Does anyone own a video disc player?
 

I was just reminiscing about video disc players. For those of you who aren't familiar with them or not old enough to remember, they're not DVD players, and not Laser Disc players (although the discs are the same size) but they play movies, and they're about the same size as older VCRs. I don't think they were recordable. They were around before Beta and VHS were available (at least in my area).
This was the first form of recorded movies that my family experienced. We rented the Robert Altman version of 'Popeye' and 'The Last Unicorn' and Richard Pryor as 'The Toy'.
The discs came in heavy plastic slip cases. You inserted the entire case into the player and when you pulled it out the disc was in the player. You also had to turn them over to finish the movie.

Do any of you still own one of these?
Does anyone know about this technology?
Is it similar to a magnetic floppy disc on a computer?

Ah, I can almost smell the warm plastic.

I think you can still buy these in China.
Do you mean a dedicated video cd player?

Here's what I'm talking about...

Click Here

And Here

Or Here

whoa, that is so old school

I have a Ratshack model stashed away in a store room. Have a few movies for it upstairs yet, with my old vinyl collection. It had a stylus type pick up, not sure if the stylus was actually the pick-up or just the guide. For the time it had pretty good sound and picture quality, but the discs were kinda pricey or "rare" so to speak, since the technology was RAPIDLY replaced by VCR. I seem to recall the machine was also a tad on the "noisy" side. Movies included... hmmmmm On Golden Pond, 9-5 and a couple others I don't recall!! Willing to bet the thing would still work if I took it out of mothballs and plugged it in!!

Hmm...I'll hold out for a Good Burger version before I jump on this "new fad" technology :)

-pedagogue

Re: Does anyone own a video disc player?
 

I think the actual introduction of home video formats was in this order:

Beta
VHS
Laserdiscs
CEDs (aka RCA SelectaVision)

They more or less "died" or are dying in this order:

CEDs
Beta
Laserdiscs (no longer made but hanging on)
VHS (will still be around for a while)

Re: Re: Does anyone own a video disc player?
 

Laserdisc was introduced before VHS or Beta, actually. See this Popular Science article from 1977:

(Edit: AAARRGGH!!! Dammit, my ISP has taken down my site again. What, did I get 3 hits this month. Grrrrr....)

The article discusses the development of both laserdisc and CED. Laserdiscs were made available in 1978. CEDs introduction was delayed until 1981. I don't remember the dates for VHS and Beta, but they were definitely after LD.

My parents still have 2 players and a boatload of disks.

Re: Re: Re: Does anyone own a video disc player?
 

I thought Beta was 1975-76ish and VHS 1976-1977ish. I could be wrong.

I knew laserdiscs were 1978 and that's why I put them in that order.
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Just did a quick search. Edited to add:

This article says Beta was introduced in 1975:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...502.aaa02.html

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More searching, another edit, ironically from the CED website:

http://www.cedmagic.com/history/vbt200.html

Also from the same web page, this bolsters the 1975 date for Beta:

So I'm sticking to my original order: Beta, VHS, LD, CED unless you can prove otherwise.:)

Movielib, I thought VHS and Beta were later, but I'll take your word for it unless I can find something that proves otherwise.

Don't forget that even before VHS or Beta there were reel to reel video recorders for home use. Very crappy, very short life span on the tape, and an equally short recording time. And, as a bit of trivia: On The Bob Newhart show Bob's patient Mr. Carlin gives him one as a gift.

Thanks for the great link and for the info everyone.
I had no idea they were called CEDs.

Those things took up so much space, our video rental store had to have many rooms to display all their CEDs, but the selection was still slim.

oh yeah!

http://www.labguysworld.com/IVC-700_004.jpg

I have 2 videodisc players and probably around 30 or so discs. i had like 250 discs and 3 players, but sold ~220 and my crappiest player for like 100 bucks. they suck. no widescreen, hardly any stereo. I dont think there were any videodiscs that were not also released on laserdisc that are worth getting. The discs i kept were things like Devo videos, 3 stooges, looney tunes and richard pryor like comdey.

-daveninja.com

I bought an RCA CED player back around 1980. I kept it long enough to buy 50 discs. But, I noticed after playing the discs the second time, they started skipping badly. Even a lot of the new discs skipped. I gave up on that format in 1982 and switched over to laserdiscs. Much better. I sold the player and the 50 discs for about $100 right after I switched to laserdisc.

Video Order
 

I sold video equipment back in the 1970s and I rented out the first "home" recorder, a Sony Beta with a 1 hour capability. This was around 1976-77. Soon after came lighter units with longer capacity (I owned 2, still do) and then VHS. I can't recall which was first, we had Selectavision from RCA and Laserdisc was the competition. So based on my experience I would say Movielib got it right, especiall since I was out of the business in 1980 and I recall all 4 models as well as reel to reel in 1972. I worked with one and remember it from the back of an Allied Electronics catalogue.

Selectavision sucks...but I love it!
 

I have over 1000 of those hefty discs...and 5 players. Why? Well, for the same reason I collect Edison Cylinders, 16" transcription discs, 16mm, and Recordios. I just love dead formats! Selectavision discs are a chore to use well. I usually take them out of the case, gently wash them with a horse hair brush and a solution of Tide detergent and water (99% water 1% Tide), then soak in a solution of Photo Flo (a photographic chemical which allows water to slip off any surface). They usually play fine. I love my laserdiscs and DVDs...but when you have friends over for a movie a Selectavision presentation often amazes them.

I've got about 1200 discs, I'm trying to get every title. Just watched 2 last night!

which ones are you missing?

I think there's at least 300 I'm still missing. My holy grail of course is the "Memories of Videodisc" made for the pressing plant workers before it was closed for good (hopefully at least someone'll make a DVD-R of it soon!) If I can't get every single title I at least want all the stereo titles and stuff that was direct-to-video. (Last CED watched: Urgh: A Music War!)