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.

4 жыл бұрын

Share more stuff with us! Stories! :)

@adelaide7822

4 жыл бұрын

I third the request for more stories. This is such an interesting story.

@3bydacreekside

4 жыл бұрын

I multiply these requests!

@RussellNelson

4 жыл бұрын

My ex-wife, Heather Helms, worked on this in Princeton one summer. 1979, I think.

@DabuDave

4 жыл бұрын

fake news

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

@Katherine-wt1oh

2 жыл бұрын

HA! Was that really a thing? Before my time, at least

@deathdeathrevolution3499

2 жыл бұрын

dont worry, google is the government now

@SnakesGames

2 жыл бұрын

That's at least three decades before my time.

@MACTEP_CHOB

2 жыл бұрын

@@deathdeathrevolution3499 Google is god now

@eren3527

2 жыл бұрын

When google break up another giant -US- it will be more nostalgic.

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.

@HeartTribe

Жыл бұрын

That's so cool.

@BossDrSample

Жыл бұрын

DUDE as soon as I saw this video i was like 'hmm i wonder if you could scratch these like vinyl'

@petess10page

Жыл бұрын

@@BossDrSample they spin at 450rpm, that would be like scratching a CD

@user-vm9wv4gj9p

10 ай бұрын

Would love to see video capture of this.

@unchained576

8 ай бұрын

​@@user-vm9wv4gj9pme too

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!

@TextileGeorge

7 ай бұрын

Wish you could find amazing stuff like that at Goodwill these days, everything is so picked over by resellers 😢

@thomasrussell4674

5 ай бұрын

I love the thought of technology like this where there's just barely enough to have some players and playable content in the right format left over, just enough for enthusiasts, artists, nerds and collectors.

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.

@Fopenplop

4 жыл бұрын

Okay THIS is a story that deserves to be told in video form

@wokthedragon

4 жыл бұрын

To bad we didn't have photos or videos of the mastering area.

@laughingman4236

4 жыл бұрын

That's awesome

@longnamedude3947

4 жыл бұрын

Sounds like you have had a interesting life, and have worked with/on some interesting projects

@alabasterscarf612

4 жыл бұрын

By D&D you mean TSR? I'd heard they dabbled in some video stuff. Like in Dragon Strike.

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

@solarstrike33

4 жыл бұрын

Hell, he arguably *surpasses* them.

@stimpy_thecat

4 жыл бұрын

Kids today have it great. When I was in elementary school we relied on filmstrips and slide projectors as media learning tools. It's probably why I'm so boring today 😂

@jonothanthrace1530

4 жыл бұрын

@@stimpy_thecat "BEEP The Radio Corporation of BEEP America was creaBEEPted when..."

@stimpy_thecat

4 жыл бұрын

@@jonothanthrace1530 that's it! How primitive...

@sebastianelytron8450

4 жыл бұрын

Single person?😂 Dude has a whole team behind him.

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

@thetechsavvy0153

Жыл бұрын

@Frederick Revalee I see. Still, my point stands.

@thetechsavvy0153

Жыл бұрын

@Frederick Revalee Ah thanks for the clarafication

@HAHb-zc2dp

5 ай бұрын

Analog is analog kiddo

@Attmay

9 күн бұрын

Laserdisc managed to combine the best of both worlds in the moment.

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.

@Bruce_Wayne35

Жыл бұрын

He probably had a laser disc format. I don't think the CED video disc players had stereo sound capability.

@No_True_Scotsman

Жыл бұрын

I agree with the other commentor with the whacky name -- it was probably LaserDisc.

@PaladinErik

Жыл бұрын

@@No_True_Scotsman Do you see his nick as "@user-vn8sx8kp4s", because it is strange how I have seen a lot of profile names like that for a while. What is going on?

@captaintrips2980

Жыл бұрын

@@Bruce_Wayne35 yes they definitely did. I'm looking right now at red and black RCA phono jacks on mine.

@Bruce_Wayne35

Жыл бұрын

@@PaladinErik It's just something KZread started doing very recently. If you don't choose a nick name, you automatically get assigned one and that's the one they assigned to me.

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.

@fixman88

4 жыл бұрын

RCA owned Banquet? I've heard of diversification but man...

@theannoyedmrfloyd3998

4 жыл бұрын

Its - possessive, no apostrophe It's - contraction for It Is

@ggendel

4 жыл бұрын

@@theannoyedmrfloyd3998 Thanks for taking the time to read.

