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waaaayyyy bigger financial failure than ced

 
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jsdspif



Joined: 16 Jan 2016
Posts: 276

PostPosted: Fri May 20, 2016 5:26 am    Post subject: waaaayyyy bigger financial failure than ced Reply with quote

I went to the recycle center the other day and saw a tv looking contraption. At first I thought it was a microfiche(sp?) viewer. I opened the door on the top of it and it looked like a tape cartridge would go in it. The cartridge would be about larger than a cassette tape but smaller than a vhs video tape. I then looked at the back of the unit and saw the name of it. I thought maybe someone would like to reveal/guess as to what I found?
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ketonic_dude



Joined: 20 Jul 2012
Posts: 547
Location: Mankato, MN

PostPosted: Fri May 20, 2016 7:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well I have no idea but I'll take a stab in the dark. Is it an Atari computer system?
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Jesse Skeen



Joined: 28 May 2004
Posts: 575
Location: Sacramento, CA

PostPosted: Fri May 20, 2016 8:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sounds like Polaroid's Polavision "Instant Movie" player- this shot film that didn't have to be developed, you just dropped the film cartridge in the viewer after shooting. Unfortunately this came out right when home video cameras did, so it was just about obsolete. There's a few TV commercials for it on YouTube.
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jsdspif



Joined: 16 Jan 2016
Posts: 276

PostPosted: Fri May 20, 2016 9:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

yeah, it was a polavision player. It really bombed. Unlike CED it is much more difficult to get much use out of today. I've ordered a movie camera for it and if the camera and player work (or if I get them working) I'm going to get a pack of film for it and see what happens. Supposedly alot of folks at Polaroid told Land (the guy that started Polaroid) it was a bad idea but he proceeded with it anyway.
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kitchensynch



Joined: 24 Feb 2013
Posts: 1087

PostPosted: Fri May 20, 2016 10:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Polaroid's problems had more to do with what plagued Kodak, lack of foresight into digital imaging. The chemicals for the process also had some hazards to humans I believe it was and they were expensive too.

The Impossible Project tried to recreate the SX-70 type cartridge 600 film and made a fairly good product from what I read but it was too late to make it much more than nostalgic.

Now everyone has at least a standalone digital camera, and there are so many camera equipped cellphones that they have created a new form of citizen vigilance from posting phone videos online and to the police.

Of course, they can also make people look stupid and incriminate themselves in the public eye as well when they post them and folks raise an eyebrow.
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kitchensynch



Joined: 24 Feb 2013
Posts: 1087

PostPosted: Sun May 22, 2016 1:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

PS Since CED's failure contributed to the complete failure of RCA Corporation, even after selling off what became CIT Financial and the NBC network I would consider this the biggest American business failure of the 20th century (Enron is the biggest of 21st century).

RCA, the Radio Corporation of America, was formed as a result of World War I by a consortium of US electronics companies (Westinghouse and others) to protect vital patents from the hands of foreign companies in the event of takeover by enemy forces of those foreign patent holders. The company was spun off after some legal challenges and branched out into the phonograph and recording industries as well as the manufacture of radio sets. They were instrumental if the formation one of the original broadcasting networks, The National Broadcasting Company (NBC), and through it the development of the US analog electronic television system (525 line System M) and later compatible color NTSC broadcasting in the early 1950s. In 1968 the name was changed to RCA Corporation.

When RCA went bankrupt around 1986, the reorganization attempt failed and the company itself no longer exists. The brand is used by several licensees, including Audiovox and Thomsen. The RCA Records Label is now part of Sony/BMG or it's successor, I haven't looked it up lately and the recording industry just sort of got sucked into a black hole of mergers. GE was making some RCA appliances and I'm no longer sure that GE has an appliance division (may have been sold).

But RCA was the biggest business failure of the 20th century I believe, for the many facets of it's business empire that were greatly affected by it.

And of course NBC has been owned by GE, Universal and now Comcast. That was a huge change that mirrored the television industry's changes throughout the 90s to today.
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cbertra2



Joined: 29 Dec 2004
Posts: 221

PostPosted: Mon May 23, 2016 1:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The failure of RCA probably had more to do with competition from cheap foreign imports and labor from the Asian markets. Had RCA moved off shore there is a good chance they would have survived. Even if they had moved and survived the loss of American jobs would have been the same. This is why the U.S. is no longer a manufacturing economy but rather a service economy.
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kitchensynch



Joined: 24 Feb 2013
Posts: 1087

PostPosted: Mon May 23, 2016 3:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

They were already importing Hitachi made OEMs for videotape recorders and I gather the CD player I had once as I understand...

There were a lot of companies just bleeding or gobbled up like fish by larger fish back then, until the bubble burst...

Remember Recoton? They bought Pfanstiehl, the phonograph needle and accessories company, then gobbled a lot of other companies, even JENSEN.

Then they IMPLODED. Audiovox Corporation (a pioneer in car radios from the 20's on) bought a lot of that company and they also licensed the RCA name for a line of audio and video accessories. I don't know who made the audio and videocassettes but I have a number of them that were made from the mid-80s on.
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happycube



Joined: 18 Aug 2014
Posts: 25
Location: United States

PostPosted: Fri Jun 03, 2016 10:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I looked at the RCA annual reports - in 1986 RCA was actually financially quite healthy and profitable, and with some more reading I found that Bradshaw (the CEO) decided he just wanted to sell the company since it had become a takeover target. The GE deal was a bit shady it turns out...

http://www.nytimes.com/1987/09/20/magazine/did-rca-have-to-be-sold.html?pagewanted=all
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kitchensynch



Joined: 24 Feb 2013
Posts: 1087

PostPosted: Fri Jun 03, 2016 11:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I did not realize that. I wonder how I missed that or how I got my notions?
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