Movies on discs: the history of CED video discs
The home video industry over the past half century has gone from projectors for 8 mm film to 3D TVs and Blu-ray players. New formats and devices replaced the old ones, and some became obsolete, barely entering the market.
About one of the original ideas for the market of video systems - Capacitance Electronic Disc (CED) - will be discussed in this article.
Photo by Alan Light CC
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Capacitance Electronic Disc is a technology for recording audio and video on a record played on a special CED player. Vinyl records with a diameter of 30 cm acted as a carrier. On both sides of the plate there is an engraved spiral track 657 nm wide. During playback, the disc spins at a constant speed (450 rpm NTSC and 375 rpm PAL ), and each turn contains 4 full video frames. The principle of reading resembles the work of a gramophone - it is also based on the physical impact of the needle on the carrier.
According to Tom Howe, a collector and enthusiast of CED, the idea of ​​recording video on vinyl came back in the 1950s, but its implementation did not begin until 1964 at Radio Corporation of America (RCA). At that time, the records were the main musical carrier, and they were already used for recording images.
The capacity of the CED records was supposed to significantly exceed the capacity of ordinary vinyl, which would be a technological breakthrough for its time. However, the implementation of the idea was delayed. In the early years, a small team of 4 people worked on the project. Basically, two engineers worked on CED - Eugene Kaiser and Jon Clemens. Due to the limited resources available, progress has been slow.
The first breakthrough came in 1970, when the laboratory was able to record black and white still images on a plate. By 1972, the team was able to record a 10-minute color video. The following year, RCA released a prototype player that could read and play experimental media. By the way, at this stage their main drawbacks were revealed. Even a small amount of dust interfered with playback, and the records themselves were fragile. To solve these problems, the plates were later placed in plastic cases, and they became more like cassettes than ordinary vinyl.
In 1975, the first prototype of a CED player for the mass market was developed. By 1977, the development of future laser players began, and VHS players appeared on the market. RCA promoted its video device as more affordable compared to its competitors.
According to Howe, in 1978, CED technology became the main focus of RCA. Thanks to this, after 17 years of development, the first VideoDisc RCA SFT100W CED player was released in March 1981 (it cost about $ 500). Records for the player recorded 50 films and cartoons. At that time, VHS, a more practical and more convenient format than CED, has already become the standard for a home video system in the USA. Cassettes, unlike records, did not have to be turned over, and they did not deteriorate so quickly with time.
Justin Hall CC photo
CED had its advantages - twice the cost of production of players compared to video recorders and VHS-like picture quality. As for laser discs, the quality of the CED video was inferior to that of the LaserDisc. However, the formats had a common flaw - the disc, like the disc, could hold no more than 60 minutes of video.
It was possible to record on vinyl from two sides, but if the film lasted more than 120 minutes, you had to either cut out the scenes, or play parts of the video at an accelerated pace, or (if we were talking about long motion pictures) release the film on several discs.
The price of the discs varied accordingly - from fifteen dollars for a cartoon to forty dollars for a two-disc edition of the popular blockbuster (the two-disc edition of Conan the Barbarian, however, sold at a price of as much as $ 44.98). According to RCA calculations , one CED plate could be played up to 500 times.
During the first six months of sales, about 100,000 players bought RCA. Such manufacturers as Toshiba and Hitachi joined RCA. The records of the blockbusters of the time - "Star Wars", "Jaws" and other popular paintings. Nevertheless, VHS actively conquered the market , and the demand for CED players remained low.
In 1984, RCA announced the termination of the release of players. For three years, more than 500 thousand players were sold. The company assured their owners that they would continue to release records over the next three years. The plates went out for another two years.
More than 15 years have passed between the start of development and the release of the commercial version of CED plates and players (there is an opinion that the work on CED was delayed due to conflicts inside RCA). During this time, more practical media formats have appeared on the market. The player and discs came to consumers too late to conquer the market, but now vinyl video discs are a popular collectible item among lovers of vintage audio and video formats.