@greggv8

4 жыл бұрын

RCA never licensed a patent, until television. Before they butted heads with Philo Farnsworth they would either buy patents outright or would just go ahead and make the thing and dare the inventor to try and fight their deep pockets. Farnsworth was having none of that. Only after RCA's team they'd tasked with making their version work to prove they had electronic TV first produced a system essentially identical to Farnsworth's, and said that was the only way, did RCA for the first time license a patent. But they had dragged it out long enough they didn't have to pay royalties for long. Farnsworth's own television manufacturing company failed and RCA either claimed or strongly implied they were the inventors of television. See farnovision.com

@ggendel

4 жыл бұрын

@@greggv8 There were others like Edwin Armstrong that were caught off-guard by David Sarnoff's strong-arm tactics. This was a common theme at the time and the core reason why there is a need have checks on corporate capitalism to prevent runaway greed. We can find the same tactics by the big automobile manufacturers and other industries. Funny how the bad things get lost in the good ones. Without David Sarnoff, there probably wouldn't be public radio or television in the US.

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

@nowionlywantatriumph

4 жыл бұрын

Great Scott!

@RCAvhstape

4 жыл бұрын

Whoa! That's heavy, Doc.

@carldurrell9943

4 жыл бұрын

If a CED Disc is a Flux Capacitor perhaps reconstructed Deloreans to look like from Back to the Future should have CED player where the y shaped flux capacitor is. A Time Machine with RCA at its Heart❤️~♾~

@Motrhed289

4 жыл бұрын

I think that was a stretch. Normal capacitors are used in electrical circuits, where we describe electrical flow (the movement of electrons) with volts and amps. Flux is a term that describes a magnetic field's magnitude and direction. Electrical transformers convert current in the wires (amps) into flux in the transformer's core (magnetic field). Many time-travel concepts revolve around bending space-time, which could be done with gravitational or maybe magnetic fields. Thus I've always believed the 'flux capacitor' was a device that stored or accumulated a magnetic field, much like an electrical capacitor stores electrical charge.

@RedmarKerkhof

4 жыл бұрын

Flux is also what blacksmiths use to prevent oxidation of the metal. I've seen people use WD40 as a way to get the flux deeper into the grooves of the workpiece, thus better capacitating its functioning. WD40 is a flux capacitator.

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.

@TheScreamingFrog916

Жыл бұрын

I loved it. Was one of my favorites, back when first released, along with Wendy Carlos, and a few others. I was very excited about electronic music. Now I have a wall of synthesizers, I love to make noise/music with. Life is good 🎶🎹⚡😻

@bcj842

Жыл бұрын

@@TheScreamingFrog916 Same. I have made the mistake of cheaping out on the keyboard stand and with 3 tiers she's starting to get pretty wobbly. Had to shim the front feet,

@TheScreamingFrog916

Жыл бұрын

@@bcj842 I have started building custom wooden stands and tables, in my garage wood shop, to accommodate my ever expanding synth collection. Desk/laptop synths are piling up on my couch too, LOL. Fun hobby, good times :-)

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.

@jacobhargiss3839

3 жыл бұрын

And here I was thinking I was the only one

@MrKeepsOnTickin

2 жыл бұрын

Same here with me Scott. Let's hang on together, I'm sure things will get better for us! Love you guys ♥️

@Orincaby

2 жыл бұрын

facts

@nils9853

2 жыл бұрын

These RCA series is also one of my favorite ones to fall asleep when my mind is restless...

@pokepija

2 жыл бұрын

I thought I was the only one too. How bizarre

How is that RCA intro feel so nostalgic even though this is the first time I have ever seen it?

@Garbongoloid

3 жыл бұрын

I definitely think it was based off of a hymnal that I remember singing in church as a kid

@travdump209

3 жыл бұрын

Maia Garbett The music is “Promenade” by Modest Mussorgsky.

@eleithias

3 жыл бұрын

It's an amazing song, very regal.

@Garbongoloid

3 жыл бұрын

@@travdump209 oh yes!! My dad used to play that on piano!!! That's where I heard it 😆 thank you

@The2x4

3 жыл бұрын

Probably just a combination of the picture and sound quality, and the style of intro, which together bring up memories of similar intros from childhood memories. On a side note, a family friend had a collection of Roadrunner cartoons on video discs back on the early 90s. Fun memories.

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.

@unnamedchannel1237

4 жыл бұрын

It was all a dream and the government made this video to keep you in the dream Like state

@J.DeLaPoer

4 жыл бұрын

It was pretty obscure. My grandparents had this system (grandpa was an AV enthusiast) but I've never yet met anyone else who had or heard of it either, outside the internet at least.

@thesuperpunmaster6369

4 жыл бұрын

@@unnamedchannel1237 yes, and they keep us in a dream like state so we believe Wyoming actually exists

@forceablepizza764

3 жыл бұрын

i was born in 88 and ive never heard of this tech until today, made worse by the fact that i am a tech

@lunamooncat7926

3 жыл бұрын

@@thesuperpunmaster6369 that's funny. There is this joke that the German city of Bielefeld doesn't exist and it's basically just a government hoax.

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.

@Yarjka

Жыл бұрын

I watched all of my movies on this in my early childhood. I don’t remember any skipping issues. We called them “round rounds.” 😁 I’ve always been confused about why no one else seems to know about them.

