I worked on the VideoDisc at RCA Labs in Princeton starting 1980. Around 1982 we were working out a solution to the skipping problem that involved gluing a little magnet to the aluminum stylus arm and "kicking" it with pulsed coils forwards and back to correct for skips. We pretty much got it working in the lab just as they announced the end of the product (and the sale of RCA to GE). It was a tech marvel. The video signal was modulated onto an FM carrier (like VCRs) and the audio FM carriers were added to the video carrier at 1/10 the amplitude. The video carrier was recorded on the copper master at an amplitude of 850 Angstroms, which made the audio carrier 85 Angstroms. The audio carrier needed a carrier to noise ratio of 100:1, or 0.85 Angstroms. Copper atoms are spaced 1.4 Angstroms apart, so that's only 60 copper atoms peak to peak! Fortunately the grooves were 10,000 per inch, or about 25,000 Angstroms wide, so the "copper atom noise" easily averaged out across the width of the groove. The original attempts at making discs conductive involved sputtering metal on them, and they were quite pretty. I still have one. I flinched at your opening clip as you fingered the disc, only to learn later that it was already thoroughly unplayable. Thanks for the memories!

I remember about 1979 going into a TV store in St. Petersburg, Florida and they had a BETA video cassette recorder. It looked great, they were showing the movie 'The Duel' on a screen with a projector type TV. The VCR alone was about $1200, that's back when I bought a new Mazda 626 car for $8,000, so $1200 for a recorder was quite steep. A year later in 1980 I walking through a mall in Pensacola, Florida and I saw movie flyers (billboards) in a TV store window. I walked in and they were playing the RCA Video Disc player. I bought a unit a couple of days later for $499. Movies were $25 - $30 and I ended buying about 30 movies that first year. Films like Chinatown, Heaven Can Wait, Airplane and Urban Cowboy were some of the titles. About 1983 they came out with a stereo version and I had just bought a stereo TV. I don't remember the price but it was about $200, so a lot cheaper than the original unit I bought two years earlier. About 1984 I went into a record store in Brunswick, Georgia they were closing out the video discs. They were all marked down to about $7 and they had a couple hundred titles to choose from. Over the next couple of months I ended up buying about 200 of those films. I never had too many problems with films skipping, the only nuisance I remember is having to get up and flick the disc over when you needed side 2 on longer films. I enjoyed that player, but by about 1986 I had bought a stereo VCR and like most people began renting moving. That's my history with the RCA Video Disc player and the associated films.

Considering it's read by a bloody stylus, the picture is pretty impressive.

Someone should make a 5 part trilogy about the history of these.

My brother in law was an engineer at RCA in the early eighties when the CED was making it's debut. He had an engineering sample at his home, we watched a couple of movies. I was not too impressed with the quality, looked a lot like a VHS SLP recorded tape. Even with a new player and new discs, the system had problems with skips and freezes. I asked him if he thought the format would make it and he said flatly that RCA really had a turkey on its hands, but they were into to it so much, they had to give it a go. Of course, it flopped monumentally. Thanks for the video, it answered a lot of questions, especially about the format's impact in the UK.

A video that chronicles one man's journey in to becoming the owner of the worlds largest collection of CED players! I like this channel.

This format radiates an aura of 'it seemed like a good idea at the time'

Pink Floyd at Pompeii on CED! Very cool. We used to rent these machines and discs at the hardware store in our village. They were pretty much rubbish as the skipping problem made watching a movie very frustrating. Thanks for the memories.

