The CED: RCA's Very Late, Very Weird Video Gamble (Pt. 1)

So. It's the mid-60s, e

very

one has a television, but no one has a way to choose what they want to watch. You've got your network affiliates, some of those newfangled UHF stations... I've heard 62 is pretty good. But that's all. How boring. How limiting. How archaic. Now we have

video

recorders, but those things use crazy technology that is

very

expensive. We will probably never get

video

tape technology to the point where we can market it for the home. And besides, without some kind of... small case that holds the tape in a convenient, easy-to-handle format, it's not likely to appeal to the layman.

Clearly duct tape is not a good option. I know! Discs! Yes, it may be hard to believe for those who remember the transition from VHS to DVD, but if things had gone as planned, we home users would have had video discs long before we had video tapes. RCA had begun researching a home videodisc system in 1964 and, just 17 years

late

r, they achieved it. The capacitance electronic disk system, or CED, which they called and marketed as the SelectaVision video disk system. This product was RCA's ultimate madness. You could say it destroyed the company. After years of relentless research, they released a product so incredibly limited and so hilariously flawed that it's a wonder they even bothered to test it.

However, they did it. And they shouldn't have done it. Now, there are still some fans of this unfortunate videodisc system, and I'm sorry if I upset you when I say this, but it has to be said. RCA was crazy here. In retrospect, this product was incredibly strange, silly, and doomed to fail. But... the idea behind it is actually quite remarkable. Had it been released in, say, 1975, it could have achieved immense success. Our entire media landscape could be completely different if RCA had managed to bring this product to market just half a decade earlier. This is because their ultimate goal was to take the technology of the humble record player and turn it into a cheap and easy-to-mass-produce video format.

Hidden inside this cart is a black PVC record, not unlike the standard phonograph records of the era. This record is read with a stylus, like a normal phonograph record, however, what it detects is not vibration. I'll talk about that a little

late

r, but this is evidence that RCA really accomplished the goal they set out to do. It was simply achieved too late and with too many compromises. As always, to understand this story, we must start in the past before the past from which it comes. In the early days of radio and television, RCA, that is, the Radio Corporation of America, was among the most innovative companies.

Its history dates back to 1899, when the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America was formed as a subsidiary of the British Marconi Company. In those early days of radio, the technologies that made it possible were constantly evolving. During World War I, radio was used almost exclusively for wireless telegraphy, which are the classic dots and dashes that make up the world-famous, let's say it now, character coding schemes, of which Morse code is one. Simple radio transmitters, called spark transmitters, could send radio pulses quite easily, however audio was not yet possible. Audio streaming was relatively rare and mainly experimental.

It wouldn't really become what you might call “a thing” until after the war. Speaking of after the war, well, actually before the war, in 1904, rhymes aplenty! General Electric had been tasked with creating a high-frequency alternator, which was later designed by Ernst Alexanderson, and thus another transmission technology, the Alexanderson alternator, was introduced to the radio world. Compared to previous spark transmitters, it allowed transmitting in very narrow frequency bands (reducing noise) and also had many other interesting advantages, but also some disadvantages, in particular... they were huge. But anyway... In 1919, now that we're back after the war, General Electric had installed one of these amazing Alexanderson alternators for the US Navy at the Marconi transmitter site in New Brunswick, New Sweater.

The people at Marconi were very impressed with the product and they all said, "We'd like to buy your alternator manufacturing division, General Electric," to which GE responded, "Well, geez, isn't that great? We've been looking." . sell our alternator production unit and you seem like the perfect entity to make that purchase,” to which the US Navy said “Uh-oh.” You see, the Navy was concerned that if the American Marconi could buy alternator production from GE, they (and therefore their British parent company) would have world dominance in wireless communications. The Navy said, "We can't allow that!" So the Navy convinced GE, instead of selling its alternator production to the American Marconi, to go ahead and buy the American Marconi and nip that little problem of world domination in the bud.

And so they did, turning the American Marconi into a subsidiary of General Electric, which would henceforth be called Radio Corporation of America. So. That's how RCA became big. RCA grew and grew and grew, breaking into the consumer radio space and eventually the whole "RCA is owned by GE and they're getting a bit monopolistic" thing meant that the US Department of Justice forced RCA to separate into their own company. in 1932. But still. They were huge and knew how to do cool things. RCA had touched almost every major technological advance of the early 20th century. They had purchased the Victor company, which not only granted them the use of Nipper and the classic "His Master's Voice" motto, but also Victor's record label and phonograph production.