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

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

@Roalethiago

4 жыл бұрын

I wonder how many takes that took lol

@CptGreedle

4 жыл бұрын

I'm not surprised someone named Nigel was drinking tea and watching videos about outdated media formats.

@Desmaad

4 жыл бұрын

I take it he's been watching Jay Foreman.

@the_hamrat

4 жыл бұрын

@@CptGreedle again I snorted tea out my nose at that comment I'm more British than the Queen herself

@TheZerok666

4 жыл бұрын

At least it wasn't timey wimey stuff

I thought I'd add a bit of context to this presentation. I was always an early adopter but also poor. Price was a huge part of why people bought these players and disks. At the time, movies, as you pointed out, were selling in the $20 - $30 price range. The same movies on VHS tape were selling for $90 and up. The players were about $530 compared to VHS and Beta decks which were selling in the $900 to $1500 range. So, for the money conscious consumer, it was a better buy for the same picture quality. Add to that, RCA had a HUGE push on to provide a large catalog of content. At one point there was something like 7,000 titles available, including interactive games as well as movies and TV episodes from popular series such as Star Trek. Renting CED disks was about $2 for an overnight rental. RCA also licensed their technology and pushed the players into every major retail store. Sears, JC Penny, Radio Shack, and so forth all sold CED players, often under their own brand names. Were they perfect? No. Not at all. Most of the new disks played well when new. Often with no glitches at all. If not stored properly or mishandled, they quickly deteriorated. But that being said they were a low cost way to enter the "video on demand" world. I later transitioned to LaserDisc because of the improved quality and life of the media but for a poor guy with aspirations of a library of video content of my own, this was a great way to start. I still have a player with autoload and a few of the CED disks around just as a reminder. Thanks for the great presentation!

@terrafirma9328

Жыл бұрын

That's nastalgia gold dude. I'd love to own one just for the real flux capacitor feature alone. But I digress, if I did own it, would probably be like eh, whateves, lol🚗

@Just.Kidding

Жыл бұрын

Laserdisc doesn't exactly have a long life. They're all in the process of degrading and will be destroyed in an estimated 10-20 years, iirc. This is very unfortunate because laserdisc actually caught on in Japan in a HUGE way, and as such, there are many anime series in danger of becoming (and that already ARE) lost media because they were only printed on laserdisc.

I never knew that this technology existed before this video, such a fascinating piece of equipment!

@faizanrana2998

Жыл бұрын

I'm calling BS

@Punttipate62

Жыл бұрын

@@faizanrana2998 on what??

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!

@larkefedifero

Жыл бұрын

TLIW is about as close you can come to Shakespeare in the modern vernacular! Were they CED's or some other type of video-on-vinyl??!? 😮

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

@DeathBYDesign666

4 жыл бұрын

We'll probably be using holographic data storage by then. Imagine a CD but storing the data in 3 dimensions instead of just 2. We actually already have that capability and have for a while, it just hasn't gone mainstream yet. 15 years ago they held 100 terabytes, just to give you an idea how advanced they were even then. That was considered way too much memory at the time and still is a bit much today.

@harrylane4

4 жыл бұрын

I think a better analogue for this video would be HDDVD

@meatsafemurderer7743

4 жыл бұрын

@@harrylane4 HDDVD died a decade ago. 4K bluray is a failure too, killed off by streaming.

@neondemon5137

4 жыл бұрын

@@meatsafemurderer7743 Streaming is shit though. Convenient sure, but the quality is pretty bad for films.

@mdo7

4 жыл бұрын

@@meatsafemurderer7743 As much as I love streaming, but I also hate streaming too. Yes, I have a love-hate relationship with streaming. I love it because I can watch my foreign TV dramas (K-dramas, TV dramas from Europe). I hate it because well not everything I want is on there. For example, one old school Japanese anime, Gatchaman (which I really want to watch) is not available on Netflix or Amazon Prime. And I'm not spending 48 dollars a year for HiDive just so I can watch a old school anime. That's why I'm thankful for blu-ray. Yes, there are other movies and TV shows I can't find on streaming site and that really frustrate me.

Say it with me now: “Character encoding schemes of which Morse Code is one”. Exactly what I was going to say!

@gagekieffer772

Ай бұрын

"Morse c- oh."

Murder by Death is up there with Serial Mom as one of my favourite films. Back in the late 60's my school had a reel-to-reel video tape machine. As well as watching the 1969 moon landing they were able to record it for later use.

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

My family owned one of these and we actually were able to rent discs from a local store that had a small selection of titles available for a couple years.

@electrictroy2010

2 жыл бұрын

Same here. I still have the records; no idea if the player still works (probably not).

@andracatheduckking257

2 жыл бұрын

@@electrictroy2010 only one way to find out!

@richardklug822

Жыл бұрын

Our local Blockbuster rented titles for $2 a night. My father loved new gadgets so he, my brother and I each got a player for Christmas. Dad would also buy discs of titles he liked. We inherited his collection when he passed on. I can't remember a single time when a disc didn't skip or freeze during play back. Eventually all three players broke and we dumped the disc collection at a garage sale.