Just a quick word. There are a lot of people recommending 'fixes' for my player when it comes to playing discs because they were skipping, but you may have skipped a section of my video, because it's the discs not the players that are at fault. 1) The first player and all the discs I received with it were *all badly stored...and had probably been in a damp environment* - I mentioned this by joking that the discs looked like they had been "Stored in a pond". 2) Because of the ruined discs to 'Show the format off at its best' I bought a *brand new unopened disc* "The Muppets Movie". This played fine and skipping perhaps two or three individual frames (that's the same a blinking your eyes) during the course of the whole film. 3) So looking at 1 & 2 above, we can see that when using a disc that is not ruined, the videodisc player will play the disc fine, so there is therefore nothing wrong with the player. 4) However even if all the films played as perfectly as the Muppets movie I have no intention of watching any more CEDs as I'm not interested in watching VHS Quality 4:3 ratio films from the UK's poor selection of third rate titles. I'd prefer to watch a blu-ray, I only made this video to demonstrate the format. I have since given the players and discs away.

your dedication to fixing this thing is admirable.

i find the visual image on the ced has a nice warmth too it that makes me appreciate watching the movies more than on a digitally downloaded video.

I remember that dinosaur programme from childhood! Genuinely haven't remembered or thought about it for 25 years or so - thanks for the inadvertent massive hit of nostalgia.

You know that when TechMoan says that a 40+ year old system is "relatively unheard of nowadays" it means that less than five people in the world are aware they exist. Splendid find as always, sir!

wow for something that lasted only a few years got 30 minutes of very quality educational footage this is why i subscribed i loved it

That clip of the 70s dinosaur documentary scratched out an ancient memory of watching it on a recorded VHS in the 90s, retro dino stuff was the coolest.

This is by far my favorite Techmoan video. My first viewing of Poltergeist (my favorite film) was on CED. Many thanks for this one and the rest!

Upload that Poltergeist footage on a separate channel, call it a YTP and you'll be golden.

"I've got an idea! Let's make a video disc player that has the same resolution as video tape but can't record, and uses discs so incredibly fragile that people can't be permitted to touch them under any circumstance otherwise the playback will be completely screwed up! We're gonna be rich!" :-) Excellent video, especially the lessons on how to repair mechanical machines. When in doubt, replace the belts!

I am so happy that I never got "stuck" with this video format. Playing a video with a stylus just does not compute in my head. After watching this, my head computed correctly.

Another cracking video of a format I did not know existed... And the quality on The Muppet's looked fantastic.

I still don't really understand why I find your videos so fascinating, but it seems like each time you release a new video with some old technology I gobble it up like some sort of candy. Keep up the good work!

Vinyl video discs have always fascinated me, especially the ill fated colecovision console add on, which could reproduce Dragon's Lair. it blows my mind how this technology works (or not)

I was completely unaware of this technology, and I lived through that era. Thank you.

My grandparents had one of these in the early 80s, here in Canada. I don't know where they got it from, and no one that I have ever mentioned it to knew what I was talking about - in fact, people would look at me like I was crazy. I've been writing down some memories from childhood, and this came to mind. Glad I was able to find it here so now I have proof I wasn't imagining things!

I only recently discovered your channel and am glad i did. between yours and the LGR channel i have spent hours watching videos on old tech. I have always been fascinated by older technology and how we have progressed to what we have today. being in my early 30's i'm still surprised by how much tech has been around in my lifetime i never new much or anything about. I look forward to watching more of your stuff it has been very informative and entertaining .

Excellent video, as always. Your love for A/V tech, and research into the topics is second to none! I'm glad that I could help out.

24:55 I think the cropped off version is called Pan and Scan in the movie industry. About 10 years ago I saw a short documentary on TCM about it, and how directors disapproved of it because it was essentially a redirecting of their movie and not what they intended. I think they mentioned it was done more for movies to be shown on TV and being able to fit the TV screen. Back in the TV box days, the Clint Eastwood movies were full of that. Thank god is over!

Very much enjoying your channel, absolutely loving your videos. It's like a virtual museum of my childhood .. I was a kid of the 80s (2 yo in 1980) .. , son of a VHS rental store owner & tech enthusiast. We owned it all , Laser Disc/Video Disc, VHS , etc and your channel is bringing back a major nostalgia high, making me want to collect this stuff again myself. Thank you!

