WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

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

00:00:15.400 --> 00:00:15.900
So.

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

00:00:19.641 --> 00:00:21.000
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.

00:00:27.260 --> 00:00:28.490
But that's it.

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How boring.

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How limiting.

00:00:30.490 --> 00:00:31.670
How archaic.

00:00:31.670 --> 00:00:35.860
Now we’ve got video tape recorders, but
those things use crazy technology that’s

00:00:35.860 --> 00:00:36.860
super expensive.

00:00:36.860 --> 00:00:41.400
We’ll probably never get video tape technology
to the point that we could market it for the home.

00:00:41.400 --> 00:00:46.739
And besides, without some sort of... small case
which holds the tape in a convenient and easy-to-handle

00:00:46.740 --> 00:00:50.900
form factor, it’s not likely to go over
well with the layperson.

00:00:50.900 --> 00:00:53.839
Clearly tape isn’t a good option.

00:00:53.839 --> 00:00:54.839
I know!

00:00:54.839 --> 00:00:55.839
Discs!

00:00:55.839 --> 00:01:00.650
Yes, it can be hard to believe for those who
remember transitioning from VHS to DVD, but

00:01:00.650 --> 00:01:05.670
if things went according to plan, us home
users would have had video discs long before

00:01:05.670 --> 00:01:06.980
we had video tape.

00:01:06.980 --> 00:01:14.060
RCA had begun research into a home videodisc
system in 1964, and a mere 17 years later,

00:01:14.060 --> 00:01:15.500
they came out with this.

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

00:01:20.960 --> 00:01:23.220
SelectaVision Videodisc System.

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This product was RCA’s ultimate folly.

00:01:25.830 --> 00:01:28.090
It arguably destroyed the company.

00:01:28.090 --> 00:01:33.330
After years of relentless research, they released
a product so incredibly limited and so hilariously

00:01:33.330 --> 00:01:36.590
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

00:01:44.280 --> 00:01:46.200
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.

00:01:58.440 --> 00:02:03.490
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

00:02:08.379 --> 00:02:11.269
product to market just half a decade earlier.

00:02:11.269 --> 00:02:16.140
That’s because their ultimate goal was to
use the technology of the humble record player

00:02:16.140 --> 00:02:20.190
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

00:02:30.329 --> 00:02:32.029
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

00:02:36.409 --> 00:02:38.420
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

00:02:46.340 --> 00:02:48.480
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,

00:02:53.700 --> 00:02:55.920
was among the most innovative companies.

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

00:03:01.299 --> 00:03:04.840
was formed as a subsidiary of the British
Marconi Company.

00:03:04.840 --> 00:03:08.260
In these early days of radio, the technologies
which made radio possible

00:03:08.260 --> 00:03:09.989
were constantly evolving.

00:03:09.989 --> 00:03:14.939
Through World War I, radio was used almost
exclusively for wireless telegraphy, that’s

00:03:14.939 --> 00:03:17.880
the classic dots and dashes that make up the
world famous,

00:03:17.880 --> 00:03:19.240
say it with me now,

00:03:19.240 --> 00:03:23.189
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

00:03:49.890 --> 00:03:55.580
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

00:04:02.090 --> 00:04:06.739
frequency bands (reducing noise), and had
a lot of other neat advantages, too, but also

00:04:06.739 --> 00:04:09.400
some disadvantages, notably... they were
huge.

00:04:09.400 --> 00:04:10.400
But, anyway...

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

00:04:14.790 --> 00:04:19.360
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

00:04:44.620 --> 00:04:46.660
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

00:05:01.080 --> 00:05:06.310
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

00:05:12.260 --> 00:05:15.960
would henceforth be called the Radio Corporation
of America.

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So.

00:05:16.650 --> 00:05:18.569
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

00:05:23.610 --> 00:05:29.870
whole "RCA is owned by GE and they’re getting
kinda monopolistic" thing meant that RCA was

00:05:29.870 --> 00:05:34.800
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

00:05:51.740 --> 00:05:52.740
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.

00:06:04.449 --> 00:06:05.180
They were

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ANNOUNCER:
R   C   A

00:06:07.960 --> 00:06:11.260
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,

00:06:15.920 --> 00:06:20.400
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

00:06:35.120 --> 00:06:36.780
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

00:06:51.969 --> 00:06:55.360
go all wibbly wobbly, too. And thanks to the phonograph's cartridge,

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those wibbly wobbly wibble wobbles

00:06:56.689 --> 00:06:58.590
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)

00:08:00.810 --> 00:08:05.199
were held on each side of the disc, and although
bandwidth was reduced to 3 megahertz to make

00:08:05.199 --> 00:08:10.800
things a little easier, this still meant that
about 450 times as much information was held

00:08:10.800 --> 00:08:14.199
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?

