CED VideoDisc and Player Discussion

[cedmagic]

This is the title of an article just published by Popular Mechanics:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/4255160.html

SelectaVision is the second one mentioned on the countdown listing.

--Tom Howe

[pamperchu]

wow. most of them i have never herd of.

I do have a umatic player and a recorder but the recorder needs fixing

[Dude111]

Thats quite interesting.......A couple of those listed I HAVENT HEARD OF!!!

Why are Videodiscs on the list?? (They are excellent)

[kitchensynch]

CEDs were discontinued 28 years ago and the last Laserdiscs were manufacted in 2001.

The point of the now 5 year old article was to rank obsolete formats and VHS was still around with titles being released in 2008.

However, althought the DISCS were no longer being made, laserdisc players were built until 2011, I believe it was, the DVL-909 being the legacy model Pioneer carried on for ten years after the end of disc production.

Pioneer saved the laserdisc and in turn it is thought that it saved Pioneer by allowing them to break ground on technologies that would be incorporated into the DVD standard, which began rolling out around 1996.

I think they were quite gracious in continuing on for ten years after new software was gone.

One of the links from CED Magic is the Laserdisc database (LDDB) site and another you might like is the PALsite. Speaking of really obscure (to you), Video 2000 was a neat idea that died early, foreshadowing Video 8mm and VHS-C by a little bit (although the 1984 JVC GR-C1 VHS-C IS featured in Back To The Future from 1985 when it was new).


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[Rixrex]

While a lot of folks love to laugh at marketing mis-steps, these same people do not realize that many of these products are a necessary part of the development of future products. In other words, without the development of these products and the technology and science they use, the next steps forward would not come as easily.

There are plenty of "pundits" and "critics" who write articles that either directly or subtly make fun of products like CED or HD DVD that do not become a big success. These people only measure success in dollars of profit, but that's not the only way success can be measured. The fact that laserdisc never was a big market in the US, does not preclude it from paving the way for DVDs. These "pundits" and "critics" are like leeches that hang on to the body of business technology for their livelihood without making any real contributions of their own, but then feel good about themselves when they can point out the errors of others.

Our own space program has been often called a waste of money by those who want to use that same money for other social needs. This is a nearsighted viewpoint, as the advancements in technology and miniature circuitry from the space program are responsible for everything we use today in communications not weighing a ton and being managable to handle, plus are a big part of allowing the implementation of satisfying those same social needs that naysayers wanted space program money for.

In the world of business technology, it is normal to have many failed products that eventually lead to successful ones. Some of the failures have to do with timing and competition, and that too is a normal part of progress. Both RCA and Toshiba did not have business "failures" on everything they have done, and even the Sony Betamax went on to succes in professional realms.

[SelectaVision420]

[Beetlescott]

Great article!! Thanks for sharing Tom!
It's kind of strange, I am one of the few people who went for HD DVD, (well, Star Trek kind of helped me make up my mind.) and I always thought the Beta Max tape was more practical because of the size..
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[Rixrex]

HD DVD is (or was) a great format. No region coding and faster load time than BR DVDs. There are around 900 plus titles available on HD DVD, and there is a company that still makes some more obscure titles on HD DVD:

http://socalemc.com/store.htm#!/~/category/id=2429303&offset=0&sort=nameAsc

I think I have something like 300 of the titles currently, and a half dozen HD DVD players. The HD DVD players are super for regular DVD and better than BR I would say.

If all things had been equal between HD DVD and BR DVD, Sony would not have prevailed in that market either. It was a matter of graft and payola by Sony, skirting of anti-trust laws and collusion to limit competition, plus a Justic Dept that was too busy annoying citizens at the airports to file charges against Sony and other studios. Basically Sony took what they learned from the Beta mess and used that lesson in illegal and unethical ways to force the common acceptance of BR.

[kitchensynch]

I've never seen either, not even an SACD. I have all of two DVD+G discs that came with a gimmicky karaoke device.
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A New Vista of RCA Victor COLOR!