CED VideoDisc and Player Discussion

[cedmagic]

With the 20th anniversary of June 27, 1986 being upon us, I thought it would be interesting to provide a reprint of the following article, which appeared in the July/August 1986 issue of G&M Videnews. This is the only piece I've ever seen with the June 27th closing in mind, but perhaps another local publication in Indianapolis ran a story. Has anyone local ever tried looking through the Indianapolis Star archives around this date? The closing of a plant that once employed 1,500-some people seems like an event deserving of local news coverage.

Without further ado, here is the article:

THE LAST VIDEODISC STORY: RCA DISC FACTORY CLOSES

The end of RCA's CED videodisc system is here. On June 27th RCA closed its Indianapolis disc pressing plant, the only factory in the world that was still pressing CED videodiscs. Although some July and August releases were pressed in advance of the closing date, there will be no further releases made on the CED format. The CED videodisc system is now officially dead.

It was in March of 1981 that RCA introduced the very first Capacitance Electronic Disc (CED) videodisc player. Priced at $499, the original model SFT100 was available in very limited quantities, as were the discs themselves. Although the initial disc catalog had 100 titles listed, RCA shipped less than 50 titles at the very beginning. Disc prices ranged from $14.98 to $22.98. Sales were not earthshattering.

Over the next few years RCA brought down the price of the players, introduced both stereo and interactive models, and vastly increased their disc catalog. At one time there were over 1200 titles available, licensed from virtually all the major home video companies, and pressed by either RCA's Indianapolis facility or CBS's newer Georgia plant. Disc prices took a roller coaster ride over the years, with price increases In 1982, price decreases in 1984, and higher prices coming back In 1985. At one time some firms were pricing single-discs as high as $34.98, and the infamous CONAN THE BARBARIAN was a $44.98 double-disc set! The 1984 decreases brought many discs back down to $19.98, until the fading market forced prices back up in 1985.

With the lower prices for players and the wider availability of discs, sales for VDPs increased substantially throughout 1982 and 1983. Yet CED sales, although much greater than Pioneer's competing LaserDisc format, remained miniscule when compared to the booming market for videocassette recorders. Although CED made major inroads across many parts of middle America, the trend-setters on both coasts chose to ignore the stylus-based system that they deemed technologically backward. The video trade press never accepted the CED format, lavishing their praise instead on LaserVision disc players and Beta-format videotape recorders. RCA did not help matters by manufacturing a system with seemingly built-in defects, and many videophiles refused to invest in discs that never seemed to be without a glitch or two.

In the end, many factors contributed to the demise of the CED system. High domestic manufacturing costs, combined with rapidly decreasing selling prices, made the players themselves unprofitable for RCA. And, although sales were increasing, there appeared to be no way for the videodisc to win the war with videotape. Part of the reason for this was that RCA had few allies in support of the format. Only Hitachi, Toshiba, Sanyo, Sears and Zenith ever sold CED players, and many of these firms dropped their models long before 1984. It seems that one company cannot go it alone against an entire industry-- a lesson Sony now appears to be learning with both the Beta and 8mm tape formats. The last nail in the coffin appeared to be a change of management within RCA that seemed to like the format no more than did the trade press. On April 4th, 1984, RCA announced that they would no longer manufacture CED videodisc players.

At that time RCA stated its intention to support customers by supplying discs for 3 years, or while there was "sufficient demand". The demand, however, rapidly became insufficient to support disc pressing operations. In late 1984 CBS quit making discs in their Georgia plant, leaving RCA's Indianapolis factory to press whatever movies the studios decided to put on disc. By the beginning of 1986 demand for CED discs was less than 5% of what it had been just two years prior. Thus RCA closed their plant on June 27th.

There were immediate defections in the ranks of CED videodisc dealers when RCA decided to drop the players. While there had never been that many disc dealers, most of those that did exist dumped their discs within the first few months of RCA's 1984 announcement. While a number of smaller, rental-only disc stores stuck it out for a year or so, by 1986 there were, at best, a dozen good-sized CED dealers left in the entire nation. We here at G & M supported our disc customers from beginning to end, by stocking every single title ever released on CED. We remained, until the end, one of the largest CED dealers in the country.

Disc customers have reacted to the developments in various ways. In 1984 there was a mass exodus from the format, with many owners either selling or trashing their players and switching to videocassette equipment. RCA even had to refund money to a few of the more vocal dissatisfied customers. Over the next two years the number of disc player owners continued to decline, as the switch was made to VCRs in anticipation of the eventual disappearance of the system. At the end, there were few consumers left with just a CED player hooked up to their TV sets.

What happens next? Absolutely nothing. There are no more discs. There will be no more discs. The number of remaining disc customers is just too small to interest any other company in picking up RCA's pressing contracts. (For the record, there was at least one group interested in picking up the system way back in 1984, but the finances never did fall into place.) We sympathize with the plight of our disc customers, as we too feel the loss of the CED videodisc business. All we can say is that it was fun while it lasted. The disc is dead.

[Jesse Skeen]

Let us all have a moment of silence...

I'm watching my Memories Of Videodisc tonight in observance.
I didn't know that the last movies printed were not actually released for sale until July or August- does anyone have the exact street dates for Jewel of the Nile and the other final titles?

Now it seems that VHS tape is finally on its way out- several movies including Star Wars Episode III and Herbie Fully Loaded have not been released at all on VHS. I'm watching closely to see what the last movie title on VHS might be and buy a copy.
_________________
Videodisc and stereo sound- there's no better value around!

[sheer]

Not with a bang, but with a whimper.. unlike CED, which had one major company pushing it, VHS has become a widespread standard. I doubt if we'll even know what the last thing to be put on VHS is - the major studios will stop, but it'll still be used for training videos and things like that for another 20 years - it's cheap and convenient to record, unlike CED

[krbsforty]

I have been reading the archives of old cedmagic.com forum postings & found this 1986 article, and I thought it was a very interesting article. I never knew that RCA had to give refunds to disgruntled customers. I also thought there were dealers in most areas of the United States selling CEDs & players. They were correct about there being few televisions with just a CED player connected. Does any one know if G & M is still in business? I have never heard of them.
_________________
RADIO CORPORATION OF AMERICA
THE MOST TRUSTED NAME IN ELECTRONICS

[Jesse Skeen]

I just did a search for "G&M Videnews" and this post was the only thing that came up. Here in California I don't remember any more news when the discs were discontinued, when I started collecting in 1993 I was surprised to see any discs at all with 1986 copyright dates on them. There was an RCA dealer in Woodland, CA called Leon's TV, which appears to still be in business, that rented discs and players for a long time- I remember going in there in 1987 and they still had CEDs out for rent, or you could buy them for just a couple dollars more. They eventually switched to laserdisc though they had a pretty lousy selection then. I contacted them after I started collecting CEDs and bought all the rental discs that were left, and ended up buying 2 brand-new stylus cartridges from them too.

(Come to think of it, I think I now remember seeing "A Walk Through the Universe" played in there in 1984 or so. Maybe I'm just hallucinating, but I remember playing a CED in there and getting a main menu or some instructions like how that disc starts out.)
_________________
Videodisc and stereo sound- there's no better value around!