"I hear Channel 62 is good" I see you too are a fan of UHF

@Raatcharch

4 жыл бұрын

He's a shareholder of U62, no doubt.

@Christophthegeek

4 жыл бұрын

Oh I’m a fan for life now.

@fishmonger1526

4 жыл бұрын

Well, they do have it all on UHF

@psiiota6004

4 жыл бұрын

I love that you put that opportunity in...

@ccateni28

4 жыл бұрын

Who isn't?

When I hear about old technology being super expensive like $1500 for a VCR I reactively "oof. Who could afford that?" But then I think about how its not much different than high end new emerging technology today. $1000 for your yearly iPhone, thousands for large ultra high definition TVs, etc

@jones6686

3 жыл бұрын

It's pretty weird to think someday future generations will look back and loudly and deeply "OOF" at the idea of spending so much on a big screen you can't even taste 🤦🏾‍♂️🙄

@lucifer2b666

3 жыл бұрын

@@jones6686 I mean it's stupid that anyone even buys expensive TVs to begin with. I can't tell the difference really and when I do, I get a headache because it looks like playdough and too hi def and ultra saturated.

@cessnafun5385

3 жыл бұрын

Well, $1500 in the early to mid 80's was around $6000 in today's money, so in fact, it was way more expensive than anything we buy today that is considered to be excessive.

@pravda9646

3 жыл бұрын

@@lucifer2b666 well, everyone else can tell :/

@zadmeck

3 жыл бұрын

@@cessnafun5385 what he's mentioning was 1500 bucks after conversion, not before

Bless you for making that U62 reference! I truly feel the world gets just a little better every time someone references UHF.

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!

@KurosakiYukigo

4 жыл бұрын

It is pretty good and clear, but the reverb needs some work, and the s's are pretty sharp.

@baconcatbug

4 жыл бұрын

IMHO the audio is a straight downgrade.

@leostechnikkanal

4 жыл бұрын

The aduio is great! In my opinion there is nothing to fix!

@UrbanLetsPlay

4 жыл бұрын

Audio is awful on my laptop now :(

@miawgogo

4 жыл бұрын

Bit echoy and there seems to be a hum, but when that is fixed it will be good. What type of microphone is it?

The guy in the RCA ad is my grandfather!

@pandakicker1

4 жыл бұрын

Ben Gold Oh! That’s awesome! You look very much like your grandfather! (:

@fourteencrows1244

4 жыл бұрын

Weird flex.. But ok

@JasontheFolf

4 жыл бұрын

Cool!

@F0X_H0UND

4 жыл бұрын

He's my grandfather too.

@UNPOCOLOCO444

4 жыл бұрын

He’s my grandpa too.

I’ve seen this so many times that I have “Character encoding schemes of which Morse Code is one” memorized down to your exact tone

This channel has to be one of my most favorites, seriously I’ve spent over 13 years on KZread now and this man honestly impresses me the most out of just about anyone else I’ve seen, his style is simply perfect, with a blend of ‘fanciness business like’ in the overall setting and a homey feeling which is simply damn impressive. Well done keep these videos coming!

@matthoward8546

2 жыл бұрын

the kid is good.

@Attmay

9 күн бұрын

I'm not even halfway through the video and I'm already impressed.

''why is youtube recommending this to me? I'll just watch a min or two then move on...'' 23 mins later, here I am craving for more retro tech history

@hellelujahh

4 жыл бұрын

You're infected. This is your life now. (It's amazing :D )

@futureshock7425

4 жыл бұрын

Syber-VHS it’s an excellent documentary isn’t it

@daveshaw9344

4 жыл бұрын

KZread knows you better then you know yourself

@ralphjosephacobo8014

4 жыл бұрын

@@daveshaw9344 given how much KZread I watch, that's kinda scary

@lazyrmc

4 жыл бұрын

Same here

General Electric. My favorite wartime general.

@killerkitten7534

4 жыл бұрын

Mine was always General Mills

@journeyfms

4 жыл бұрын

@@nobodys_winds6580 Y'all never heard of my homie General Nutrition.

@red2theelectricboogaloo961

4 жыл бұрын

what about general atomics? come on y'all.

@MorgoUK

4 жыл бұрын

What about the guy from Intelligence? - General Knowledge

@locke103

3 жыл бұрын

@@killerkitten7534 captain crunch is crying in a corner.

Thank you for breaking my habit of calling VCR's, VHS Players 😂

That intro is so comfy. I’ve never actually seen a CED in person in my life, and yet that startup jingle makes me so nostalgic and at home.

I remember WORKING on 1 of those players in 1982! I was amazed st the mere fact that it really DID work at all! But it DID work, in full color, & stereo sound, too!

@nobody8685

2 жыл бұрын

I'm getting my degree in engineering and I can say it's mindblowing. Not impossible, but unexpected. I wouldn't have thought of that in 1982 or earlier.

