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[An electronic / choral rendition of Mussorgsky's
Pictures at an Exhibition]

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So.

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It’s the mid 1960’s, everyone’s got
a television, but nobody’s got a way to

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choose what they wanna watch.

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You’ve got your network affiliates, a few
of those newfangled UHF stations...

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I hear 62's pretty good.

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But that's it.

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How boring.

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How limiting.

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How archaic.

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Now we’ve got video tape recorders, but
those things use crazy technology that’s

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super expensive.

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We’ll probably never get video tape technology
to the point that we could market it for the home.

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And besides, without some sort of... small case
which holds the tape in a convenient and easy-to-handle

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form factor, it’s not likely to go over
well with the layperson.

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Clearly tape isn’t a good option.

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I know!

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Discs!

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Yes, it can be hard to believe for those who
remember transitioning from VHS to DVD, but

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if things went according to plan, us home
users would have had video discs long before

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we had video tape.

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RCA had begun research into a home videodisc
system in 1964, and a mere 17 years later,

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they came out with this.

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The Capacitance Electronic Disc system, or
CED, which they branded and marketed as the

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SelectaVision Videodisc System.

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This product was RCA’s ultimate folly.

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It arguably destroyed the company.

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After years of relentless research, they released
a product so incredibly limited and so hilariously

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flawed that it’s a miracle they even bothered
trying.

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Yet, they did.

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And they shouldn’t have.

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Now, there are still some fans of this ill-fated
videodisc system, and I’m sorry if I upset

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you when I say this, but it must be said.

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RCA was out of their minds here.

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In hindsight, this product was so incredibly
weird and dumb and doomed.

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But… the idea behind it is actually pretty
remarkable.

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Had it been released, say in 1975, it might
have achieved immense success.

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Our entire media landscape might be completely
different had RCA succeeded in getting this

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product to market just half a decade earlier.

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That’s because their ultimate goal was to
use the technology of the humble record player

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and turn it into a cheap, and easily mass-produced,
video format.

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Hiding inside this caddy is a black PVC disc,
not that different from the standard phonograph

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records of the day.

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This disc is read with a stylus, just like
a normal phonograph record, however it’s

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not vibration that it’s detecting.

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I’ll get to that a little later but this
is evidence that RCA did actually meet the

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goal they set out for themselves.

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It was just accomplished way too late, and
with way too many compromises.

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As usual, to understand this story, we need
to start in the past

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before the past this comes from.

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In the early days of radio and television,
RCA, that’s the Radio Corporation of America,

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was among the most innovative companies.

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Their history dates back to 1899, when the
Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America

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was formed as a subsidiary of the British
Marconi Company.

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In these early days of radio, the technologies
which made radio possible

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were constantly evolving.

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Through World War I, radio was used almost
exclusively for wireless telegraphy, that’s

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the classic dots and dashes that make up the
world famous,

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say it with me now,

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character encoding schemes of which 
Morse code is one.

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Simple radio transmitters, called spark-gap
transmitters, were able to send radio pulses

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quite easily, however audio wasn’t super
possible yet.

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Transmission of audio was relatively rare
and mainly experimental.

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It wouldn’t really become, what you might
call, “a thing” until after the war.

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Speaking of after the war, well, actually
before the war, in 1904,

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what rhymes galore!

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General Electric had been tasked with creating
a high frequency alternator, which was then

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designed by Ernst Alexanderson, and thus the
world of radio was introduced to another transmission

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technology, the Alexanderson Alternator.

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Compared with the earlier spark-gap transmitters,
it allowed for transmitting on very narrow

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frequency bands (reducing noise), and had
a lot of other neat advantages, too, but also

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some disadvantages, notably... they were
huge.

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But, anyway...

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In 1919, now we’re after the war again,
General Electric had installed one of these

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amazing Alexanderson Alternators for the US
Navy at the Marconi transmitter site in

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New Brunswick, New Jersey.

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The Marconi people were super impressed with
the thing, and they were all like

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“We’d like to buy your alternator production division,
General Electric”

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to which GE responded,

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“Well golly gee ain’t that dandy, we’ve
been looking to sell off our alternator production

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unit and you sound like the perfect entity
to make that purchase”

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to which the US Navy said

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“Uh-oh”.

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See, the Navy was getting all worried that
if American Marconi was able to buy the alternator

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production from GE, they

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(and thus their British
parent company)

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would have world domination in wireless communications.

