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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Just think...in about 40 years someone will make a video about the quaint old primitive technology known as "4K Bluray".

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

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

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