CED VideoDisc and Player Discussion

[Njones1959]

I own an RCA SFT-100 CED player purchased new from an electronics store in Limestone, TN in late 1981 or early 1982. I may have around 10 CED movies or so. My player has been in storage for several years in an armoire under a Memorex dust cover that fits like a glove. I originally sent this post to Tom Howe who asked if I would post it here for everyone's enjoyment.

The player worked perfectly when I put it in storage. One of the ends had broken on the coaxial cable and I just never got around to replacing it. The cable had a split on the end that attached to the antenna "screws" on the back of an analog TV. We had hooked and unhooked the player several times and I guess those wires will eventually break.

I currently work for a nationally known non-profit electrical engineering and research firm, and decided the engineers and technicians in our lab would get a kick out of seeing this technology and watching a movie. Especially with all this HD and Blu-Ray technology nowadays. I thought it'd be neat to share history with them.

So I took the player to work with me this morning and using regular coaxial cable connected the player to a 42" 720p Plasma TV. The coaxial went from the antenna "out" of the player to the antenna "in" on the TV, then on the TVs menu we set the signal IN to TV.

We plugged it up and it came right on. I demonstrated the proper method for loading and unloading a movie. They were amazed at the cartridge-type housing and were very curious about the "disc." I explained the disc was vinyl, like an lp. Of course the younger ones say, "A what?!" We then started watching the original "Star Wars." The movie appeared on the screen with no problems what-so-ever.

A small crowd began to gather around the player and the TV--old technology meets new technology with no apparent generation gap. Hook-up was a breeze. Although I will have to say standing closer to the TV there were some resolution issues that perhaps the player couldn't produce! But from a distance the picture was actually pretty good. I have some pictures of the CED connected to and playing on the Plasma. (Can we post photos in the forum?)

Overall it was a great time. Several of us spent a little time surfing to find more about this older technology and CEDMagic site was among the first to pop up when we Googled CED.

CEDMagic is very informative. It's been a wealth of information for me and helped me to handle the speicifc info engineers and technicians asked. Thanks for the hard work and great information included there. I'll be checking back from time to time. It was fun to field all those questions and introduce the CED technology to the younger set.
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Nanette

[Glenn]

What a great story. Would love to see the pictures. It still amazes me that I can use my CED players (250, 300 and 400) purchased over 25 years ago with little or no maintenance and most of the discs play without any problem. Those big covers for the albums are so much fun to look at compared to a small DVD box. And why is it they don't even bother to give you a list of chapters anymore for the DVD's? Anything to save a tenth of a cent I guess.