow 8 months ago
this format never took off. Pioneer's LaserDisc format was so much better than this.
Riddler95 3 years ago
*gets out player and discs*
me: "hmm..."
*hooks up to TV*
*inserts disc*
player: "whirrrrrrrrrrrrr...."
me: "LOOOOOAAAAAD FAAAASSSSTEEEERRRR!!!!!"
player: "..whirrrrrrrrrrr(CONT'D)"
*ejects disc*
*opens up caddy*
me: "so THAT'S why it didn't load. the black record in this thing IS A PIECE OF F***ING PLASTIC!!!"
Kargaroc286 3 years ago
When did these first come out ?
CreativeCritisizm 3 years ago
1981. Although they were in development for many years previous to that (mid-60s).
showmethevidsidiot 3 years ago
A while back I had a dream about phonograph records that played video, before I ever knew they existed. This is crazy actually seeing them for real.
CeruleanFilms 3 years ago 2
I must be strange... i'm 21 and i have 3 players SJT-100, SKT-100, and SJT-300 and 50+ movies. all work and my friends are amazed. especially at how "futuristic" the loading of discs is. now i just bought a literal car full of beta tapes and VCRs, so looks like i have a lot more information to dish out to curious friends my age who BARELY remember VHS. compare that with my dad who won't use a scratched CD/DVD ('cause that'll wreck the needle) long live the last true all-american video format!
wickeddavis 3 years ago
does you neighbor have clock radio?
bphutchins 3 years ago
Ced was the very last technology developed to use the needle-and-record approach to media. Look for CED on Wikipedia.
blinkingblythe 3 years ago
I have 4 players, 2 Sears (Hitachi), 1 SGT90, and 1 SGT200 (Stereo) with about 75 movies (very heavy).
xmvirus202 3 years ago
Now I want one.
Coastergeekperson04 4 years ago
I had one of these things! They were so frikkin cool! Pictures by far surpassed VHS! But sometimes they skipped and shit like a record.
Thanks for the upload. Been trying to find this for sometime. When I tell people we had 'videodiscs' in the 70's, nobody believes me. Here's the Proof!
AmbientMusic 4 years ago
you didn't. these weren't released until 1981
bphutchins 3 years ago
Memory fades. I thought it to be the late 70's. 1981 was still the 70's, culturally anyway.
AmbientMusic 3 years ago 2
do you know what else fades? my hand across your face
bphutchins 3 years ago
I beg your pardon young man???
AmbientMusic 3 years ago 3
This comment has received too many negative votes show
you're an alter kocker aren't ya lmao
go rub your junk on your early 80s technology, i'm sure thats exciting to you
bphutchins 3 years ago
Haven't the slightest clue what you're talking about about.
AmbientMusic 3 years ago 3
This has been flagged as spam show
yeah man your some fag
rudoman22 2 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
apparently homosexuality is evil... moron
bphutchins 2 years ago
This has been flagged as spam show
of course it is, only a sick twisted evil mad would want to have sex with another mans ass. thats like demented
rudoman22 2 years ago
you're an idiot
bphutchins 2 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
what you want men having sex with mens assholes?
rudoman22 2 years ago
@AmbientMusic There *were* have video discs in the 70s. This particular format came out in the early 80s, but the Laserdisc format came out earlier.
NotATube 1 year ago
grey untis were added towards the end of the CED's lifecycle, in it's last couple years. Most purchases of CED videodiscs took place in its first couple years I believe.
Skewgee 4 years ago
This must be an early machine, aren't most lever style units gray?
VideoJunkei 4 years ago
This is actually the earliest model, the SFT-100-W. I've got one. ;-)
DrLove0378 4 years ago
what year was this player im wondering?
debiani3866 4 years ago
1981. The last discs were made in 1986. This is cut from the demo disc; I have the entire demo segment on here with better quality.
eyeh8cbs 4 years ago
they should of made laser discs the same way as they did the ced player.let the machine take the disc out,not the person.
allen362002 4 years ago
Laserdiscs didn't need to be since they were a lot more durable. When DVD was in development Blockbastard Video wanted them to come in a caddy like some CD-ROM drives use, but the companies said no.
eyeh8cbs 4 years ago