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The Navy said, "we can’t have that!"

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So, the Navy convinced GE to, rather than
sell their alternator production to American Marconi

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to just go ahead and buy American Marconi
and nip that little world domination problem

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in the bud.

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And so they did, turning American Marconi
into a subsidiary of General Electric, which

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would henceforth be called the Radio Corporation
of America.

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So.

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That’s how RCA became a thing.

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RCA grew and grew and grew, breaking into
the consumer radio space, and eventually the

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whole "RCA is owned by GE and they’re getting
kinda monopolistic" thing meant that RCA was

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forced by the US Justice Department to break
off into its own company in 1932.

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But still.

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They were huge, and they knew how to make
cool sh**.

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RCA had touched nearly every major technological
advancement of the early twentieth century.

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They had purchased the Victor company, which
not only granted them use of Nipper and the

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classic “His Master’s Voice” tagline,
but also Victor’s record label and phonograph

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production.

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RCA had developed Photophone, a sound-on-film
system for motion pictures.

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They were instrumental in the proliferation
of television, and pretty much invented color television.

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In fact, they weren’t just RCA.

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They were

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ANNOUNCER:
R   C   A

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The most trusted name in television!

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So.

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This was a massive and well-respected company, with nearly limitless resources,

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talented engineers, and with a long track record of successful innovation.

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And yet, somehow...

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This happened.

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The RCA Videodisc is simultaneously a technical
marvel and a technical monstrosity.

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Getting a phonograph record to produce video
signals that a TV could display was a rather

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lofty goal.

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Allow me to explain why.

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This phonograph record contains a very long
spiral groove with walls that move up and

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down and all around, and when you put it on
a turntable, then put a stylus inside the

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groove, and give the record a good spin, those
wibbly wobbly grooves will make the stylus

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go all wibbly wobbly, too. And thanks to the phonograph's cartridge,

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those wibbly wobbly wibble wobbles

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turn into electrical signals.

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We can then make those signals stronger through
amplification, pump them through loudspeakers,

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and listen to the music contained on the disc.

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But, well this disc doesn’t need to produce
very high frequency signals.

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The range of human hearing tops out at around
20 kilohertz, so we don’t need to make this

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record too precisely.

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If we want to make a disc capable of higher
frequencies, we need to do one of two things;

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either make the groove walls contain really
tightly spaced wobbles,

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or speed up the rotation of the disc.

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Ideally, we’d do both.

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OK, so how much more bandwidth do we need?

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If normal disc can go up to 20 kilohertz,

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uh, what’s a TV signal?

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Oh, just about 5 megahertz.

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Alright, so we need to fit 250 times as much
information onto one of these discs.

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that sounds… difficult.

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And it was.

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Remember, research started in 1964, but the
product didn’t get released until 1981.

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When it finally did make it to market, up
to 60 minutes of video (later pushed to 63)

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were held on each side of the disc, and although
bandwidth was reduced to 3 megahertz to make

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things a little easier, this still meant that
about 450 times as much information was held

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on a 60 minute CED than on a 20 minute vinyl record.

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Now, you might be wondering, why on Earth
was RCA so determined to make video work on vinyl?

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Simple.

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Ease of manufacture.

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Vinyl records are stamped from metal masters,
and can be pumped out quickly and cheaply.

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If RCA could figure out how to use the dead
simple, and decades-perfected technology of

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the phonograph to produce a videodisc, they
would have had a miraculous product on their hands.

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RCA envisioned a relatively cheap device,
not that far off from a normal record player, that

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you’d simply put your new video discs in,
and be delighted as your living room became

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a place to watch television on your own terms.

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The discs themselves wouldn’t be very expensive
to make, as they’d just be a more perfected

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vinyl record.

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So movie and television studios should be happy
to jump on board, as discs could be sold for

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little more than the cost of a record album,
while still making significant profit.

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The premise seems less bonkers when you remember
that in 1964, videotape was well over a decade

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away from entering the home market in meaningful
volumes.

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Delicate mechanisms, expensive electronics,
and open-reels of wide, heavy tape made it

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seem very unlikely that videotape would end
up in the home any time soon.

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And even if that somehow happened, the tapes
themselves would be very expensive, not only

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because the tape is expensive to manufacture,
but because mass-producing pre-recorded tapes

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would require dozens or even hundreds of tape
recorders to make duplicate recordings in

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real-time.

