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| Memories of VideoDisc - CED Folklore | ||||||||||||||
I got the idea for doing this section of Memories of VideoDisc after perusing the cool Folklore site put together by the developers of the Apple Macintosh computer. This page is for CED developers and those involved with RCA VideoDiscs when they were on the market to submit stories about their experiences. Although every page of the Memories section has a form to submit stories, some people have mentioned that they would like to submit a story that does not apply to any of the existing pages, and since there are about a thousand pages on the Memories site, some simply do not have the time to look through them all.
The form below allows you to submit your story directly to this page, with submitted stories initially appearing in reverse chronological order, although I may categorize them eventually. The stories can be anything related to the development and market phase of the CED system from RCA employees, RCA associates, RCA dealers, and consumers who purchased the system when it was new.
In addition to your story, you may also email me a photograph or other picture to include adjacent to your story. Please submit the photo in JPEG format with a .jpg extension. Do not send the photo in ZIP format with a .zip extension as it might be identified as spam. If you have a photo, but lack the means to scan it, you may mail it to me at the address on the contact page and I'll scan it and mail it back to you.
When submitting stories where you talk about specific VideoDisc co-workers, managers, or other associates, try not to be overly critical. A good rule of thumb is to not say anything on this page you would not be willing to say to someone face-to-face. I reserve the right to return for further editing submissions that use harsh language or are overly critical.
Author: Marvin Bock
Time Frame: 1975-86
I was employed by RCA SelectaVision at the Rockville Rd. Plant from 1975 until the closing in 1986. Injuries received due to ignorance on the part of middle management had left me unable to work in my occupation.
I came to RCA as an expert in the field of injection molding of plastics. I was treated as though I was employed to clean toilets. Somehow, I have managed to survive in spite of my work related injuries. I look upon those twelve years of busting my butt and breaking my back as the biggest mistake of my life.
However, I know that I am not alone in having gotten screwed by RCA Corporation. I wish those others the best.
Author: Richard Sonnenfeldt
Time Frame: March 1975
Philips and MCA included an RCA contingent in a glitzy public demonstration of their laser disk at the Hotel Pierre in New York. There I realized that I was looking at a laboratory model, not a production prototype.
The Philips disk played very well for a few minutes, but when it had glitches, the demonstrator quickly turned the player off and launched into talk. The Philips project was technically under engineering manager William Zeiss, a Dutch colleague of mine from Digitronics days, who let me know, quite discreetly, that he had developed the Philips disk as a communications device, not as a consumer mass product. He said: "The show biz types are a bit ahead of themselves." Zeiss was never given a part in those demos nor was he allowed to speak publicly. At Philips, too, manufacturing feasibility was far in the future. There, in their marriage with MCA, the Hollywood powerhouse, it was the MCA promoters who got ahead of the Philips researchers.
Four days later, on March 19, 1975, I demonstrated the RCA videodisk to more than a dozen writers from "The New York Times," "The Wall Street Journal," "Forbes," "Time" and the trade press. My showing was carefully cast as a "Report of Work in Progress." Though I was sweating bullets, my show went off without a hitch. These were the same viewers who had just seen the Philips demonstration. I showed our good program segments, but I did not disguise the status of our development.
- An excerpt from Richard Sonnenfeldt's soon to be U.S. published memoirs. The German Edition is available now.
- Courtesy of Richard Sonnenfeldt, the complete VIDEODISK Chapter from his autobiography is now available on-line.
Author: Mike Miller
Time Frame: 1981-86
My experience with CED discs was as a retailer. My store (G&M Video, in Speedway Indiana) was one of the largest retailers of CED discs in the country. (We even had a thriving mail order business for CED discs, which benefited from the poor distribution of CED in some parts of the country). We stocked every CED title ever made, and offered discs for both sale and rental. Our store also serviced the players, so I have some experience with the quality of the machines as well.
One thing that helped us was that we were located about two miles from RCA's disc pressing plant. We got a lot of business from RCA employees, who for some reason couldn't buy (and certainly couldn't rent!) discs direct from the factory. Through some of our RCA-employee customers we also got advance information on what was due to be pressed.
When RCA got the player price down to $99, we sold a lot of machines. (Over 100 in one week during one particularly well-advertised sale, if I recall.) In general, customers liked the machines, and tended to put up with the random skipping. The audience tended to be middle or lower class; CED never did attract an upscale videophile consumer. The main attraction was price-- cheap movies on a cheap machine. Quality wasn't much of an issue with the core market.
Unlike the LD market, we tended to have a heavier rental business than sale business. However, we did move thousands of discs each month-- mainly to customers who also rented. When we received real hit movies-- like the initial release of Star Wars-- we would order and sell hundreds of copies a month. While most customers would buy a disc a month or so, we did have a core group of customers who purchased almost everything that was released.
It was a good business.
While it lasted.
When RCA ceased player manufacturing, they promised to support the installed base for three years. Well, it didn't last quite that long. The customers saw they were being abandoned and flocked in droves to buy VHS machines. As the disc business started to dry up, both RCA and CBS scaled back and finally ceased pressing of new discs. We changed our business over to VHS tapes--which was mainly rental, not sale-- and I moved on to another career (publishing computer books, if anyone cares).
The funny thing is, RCA sold more players and discs in a single year than Pioneer did in the first 10 years of LD, yet CED was perceived as a failure. Perhaps if RCA had recruited more supporters-- and worked out some of the technical glitches-- then things might have been different.
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