@pathynes4835

Жыл бұрын

@@nobody8685 engineers have been very smart since the roman times. people forget how smart doctors and engineers were in the 1910s and 20s. doctors and engineers were really really smart in the 60s and 70s too. still the most critical yet underrated invention to modern medicine is the MRI machine which was invented around the 60s and 70s. ive become fascinated by local history and the school i work for is a big time engineering schools. we need smart responsible engineers in the futures, not ones who play cleanup for the big irresponsible corporations. all the best!

I'd never heard of CED before, so it was absolutely fascinating to get to learn another piece of AV history!

@ironcito1101

4 жыл бұрын

@Maytemberr You probably mean kzread.info/dash/bejne/eal3xtWyc7rTpJs.html It's not specifically about CED, but it's included.

@kriswingert1662

4 жыл бұрын

I used to repair these, along with LaserDisc players.

@dummptyhummpty

4 жыл бұрын

I remember watching one of these at summer camp in the mid 90's. I thought I had imagined it for the longest time until I saw TechMoan's video on it.

@markpenrice6253

4 жыл бұрын

Both excellent videos... beat me to the punch with mentioning the Techmoan one at least

@themoviemaniac8416

4 жыл бұрын

@@kriswingert1662 - I still do....

"1904 what rhymes galore" is the reason I subscribed and absolutely love this channel.

I had one of these and it came with quite a few discs when I bought it, namely "Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country", "The Dark Crystal" and "Victor Victoria". It was a different player here in the U.K. but definitely CED, and it was certainly something very different. I do remember that having to turn the disc over during a film was a minor annoyance, but at the time, it seemed pretty cool.

@Attmay

9 күн бұрын

*Star Trek VI* came out in the 90s. How could that be on CED?

@luciferbox5577

8 күн бұрын

@@Attmay So maybe I made a mistake about Star Trek VI. People do make mistakes. Even you I would imagine. It was a long time ago.

I feel like the high production quality of your content is like a super complex layer of irony that we're not quite ready to comprehend yet.

@gavinisdie

3 жыл бұрын

You mean a super complex joke?

@SeveralGhost

3 жыл бұрын

@@gavinisdie jokes can be ironic

@erikhendrickson59

2 жыл бұрын

Obviously it's cuz he recording on vinyl

My dad worked at RCA on this tech. We had lots of these videos growing up. I've heard really interesting stories about this including the precision required when creating the records.

I stumbled across your channel during the first lock down in Germany, watched every single video and now they're running in the background to soothe my nerves. Thanks for making weird times bearable

I sold those when they came out in 1981. The cartridges were a bit finicky and fragile but the machines themselves were bullet proof. If you find one today, you might find the rubber belts have gone gooey but the cartridge is the item most likely to cause a playback problem. Unfortunately, cartridges are impossible to find nowadays. EDIT: blems in the discs was actually fairly common back when these were new. We had about a 5% exchange rate on new discs, but most discs had an occasional blip here and there. Most customers loved the CED format and understood most discs had occasional blips and didn't complain about a brief playback glitch.

“...simultaneously a technical marvel and a technical monstrosity”, as was Frankenstein’s monster! This is why I love this channel: a comprehensive, well-communicated exploration of technological history, telling stories of marvellous human innovations that I had no idea existed. And I lived through the 70s and 80s. Great job, thanks. “It’s alive, it’s alive!”

Calling the VCR's SelectaVision gives me flashbacks to Microsoft Surface being their large scale touch tech before becoming their tablet line.

@Clara_Page

4 жыл бұрын

I remember that as well, Microsoft's product naming this century will still be mocked in 50 years time

@Nadia1989

4 жыл бұрын

Hey, my company bought and loves those Surfaces, they're great for conference calls via Skype

@looneyburgmusic

4 жыл бұрын

The Surface Pro line is hardly a "tablet"... My Surface Pro 6 is the center piece of my entire audio/visual workstation now...

@merbst

4 жыл бұрын

Eeew, Micro$oft! *shudders* I switched to FreeBSD / Devian Linux in 2002, and after a decade, I was finally free of the beast!

@bandombeviews6035

3 жыл бұрын

Matt Erbst that’s so cool, tell me more about your computer operating system

DUDE i have been watching this channel for atleast 9 months and i have to say i love this i learn so much about all kinds of old tech i always wondered how it worked, also ur kookie personality and nerdy ways make me feel good about learning, great job brother, cant wait to check out the TECHNOLOGY CONTEXTRAS TOO!!

Once I know they used the CED's marketing for the VCR, I think that tells me that they probably saw the writing on the wall. It seems they maybe realized CED may not work out, but they had so much in it that they wanted to launch it and try and recoup some of the investment. It's also possible they saw these as different products with different purposes, where one of them seems made to record something and rewatch it, while the other would presumably present a prepackaged film at higher quality.