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So it wouldn’t be a great way to sell pre-recorded
content.

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Nobody would buy such an expensive tape, and
no movie studio will settle for the razor-thin margins.

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And so, in the frame of 1964, the RCA Videodisc
actually seems like a great idea.

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Use the same equipment and technology that’s
used to mass-produce records for the music

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industry, and replicate that model for things
like movies, television shows, and perhaps

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one day, whole new categories of content.

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Except, the development process dragged on
for far too long.

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By 1972, they had only managed to fit 10 minutes
of video on one side of a disc.

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What’s more, they discovered that simple
vinyl discs wouldn’t work.

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The technology they had developed required
that the discs be conductive. The first

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prototype discs were metallized, with a styrene
top coat, and a lubricant coating on top of that.

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Now RCA wasn’t dumb, and they realized 10
minutes was dumb.

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So, they kept on trucking, continuing to pour
resources into the project.

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One of the things they soon discovered was
that the discs were extremely fragile.

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If you’re trying to pack a few dozen grooves
into the space of what used to be just one,

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the discs could easily be destroyed from normal handling.

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Up until this point, RCA imagined the discs
would be naked, just like normal phonograph records.

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Finally realizing that, well, this is silly, RCA
designed these not-at-all clunky caddies to

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hold the discs nice and safely.

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We wouldn’t want humans touching them.

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Still, the system needed a lot more work.

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The prototype discs, being multi-layered and
metallized, didn’t exactly follow the

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“make movies as quickly and cheaply as vinyl”
premise they had been getting at.

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They did eventually discover that using PVC
impregnated with conductive carbon particles

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would work well enough, and so they did get back to that
goal eventually, but it took a while.

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As we know.

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By the time 1981 rolled around, RCA had “perfected”
the system.

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60 minutes per side, safe protective caddies,
a totally sleek-looking player, and a catalog

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of movies ready to go at launch.

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The players were pretty cheap to make, so
RCA was able to sell them for about $500

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(that’s roughly equivalent to $1,500 
today).

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That sounds steep, but videocassette recorders
cost about double that when the CED was launched.

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Wait.

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Wait.

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You mean, videotape made it into the home
before the CED was launched?

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Yes.

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It did!

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And you know who had a big part in making
that happen?

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Why, a little company called RCA.

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Remember how I said RCA wasn’t dumb?

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Well, they saw the rise of the videocassette
recorder happening, and quickly jumped in.

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They didn’t manufacture any VCRs themselves,
instead choosing to outsource that task to

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companies like Matushita and Hitachi, but
RCA’s presence in the VCR market was a huge deal.

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RCA backed the VHS format created by JVC,
rather than going with the slightly older

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Betamax format from Sony.

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And, it was RCA who pushed the development
of the long-play recording mode, enabling

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VHS machines to record 4 hours on one tape,
and finally capture an entire football game.

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This was all happening in the late 1970’s,
in fact RCA’s very first VCR

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(which was the first to support 4 hour recording)

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hit the scene in 1977.

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Oh, and you know what RCA decided to call
their line of VCRs?

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SelectaVision.

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What!?

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Yeah, this was weird.

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RCA decided to use the name they were planning
to call their new videodisc system for their

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imported line of VCRs.

224
00:13:12,920 --> 00:13:16,900
Now, I suppose this wasn’t a huge deal,
but it is still strange.

225
00:13:16,910 --> 00:13:20,530
In fact, it looks like RCA just stole
 all the planned marketing material

226
00:13:20,530 --> 00:13:23,980
for the CED and slapped it onto their VCRs.

227
00:13:24,680 --> 00:13:29,940
ANNOUNCER:
Let RCA turn your television into SelectaVision!

228
00:13:31,420 --> 00:13:36,040
This seemed even weirder when you remember
that in the early days of the VCR, pre-recorded

229
00:13:36,050 --> 00:13:38,050
content wasn’t really a thing yet.

230
00:13:38,050 --> 00:13:42,720
For the most part, VCRs were used to record
live TV to be watched later,

231
00:13:42,720 --> 00:13:44,680
a process known as time-shifting.

232
00:13:44,680 --> 00:13:48,820
In that context, SelectaVision doesn’t even
really make that much sense.

