CED VideoDisc and Player Discussion

[kfbkfb]

I'm 3 days late with this post.

I recall watching ABC TV the night of 1984-04-04, a brief (standard) news break mentioned that RCA was going to phase out their troubled videodisc system, the next morning a friend called me and told me the same news.

I bought my first CED videodisc at an RCA dealer on 1981-03-11 and my first CED player (SJT-090) in 1984-10 for $169 from a video rental store that rented CED videodiscs.

On 2024-04-04, I played my Culture Club concert videodisc (in stereo, made into fake surround sound using the Hafler/DynaQuad method).

This was my only CED videodisc that never skipped, but now it has several glitches and skips.


Kirk Bayne

[lynx]

[jsdspif]

it may improve with a few plays if you don't wait too long before plays. I forgot which I bought recently but I made a post about it because it still had it's shrinkwrap but appeared to have been played as the wrap was cut across the top.When I first played it it had alot of issues,so I just played it 2 or 3 times while I was "puttering" around the house,outside whatever and I then watched it and it was alot better where it played pretty good.It could also be your stylus may be getting dirty or may have some issues especially if the player is a former rental,and especially if disc was former rental. I talked to a guy one day and he had forgotten about ced,even though he still uses cassette tape and vhs tapes so he's "old school".He then remembered renting the units "every damned time we'd get it home from renting a machine and discs,something would be wrong,we finally tried the player and discs at the store to assure we were getting one that worked." It just seems like renting these players at least was a bad idea.I just don't like the idea of players being thrown into the back seat or whatever.

[TGM]

It is really sad to think about. But on the other hand, would we be here if it was popular enough to continue?

I just got into the format last summer after finding an SJT-100 at a local garage sale for $5. It needed a belt, and after i got one i used it all the time. I was fascinated with how it worked. My dad owned one when he was a kid, so me and him were able to bond over the fact that i now had one. We bought Super Man 1+2, and a muppets disc; Discs he loved as a kid, and wanted to rewatch. Without the CED, I would’ve never gotten into those movies, or learned about them in general (Other than Technology Connections video about it.)

I eventually was able to get the same sears player his neighbors had, and I had to swap in a motherboard from a CED-1 i got from Josh Gibson,(I will get that board working one day…) My dads original player was sold, and likely thrown away when the owner died, so it’s probably lost forever. I narrowed it down to a Toshiba model, but whether it was the OEM or a rebranded one is unknown.

I did accidentally short out the video decoder on my SJT-100 researching a composite video mod, so unfortunately, it’s dead until i can find another chip. I’ve thought of repurposing an audio chip as a video chip, but i can’t figure out if they are cross compatible, despite having the same OEM equivalent part number.

And this is my story thus far with the CED. I really wish it was more popular, but then again, I probably wouldn’t have this story to tell if it was as popular as VHS. It wouldn’t have been mysterious and intriguing otherwise. The more I work on them, and look into the CED’s production, seeing how much of an enigma it was, the more fascinated I’ve become with the format. If it was popular, I wouldn’t have learned about these or have found an amazing community of enthusiasts that care about this system just as much, if not more than I do.

Going forward, I want to do more things for the CED community that i don’t believe people have done with the format, like trying to clone stereo adapters, and maybe trying to learn to make a disc emulator. If I can actually do these things, I dont know, but I want to.

Weird to think it may have more of a following now than it did. It’s sad to remember its death, but had history have gone different, we probably wouldn’t be here today.
_________________
Glitchy Mario

SJT-100 (not working )
Sears 934.54780150/CED-1 Frankenstein