Analog video disk player

[Geoffcin]

Very few people knew this technology existed, even fewer have ever owned it. Here's a player and 150 titles on ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Electronic-Capacitance-Disc-Player-and-150-Discs-/160538216693?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2560d2c8f5

[JohnMichael]

Very few people knew this technology existed, even fewer have ever owned it. Here's a player and 150 titles on ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Electronic-Capacitance-Disc-Player-and-150-Discs-/160538216693?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2560d2c8f5


In the early 80's when I was selling audio we had the RCA player on one tv and the Laser Disc player on another tv. The RCA had a stylus that traced the groove of the disc. In my youth I wondered why someone would choose a format that would create wear over a system read by a laser? As I remember the laser disc was superior.

[Geoffcin]

Wow, I never even got a chance to see it in action. You would think that this high density analog technology would have made perfect sense for high quality audio. I wonder why it was never adapted?

[JohnMichael]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitance_Electronic_Disc

The Capacitance Electronic Disc (CED) was a video playback system developed by RCA, in which video and audio could be played back on a TV using a special analog needle and high-density groove system similar to phonograph records.

First conceived in 1964, the CED system was widely seen as a technological success which was able to increase the density of a long-playing record by two orders of magnitude.[2] Despite this achievement, the CED system fell victim to poor planning, conflicts within RCA, and technical difficulties that stalled production of the system for 17 years until 1981, by which time it was outmoded by the DiscoVision (LaserDisc) and emerging Betamax and VHS videocassette formats. Sales for the system were nowhere near projected estimates, and by 1986, RCA had discontinued the project, losing an estimated $600 million in the process. RCA had initially intended to release the SKT425 CED player with their high end Dimensia system in 1984, but cancelled the CED player as part of the system just prior to the release of the Dimensia system.[3]

The format was commonly known as "videodisc", leading to much confusion with the contemporary Laserdisc format. Laserdiscs were read optically with a laser beam, whereas CED videodiscs were read physically with a stylus, rather like a conventional gramophone record. The two systems were mutually incompatible.

[atomicAdam]

Wow, I never even got a chance to see it in action. You would think that this high density analog technology would have made perfect sense for high quality audio. I wonder why it was never adapted?

How higher a quality of audio can analog get? Is there such a thing as hi-def analog? Isn't that just a bit thicker, cleaner, existing record?

[Geoffcin]

How higher a quality of audio can analog get? Is there such a thing as hi-def analog? Isn't that just a bit thicker, cleaner, existing record?

More information is always better. It makes for a higher S/N ratio, and better high frequency response. Obviously digital technology put an end to any further development for analog playback, but it does make me wonder how far/better analog could have been if this technology was perfected for high fidelity audio use.

[Woochifer]

Very few people knew this technology existed, even fewer have ever owned it. Here's a player and 150 titles on ebay.

I just looked up the CED Magic site. According to that site, about 500,000 CED players were sold. A lot of people knew about the format at that time -- RCA-owned NBC in particular blanketed the airwaves with CED player ads, better known as the Selectavision Videodisc. The CED format failed because the VCR had already taken hold by the time it came out in 1981, and because it was inferior in every way to the Laserdisc.


Wow, I never even got a chance to see it in action. You would think that this high density analog technology would have made perfect sense for high quality audio. I wonder why it was never adapted?

If analog LPs tried to improve performance by incorporating that conductive layering technique used in the CED format, I doubt it would have retained compatibility with existing analog LP equipment and discs. The audio side was well on its way to embracing optical technology, so any leaps and bounds in analog technology would have been a dead end.

But, I recall that a lot of the technologies that made the CED format possible were incorporated into the existing analog LP market. For example, the CED format used linear tracking, which found its way into some turntables around that same time that were promptly dismissed by the audiophiles of the day.

The CED mastering technique of cutting the signal source directly into a metal plate sounds very similar to Teldec's DMM process, which was used in a lot of vinyl LP releases beginning in the mid-80s. DMM mastering raised the S/N ratio, and allowed for vinyl LPs to store more than 40 minutes per side. Here too, the DMM process fell out of favor with audiophiles, and the vinyl market went back to traditional lacquer cutting.

Also, that time period also saw the emergence of more advanced diamond cutting techniques, which made the CED format possible and also allowed for the development of more advanced stylii for LP playback. Recall that when the CED format was developed, most stylii used conical shapes. But, going with various elliptical shapes dramatically raised the frequency response (a byproduct of quad).