CED VideoDisc and Player Discussion

fuzzy · Joined: 08 Jan 2011 Posts: 11

I attended the 1984 videodisc aloha conference and received a disc. several attendees that are friends have no working players or no way to playback their disc. Is their any site that has this info uploaded so that attendees or members can playback the 1984 Aloha Conference Question

Alchemy · Joined: 27 Nov 2010 Posts: 532 Location: Sweet Home,Oregon

Have you considered having someone with a working player burn a copy to a DVD?

I'd offer to, but no idea where you are located. So that would shipping the disc- your call on that.
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Scott
SGT-200, CLD-79
http://bcw.utnij.net <--- CED/LD collection

Beetlescott · Joined: 03 Oct 2010 Posts: 2085

fuzzy · Joined: 08 Jan 2011 Posts: 11

I copied the disc to dvd and also converted file too wmv and avi for upload but the video had a skip or two...u know..now my cartridge is damaged so I will have to get another..I am located in central florida and there are some contacts nearby that may be of help but I have not contacted them. I have the conference disc packaged in the white caddy and the promotional disc in the blue caddy. I can upload a copy of what i have but I was unsure if it is ok to do so. I have some cool photos of a surprise appearance by NIPPER himself during Bill Kings opening presentation (the first morning welcome meeting) I was very fortunate to have worked and vacationed with the best factory and distributor persons in the industry. I often think about them and where they are today

Fuzzy

Beetlescott · Joined: 03 Oct 2010 Posts: 2085

fuzzy · Joined: 08 Jan 2011 Posts: 11

never been to Canada but one year I was President of the rca xl club and scottsdale was the place. Man what a trip...I'm gettin so old now I'm lucky if I can remember anything. The only trip that wasn't to good is where I stood in front of Arnold Valencia as he announced the death of CED!!! Yea...bring me a double...straight-up

fuzzy · Joined: 08 Jan 2011 Posts: 11

I forgot where I was going with this but the punchline was that everyone could have used more life insurance that night....especially bloomington..but after that announcement who was going to sell it to ya....the good ole days....quasar, sylvania, zenith, philco...and many more. All were good competition....I was working a retail sales floor when the overseas brands started shipping in...MGA, Sharp, Sony. I demonstrated the first Sony sl7200 beta vcr for the local media in Tampa for a Company JM Fields in the early 70's.....and what about the pong games....we sure have come a long way in a very short time

Beetlescott · Joined: 03 Oct 2010 Posts: 2085

fuzzy · Joined: 08 Jan 2011 Posts: 11

I would enjoy doing so if i could remember..I was travelling like crazy. I put together some of the first rental programs for video tape and now disc when I received the word that a meeting had been scheduled to announce the future plans for videodisc. We were anticipating some changes. A few RCA executive positions had recently changed. No one I Knew had any idea of this announcement to drop the product entirely. I wish I could remember where and when but I was too busy at the time. I was a distributor salesperson that started out with only 5 counties and I had stumbled onto some new customers with new business ideas located thru-out the US and the sales potential was unlimited. A few months before the announcement I began traveling multiple states and during a time of limited communication (no cell phones etc..) so throughout the day you found yourself in and out of phone boothes. Thanks to RCA we had auto dialers to save us a little time.
I will post more info as I can remember but that was a long time ago. I am 57, close to your age..I was age 30 at the aloha conference. During the conference I spent most of my time in the evening discussing the new sales opportunities with key RCA persons as they wanted as much detail as I could provide. It was a extremely competitive time. Laser Disc was on our heels. In 1988 RCA was on their way out and I left my position to relocate and join a Rep Friend. The venture lasted 2 years and I started my own company.

Jesse Skeen · Joined: 28 May 2004 Posts: 532 Location: Sacramento, CA

Anyone who wants to give me the white-caddy version, I'll provide you with as many DVD copies as you want... Wink

So did anyone at the Aloha Conference know about the death of the format shortly after?
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Videodisc and stereo sound- there's no better value around!

Beetlescott · Joined: 03 Oct 2010 Posts: 2085

I was under the impression there was no conference! I'm so glad there was! We, (wife and I) used to go to these type conferences every year, sometimes twice. It was an incentifve trips for the top insurance agents in our company. When I got my first batch of CEDs, I got the disc announcing the aloha conference, it looked like a huge push to win this trip. I then read later that RCA announcied it was pulling the plug on the format. I was thinking it was BEFORE the actual conference. My wife said, that would be so cruel to work so hard to get that and then not be able to go!!! I am assuming the "announcement" came shourtly AFTER THE TRIP.!!??
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Jesse Skeen · Joined: 28 May 2004 Posts: 532 Location: Sacramento, CA

Yeah- Tom's notes on the disc say that the news came right when everyone got home! Too funny, kinda like how when I worked at Tower Records' main office one year we got a Christmas dinner at a local restaurant courtesy of Paypal, then the next year we went out of business!
_________________
Videodisc and stereo sound- there's no better value around!