RCA had developed Photophone, a sound-on-film system for movies. They were instrumental in the proliferation of television and practically invented color television. In fact, they weren't just RCA. They were ANNOUNCER: R C A The most trusted name in television! So. This was a huge and highly respected company, with almost unlimited resources, talented engineers, and a long history of successful innovation. And yet, somehow... This happened. The RCA Videodisc is both a technical marvel and a technical monstrosity. Getting a phonograph record to produce video signals that a television could display was a fairly ambitious goal. Let me explain why.

This phonograph record contains a very long spiral groove with walls that move up and down and around, and when you put it on a turntable, then place a pencil inside the groove and give the record a good spin, those wobbly grooves the pencil is also made to wobble. And thanks to the phonograph cartridge, those wobbles, wobbles, wobbles are converted into electrical signals. We can then strengthen those signals through amplification, transmit them through speakers, and listen to the music contained on the record. But hey, this disk does not need to produce very high frequency signals. The human hearing range maxes out at around 20 kilohertz, so it is not necessary to make this recording too precisely.

If we want to create a record capable of reproducing higher frequencies, we must do one of two things; causing the slot walls to contain widely spaced oscillations or accelerating the rotation of the disk. The ideal would be to do both. Okay, how much more bandwidth do we need? If a normal disk can reach up to 20 kilohertz, what is a television signal? Oh, about 5 megahertz. Okay, so we need to put 250 times more information on one of these disks. That sounds... difficult. And that was. Remember, research began in 1964, but the product wasn't released until 1981. When it finally hit the market, up to 60 minutes of video (later increased to 63) were stored on each side of the drive, and although bandwidth was reduced to 3 megahertz to make things a little easier, this still meant that a 60-minute CED held approximately 450 times more information than a 20-minute vinyl record.

Now, you might be wondering, why on earth was RCA so determined to make video work on vinyl? Simple. Ease of manufacturing. Vinyl records are stamped from metal masters and can be put out quickly and cheaply. If RCA could figure out how to use phonograph technology, very simple and perfected over decades, to produce a video record, they would have had a miracle product on their hands. RCA envisioned a relatively inexpensive device, not far from a regular turntable, that you would simply pop your new video discs into and be delighted to see your living room become a place to watch TV on your own terms.

The records themselves would not be very expensive to make, as they would simply be a more perfected vinyl record. Therefore, film and television studios should be happy to get on board, as the records could sell for little more than the cost of an album while still making significant profits. The premise seems less far-fetched when one remembers that in 1964, videotapes were still more than a decade away from entering the domestic market in significant volumes. Delicate mechanisms, expensive electronic components, and open reels of wide, heavy tape made it seem highly unlikely that a video tape would end up in the home any time soon.

And even if that somehow happened, the tapes themselves would be very expensive, not only because tape is expensive to manufacture, but because mass production of prerecorded tapes would require dozens or even hundreds of recorders to make duplicate recordings in real time. . time. Therefore, it would not be a good way to sell pre-recorded content. No one would buy such an expensive film and no film studio will settle for such tight margins. And so, in the context of 1964, the RCA Videodisc seems like a really great idea. Use the same equipment and technology used to mass produce records for the music industry and replicate that model for things like movies, TV shows, and maybe one day, entirely new content categories.

Except the development process took too long. In 1972, they had only managed to fit 10 minutes of video on one side of a record. What's more, they discovered that simple vinyl records didn't work. The technology they had developed required the discs to be conductive. The first prototype discs were metallized, with a top layer of styrene and a lubricant layer on top. Now RCA wasn't stupid and they realized that 10 minutes was stupid. So, they continued to transport trucks and continued to invest resources in the project. One of the things they soon discovered was that the disks were extremely fragile.

If you try to fit a few dozen slots into the space of what used to be just one, the drives could easily be destroyed with normal handling. Until then, RCA imagined the records would be bare, like normal phonograph records. Finally, realizing that, well, this is nonsense, RCA designed these not at all clunky caddies to hold records nice and secure. We don't want humans to touch them. Still, the system needed a lot more work. The prototype records, being multi-layered and metallized, did not exactly follow the premise of “making films as fast and cheap as vinyl” that they had arrived at.