Our materials for additional reading:
About one of the original ideas for the market of video systems - Capacitance Electronic Disc (CED) - will be discussed in this article.
Photo by Alan Light CC
')
What is CED
Capacitance Electronic Disc is a technology for recording audio and video on a record played on a special CED player. Vinyl records with a diameter of 30 cm acted as a carrier. On both sides of the plate there is an engraved spiral track 657 nm wide. During playback, the disc spins at a constant speed (450 rpm NTSC and 375 rpm PAL ), and each turn contains 4 full video frames. The principle of reading resembles the work of a gramophone - it is also based on the physical impact of the needle on the carrier.
Format history
According to Tom Howe, a collector and enthusiast of CED, the idea of ​​recording video on vinyl came back in the 1950s, but its implementation did not begin until 1964 at Radio Corporation of America (RCA). At that time, the records were the main musical carrier, and they were already used for recording images.
The capacity of the CED records was supposed to significantly exceed the capacity of ordinary vinyl, which would be a technological breakthrough for its time. However, the implementation of the idea was delayed. In the early years, a small team of 4 people worked on the project. Basically, two engineers worked on CED - Eugene Kaiser and Jon Clemens. Due to the limited resources available, progress has been slow.
The first breakthrough came in 1970, when the laboratory was able to record black and white still images on a plate. By 1972, the team was able to record a 10-minute color video. The following year, RCA released a prototype player that could read and play experimental media. By the way, at this stage their main drawbacks were revealed. Even a small amount of dust interfered with playback, and the records themselves were fragile. To solve these problems, the plates were later placed in plastic cases, and they became more like cassettes than ordinary vinyl.
In 1975, the first prototype of a CED player for the mass market was developed. By 1977, the development of future laser players began, and VHS players appeared on the market. RCA promoted its video device as more affordable compared to its competitors.
According to Howe, in 1978, CED technology became the main focus of RCA. Thanks to this, after 17 years of development, the first VideoDisc RCA SFT100W CED player was released in March 1981 (it cost about $ 500). Records for the player recorded 50 films and cartoons. At that time, VHS, a more practical and more convenient format than CED, has already become the standard for a home video system in the USA. Cassettes, unlike records, did not have to be turned over, and they did not deteriorate so quickly with time.
Justin Hall CC photo
CED had its advantages - twice the cost of production of players compared to video recorders and VHS-like picture quality. As for laser discs, the quality of the CED video was inferior to that of the LaserDisc. However, the formats had a common flaw - the disc, like the disc, could hold no more than 60 minutes of video.
It was possible to record on vinyl from two sides, but if the film lasted more than 120 minutes, you had to either cut out the scenes, or play parts of the video at an accelerated pace, or (if we were talking about long motion pictures) release the film on several discs.
The price of the discs varied accordingly - from fifteen dollars for a cartoon to forty dollars for a two-disc edition of the popular blockbuster (the two-disc edition of Conan the Barbarian, however, sold at a price of as much as $ 44.98). According to RCA calculations , one CED plate could be played up to 500 times.
During the first six months of sales, about 100,000 players bought RCA. Such manufacturers as Toshiba and Hitachi joined RCA. The records of the blockbusters of the time - "Star Wars", "Jaws" and other popular paintings. Nevertheless, VHS actively conquered the market , and the demand for CED players remained low.
In 1984, RCA announced the termination of the release of players. For three years, more than 500 thousand players were sold. The company assured their owners that they would continue to release records over the next three years. The plates went out for another two years.
More than 15 years have passed between the start of development and the release of the commercial version of CED plates and players (there is an opinion that the work on CED was delayed due to conflicts inside RCA). During this time, more practical media formats have appeared on the market. The player and discs came to consumers too late to conquer the market, but now vinyl video discs are a popular collectible item among lovers of vintage audio and video formats.
Our materials for additional reading:
- “ Vinyl Academy ” - a thematic project of Audiomania
- How the largest vinyl record factory works
- Is cassette a new vinyl?
- New-old formats: HD-vinyl and DIY-plates
- Flexible discs - universal media that is back from the past
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/374529/
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