CED VideoDisc and Player Discussion

[Jesse Skeen]

This month marks 20 years since I've been seriously collected CEDs. I'd been collecting 8-track tapes for a few years (before the nostalgia factor kicked in for most people, they were mostly considered junk by most) and felt CED was the next logical step. I'd fully remembered the format when it was out, but never knew anyone who actually bought it though we rented a player and movies a couple times from a local RCA dealer. Problem was I had to have a STEREO player, and I could never find one and wasn't sure I ever would.

Finally I found a stereo player (SJT-300, made 10 years prior in 1983) at a local flea market for $15, but with no discs. A local used record store had a few discs, but when I got there they were already closed. Went there first thing Monday morning and got Flashdance and Saturday Night Fever (the rarer stereo version) and ran back to try them out. Flashdance started up brilliantly, first time I'd ever heard a CED in stereo. Saturday Night Fever wouldn't go in however, and it eventually got stuck and not knowing anything about the format I wrecked the disc getting it out of the player, and then it wouldn't take any more discs. Desperate, I went back to the RCA dealer in Woodland that we had rented players from before, and someone there still knew how to fix them and I got it back in a couple weeks working good as new. I realized then however that I should get plenty of backup players in case it failed again.

Initially I wanted to mainly collect music videos and movies I remembered coming out in the format's heyday. Another record store here (now gone) had a bunch of CEDs I wanted for a while (including We're All Devo), which I had never bought because I had a silly policy back then of not buying any media that I could not play. When I went in to finally buy them, I was devastated to find they'd already been sold (and I think Tom Howe was the one who bought them!) When I saw how hard discs were to find (remember, Ebay didn't exist yet!), I decided to just pick up ANY that I could find at all, and thus made it my goal to eventually get EVERY title. I had thought there were only about 500 altogether, but seems I was about 1000 short there. I went to at least one flea market a week, as well as several thrift stores, even making several trips out of town to look for CEDs, coming back empty-handed sometimes but occasionally finding treasures. Usually people at the stores would ask me what they were exactly, as they had never seen them before. Since I wasn't on the internet yet, I figured I was the only person on the planet who was collecting them- though I wondered if anyone had still hung onto their players after the format died and either watched whatever they had or still picked up whatever else they could find later.

What sort of made it fun also was that I didn't know every single title that existed, so I'd find some that I had no idea made it out on the format. (I remember reading in a magazine back in the day that "Silkwood" was NOT going to be issued on CED, but then I ended up finding it!) Finding that RCA and CBS/Fox Video had also released some of the same United Artists movies on their own labels (first one I found being Wargames) made it more challenging, as I decided I'd pick up every variation as well.

After a few months I put an ad in a local free classifieds paper offering to buy CEDs, which netted me a few hundred more. It would take me over 10 years to finally get every regular title however, with Ebay obviously being the source of the harder-to-find ones. The last titles that completed my collection were Truck Stop Women and Greatest Fights of the 70s.

I still haven't watched every single disc in my collection, but I hope to eventually. While I have lots of other movies on other formats ranging from Beta to Blu-Ray, I treasure my CEDs just because they date back to the time when being able to collect movies at all was a new thing, and while they may have ultimately been a failure and forgotten about by most I've always taken pleasure in keeping them alive. I've always made a point of making them look and sound as best as possible with the available technology, which is also sort of fun as it surpasses what was available in the 80s. I had Mitsubishi's 40-inch picture tube which was a marvel for its time, and I now have a 60-inch HD LCD with my CED player and all other analog sources upconverted to 1080p through my receiver (the 4x3 picture measures about 50-some inches, still bigger than the Mitsubishi.) It's fun to see the old, sometimes awful video transfers on a new display and wonder how anybody put up with them then (Network is one of my favorites as it's so smeary), though again just having a movie in any form was a new thing.

Some people still ask me just what in the world those things are, and others are impressed to just see them still working 30 years later.
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Videodisc and stereo sound- there's no better value around!