They eventually discovered that using PVC impregnated with conductive carbon particles would work quite well, so they eventually returned to that goal, but it took a while. As we know it. By the time 1981 rolled around, RCA had “perfected” the system. 60 minutes per side, secure protective caddies, a totally stylish player and a catalog of movies ready for release. The players were fairly cheap to manufacture, so RCA was able to sell them for about $500 (that's roughly equivalent to $1,500 today). It sounds expensive, but video recorders were about twice as expensive as when the CED was launched. Wait. Wait. You mean the videotapes came home before the CED was released?

If he did! And do you know who had a big role in making this happen? Wow, a little company called RCA. Remember how I said RCA wasn't stupid? Well, they saw the rise of video recorders and quickly jumped on the market. They didn't make any VCRs themselves, opting instead to outsource that task to companies like Matushita and Hitachi, but RCA's presence in the VCR market was big business. . RCA supported the VHS format created by JVC, rather than opting for Sony's slightly older Betamax format. And it was RCA who pioneered the development of long-duration recording mode, allowing VHS machines to record 4 hours on tape and ultimately capture an entire football game.

This all happened in the late 1970s; in fact, RCA's first VCR (which was the first inadmit 4 hour recording) appeared on the scene in 1977. Oh, and do you know what RCA decided to call their VCR line? SelectaVision. That!? Yes, this was strange. RCA decided to use the name they planned to call their new videodisc system for their imported line of VCRs. I guess this wasn't a big deal, but it's still strange. In fact, it seems that RCA simply stole all the marketing material planned for the CED and put it on their VCRs. ANNOUNCER: Let RCA turn your TV into SelectaVision!

This seemed even stranger when we remember that in the early days of the VCR, pre-recorded content did not yet exist. For the most part, VCRs were used to record live television for later viewing, a process known as time shifting. In that context, SelectaVision doesn't even make much sense. You're not selecting something to watch. You are planning to record something and you will watch it later. Remember, these devices are called VCRs, which stands for video recorder, not video player. And it's not a "VHS player." Stop calling him that. RCA was very forward-thinking and thought that pre-recorded tapes would eventually become a thing, but of course that would go against their continued efforts to produce the videodisc system, or they were just very lazy and thought, sure. , we'll use that name that we plan to use for this completely different product that we're still working on for some reason.

Just to muddy the waters a bit, SelectaVision was actually first coined for an earlier abandoned RCA project, the HoloTape player, however, although tape-based, it was not capable of recording. This story, for such a simple product, is infuriatingly complicated and strange. If the CED had existed in a vacuum, it would have made sense. But in a world where the VCR existed, a world where RCA actively marketed it, its existence is just... that, it's... WHY? Why bother continuing with this project? What problem could the videodisc solve when RCA VCRs had been on the market for four years? Well… maybe, the cost.

Alright. After talking about this for almost 15 minutes, we will finally explore this player a little more. The genius of the RCA machine is that, compared to a VCR, it is incredibly simple. Just a turntable, a pickup mechanism that contains the stylus and then the electronics needed to decode the signals from the record. To play a disc, the caddy is inserted fully into the player, which unlocks and grips the spine, and therefore when the caddy is removed, the disc remains inside. The main control lever is mechanically linked to the turntable and moving it from the load/unload position to the playback position raises the turntable, which in turn raises the record towards the stylus.

It also closes a shutter to prevent you from inserting the cart while playing. The motor that drives the turntable could be a cheap, single-speed AC motor, since the records spin at a constant speed of 450 RPM, which is tied to the frame rate of the televisions, which in turn is tied at the line frequency of 60 Hz. You can easily hear the distinctive 60Hz hum of a simple, run-of-the-mill motor. [and other various mechanical noises, with a different one just...about...here] In PAL countries (yes, RCA briefly marketed this system abroad) the turntable spun at 375 RPM, which is tied to the speed of frames and line frequency of 50 Hz.

Each rotation of the disk contained 4 full frames of video, or eight fields, and since a television will automatically synchronize to the vertical blanking intervals encoded in the disk, a simple AC motor would work fine. You can see the 8 blanking intervals on a CED quite clearly in the right light, just as you can see them on a CAV Laserdisc. However, a Laserdisc only contains one frame of video per rotation, so you will only see two blanking intervals. And now let's talk about that stylus. The very small, user-replaceable diamond stylus is there only to provide physical tracking on the disc.