@mgabrysSF

Жыл бұрын

Not really - tapes to reproduce were INSANELY expensive. Rental shops paid 90 and over 100 80s dollars per-tape (over 400 today). To rent a movie was 5 bucks a tape. CED cost 20 bucks to buy, 3 bucks to rent (or less). It was a great deal for the time before pre-recorded movies on tape came down and that didn't happen for another 4 years after CED perished. (1988, but really didn't get cheap until the 90s). Tape still required an array of recorders to make the while thing work. While CED just needed to press discs from a plant in Indiana by the score. In fact that's why the VHD CED system in Japan lingered well into the 90s. Cost.

I had a CED player, it was better quality than VHS and it was stereo!

@danieldaniels7571

4 жыл бұрын

I have an SGT-200, the first stereo CED player. It was a while until VCRs came out that beat it for sound quality.

@Perktube1

4 жыл бұрын

Me too. I had a few discs too. Star wars, torn, mash last episode.

18:11 great scott! a flux capacitor!

I’ve recently found your channel and have been catching up on your videos. I like the references that you use. The one that caught my attention in this on was UHF 62, Wheel Of Fish was one of my favorites

For some reason, the opening is so lovely to me, it gives me goosebumps LOL

The weird al "UHF" reference made me smile

@shazib21

4 жыл бұрын

I was wondering if that was the reference, glad someone else saw it too 😊

@twothreebravo

4 жыл бұрын

It's the reason television was invented

Say it with me now!: "character and coding schemes, of which morse code is one" You're a goddamn troll, and I love it!

@NZIsaacNZ

4 жыл бұрын

Encoding*

@lowpowerlarry9957

4 жыл бұрын

Character encoding scheme

I keep coming back to this CED video series, it's honestly maybe my favorite thing on youtube.

@mgabrysSF

Жыл бұрын

I keep pointing people here when CEDs come up in the (very odd) conversation. Then I get sucked right back into watching the whole thing again. It's so well done.

@David-ln8qh

Жыл бұрын

@@mgabrysSF I'm watching it again!

Can't stop watching these videos, I've seen them all and now I'm rewatching them.

wow wait a second it's like a spinning theremin neat

@audiodood

4 жыл бұрын

didnt realize that

"a mere 17 YEARS later..." I've said it once and I'll say it again, Technology connections is my favorite because you come for the nerd stuff and get treated to comedy gold as a bonus.

Watching this series again for the 20th time, not just because of the content,but because your delivery and style makes for great ambient noise.

Very wholesome content. This reminds me of something I could catch on TV when I was younger.

We had literally 200 movies on this, watched them up till the late 90s.

@KeatonsCarlott

4 жыл бұрын

Bet it worked well too

@notavailable9919

4 жыл бұрын

@@KeatonsCarlott with a few exceptions, Yes it did! Great quality too.

@gavinisdie

3 жыл бұрын

Imagine a timeline where this came out before VHS and Beta(max), we'd probably see Vinyl Based Video Game Consoles

@liyifenn

3 жыл бұрын

@@gavinisdie Not possible after the PS1.

@gavinisdie

3 жыл бұрын

@@liyifenn ik

Your captions are always amazing. These are wonderful. I'm not hard of hearing, but even for me the cc improves the experience.

@Snowpanel

4 жыл бұрын

As a non-native speaker, I couldn't agree more!

@elendiastarman

4 жыл бұрын

Absolutely! As a deaf person, I adore his dedication to excellent captions.

@rickfeith6372

4 жыл бұрын

I hear great...should I be doing this too? I feel like I'm missing out.

I really like your presentation style. Highly intuitive as well as entertaining and, of course, informative. Keep up the good work!

Thanks to your video series on the CED, I knew what I was looking at when I found one at a yard sale this weekend. Ended up with an SFT100 player and 67 discs for $25. Very cool to own a piece of oft-forgotten video history!

Eureka!!! I grew up watching an RCA CED at my grandparents! My brother inherited it and we always assumed it was a laserdisc player. BTW, all but one of the 60 movies still play extremely well!

Seems like the CED is a business study in the sunk cost fallacy.

@KaiserTom

4 жыл бұрын

Perhaps but like he said, RCA had decent reasons for trudging on, in the form of much cheaper manufacturing costs of both the player and the record, which was still much cheaper than VHS at the time despite the changes. While VHS may have been inevitable, it still had a few years so RCA could at least cut their R&D losses of it by still selling something for much higher margins than VHS would be. Better to be out $100 million rather than $200 million on the project, or whatever the costs were. And god knows whether some breakthrough, market or research wise, could have still happened. They accepted the risk, they hedged it against VHS when it came out, the risk went poorly, and yet RCA was still a big name.

@mariokarter13

4 жыл бұрын

"You all laughed at me, you told me to give up, but guess what, I did it. And just in time to get beaten to the punch by LaserDisc, three years earlier."

@apetersenALT

4 жыл бұрын

Hey, I'm learning about fallacies in college.