Beetlescott · Joined: 03 Oct 2010 Posts: 2085

Man, that must of been tough.
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SJT-400
Montgomery Ward
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fuzzy · Joined: 08 Jan 2011 Posts: 11

Jesse...I am hanging on to my white caddy for the memories but if you would like to view it i will send a free copy on dvd. and NO noone new of the death announcement nor the meeting that would be scheduled when we returned.

beettlescott it was a good trip and no different than any other RCA trip...FIRST CLASS as always...any of you that would like a dvd copy let me know..

The death was tough in that some Dealers were upset...it was tough on the rest of our business...the competition was in our Dealers saying "well what next...are they dropping VCR's, Camcords...TV's....and I had Dealers loaded up on products...so now I had some retailers that thought the product was junk...never sell..some pulled all product and stuck it in the warehouse refusing to sell but fortunately I had been working on a program for a couple of Rental Dealers who were doing well and transferred all the products from the Unhappy Dealers to the Rental Companies...next problem...Rental was doing great and I now had Dealers with 60 to 150 store locations that wanted to come aboard and now I was spending a lot of time explaining why RCA was not making the product any longer ...it was crazy..but RCA was always on the move with Products and sales programs....there was Dimensia and the Unified Remote. We always had something new in our Tool Belt

Beetlescott · Joined: 03 Oct 2010 Posts: 2085

OH I can just imagine what some of the dealers must of thought. In the local town I am from, There was a great deal of hoopla about a local appliance store, Western Auto, was preparing to start selling the players. I bought my player when I lived in N.C., but a year later, (83) the closest rental place was in Oak, Ridge, TN, which was about 70 mile round trip. The guy rented them to us for a week at a time, so it was always a fun trip for me, looking forward to getting some different CEDs each week. When I read that Western Auto was going to start stocking them, I wa thrilled. You can imagine my let down. I would LOVE to have a DVD copy, and I'll be glad to paay to pay for it!!!! Shoot me an email and Ill send you my address< Beetlescott@msn.com

Thanks in advance!!!!!
Scott
_________________
1000 titles
SGT-250
SJT-400
Montgomery Ward
SGT-100

Jesse Skeen · Joined: 28 May 2004 Posts: 532 Location: Sacramento, CA

Just posted the 2nd session (blue caddy) disc:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGt_zdEGe0Q

YouTube has flagged some of the music used in this as copyrighted, but hopefully it won't get yanked for that.

Fuzzy- Please tell me how I can get a DVD copy of the first disc, and I'll send you a copy of this one- my email address is 8traxrule AT sbcglobal.net (change the AT to @- gotta fool the spammers out there!)
_________________
Videodisc and stereo sound- there's no better value around!

deantjeep · Joined: 03 Aug 2010 Posts: 312 Location: Newberg, OR

I have a copy on CED of the first blue disc, the Catch a Wave disc selling the Aloha Conference idea. Nice sales pitch. The flip side of the disc contains the stereo preview disc. I think it runs about 45 minutes introducing stereo CEDs. What is funny is that they introduce a stereo version of Star Trek the Motion Picture in a blue caddy, but it was never produced for sale. The one they used in this preview disc, that would be highly collectable. Anyone got one in their collection?

OH, and a shout out to Beetlescott for sending me the disc!!!!! Thanks buddy!!!!
Very Happy

Jesse Skeen · Joined: 28 May 2004 Posts: 532 Location: Sacramento, CA

There were many titles shown on that demo disc that were never issued in stereo- I don't know if the caddies used actually had discs in them.
_________________
Videodisc and stereo sound- there's no better value around!

fuzzy · Joined: 08 Jan 2011 Posts: 11

Jesse...will send you a copy and yea....love to have a copy of blue...

fuzzy · Joined: 08 Jan 2011 Posts: 11

I watched the video you posted and it is almost identical layout to the white caddy version they simply changed the people. Thanks for posting it..I knew a lot of the people on that trip as well. John Connally and I were Tops one year in Arizona for a RCA XL Trip. I am amazed at the quality..I wish my white caddy copy was as good. Thanks again for the opportunity to once again see old friends

Fuzzy