The mentioning of how the TED works by using a cushion of air to hold it steady reminds me of a piece of old computer tech from the early 80's to early 90's. It was called a bernoulli drive, and it used air pressure from the rapidly spinning disk to draw the IO head to the disk surface. Thing is, because if the way it worked, a head crash was practically impossible, making it the first successful removable media with built-in crash protection.

You really are tuned in and write wonderfully... I wrote my Senior thesis on the RCA system back in 1977 and sort of got in trouble from my prediction which of course was that the system was going to be a colossal failure. It was RCA of course that brought you the 45 rpm record with the hole that didn't fit anyone's record player. RCA thought that the RCA name alone was enough to dominate the home entertainment market but with too many competing divisions at the time they had already sold the rights for the underlying technology for VHS to Matsushita and the LCD patents to Toshiba (because they were selling too many tube-based color TVs) so I think they knew the handwriting was on the wall already for the company...

"Community" brought me here. I'm glad you have a video on CED.

I have a huge collection of these CED machines and the discs and i still repair and use them to this day ... They really were awesome for the time .. i also have a lot of 16 MM films as well i watch .. Thank you for sharing this with us .... I really love watching your videos my friend, we have the same interests. :)

Never heard of CED until your fine video. Still RCA did a fine job with the good old RCA connecter, still very relevant after all these years.

"Looks like it's been stored in a pond" is going straight into my lexicon

We had one of these in the early 80's. The disks always skipped even when new.

My Mom was a district manager for AVON in the 80's and at one point the company sent CED players to all of the managers so they could lug them to sales meetings. AVON produced training and other various videos on CED after having used the old filmstrip & cassette player option for years. It was the first in a long line of hilarious mistakes the company made when it came to formats for their training videos. I don't think they finally got round to using VHS until around 1990. You can guess which formats (yes, plural) AVON tried to go with between CED and VHS. Somehow, they always managed to go with the absolute worst option possible. Also, those CED's (all of them, not just AVON's) were notorious for being knackered right out of the shrinkwrap. Great vids!

Always amazed by the quality of your videos. Can't imagine how long it took to edit this.

I was secretly waiting for the RCA videodisc to be reviewed :) Thanks. This device knows how to remix those old movies :D

That Pink Floyd Live At Pompeii disc could actually be worth something. Pink Floyd collectors tend to search for odd little curios like that.

I loved the CED machines, short lived as they were, and was amazed at how smooth the fast-search (jog- shuttle) was even on the “low-spec” machines. I had never heard of the “TED” machines. Thanks for another great presentation!

Storming episode! You just keep raising your game. Hats off to you

You sure do put a lot of work into these videos, very entertaining also. Thanks.

This is the most informative video I've watched so far. I just got my first CED from ebay just to see what it looked like, I'd love to have a small collection and a working player someday.

You are an old man, but your mind is younger and more inquisitive than most youngsters out there.

Another excellent video, I especially love these retro tech and old hi-fi videos!

Wow. Another amazing video. I really like your new style where you appear more on camera. You are a great presenter and do quite a good job at presenting - Keep up the good work Mat!

Picked up about 15 of these discs at Goodwill yesterday - everyone in the store was asking me what they were. Thanks for making great informative videos about tech like this!

That skipping Poltergeist disc made me chuckle for some reason, because I just imagined the ghosts are screwing up time and reality every time the video jumps around. "GO INTO THE LI-LI-LI-LI-vrrp vrrp bzzt-NUMBER TWO!"

What a cool format! It's sad that the discs have deteriorated.

Damn, I've watched Poltergeist on DVD but considering the film's context it seems quite fitting. It's as if the TV is possessed, or something. Good Video, very informative.

Aw, strangely nostalgic for me; not because of the CED, but because it’s the first Techmoan video I ever saw haha! Since then each video has been one of my highlights of the week for over 2 years! A very merry Christmas to any fellow Techmoan fanatics out there reading this!

