CED VideoDisc and Player Discussion

[funnybug]

In the late 70's to early 80's I worked for Radio Shack. So I got to experience the birth of the home computer market and as much of RS's Realistic brand name was manufactured by RCA, I got to experience CED's from the onset.

I remember trying to sell the CED players in those early was no easy task. The price tag was pretty steep as I recall. $499 in 1981 was a lot of dough. VCR's were about $100 - 200 cheaper. And they could record TV shows. Another stumbling block in those early days was the LaserDisc.

So I never officially bought a CED. (But I do have 2 LaserDisc players and a few hundred LD movies).

That was until yesterday.....

I drove in behind my wifes car after work, and noticed her car sitting a little low. So I asked her why her car was hanging low in the back and she said, well, I bought you a present today at a yard sale!

So now I have my first CED player (early RCA) and about 75 Videodiscs.

I hooked it up today to standalone dvd recorder, plugged it in and loaded Disney's Cartoon Parade, fulling expecting it to poof, barf or just sit there like a wallflower at the prom, but to my surprise, it fired right up and started playing! AMAZING!

So, I guess I'll play around with this for a while. The Disney cartoon CED's have my highest attention. Most everything else she brought home I already have on Laser....

but, for $20... how can I complain...

[Reinhart]

I don't mean this as an affront to your experience, but weren't a lot of RS products mostly made by Japanese OEMs such as Hitachi, Sharp, and Sanyo? Of course, that's not to say that RCA never made OEM products for Tandy back then, but most I've seen was Made in Japan or Korea.

I had an old 1986 RadioShack television that was made by Sharp. I also have seen Betamax VCRs from RadioShack that were made by Sanyo while RadioShack VHS decks had been made by Sanyo, Panasonic, Sharp, and etc. A Realistic single-well stereo cassette deck my folks have was "custom manufactured" by Hitachi "for Tandy Corporation." The Realistic CED player you mention was made by Hitachi. - Reinhart

[funnybug]

Tandy got their name branded on a lot of different products from all over the world. Including China.

All I said was RCA was a contributor of many products, not the only, obviously.

[cedmagic]

Here are some CED player ads from RadioShack catalogs. The first is from the 1982 catalog published late in 1981. The Hitachi-made Realistic CED-1 model didn't become available until October 1981, as RCA OEM models had a six-month exclusive on the technology.


http://www.cedmagic.com/museum/ad/radioshack-cat341-16-301.jpg

And here is the final ad from the 1983 catalog. Note the price drop to $379.95.


http://www.cedmagic.com/museum/ad/radioshack-cat354-16-301.jpg

--Tom Howe

[funnybug]

Well, it seems more important that I be corrected as to who made the player, rather than the fact I have joined the fold of CED'rs.

I obviously wandered into the wrong tent here. I don't care who made the Radio Shack player back in 1981. Hitachi.. Mitsubischi.. Honda.. seriously. I don't care.

But, you have corrected my mistake of assuming the RCA technolology. Therefore, you are better and smarter and wiser.

geez.. LD guys aren't like this.

b-bye.

[cedmagic]

Funnybug:

I posted the scans from the RadioShack catalogs because I thought you might get a kick out of seeing them having worked there during the CED era. I'm sorry to hear that you interpreted my intention differently, as the post was only for nostalgia purposes.

--Tom Howe

[Rixrex]

I think funnybug's objection was more in regards to the first reply rather than the catalogue, however, I can understand his dismay. Some folks do show that they are correct in a manner can seem offensive, especially to a new member of the particular group. It might have been better to reply with an acknowledgement that the CED technology was indeed from RCA, regardless of the player manufacturer. In that respect, he's right.

However, funnybug, LD collectors can be just as harsh depending upon who they are and what kind of personality they have. I have had unpleasant interactions with these type of persons regarding LD players manufactured by Pioneer, but marketed under other names, regarding what manner of "clone" the player was, and with other small items as well. Regardless, I think it's a good idea to treat new members with a bit more tact.

[greenie24454]

[Reinhart]

[quote="funnybug"]Well, it seems more important that I be corrected as to who made the player, rather than the fact I have joined the fold of CED'rs.

I obviously wandered into the wrong tent here. I don't care who made the Radio Shack player back in 1981. Hitachi.. Mitsubischi.. Honda.. seriously. I don't care.

But, you have corrected my mistake of assuming the RCA technolology. Therefore, you are better and smarter and wiser.

geez.. LD guys aren't like this.

b-bye.

Holy smokes, man.

It was just a simple correction, but you went overboard in the reply.

If somebody really wanted to be nasty, they could've called you an idiot or a moron. And, the reply was more in regards to who made the Realistic, which was Hitachi.

How on earth you could've understood that correction as an attack that insults RCA and, therefore, attracts the ire of others here is beyond me (and, personally, I'm not much of a fan of RCA itself).

If you REALLY want to see the kind of people you describe, try being reasonable with a Mac evangelist. Sheesh! (And, just in case, I have nothing against Macs as I use them. I wouldn't use something I didn't like, but it's people who are deluded about them that I have issue with and gives us regular users and Macs a bad name.) - Reinhart

[7jlong]

I'll one up that: as far as LaserDisc goes, try tiptoeing into a home theater forum and asking a few innocent questions about how to fold your LD player into a new system with all the HD and 1080p and inboard or outboard scan converter? and lord knows what else all.