[CEDvince]

I love collecting CED's as well. There is just something about them that drew me in hook, line and sinker. Everyone I know has no clue what they are or think I'm absolutely nuts. I plan to get every title released as well, with variations, so I have about 1/10th of what I need right now. One day it will be complete!
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2 - RCA SFT-100
Zenith VP-2000
Realistic CED-1
2 - RCA SGT-200
2-RCA SJT-400

[cedmagic]

Jesse:

Yes, I did get that Devo disc at Record Haven on Watt Ave. while passing through Sacramento on a road trip from Portland to San Diego. That was the Summer of 1993 - just a few months before you started collecting. I would look up the used record stores in the Yellow Pages of any new city passed through, as there was a good chance they might have some CEDs.

That was a very productive road trip, as the San Diego Reader had an ad for a large collection. It was all or nothing, so I drove back to Portland with about 500 CEDs stuffed into every nook and cranny of a small Geo Metro rental car!

--Tom Howe

[blindfury420]

Haha nice snag Tom! I came across we're all devo pretty easy twice and for cheap!

Although I have only been collecting for 3 some odd years I have taken 3 major road trips for ceds so far, with the farthest being basically Detroit to Phili! Paul and his pops in phili were very nice!! Plus going to the workshops in Indianapolis!

I can say this is the first format I actually want to buy! Now I buy media all the time as its no problem (VHD is my new CED haha) but I am a 90's computer kid and since 15, almost all tv and movies were on a computer monitor or pushed from a computer to a tv! So I rarely bought any video or audio (aah usenet!) and I never dealt with a/r problems haha!! The pc and vlc player adjust for me! Before that I was a vhs horror rental machine haha! Anyways, I have to say I absolutely love this format and will continue to collect till I am no longer able too! Hopefully I will be collecting and the format can still be found in 20 years haha!
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I dont own

McMicheal 5001h
Hitachi VIP202P
JCP 686-5705
RCA SKT265, SKT300
RCA SJT400X, SJT425

[SelectaVision420]

[Dude111]

Good for you 20 years


THIS IS XCELLENT STUFF!!!! (Anthing NOT DIGITAL is awesome as far as video/audio go)

[Jesse Skeen]

Stuff these days actually seems more expensive since it costs money to ship and demand drives up the prices for rarer discs and working players. I paid an average of $10 for my first players (but experienced a setback when my mom threw out a bunch of them!) and about $5 per disc, which was cheap then as DVDs hadn't come out yet and budget VHS tapes (EP-speed public domain stuff) was about the only thing that sold for that little. Most I paid out in the wild was $20 for "Hard Day's Night" (and I was surprised that had been issued on CED in the first place), but I've seen some stuff on Ebay go for even more insane amounts.
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Videodisc and stereo sound- there's no better value around!

[Beetlescott]

Happy anniversary Jesse, you are an inspiration to us all!! I have been back and forth about committing to collecting all the CEDs, but, who knows? It does get into the blood!!!! mody people are intrigued when I show off my collection. We had some couples over for a Christmas party, and everyone was so impressed with a record that plays pictures too! There was a John Wayne fan who collects all things John Wayne, another guy was into western things, I showed off Stagecoach, and some of the others. They are bowled over. My 86 year old Father in Law came for a visit, and he has fallen in LOVE with the Format!! He loves records, we got him a record player last year for Christmas. We watched 8 or 10 movies the weekend he was here, he loves this strange format that no one has ever heard of. Out of the 10 couples who came, only one new about the CED format. She said her (deceased) Dad had a player and discs, she said if she found them, she would give them to me. It is a great conversation piece!!!
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1000 titles
SGT-250
SJT-400
Montgomery Ward
SGT-100

[ketonic_dude]

I'm not really sure what it is that sets CED's apart from other formats that makes it my favorite but anytime I get a new disc or better yet a small collection of discs I am like a kid again. I got bit by the CED bug about 3 years ago, a drop in the bucket compared to Jesse and Tom, but I vowed to own every publically released title as well and as of today I am only 46 titles shy. Greatest Fights of the 70's being one of them Jesse. I've had many great memories and met many great friends along the way. I wouldn't trade it for anything. On that note I have thousands of spares if anyone is looking for anything. Keep the format alive!