233
00:13:48,820 --> 00:13:51,240
You’re not selecting something to watch.

234
00:13:51,240 --> 00:13:55,140
You’re planning to record something, and
will watch it later.

235
00:13:55,140 --> 00:14:01,420
Remember, these devices are called VCRs, which
stands for video cassette recorder,

236
00:14:01,420 --> 00:14:03,440
not video cassette player.

237
00:14:03,440 --> 00:14:05,860
And it's not a "VHS player"

238
00:14:05,860 --> 00:14:06,920
Stop calling it that.

239
00:14:06,920 --> 00:14:11,240
RCA was either really forward thinking and
thought that pre-recorded tapes would eventually

240
00:14:11,240 --> 00:14:15,530
become a big deal, but of course that would
fly in the face of their continuing efforts

241
00:14:15,530 --> 00:14:20,480
to produce the Videodisc system, or else they
were just really lazy and figured, sure, we’ll

242
00:14:20,480 --> 00:14:24,120
use that name we planned to use for this entirely
different product we’re still working on

243
00:14:24,120 --> 00:14:25,840
for some reason.

244
00:14:25,840 --> 00:14:30,460
Just to muddy the waters a bit, SelectaVision
was actually first coined for an earlier abandoned

245
00:14:30,470 --> 00:14:35,820
project of RCA’s, the HoloTape player, however
even though that was tape-based, it wasn’t

246
00:14:35,820 --> 00:14:37,260
capable of recording.

247
00:14:37,260 --> 00:14:42,420
This story, for such a simple product, is
maddeningly complicated and bizarre.

248
00:14:42,420 --> 00:14:45,800
Had the CED existed in a vacuum, it would
have made sense.

249
00:14:45,800 --> 00:14:50,770
But in a world where the VCR existed, a world
where the VCR was actively being marketed

250
00:14:50,770 --> 00:14:52,560
by RCA,

251
00:14:52,560 --> 00:14:54,260
its existence is jus... it, it's…

252
00:14:54,260 --> 00:14:55,040
WHY?

253
00:14:55,040 --> 00:14:57,240
Why bother continuing this project?

254
00:14:57,240 --> 00:15:01,490
What problem could the videodisc possibly
solve when RCA’s own VCRs had been on the

255
00:15:01,490 --> 00:15:03,360
market for four years?

256
00:15:03,360 --> 00:15:06,090
Well… maybe, cost.

257
00:15:06,090 --> 00:15:07,090
Alright.

258
00:15:07,090 --> 00:15:10,860
After talking about this for close to 15 minutes,
we’re finally gonna explore this player

259
00:15:10,860 --> 00:15:11,860
a little more.

260
00:15:11,860 --> 00:15:17,740
The genius of RCA’s machine is that, compared
to a VCR, it’s incredibly simple.

261
00:15:17,740 --> 00:15:22,550
Just a turntable, a pickup mechanism containing
the stylus, and then the electronics needed

262
00:15:22,550 --> 00:15:24,810
to decode the signals on the disc.

263
00:15:24,810 --> 00:15:28,740
To play a disc, the caddy is inserted all
the way into the player, which unlocks and

264
00:15:28,740 --> 00:15:33,650
grabs hold of the spine, and thus when the
caddy is removed, the disc is left inside.

265
00:15:33,650 --> 00:15:38,370
The main control lever is mechanically linked
to the turntable, and moving it from the load/unload

266
00:15:38,370 --> 00:15:42,890
position into the play position lifts the
turntable, which in turn lifts the disc up

267
00:15:42,890 --> 00:15:43,950
towards the stylus.

268
00:15:43,950 --> 00:15:48,510
It also closes a shutter to prevent you from
inserting the caddy while it’s playing.

269
00:15:48,510 --> 00:15:53,010
The motor driving the turntable could be a
cheap, single-speed AC motor since the discs

270
00:15:53,010 --> 00:15:58,500
spin at a constant speed of 450 RPM, which
is tied to the frame rate of television sets,

271
00:15:58,500 --> 00:16:02,080
which is itself tied to the line frequency
of 60 hz.

272
00:16:02,080 --> 00:16:06,100
You can easily hear the distinctive 60 hz
humming of a plain ‘ol motor.