I'll sum up the responses:

"You backwards old lunatic! Take your giant, heavy, stupid, multi-sided antique discs and go cry into your Betamax deck because we're not going to waste our precious, precious time nursing some disco-era video reject at our shiny, glistening, Blu-Ray teats. Got it? Go away!"

I've never hated forums so much as when I'm on an LD mission.

Radio Shack guy was a little sensitive, though. Most forums and, indeed, their users, encourage and appreciate the correction of misinformation - as far as I can tell, anyway.

[Rixrex]

Looks like somebody did finally get around to calling this poor guy a "moron". Okay, the new guy, funnybug, was overly sensitive, but he wasn't shown much of a welcome either. He was partially right when saying "as much of RS's Realistic brand name was manufactured by RCA", as many RS items were back in those days. "Much" being a rather variable term, some folks take it to mean most of a stock, and others would think of it as just a big number of things, not always the majority. Maybe he assumed the RS CED player was an RCA product because he'd heard and even read about the CED technology from RCA. That just makes him ignorant of the facts, and not a moron, and a lot of us worked at those kind of places when we were young. I worked at a gas station to make college tuition. He could have gotten a better welcome, in my opinion. By the way, you don't have to give your phone number to them at RS when they ask for it, just refuse to, and there's lots of better places to go for answers. Many big businesses try to get all sorts of information about your buying habits, that's what the grocery clubs are all about too, and it's up to you to not go along. After all, isn't it pretty obvious that they, Radio Shack, are just a big corporation that is geared towards sales, and that doesn't really hire people much beyond minimum wage? So there's no real technical expertise at the counter, though you might get lucky and find a wiz kid there once. Of course, they do state, "you've got questions, we've got answers", but they can easily get off the hook of truth in advertising because they don't say they have the right answers to your questions. I'm not a big fan of RS but they were the only place I could get a set of correct speaker fuses once, and a old-style RF male to RCA female adapter for my vintage LD player video out. Plus it is kind of fun to check out the vintage RS items when you come across them here and there.

[7jlong]

*sigh*

The guy seemed just fine with what was going on until Tom got into the swing of the thread and posted those great Radio Shack ads, unearthing more delights from his archive. Then funnybug blew his top.

It is in a forum newcomer's best interest to read for a bit before posting to see how things flow. Had this occurred, he might have noticed that 1) Tom is the moderator and not given to browbeating newcomers; 2) that aside, Tom is quite possibly one of the nicest guys I've ever encountered online and freely makes information available to us because we all have fun with it; and 3) this isn't really a welcome wagon kinda forum as far as I've noticed.

A missing greeting? Is that the problem? OK. Fair enough.

But Reinhart's first message was very kindly and cautiously worded too, perhaps sensing that this outcome might be possible.

Again, though, I see this largely as a technical forum. You're going to get corrected, or at least debated, and rarely is it a personal attack.

Live with it.

(I chose to ignore the name-calling post in this thread, as obnoxious and inflammatory posts from newcomers with only one post under their belt are a dime a dozen. Irrelevant.)

[Rixrex]

Re: LD forum responses, and for that matter any older technology.

Right you are about those negative statements, but most often I get the "don't know" and "huh?" types of replies. Still, it is much nicer to be able to watch something that does not freeze-up, pixilate, or jump scenes, like DVD does. I've had LDs that look like they've been used as frisbees and still play fine. And it's great that the CEDs are in their caddy, and always play fine if you keep your player up to snuff, and store discs properly.

But DVD? Supposedly the format that can last forever (heard that before) but can't stand up to a misplaced fingernail? Even if your old tape had a crinkle spot, at least you could get by it and see the rest of the show, but I've had DVDs that skipped whole chunks of visible material and ruined the movie experience. Production studios just want you to buy the stuff, and then buy it again if you have to. They don't really care if you stop going to the theater or the video rental store, as long as you just buy and buy the product somehow, but then not the asian bootlegs.

Well, about the HD sets, thank gosh for DVDO. If you don't know what I mean, do an internet search and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. They make my CEDs, LDs, and Betas all look pretty sweet on the HD TV.

[Rixrex]

Well, I know you won't take this as a personal attack, but I really don't agree.

I wasn't calling for a welcome wagon for every new member, but I felt funnybug's welcome wasn't really all that it could have been, and I don't think Tom's post was the most significant factor. Sorry, but I think the first post got him hot-headed, and then Tom's was pretty well misunderstood by the fellow.

I don't think the initial reply was wrong, yet wouldn't it have been fine to have said something to the effect of, curious to know in your experience at the RS, what kinds of things did RCA provide at your store, and what other manufacturers provided other things? And let him have the ball. Then it could be said that he was right about RCA providing the CED technology, yet that it was Hitachi using the technology to make the RS CED players. The new guy is then welcomed and asked about his personal experience, feels like a member, and the thread could go on with Tom's neat archive materials.

I'll admit that this is great advise thanks to hindsight, but I'd wish funnybug would return to the site and not give up so easily on the CEDs. I imagine he must have been more than excited to get that great gift from his wife, and he could use the great tips that are found here at this site, and are not found anywhere else. Or maybe he will just sell off his gift, and stick with the LDs, which would be too bad. So if you read this, funnybug, give it another shot, regardless of the irrelevent yet crass comments made by another newby.

[7jlong]

Point taken.