00:08:21.540 --> 00:08:22.820
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.

00:08:29.469 --> 00:08:33.779
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

00:08:55.880 --> 00:08:57.000
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

00:09:12.400 --> 00:09:15.750
away from entering the home market in meaningful
volumes.

00:09:15.750 --> 00:09:20.980
Delicate mechanisms, expensive electronics,
and open-reels of wide, heavy tape made it

00:09:20.980 --> 00:09:25.480
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

00:09:30.570 --> 00:09:35.490
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

00:09:40.440 --> 00:09:41.660
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.

00:09:50.980 --> 00:09:56.580
And so, in the frame of 1964, the RCA Videodisc
actually seems like a great idea.

00:09:56.590 --> 00:10:00.690
Use the same equipment and technology that’s
used to mass-produce records for the music

00:10:00.690 --> 00:10:05.110
industry, and replicate that model for things
like movies, television shows, and perhaps

00:10:05.110 --> 00:10:08.240
one day, whole new categories of content.

00:10:08.720 --> 00:10:12.500
Except, the development process dragged on
for far too long.

00:10:12.510 --> 00:10:17.630
By 1972, they had only managed to fit 10 minutes
of video on one side of a disc.

00:10:17.630 --> 00:10:21.450
What’s more, they discovered that simple
vinyl discs wouldn’t work.

00:10:21.450 --> 00:10:25.480
The technology they had developed required
that the discs be conductive. The first

00:10:25.480 --> 00:10:30.660
prototype discs were metallized, with a styrene
top coat, and a lubricant coating on top of that.

00:10:30.660 --> 00:10:35.780
Now RCA wasn’t dumb, and they realized 10
minutes was dumb.

00:10:35.780 --> 00:10:40.240
So, they kept on trucking, continuing to pour
resources into the project.

00:10:40.250 --> 00:10:45.290
One of the things they soon discovered was
that the discs were extremely fragile.

00:10:45.290 --> 00:10:50.260
If you’re trying to pack a few dozen grooves
into the space of what used to be just one,

00:10:50.260 --> 00:10:53.560
the discs could easily be destroyed from normal handling.

00:10:53.560 --> 00:10:59.200
Up until this point, RCA imagined the discs
would be naked, just like normal phonograph records.

00:10:59.200 --> 00:11:05.780
Finally realizing that, well, this is silly, RCA
designed these not-at-all clunky caddies to

00:11:05.790 --> 00:11:08.160
hold the discs nice and safely.

00:11:08.160 --> 00:11:09.970
We wouldn’t want humans touching them.

00:11:09.970 --> 00:11:12.440
Still, the system needed a lot more work.

00:11:12.440 --> 00:11:16.900
The prototype discs, being multi-layered and
metallized, didn’t exactly follow the

00:11:16.900 --> 00:11:20.760
“make movies as quickly and cheaply as vinyl”
premise they had been getting at.

00:11:20.770 --> 00:11:25.560
They did eventually discover that using PVC
impregnated with conductive carbon particles

00:11:25.560 --> 00:11:31.240
would work well enough, and so they did get back to that
goal eventually, but it took a while.

00:11:31.240 --> 00:11:32.320
As we know.

00:11:32.320 --> 00:11:37.000
By the time 1981 rolled around, RCA had “perfected”
the system.

00:11:37.000 --> 00:11:43.440
60 minutes per side, safe protective caddies,
a totally sleek-looking player, and a catalog

00:11:43.450 --> 00:11:45.740
of movies ready to go at launch.

00:11:45.740 --> 00:11:50.140
The players were pretty cheap to make, so
RCA was able to sell them for about $500

00:11:50.140 --> 00:11:53.670
(that’s roughly equivalent to $1,500 
today).

00:11:53.670 --> 00:11:58.640
That sounds steep, but videocassette recorders
cost about double that when the CED was launched.

00:11:58.640 --> 00:11:59.520
Wait.

00:12:00.320 --> 00:12:01.260
Wait.

00:12:01.260 --> 00:12:05.700
You mean, videotape made it into the home
before the CED was launched?

00:12:05.700 --> 00:12:06.300
Yes.

00:12:06.300 --> 00:12:07.100
It did!