@JFrameMan

4 жыл бұрын

I would argue there are a lot of technologies like CEDs that had a lot of time invested in them for the sake of being low cost alternatives and they succeeded. Most of the computer industry is like that. CEDs just got unlucky because they took so long to get working, understandably so, and eventually everything else got cheaper too.

@brettknoss486

4 жыл бұрын

@@JFrameMan I agree that they took to long. I think the other problem was that it was impossible to determine costs because they were unaware that a home video market needed to be invented.

I am so glad I found your channel, many of your videos bring me back to the good times. I remember this coming out, my dad's best friend owned a television/audio store and always had the best stuff. Video discs, Beta, private phones lines all came in. I haven't checked your channel's history but do you know about "Party Lines" which was 2-4 houses on a single phone line and you could listen in on calls your neighbour was making? To join their conversation you just pulled up the right hand side white peg and bada bing. This was northern Saskatchewan in the 70s to early 80s so we were seriously behind the curve.

As a fan of the CED technology concept, I must totally completely and wholeheartedly agree with you, that RCA was indeed out of the minds to try it, in the 80's. However, it was a good idea at the time in the early 60's. it could have been a 10 to 15 year, home video revolution.

@sayyestofairness4266

2 жыл бұрын

It's just frustrating to think that by releasing the product so late, they basically accepted defeat from what could've been the biggest victory in the electronics industry. RCA could've OWNED the entire electronics industry today. It could've been the Sony or Samsung of the United States.

@Attmay

9 күн бұрын

And if things had been better in the 1970s economically, the widespread adoption of home video might have taken place sooner.

UHF movie reference - check Anders Enger Jensen Retro Grooves album - check Review of video player my dad has under his bed at home, quite literally - check Using Star Trek The Motion Picture for examples - check I see why this is my favorite channel

@nyccollin

4 жыл бұрын

knightcrusader you forgot to mention the nonstop whining and complaining 😂

So to achieve retro perfection I need a DeLorean DMC-12 with an onboard CED playing BTTF. Gotcha.

My aunt used to babysit us as kids and had one of those, I remember going to the store with them to pick out new movies and those covers were massive. The thing worked well, I have fond memories of that machine.

This channel is amazing. I could watch these videos for several hours and not get tired of it.

I get CED's in my thrift shop surprisingly often! Seems some poor saps did buy into the things.

@stevenjlovelace

4 жыл бұрын

My family did.

@5roundsrapid263

4 жыл бұрын

My wife remembered this. Her friend’s father actually had one.

@thatguyontheright1

4 жыл бұрын

My family did and we used them regularly into the early 90s.

@prufrockrenegade

4 жыл бұрын

I work at a record store and we've had people trying to trade these in surprisingly often lately. After the store's owner looked up what they go for on eBay he wants nothing to do with them anymore though hahaha

@jasonblalock4429

4 жыл бұрын

@@prufrockrenegade Heh, sounds like a format that bored hipsters would like. Ananchronistically analog and completely pointless, but the media is super-cheap in thrift shops.

16:39 Discs themselves are gorgeous. Laserdisc, too.

I'm in my 30's as of 2021, but this was how I first saw Star Wars and many other classic films. My grandmother invested in a MASSIVE library of these movies, so we just had it in the house growing up alongside VHS.

I still have my machine a movies. Got it because this system was stereo a year before VHS was and I needed to watch Star Wars with the best sound. And it was amazing to hear this machine play a stereo disc. Everything still works. Changed a belt every once and a while. And the last disc I bought was Back To The Future. Love this video and all of your others. Thanks. - Toronto, Canada.

Techmoan did a good version of this as well

@AltimaNEO

4 жыл бұрын

Yeah, it hit me once he used the caddy in the player.

@bigjaffa02

4 жыл бұрын

Flippin' 'eck

@cityseby

4 жыл бұрын

When this showed up on my feed I thought it was a new Techmoan video lol

@C0Ntro11Da7rail

4 жыл бұрын

yes and quite concise though unlike this (maybe) dodnt go into much detail.

@adriandumay4501

4 жыл бұрын

And the oddity archive

Another amazing video! Thank you for doing such a good job explaining the science and design behind technology and then also explaining the context which gives perspective. I really enjoy your videos

@eleithias

3 жыл бұрын

The CED in the Star Trek comparison seems to have richer colors than the laserdisc , is that due to the laserdisc rot? And what were all the nearly identical black horizontal droplet artifacts on both?

Hello from New Zealand! I really enjoy your channel, very informative!

0:01 That rendition of Pictures at an Exhibition is a work of beauty.

Thanks for showing the "stylus needle" on the RCA. I never knew that!

Thank you for all of this information. I didn't know much about it.

I think this might have been the first video of yours I have seen and I have watched it a few times now. I just find this whole series extremely fascinating.

