CED Digest Vol. 5 No. 19

CED Digest Vol. 5 No. 19 • 5/13/2000
From: Cleggsan
Date: Sun, 7 May 2000 08:50:17 EDT
Subject: Re: CED Digest Vol. 5 No. 18
To: ceds@teleport.com, tom@cedmagic.com

In a message dated 5/7/00 4:13:25 AM Pacific Daylight Time, ceds@teleport.com 
writes:

> 
>  HI,
>  I'm an undergraduate engineering student who has recently become
>  interested in the videodisc system. I'm enrolled in a management course
>  and was asked what the major mistakes made by RCA MANAGEMENT in the
>  development of the videodisc were. Any opinions,facts, and suggestions
>  would be very helpful.
>  Thanks!
>  
>  Sabrina
>  
Sabrina:
RCA was, to some extent, a victim of the times; optical technology was not 
far behind.  But the product itself did not satisfy the consumer:  No stereo 
(although it was added later and helped alot);  Cost of disc mastering and 
therefore disc price to the retail customer was quite high; and random access 
was very poor on CED players.  Then, along came competition from LD and from 
JVC VHD (although at the last minute, JVC decided not to bring in their VHD 
product which was quite similar to the CED disc).  

RCA management was too determined to base the product development and market 
strategies on the LP music disc model and didn't realize that the customer 
wanted ease of operation along with new features.

Good luck with your investigations.

Cleggsan

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 10 May 2000 12:58:16 -0800
To: digest@cedmagic.com
From: Tom Howe <ceds@teleport.com>
Subject: VideoDisc Player Displayed at Disney Epcot Center

Hello All:

The Epcot Center in Orlando has an RCA SFT100 player on display in a large
cabinet outside their "Ultimate Home Theater Experience" attraction. This
is located in the Innoventions West pavilion. The cabinet also contains a
lot of other vintage audio and video gear. The SFT100 has an old Sony
camcorder and Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man sitting on top of it. Here's the
URL to photos of the display:



http://www.cedmagic.com/home/epcot-sft100.jpg

The most interesting thing about this player is a piece of black electrical
tape covering Nipper and the RCA logo on the front of the player. It looks
like someone wanted to conceal the unit's RCA origins.

Speaking of Disney, does anyone have any memory of the CED promotion that
went on in the waiting queues at Space Mountain during the early 80's ? I
visited that attraction in 1983 but remember little about the CED stuff. It
would be interesting to know how long the CED promotion lasted after RCA
canceled the system in April 1984. There's a link to a page with some 
info on Space Mountain's RCA years at the bottom of the main CED Magic page.

--Tom
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