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LOG IN Forgot Login? Register General Discussion • Trading Post • Non-Film Score Discussion  Profile • Preferences • Community Rules • Help/Contact • Search Board Search Terms:  Search Within:  topics posts since 2019 2018 posts 2017 posts 2016 posts 2015 posts 2014 posts 2013 posts 2012 posts 2011 posts 2010 posts 2009 posts 2008 posts 2007 posts 2006 posts 2005 posts 2004 posts 2003 posts 2002 posts 2001 posts 2000 posts users  search tips  You must log in or register to post.   Go to page:  1      Non-Film Score Discussion: Old Tech: RCA CED Player   Last Post   Posted:   May 12, 2017 - 9:59 PM     By:   Mike_J   (Member) In the 80s I always coveted video disc players but never quite got around to getting one - one of the few rare times sesnse prevailed and I waited for prices to drop. I thought the Video Disc was the only alternative to VHS & Beta but today I came across a system I've never heard of before. Did anyone have one of these; ANDREW   (Member) Apparently they played/play like an lp....needle in grooves....with the inherent ability to skip and jump, also like an lp. Have never seen one in action but from what I have read, the image was better but not THAT much better than VHS. Am happy to be corrected on any or all of this...    Posted:   May 13, 2017 - 3:37 AM     By:   Metryq   (Member) A CED player and a few discs passed through a TV studio I was working in back then. I can't recall how the package ended up in our hands, but we played with it for a while, both fascinated and appalled by the fact that it used a needle to play video. (But then the Fisher-Price PXL2000 used audio cassettes to record video.) I don't recall whether or not it looked better than VHS, but I always found the Betamax* vs. VHS arguments silly. Both tape formats had similar horizontal resolution specs—both of which paled in the light of U-matic and other formats to come. They were just stepping stones along the way. And markets can swing on a variety of factors that have nothing to do with technical superiority or inferiority. I collected Laserdiscs when they were in vogue, and the quality of titles varied depending on various steps in the mastering process. So it was often hard to get a handle of which home format was "better." (* Many people seem to confuse Betamax and Betacam. Sony continued to use the same transport mechanism and cassette design, even though other specs of the pro Betacam format improved performance.) Was VCD "better" than VHS? Again, irrelevant. This optical medium was popular in the east while VHS dominated the west. Each may have had advantages—price, convenience, durability, image quality, editing features? In retrospect, none of these formats lasted all that long, at least when compared to, say, LPs. (The current "resurgence" in LP is nothing more than a retro fad.) CED was an interesting technical footnote in the history of home video.    Posted:   May 13, 2017 - 7:10 AM     By:   RoryR   (Member) I had a friend that bought one back in the early eighties. I'd go over to her house to watch as many as I could. Believe me, the system was crap with lousy picture stability even when it didn't skip. It was the poor man's laserdisc, as proved by its quick death. It was also back in the time before letterboxing, so those pan & scan transfers are ancient relics best forgotten.    Posted:   May 16, 2017 - 11:58 AM     By:   Ron Pulliam   (Member) I had one. It was pretty good unless the CED videodisc would not play. At that time, they were more reliable than laserdiscs, though. They were also much cheaper than laserdiscs. The CED to "Raiders of the Lost Ark" was issued on CED before any other format, as I recall. And it was under $20.    Posted:   May 16, 2017 - 6:48 PM     By:   Yen Fai   (Member) Mat from Techmoan has a thoroughly entertaining video about CED discs and players:    Posted:   May 16, 2017 - 6:53 PM     By:   riotengine   (Member) I had a friend that bought one back in the early eighties. I'd go over to her house to watch as many as I could. Believe me, the system was crap with lousy picture stability even when it didn't skip. It was the poor man's laserdisc, as proved by its quick death. It was also back in the time before letterboxing, so those pan & scan transfers are ancient relics best forgotten. Many years ago a buddy of mine bought one of the RCA players and I borrowed it to check it out. It was terrible. He had a stack of discs and only two of them played through without skipping. The skipping problem was awful on some of the discs. It helped me make up my mind to get a laserdisc player. I then bought my first Pioneer top-loading LD player and never looked back. I think this was around 1984-85? Greg Espinoza    Posted:   May 17, 2017 - 2:20 AM     By:   jenkwombat   (Member) Last year, I picked up the CEDs of STAR WARS and EMPIRE extremely cheaply at a yard sale just to have as collectibles. Other than that, no other discs --- not even a player. For me it was laserdiscs... until DVDs and Blu-Rays came along.     Non-Film Score Discussion: Old Tech: RCA CED Player    < 1  >   Go to page:  1   First Post    General Discussion • Trading Post • Non-Film Score Discussion  Profile • Preferences • Community Rules • Help/Contact • Search Board You must log in or register to post.   Go to page:  1

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