6:38 "This phonograph record contains a very long spiral groove with walls that move up and down and all around, and when you put it on a turntable, then put a stylus inside the groove, and give the record a good spin, those *wibbly wobbly* grooves will make the stylus go all *wibbly wobbly* , too. And thanks to the phonograph's cartridge, those *wibbly wobbly wibble wobbles* turn into electrical signals." _immediate like_

@daexion

4 жыл бұрын

Reminded me of Dr. Who describing time travel.

3:41 "Actually, before the war, in 1904, what rhymes galore!" LOL

"Ten minutes is dumb." KZread: "I'm being personally attacked!"

@Lightingkid2010

2 жыл бұрын

getting over 10 minutes is a goal

@dmitryberdnikov9130

2 жыл бұрын

Why didn’t they just focus on music video? 10 minutes more than enough

@Lightingkid2010

2 жыл бұрын

@@dmitryberdnikov9130 no it's not

Loved it, so much info, just impressed, I know was not easy to put together. I never heard of this player system until today. Thanks, very well done.

And in mid 70s, there was TED in Germany, 15 mins flexi discs.

@sebastianelytron8450

4 жыл бұрын

Tell us more!

@ChristianKoehler77

4 жыл бұрын

We were thinking the same just at the same time. I have written a comment (see above) with some additional information on TED.

@Markle2k

4 жыл бұрын

Oh dear, now you've escalated the EBay bidding war between TC and Techmoan over obsolete technology.

@moconnell663

4 жыл бұрын

@@Markle2k Twice now I have very-quickly listed obsolete tech on eBay to capitalize on the nostalgia-fever sparked by videos those two have released! My laserdisc player went pretty quickly.

@crashbandicoot4everr

4 жыл бұрын

Yes. Watch the demonstration by the Databits channel here on youtube.

Am I a weirdo for wanting to see more of the CED glitching out? This is some unique glitchiness that I have not seen before, a delicate combination of analog and digital crust.

@vcolinc

4 жыл бұрын

Agreed, and the color looked warmer on the CED compared to the laserdisc

@ebinrock

4 жыл бұрын

You could make an avant garde art video out of glitches and snow.

@vcolinc

4 жыл бұрын

@Trey Stephens When were you thinking about getting CED? Now or in the early eighties? 😀

I am so glad I found your channel.

My grandparents had a first gen VCR (I think it was a Magnavox top loader, though) and it worked like new until their deaths in the early 2010s. That thing was a beast! I loved the feel of operating it. So delightfully tactile and satisfying! I wonder what happened to that machine... I should ask my mom. 🤔

My family had a SelectaVision CED player. I remember renting the discs from our local video store in southern Illinois.

20:12 no matter how far back you go, people will always claim that vinyl is "a little better"

@DOCTOR_SONG

4 жыл бұрын

Well, it is

@bennylofgren3208

4 жыл бұрын

Doctor Song ...n’t.

@Varangian_af_Scaniae

4 жыл бұрын

Vinyl is much better than digital media. Vinyl has soul. But you are a heathen so please go on listen to your mp3 with mass-produced corporate popular music, aka trash.

@bennylofgren3208

4 жыл бұрын

Varangian af Scaniae That is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. Well okay, it isn’t. But it’s up there. The only “soul” coming from vinyl is the noise from dust, scratches and static. The rest is up to the actual music, and any digital media (with sufficient sampling rate and bit resolution) is superior to old-school analog in quality any day of the week. You can play it a thousand times and make a million copies and they will all sound exactly the same. Do that with a vinyl record and you’ll have worn a hole through it. Anyone listening more to the media carrying the music than the actual music is nothing but a snobbish audiophile. And there is nothing good in that.

@jackiemu161

4 жыл бұрын

@@Varangian_af_Scaniae Cool opinion, cause that's all it is haha

You make the kind of educational content TV used to have in the 90s. Thank you!

Weird and far-fetched ideas are the heart of innovation 😊

Excellent video. You've done a lot of research on the topic and it shows. You might want to give your styus a good cleaning. I host an annual CED Videodisc workshop in Indianapolis where we teach how to repair players. You should come some time.

@nyccollin

4 жыл бұрын

Josh Gibson He'd probably complain the whole time just like he did in the video. I don't think you'd want him there.

@halonothing1

4 жыл бұрын

There's a big difference between complaining, and constructive criticism. People who complain don't generally produce valid points to back up what they say.

@danieldaniels7571

4 жыл бұрын

I would love to come! I only have one player now, but used to have several, and have a very impressive collection of discs.

RCA: "Trust no one. Not even yourself." *insert meme of guy pointing the gun at himself*

Oh man...that Selectavision intro is a huuuuuge nostalgia throwback. My aunt used to have a CED player and a huge library back in the late 70's/early 80's

Really well made video, enjoyed it very much, and learned about this strange technology which I had never heard of before. Also learned more about the history of RCA. Thank you, will see part 2. Also Subscribed 👍

I remember RCA using 'SelectaVision' branding on their VCRs too. I still remember the tagline "It's not just television, it's SelectaVision!"