00:12:07.220 --> 00:12:10.220
And you know who had a big part in making
that happen?

00:12:10.220 --> 00:12:14.700
Why, a little company called RCA.

00:12:14.700 --> 00:12:16.780
Remember how I said RCA wasn’t dumb?

00:12:16.780 --> 00:12:21.180
Well, they saw the rise of the videocassette
recorder happening, and quickly jumped in.

00:12:21.180 --> 00:12:25.730
They didn’t manufacture any VCRs themselves,
instead choosing to outsource that task to

00:12:25.730 --> 00:12:31.740
companies like Matushita and Hitachi, but
RCA’s presence in the VCR market was a huge deal.

00:12:31.740 --> 00:12:36.240
RCA backed the VHS format created by JVC,
rather than going with the slightly older

00:12:36.240 --> 00:12:38.000
Betamax format from Sony.

00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:42.480
And, it was RCA who pushed the development
of the long-play recording mode, enabling

00:12:42.480 --> 00:12:47.670
VHS machines to record 4 hours on one tape,
and finally capture an entire football game.

00:12:47.670 --> 00:12:52.220
This was all happening in the late 1970’s,
in fact RCA’s very first VCR

00:12:52.220 --> 00:12:54.500
(which was the first to support 4 hour recording)

00:12:54.500 --> 00:12:56.900
hit the scene in 1977.

00:12:56.900 --> 00:13:00.700
Oh, and you know what RCA decided to call
their line of VCRs?

00:13:00.700 --> 00:13:02.440
SelectaVision.

00:13:02.440 --> 00:13:03.120
What!?

00:13:03.120 --> 00:13:04.960
Yeah, this was weird.

00:13:04.970 --> 00:13:09.790
RCA decided to use the name they were planning
to call their new videodisc system for their

00:13:09.790 --> 00:13:11.920
imported line of VCRs.

00:13:12.920 --> 00:13:16.900
Now, I suppose this wasn’t a huge deal,
but it is still strange.

00:13:16.910 --> 00:13:20.530
In fact, it looks like RCA just stole
 all the planned marketing material

00:13:20.530 --> 00:13:23.980
for the CED and slapped it onto their VCRs.

00:13:24.680 --> 00:13:29.940
ANNOUNCER:
Let RCA turn your television into SelectaVision!

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

00:13:36.050 --> 00:13:38.050
content wasn’t really a thing yet.

00:13:38.050 --> 00:13:42.720
For the most part, VCRs were used to record
live TV to be watched later,

00:13:42.720 --> 00:13:44.680
a process known as time-shifting.

00:13:44.680 --> 00:13:48.820
In that context, SelectaVision doesn’t even
really make that much sense.

00:13:48.820 --> 00:13:51.240
You’re not selecting something to watch.

00:13:51.240 --> 00:13:55.140
You’re planning to record something, and
will watch it later.

00:13:55.140 --> 00:14:01.420
Remember, these devices are called VCRs, which
stands for video cassette recorder,

00:14:01.420 --> 00:14:03.440
not video cassette player.

00:14:03.440 --> 00:14:05.860
And it's not a "VHS player"

00:14:05.860 --> 00:14:06.920
Stop calling it that.

00:14:06.920 --> 00:14:11.240
RCA was either really forward thinking and
thought that pre-recorded tapes would eventually

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

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

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

00:14:24.120 --> 00:14:25.840
for some reason.

00:14:25.840 --> 00:14:30.460
Just to muddy the waters a bit, SelectaVision
was actually first coined for an earlier abandoned

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

00:14:35.820 --> 00:14:37.260
capable of recording.

00:14:37.260 --> 00:14:42.420
This story, for such a simple product, is
maddeningly complicated and bizarre.

00:14:42.420 --> 00:14:45.800
Had the CED existed in a vacuum, it would
have made sense.

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

00:14:50.770 --> 00:14:52.560
by RCA,

00:14:52.560 --> 00:14:54.260
its existence is jus... it, it's…

00:14:54.260 --> 00:14:55.040
WHY?

00:14:55.040 --> 00:14:57.240
Why bother continuing this project?

00:14:57.240 --> 00:15:01.490
What problem could the videodisc possibly
solve when RCA’s own VCRs had been on the

00:15:01.490 --> 00:15:03.360
market for four years?

00:15:03.360 --> 00:15:06.090
Well… maybe, cost.

00:15:06.090 --> 00:15:07.090
Alright.

00:15:07.090 --> 00:15:10.860
After talking about this for close to 15 minutes,
we’re finally gonna explore this player

00:15:10.860 --> 00:15:11.860
a little more.