The player does not feel the vibration in the stylus, nor does the stylus have anything to do with the signal being read. Instead, attached to the stylus is a titanium electrode that detects changes in capacitance caused by the depth of the groove. Ah, finally the answer to why it is called an Electronic Capacitance Disc. And also the answer to why the disk needed to be conductive. The disk, which is conductive, and the titanium electrode, which is also conductive, form a capacitor. The actual video and audio signals are created by small ripples in the disk, which move the surface of the disk closer and further away from the electrode as it rotates, thus varying the value of the capacitor formed by the stylus and disk.

The player circuit essentially measures the capacitance value and as it changes, it can convert that change into a change in signal amplitude. And so, we can recreate a video signal. For those paying close attention, you will have noticed that the player measures the change in a capacitor. Now, when something is said to be in a state of flux, it is sometimes said to be in the process of change. Therefore, this disc, when read by the player, becomes part of a flux capacitor. Now you know. Also, Back to the Future was released on CED, although if we go that far we'll ruin the ending.

Made of fun! The first shipment of DeLoreans left Belfast just two days before the CED system was officially launched on March 22, 1981. The player was able to control where the stylus landed on the disk with an electromagnet, as well as by moving the cart containing the needle. Normally, the carriage simply moved in steps while the stylus followed the disc (and the disc contained some basic digital signals to tell the player where it was), but by using the image search function, the player could move the stylus forward. and back with the electromagnet for more precise control. This was also used to get the player out of a stuck beat situation, as they could determine that they were stuck thanks to position cues that were not moving forward, and kick the stylus forward a couple of beats to get it unstuck.

And unfortunately, getting stuck was not uncommon. ♫ ♫ While the caddies did a pretty good job keeping the pucks clean, they weren't perfect. And in fact, caddies themselves could destroy pucks if they are not stored properly. See, this system was not only late, it was terribly flawed. But before we get into that, let's finish this video by talking a little bit about the albums themselves. RCA VideoDiscs sold between $15 and $30, although the vast majority were priced at $20 or more, with some special boxes exceeding $30. That's not... terribly expensive, not even for $1,981. By 1981, vinyl LPs were starting to reach the $10 territory for high-profile releases, so you could say that SelectaVision records cost about the same as 2 new albums.

And, actually, that's pretty good when you consider that you're getting a 90-minute (roughly) movie for the same cost as, at best, an hour of music. When new, these discs had about the same picture quality as a VHS tape, although some claimed it was slightly better. And honestly, the image quality coming from these discs is perfectly good. The only problem is... this can happen. How common was this when the system was new? It's hard to say. The design of the cart was pretty good and kept dust out, so maybe all of these records worked just fine in 1981.

For now, let's assume that they did. Since the discs only contained 60 minutes per side, at some point you will have to flip them over. And that's a bit of a strange task with this player. You take your empty cart, put it all the way in, take it out, now you turn it around, put it all the way back in and take it out again. That's... a little more cumbersome than just flipping an LP. Or a laser disk. Ahhh yeah.... What about that other video disc format? Well, it certainly didn't help RCA's mission here. But it may not have mattered much.

Early laserdiscs were generally not as well mastered, and comparing the quality between a CED and an early 80's Laserdisc shows that they are actually not that far off. However, it's possible that if RCA had decided to take one of Laserdisc's innovations and adapt it for the CED, it wouldn't have failed as badly as it did. Or maybe at all. In the video below, we'll take a closer look at where the CED stood in the market, how it managed to justify its existence in a sea of ​​VCRs and Laserdiscs, and why, given what we know about how its short life unfolded, it might have changed. radically change the way we consume media during the 1980s and up to the present day, especially if it had been released in the mid-1970s.

Thanks for watching! I know this story went around a lot, but I promise that everything you learned here will make the next video make a little more sense. And it will also make the CED even less meaningful. As always, I would like to thank the great people who support this channel through Patreon. Viewers like you make this channel possible and I really appreciate your support. If you'd like to join these folks in supporting the channel with a pledge of your own, check out my Patreon page. Thank you for your consideration and see you next time. ♫ smooth, capacitive jazz ♫ Somehow… No… So, that's how RCA became a thing.

R… And then? So. So? So. Why the hell was RCA so determined to make the video work on vinyl? Simple. Or don't fall, that works too... ...hundreds of tape duplicators to make duplicate recordings in real time... af, no no no, scr aarr arr... those were tape recorders! Duplicators is a term that you probably understand the context of, but no. In PAL Y Fue, remember res… no. no no no. no no no no no.