273
00:16:07,120 --> 00:16:07,740
[a clunk-like sound]

274
00:16:07,740 --> 00:16:10,000
[humming]

275
00:16:10,040 --> 00:16:11,860
[some resonance as the motor reaches speed]

276
00:16:11,860 --> 00:16:14,300
[and other various mechanical noises, with a distinct one right...

277
00:16:14,300 --> 00:16:15,740
about....

278
00:16:15,740 --> 00:16:17,320
here]

279
00:16:17,320 --> 00:16:23,100
In PAL countries (yes, RCA did briefly market
this system overseas) the turntable spun at

280
00:16:23,100 --> 00:16:27,860
375 RPM, which is tied to the frame rate and
line frequency of 50 hz.

281
00:16:27,860 --> 00:16:32,220
Each rotation of the disc held 4 complete
frames of video, or eight fields, and since

282
00:16:32,220 --> 00:16:35,630
a television will automatically synchronize
itself with the vertical blanking intervals

283
00:16:35,630 --> 00:16:39,470
encoded on the disc, a simple AC motor would
work fine.

284
00:16:39,470 --> 00:16:43,721
You can see the 8 blanking intervals on a
CED pretty clearly with the right light, just

285
00:16:43,721 --> 00:16:45,940
like you can see them on a CAV Laserdisc.

286
00:16:45,940 --> 00:16:50,650
However, a Laserdisc only holds one frame
of video per rotation, so you only see two

287
00:16:50,650 --> 00:16:52,080
blanking intervals.

288
00:16:52,080 --> 00:16:54,330
And now let’s talk about that stylus.

289
00:16:54,330 --> 00:16:59,380
The very tiny, user-replaceable diamond stylus
is there only to provide physical tracking

290
00:16:59,380 --> 00:17:00,540
on the disc.

291
00:17:00,540 --> 00:17:04,600
The player doesn’t sense vibration in the
stylus, nor does the stylus actually have

292
00:17:04,600 --> 00:17:07,120
anything to do with the signal being read.

293
00:17:07,120 --> 00:17:12,929
Instead, bonded to the stylus is a titanium
electrode which senses changes in capacitance

294
00:17:12,929 --> 00:17:15,360
brought about by the depth of the groove.

295
00:17:15,360 --> 00:17:20,820
Ah, finally the answer as to why it’s called
the Capacitance Electronic Disc.

296
00:17:20,820 --> 00:17:23,900
And also the answer to why the disc needed
to be conductive.

297
00:17:23,900 --> 00:17:28,480
The disc, being a conductor, and the titanium
electrode, also being a conductor,

298
00:17:28,480 --> 00:17:29,980
form a capacitor.

299
00:17:29,980 --> 00:17:35,680
The actual video and audio signals are created
by teeny tiny little undulations on the disc,

300
00:17:35,690 --> 00:17:39,580
which move the surface of the disc closer
to and farther away from the electrode as

301
00:17:39,580 --> 00:17:44,830
it spins, thus varying the value of the capacitor
formed by the stylus and disc.

302
00:17:44,830 --> 00:17:48,800
The circuitry in the player is essentially
measuring the capacitance value, and as it

303
00:17:48,800 --> 00:17:53,000
changes, it can convert that change into a
change in signal amplitude.

304
00:17:53,000 --> 00:17:55,340
And thus, we can recreate a video signal.

305
00:17:55,340 --> 00:17:59,470
For those paying careful attention, you’ll
have noticed that the player measures change

306
00:17:59,470 --> 00:18:00,640
in a capacitor.

307
00:18:00,640 --> 00:18:05,400
Now, when something is said to be in a state
of ongoing change, it is sometimes said to

308
00:18:05,400 --> 00:18:06,920
be in flux.

309
00:18:06,920 --> 00:18:12,740
Therefore, this disc, when being read by the
player, becomes part of a flux capacitor.

310
00:18:12,740 --> 00:18:13,870
Now you know.

311
00:18:13,870 --> 00:18:19,900
Also, Back to the Future was in fact released
on CED, though if we jump ahead that far we’ll

312
00:18:19,900 --> 00:18:21,030
be spoiling the end.

313
00:18:21,030 --> 00:18:22,030
Fun fact!

314
00:18:22,030 --> 00:18:27,210
The first shipment of DeLoreans left Belfast
just two days before the CED system was officially

315
00:18:27,210 --> 00:18:30,360
released on March 22nd, 1981.