So from what I can tell the CED produced a picture slightly sharper than a VHS tape but was effectively the same resolution. And much more prone to contamination and damage than VHS - at least if you have a dodgy old tape you can adjust the tracking on your VCR to try make it watchable - on the CED unless your disc has been unopened since new (like the Muppet movie disc you managed to get off ebay) it will probably be almost unplayable and there's nothing you can do about it. Next you should try get hold of the RCA tape cartridge player - almost twice as big again as an Elcaset.

I remember buying one of these cheap in Tottenham Court Rd when they were clearing them out - came with a Jefferson Starship live concert disc.

This has become one of my favorite KZfaq channels-just one fun, interesting video after another.

In the days before our first VHS VCR, we used to rent one of these for occasional family movie night. The local appliance store rented them and must have had about every disk available in the U.S. It seemed like a the neatest thing ever back then. But then, we got a VCR and never looked back.

Love to hear more about the CED games only released in Japan. Cobra Command was one of the arcade laser disc games that was put on CED and worked in conjunction with an MSX computer.The interface of the two units (CED and MSX) allowed for scoring, controls, etc.

Blimey! That whole episode was TV broadcastable as a complete production.

Man, you really went all out here! Very excellent presentation. Thank you for going through all the trouble to show us this.

3 machines later.... All in all, your videos are a real joy to watch!

Excellent video, you can tell the amount of work that goes into your videos, thumbs up

by far my favorite video of yours techmoan, the ammount of time and effort you put in is incredible thank you for a great insight into a format myself had never heard of

Can I just say... Fantastic... I love watching these clips. I love my tech and always have and understanding it to the depth you go into is like a bonus mostly to tech that I either used to own or wished I did. Keep up the fantastic work. It really is much appreciated. Cheers Gaz

Whilst working in the HiFi industry in the 90s I had a day doing stock take and found one of these machines and some discs. There was a moment of intense interest as I looked at the stylus and wondered. DVD had not long been introduced and had made an immense impact on all who saw it, it's superiority over all that had come before was obvious. ..I spent some time cleaning the machine, a Toshiba I think, and played a disc. My interest instantly withered and it was stuck back on the shelf. My favourite phrase of the time, 'You can't polish a turd' applied. Love your videos, I think I have said before, they are simply the best on planet Earth for this sort of thing, immense kudos for that. Much deserved praise.

With those glitches the Max Headroom reference was really apt

This was a very informative video. Absolutely top notch. I can't wait for the video about the next player going into your home cinema setup.

I have never heard of these discs in my life till today. Mental

Hi, just wanted to say, thanks for all the trouble you go through, just to teach us about a forgotten format. I can tell you enjoy it, like most of your fans do but it's still a lot of time spent. For that, and your sense of awe, enjoyment and discovery, thank you :) Cheers from Canada

That's a really professionally made video. I love weird formats like this.

This review was spot-on. History of a monumentally failed-format explained. Good job :D

great video! I remember spending all day trying to win a radio contest giving away a videodic player back when i was 11 years old, the wound still feel fresh. keep the goodness rolling.

I had one of these growing up!!! We were given them by a family friend who didn't want it anymore (it was in the 90s), and included a bunch of free films - a lot of them in the discs you go through! I remember watching Time Bandits and that muppet movie many times! I had a memory of it actually being pretty good quality, better than VHS - except it suffered from skipping issues. Thank you for the video really enjoyed it!

What a wizard wheeze! Brings back memories of when these suddenly appeared en masse at my Currys branch in '84. Betamax machines such as the Sanyo VTC5000 sold for pretty much the same price and offered much much more and boy did we have a hard time shifting the Hitachi CED stock, despite the bulk disc bundles. In fact if I recall correctly this was one of those rare items that we had to return the entire stock to the Newark warehouse due to them being withdrawn. Being a curious type I popped a disc open to look at the caddy and the disc it held within. Probably didn't do the disc any favours. We had one on demo playing Duran Duran once - the video to Girls on Film was quite explicit as we discovered to our shock/horror (or did one of my colleagues already know it was the X rated version and put it on for devilment - can't remember). I can even remember the Hitachi TV ad as well - Bill Pertwee and someone else as coppers walking a deserted London on New Years eve complaining that it was the videodiscs fault that everyone was at home watching their players instead of celebrating the New Year.

