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Author Topic: Anyone have a CED (SelectaVision) VideoDisc player? Jesse Skeen Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1517 From: Sacramento, CA Registered: Aug 2000 posted 01-31-2004 04:38 PM                     The "Save the LP" movement of the late 80's inspired me to start collecting 8-track tapes, which then got me interested in all the other dead formats out there. I decided the next logical step was to get into CED videodisc, which is video's 8-track equivalent (despite popular opinion, Beta doesn't even come close.) For those who don't remember, these were a competing format to Laserdisc that was sold from 1981-1986, and were read with a stylus instead of a laser. There's a website dedicated to them at www.cedmagic.com - before I got into this internet thing I thought I was the only one on the planet who cared about them. When I finally found a working stereo player at a flea market I was so taken with the format that I decided to try and get every title ever produced (there were around 1300 altogether), and 10 years later my collection has passed the 1100 mark last time I counted. I have a stereo player hooked up to my 90's-era TV and sound system, and watch them quite often. The picture is a little "jaggy" for lack of a better word, and often the needle will skip over a few seconds while playing, which they did even when they were brand-new and probably the main reason they failed. The sound is pretty good though. My latest acquisition came today- "Memories Of Videodisc", which was made for the employees of the RCA factory in Indianapolis and given to them when the plant closed for good in June 1986. It includes still photos day-to-day operations, a video tour of the factory shot in 1983, and a scrolling list of names of everyone who worked there. I'm making a DVD copy right now so I can share this gem with anyone else who wants to see it.  |  IP: Logged Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 01-31-2004 05:28 PM                        Hello Jesse, I wish you knew one of my friends who had invested a lot of money in the CED system. When his player 'died' and could not get local service to repair the machine, he gave up on the system and took his extensive collection to the city dump and trashed all of them. Because he took very good care of his discs, they were like new and I though it was a shame he dicided to throw them away. When he was collecting CED discs, I was collecting laserdiscs and as you know, that system survived until DVD took over the optical video disc market beginning in 1997, To be honest with you, I never cared very much for both the picture and sound quality of the CED system and preferred the laserdisc format. At one time, I must have had about 600 discs. Although I kept many obscure titles, a good percentage were sold in order to get the money to replace them with DVD copies. -Claude  |  IP: Logged Phil Hill I love my cootie bug Posts: 7595 From: Hollywood, CA USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 01-31-2004 05:40 PM                  I agree Claude, I could never figure out the logic of why anyone would prefer/buy an old-fashioned video "phonograph" over the much superior and cool technology of LaserDiscs. Mechanical contact/physical wear vs. no contact/no physical wear... DUH! I went the LaserDisc route in my personal collection mainly cuz of the successful history of the arcade games (Dragon's Lair, etc.) and being in the theme park indusrty where I used a ton of 'em. >>>Phil  |  IP: Logged Patrick J. McCart Film Handler Posts: 24 From: Blue Ridge, GA, USA Registered: Nov 2001 posted 02-02-2004 07:00 PM                        I obtained about 25 titles plus a very screwed up player from a flea market a few years ago. The player had to be junked since it was pretty much worn out, but the discs are in great condition. Here's a list of titles I have if you're interested: http://cztoondb.tripod.com/cedpage.htm  |  IP: Logged Bruce McGee Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1776 From: Asheville, NC USA... Nowhere in Particular. Registered: Aug 1999 posted 02-02-2004 08:22 PM                     I kept my CED player until I was no longer able to get the replacement stylus. I gave all of my copies to Goodwill. I see them for sale there now and then.  |  IP: Logged Hillary Charles Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 748 From: York, PA, USA Registered: Feb 2001 posted 02-03-2004 11:44 AM                     I have an early mono and a stereo player. The mono works better these days. I think I still have about 70 titles, and for the most part, they play as okay as they ever did (how about that for a glowing endorsement?). At the time, discs were much less expensive than prerecorded VHS tapes and about half the price of laserdiscs, which made it attractive to me. Also in our basement waiting for the museum, is Pioneer's first laserdisc player and a Quasar Time Machine VCR with one of the stacked-reel cassettes still in it.  |  IP: Logged Jesse Skeen Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1517 From: Sacramento, CA Registered: Aug 2000 posted 02-03-2004 05:31 PM                     Wow- I actually have a Quasar Great Time Machine VCR, but no tapes for it- don't even know if it works. Last week I got a 1972 Cartrivision VCR from Ebay, should be coming this week! This was the first home-video format, beating Beta by about 3 years!  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 02-03-2004 06:23 PM                     Hey, I got a Pioneer VP-1000 laserdisc player too! Steve  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 02-03-2004 07:23 PM                     My Aunt Patricia has an RCA Selectavision player (the version that used a stylus). The player itself no longer works. She has around 200 movies, including the original "Star Wars" trilogy, "Jaws," "Back to the Future" and many other big hits. I have no way of knowing if they're still in good shape or warped all to hell. Only bad thing about them is most are pan and scan.  |  IP: Logged Brett Garten Film Handler Posts: 8 From: potts point nsw australia Registered: Oct 2003 posted 03-23-2004 02:22 AM                     One good thing about Selectavision is they used to rerecord over the unsold discs. Once a rerecorded disc starts to wear you casn see artifacts of the older image superimposed with the newer one. Makes for a very avant garde effect. You can even scrape off the layers to see what was on it originally and produce very interesting effects.  |  IP: Logged Michael Schaffer "Where is the Boardwalk Hotel?" Posts: 4143 From: Boston, MA Registered: Apr 2002 posted 03-23-2004 04:30 AM                        I never heard of this system. Was it ever marketed in Europe?  |  IP: Logged Paul Linfesty Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1383 From: Bakersfield, CA, USA Registered: Nov 1999 posted 03-23-2004 08:38 AM                     quote: One good thing about Selectavision is they used to rerecord over the unsold discs. Now just how were they able to do this? Selectavision discs weren't magnetic, but had grooves. They were stamped out, not recorded.  |  IP: Logged Stephen Furley Film God Posts: 3059 From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England Registered: May 2002 posted 03-23-2004 09:05 AM                     Yes Michael, but it was never very popular here. I have a PAL disk somewhere, but no player. There was also the VHD system from JVC which was a grooveless capacative format. Then there was the tel-dec system, which never reached the market, which used a physically modulated groove, the less said about that one the better, and of course, the original Baird 30 line disks from the '30s, some of which somebody has recently managed to play. The results are on a web site somewhere.  |  IP: Logged Jesse Skeen Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1517 From: Sacramento, CA Registered: Aug 2000 posted 03-23-2004 03:47 PM                     No, there was no way they could "record" anything over a pressed disc- for the later titles they did stick new labels over the covers though- they'd label a certain number of caddies for a title but some discs would get rejected upon inspection so they'd have some labeled caddies left over but with no discs. Towards the end of the format they used these caddies for other titles, sticking a new label over the old one. I used to peel these back enough to see what was underneath, but could never get them back on without looking sloppy so I quit doing that. The older Discovision laserdiscs often had hidden stuff on the unused sides though- they'd spray it with something to make it unreadable but you can clean it off with alcohol and play it. Usually it's a test-pressing of a side of another released title, but sometimes you get late 70's General Motors training discs that are a lot of fun to watch. On my side 6(?) of "Three Days of the Condor" which is in CAV format as all early titles were, I found a test-pressing of Side 2 of "Bullitt" in CLV format, which was never commercially released on the DiscoVision label. BTW I got my Cartrivision unit but can't get it to play I think the capacitor that starts the motor's got something wrong with it, I'll have to go find a replacement when I've got time- working 9-5 M-F sucks!  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-09-2004 10:11 PM                        The store I work at used to sell these things. We sold Zenith TVs, and when videodisks came out Zenith decided to go with the CED type (their second major video blunder...the first was when they went with Betamax.) Some people here in town actually opened up a video store featuring these things! As you might expect, they didn't hold up too well in the rental market.  |  IP: Logged

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