316
00:18:30,360 --> 00:18:34,520
The player was able to control where the stylus
landed on the disc with an electromagnet,

317
00:18:34,520 --> 00:18:37,610
as well as by moving the carriage that contains
the stylus.

318
00:18:37,610 --> 00:18:42,020
Ordinarily the carriage would just move in
steps as the stylus followed the disc (and

319
00:18:42,020 --> 00:18:46,550
the disc contained some basic digital signaling
to tell the player where it was), but when

320
00:18:46,550 --> 00:18:50,900
using the picture search function, the player
could bump the stylus forwards and backwards

321
00:18:50,900 --> 00:18:53,460
with the electromagnet for finer control.

322
00:18:53,460 --> 00:18:57,830
This was also used to get the player out of
a locked groove situation, as it could determine

323
00:18:57,830 --> 00:19:01,340
it was stuck thanks to the position signals that weren't advancing,

324
00:19:01,340 --> 00:19:03,500
and kick the stylus forward a couple of grooves

325
00:19:03,500 --> 00:19:04,840
to get unstuck.

326
00:19:04,840 --> 00:19:09,040
And getting stuck was, unfortunately, not
uncommon.

327
00:19:09,040 --> 00:19:13,460
♫ ♫

328
00:19:13,460 --> 00:19:15,300
[ suddenly no more ♫ ]

329
00:19:16,220 --> 00:19:22,000
While the caddies did a fairly good job at
keeping the discs clean, they weren’t perfect.

330
00:19:22,010 --> 00:19:26,740
And in fact, the caddies themselves could destroy the discs if they weren’t stored right.

331
00:19:26,740 --> 00:19:30,990
See, this system wasn’t just late, it was
awfully flawed.

332
00:19:30,990 --> 00:19:34,630
But before we get into that, let’s finish
this video up by talking a little bit about

333
00:19:34,630 --> 00:19:36,220
the discs themselves.

334
00:19:36,220 --> 00:19:41,500
RCA’s VideoDiscs were sold for between $15
and about $30, although the vast majority

335
00:19:41,500 --> 00:19:47,360
were priced at $20 and up, and some special
box sets shot way past $30.

336
00:19:47,360 --> 00:19:51,740
Now that’s not… terribly expensive, even
for 1981 dollars.

337
00:19:51,740 --> 00:19:57,120
In 1981 vinyl LPs were starting to push into
the $10 territory for high-profile releases,

338
00:19:57,120 --> 00:20:01,500
so you could say SelectaVision discs cost
about the same as 2 new record albums.

339
00:20:01,500 --> 00:20:05,480
And, really, that’s pretty great when you
consider that you’re getting a 90 minute (or so)

340
00:20:05,480 --> 00:20:09,320
movie for the same cost as at best an hour
of music.

341
00:20:09,320 --> 00:20:13,840
When new, these discs had about the same image
quality as a VHS tape, though some claimed

342
00:20:13,840 --> 00:20:15,280
it was a little better.

343
00:20:15,280 --> 00:20:20,580
And honestly, the quality of the image coming
from these discs is perfectly fine.

344
00:20:20,580 --> 00:20:24,280
The only problem is… 
this can happen.

345
00:20:25,980 --> 00:20:30,780
[ unintelligible audio as the disc skips uncontrollably ]

346
00:20:31,220 --> 00:20:33,320
How common was this when the system was new?

347
00:20:33,840 --> 00:20:35,060
It’s hard to say.

348
00:20:35,060 --> 00:20:39,770
The caddy design was fairly good and would
keep dust from getting in there, so perhaps

349
00:20:39,770 --> 00:20:42,790
these discs all worked great in 1981.

350
00:20:42,790 --> 00:20:44,770
For now, let’s just assume they did.

351
00:20:44,770 --> 00:20:49,250
Since the discs only held 60 minutes per side,
at some point you’re gonna have to flip

352
00:20:49,250 --> 00:20:50,380
that disc over.

353
00:20:50,380 --> 00:20:54,670
And, that’s a somewhat strange task with
this player.

354
00:20:54,670 --> 00:20:59,850
You take your empty caddy, stick it all the
way in, pull it back out, now flip it over,

355
00:20:59,850 --> 00:21:03,860
shove it back in all the way again, and pull it
out again.

356
00:21:03,860 --> 00:21:07,780
That’s… a little more cumbersome than
just flipping an LP over.