Really fascinating video - I had no idea these things even existed! Many thanks for all your hard work.

This triggered a memory from when I was 5 years old, visiting some old family friends who had this format. I remember watching Watership Down with them telling me not to move around too much because it would make the movie skip.

You sir deserve a medal for this video. Thanks for the history lesson on something I had no idea existed!

Whoa. Those disks skipping really look like youtube poop. :D Congrats though. Those videos are a total joy to watch!

Amazing- thank you so much for uploading this! I had learned of CEDs existence a couple of years ago but never new much about them. And while I'm no expert on any media-related technology, I found your video to be very informative, interesting and entertaining. Subbed; proceeding to watch your entire upload history.

Man I admire your dedication so much. One of the best channels on YT hands down

Very cool video. I just bought some videodiscs for my collection. I have no intention of watching them. But i like to collect movies. Once again I enjoyed your video. Thanks

Thank you so much for this video! Never even heard of the CED.

Brilliant video, very educational.

Growing up in a small town in Northern Minnesota, USA, we had 1 TV repair shop & he happened to also be an RCA Factory Authorized dealer who rented these machines & the discs & so that was all there was for us as far as being able to rent a video back then! And even then, they skipped & had the little black "streaks" that run across the screen occasionally. They NEVER worked quite right, but it was our only way of renting a movie to watch at home, so we put up with it.

I love how this video opens with a reel to reel machine. amazing sound quality, and pretty fun

Wow, I never knew about those machines, play videos with a stylus, insane!, thank you for the fantastic review and insight in that now ancient tech.

The skipping and jumping reminds me of that greeting video in the 80's cafe in BTTF2.

i was born in 1992 and i extremely appreciate all your videos they are done well. In school you learn about "history" but not tech history. Your videos really give an appreciation for how far we have come. Im also a tech geek and audiophile. If your wondering what your doing is important... well it is. how us would a 18 year old know about a vhs/cassette tape and other aged medias. Thanks!

Excellent review. This morning I first heard about CED and read an article in Wikipedia, and thanks to you I can see how it looks.

Poltergeist there just looked like a crappy YTP

There's nothing wrong with the Poltergeist CED, that's just the J.J. Abrams version. 23:14

I used to bloody love that Dinosaurs: Fun, Facts and Fantasy video disc as a kid, watched it nearly every day!

I'm really happy you mentioned aspect ratio. It's one of the things I hated about VHS and even television up until the mid-late 90s when it started changing. I grew up on Pan and Scan and only in my teenage years did I realize how it ruined not only the picture quality and what you could see, but the director's/DP's vision as well. Nowadays we have another opposite problem - people zooming in or stretching older 4:3 TV into to 16:9 as 99% of TV was shot in that ratio until the late 90s early 2000s...

Fun! Your videos just get better and better - love 'em!

This came up as a recommended video and I have to say was absolutely fascinating. I'd never heard of this format and I can understand why. I completely agree that they just missed the market and seemingly at a massive expense. Great video.

We had one of these when I was a kid, must have been early eighties. When I left the army in 1996 I found it in our attic. Still worked for a few (3-4) years after that. Great piece of tech.

Thanks to you, I'm making a 5 hour trek into Iowa to pick up one of these things tomorrow.

RCA CED Videodisc: KZfaq jump cut editing before it was cool.

Wow, never knew this analog video system existed! I'm more than fascinated.

My babysitter in 1988 had one of these and a whole library of movies. I loved watching Stir Crazy and Escape from New York! If left to my own devices I easily could have exceeded the 500 plays on those Videodiscs. I'm really glad you took the time to show off the picture quality in comparison to Bluray. When you did the fade back to Videodisc it was a stark reminder of how we once paid top dollar to watch movies in pretty poor quality.

I love your videos! Discovered so many things i've nevered heard of before...

Another cracking documentary from Techmoan....!! :-)