357
00:21:07,780 --> 00:21:08,960
Or a Laserdisc.

358
00:21:08,960 --> 00:21:09,780
Ahhh yeah....

359
00:21:09,900 --> 00:21:11,860
What about that other videodisc format?

360
00:21:11,860 --> 00:21:15,100
Well, it certainly didn’t help RCA’s mission,
here.

361
00:21:15,100 --> 00:21:18,140
But, it might not have mattered much at all.

362
00:21:18,140 --> 00:21:22,360
Early laserdiscs typically weren’t mastered
all that well, and comparing the quality between

363
00:21:22,360 --> 00:21:27,380
a CED and a Laserdisc from the early ‘80s
reveals, they’re actually not that far off.

364
00:21:27,380 --> 00:21:32,440
However, it’s possible that had RCA decided
to take one of the innovations of Laserdisc

365
00:21:32,440 --> 00:21:37,710
and adapt it for the CED, it might not have
failed quite as hard as it did.

366
00:21:37,710 --> 00:21:39,720
Or perhaps at all.

367
00:21:39,720 --> 00:21:44,680
In the next video, we’ll take a closer look
at where the CED was in the marketplace, how

368
00:21:44,680 --> 00:21:49,690
it managed to justify its existence in a sea
of VCRs and Laserdiscs, and why given what

369
00:21:49,690 --> 00:21:54,980
we know about how its short life panned out,
it might have radically changed how we consumed

370
00:21:54,980 --> 00:21:59,540
media throughout the 1980’s and into today,
especially if it had been released in the

371
00:21:59,540 --> 00:22:00,880
mid ‘70s.

372
00:22:00,880 --> 00:22:01,880
Thanks for watching!

373
00:22:01,880 --> 00:22:05,540
I know this story meandered around a lot,
but I promise everything you learned here

374
00:22:05,540 --> 00:22:08,620
will make the next video make a little more
sense.

375
00:22:08,620 --> 00:22:11,670
And it will also make the CED make even less
sense.

376
00:22:11,670 --> 00:22:15,240
As always, I’d like to thank the fine folks
supporting this channel through Patreon.

377
00:22:15,240 --> 00:22:19,210
Viewers like you make this channel possible,
and I really appreciate your support.

378
00:22:19,210 --> 00:22:22,809
If you’d like to join these people in supporting
the channel with a pledge of your own, please

379
00:22:22,809 --> 00:22:24,720
check out my Patreon page.

380
00:22:24,720 --> 00:22:27,000
Thanks for your consideration, and I’ll
see you next time.

381
00:22:28,100 --> 00:22:30,900
♫ capacitavely smooth jazz ♫

382
00:22:31,740 --> 00:22:33,100
Somehow…

383
00:22:33,420 --> 00:22:36,300
[sounds of discs clattering together]

384
00:22:37,900 --> 00:22:38,400
No…

385
00:22:38,660 --> 00:22:40,840
So, that’s how RCA became a thing.

386
00:22:40,840 --> 00:22:42,520
R… [clears throat] So?

387
00:22:42,520 --> 00:22:43,020
So.

388
00:22:43,020 --> 00:22:43,520
So?

389
00:22:43,520 --> 00:22:44,020
So.

390
00:22:44,020 --> 00:22:49,700
Why on Earth was RCA so determined to make
video work on vinyl?

391
00:22:49,700 --> 00:22:50,700
Simple.

392
00:22:52,140 --> 00:22:53,320
[smirks]

393
00:22:55,260 --> 00:22:57,500
Or don’t fall down, that works too...

394
00:22:57,500 --> 00:23:00,930
...hundreds of tape duplicators to make duplicate
recording in real t…

395
00:23:00,930 --> 00:23:04,220
augh, no no no, I scr aarr arr... that was
tape recorders!

396
00:23:04,220 --> 00:23:05,500
Duplicators is a term

397
00:23:05,500 --> 00:23:06,120
that

398
00:23:07,100 --> 00:23:09,780
you’d probably
get the context of, but no.

399
00:23:09,780 --> 00:23:12,120
In PAL [coughs]

400
00:23:12,120 --> 00:23:14,680
And It was, remember res… no.

401
00:23:14,680 --> 00:23:15,340
no no no.

402
00:23:15,340 --> 00:23:16,000
no no no no no.