00:15:11.860 --> 00:15:17.740
The genius of RCA’s machine is that, compared
to a VCR, it’s incredibly simple.

00:15:17.740 --> 00:15:22.550
Just a turntable, a pickup mechanism containing
the stylus, and then the electronics needed

00:15:22.550 --> 00:15:24.810
to decode the signals on the disc.

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

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.

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

00:15:38.370 --> 00:15:42.890
position into the play position lifts the
turntable, which in turn lifts the disc up

00:15:42.890 --> 00:15:43.950
towards the stylus.

00:15:43.950 --> 00:15:48.510
It also closes a shutter to prevent you from
inserting the caddy while it’s playing.

00:15:48.510 --> 00:15:53.010
The motor driving the turntable could be a
cheap, single-speed AC motor since the discs

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,

00:15:58.500 --> 00:16:02.080
which is itself tied to the line frequency
of 60 hz.

00:16:02.080 --> 00:16:06.100
You can easily hear the distinctive 60 hz
humming of a plain ‘ol motor.

00:16:07.120 --> 00:16:07.740
[a clunk-like sound]

00:16:07.740 --> 00:16:10.000
[humming]

00:16:10.040 --> 00:16:11.860
[some resonance as the motor reaches speed]

00:16:11.860 --> 00:16:14.300
[and other various mechanical noises, with a distinct one right...

00:16:14.300 --> 00:16:15.740
about....

00:16:15.740 --> 00:16:17.320
here]

00:16:17.320 --> 00:16:23.100
In PAL countries (yes, RCA did briefly market
this system overseas) the turntable spun at

00:16:23.100 --> 00:16:27.860
375 RPM, which is tied to the frame rate and
line frequency of 50 hz.

00:16:27.860 --> 00:16:32.220
Each rotation of the disc held 4 complete
frames of video, or eight fields, and since

00:16:32.220 --> 00:16:35.630
a television will automatically synchronize
itself with the vertical blanking intervals

00:16:35.630 --> 00:16:39.470
encoded on the disc, a simple AC motor would
work fine.

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

00:16:43.721 --> 00:16:45.940
like you can see them on a CAV Laserdisc.

00:16:45.940 --> 00:16:50.650
However, a Laserdisc only holds one frame
of video per rotation, so you only see two

00:16:50.650 --> 00:16:52.080
blanking intervals.

00:16:52.080 --> 00:16:54.330
And now let’s talk about that stylus.

00:16:54.330 --> 00:16:59.380
The very tiny, user-replaceable diamond stylus
is there only to provide physical tracking

00:16:59.380 --> 00:17:00.540
on the disc.

00:17:00.540 --> 00:17:04.600
The player doesn’t sense vibration in the
stylus, nor does the stylus actually have

00:17:04.600 --> 00:17:07.120
anything to do with the signal being read.

00:17:07.120 --> 00:17:12.929
Instead, bonded to the stylus is a titanium
electrode which senses changes in capacitance

00:17:12.929 --> 00:17:15.360
brought about by the depth of the groove.

00:17:15.360 --> 00:17:20.820
Ah, finally the answer as to why it’s called
the Capacitance Electronic Disc.

00:17:20.820 --> 00:17:23.900
And also the answer to why the disc needed
to be conductive.

00:17:23.900 --> 00:17:28.480
The disc, being a conductor, and the titanium
electrode, also being a conductor,

00:17:28.480 --> 00:17:29.980
form a capacitor.

00:17:29.980 --> 00:17:35.680
The actual video and audio signals are created
by teeny tiny little undulations on the disc,

00:17:35.690 --> 00:17:39.580
which move the surface of the disc closer
to and farther away from the electrode as

00:17:39.580 --> 00:17:44.830
it spins, thus varying the value of the capacitor
formed by the stylus and disc.

00:17:44.830 --> 00:17:48.800
The circuitry in the player is essentially
measuring the capacitance value, and as it

00:17:48.800 --> 00:17:53.000
changes, it can convert that change into a
change in signal amplitude.

00:17:53.000 --> 00:17:55.340
And thus, we can recreate a video signal.

00:17:55.340 --> 00:17:59.470
For those paying careful attention, you’ll
have noticed that the player measures change

00:17:59.470 --> 00:18:00.640
in a capacitor.

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

00:18:05.400 --> 00:18:06.920
be in flux.

00:18:06.920 --> 00:18:12.740
Therefore, this disc, when being read by the
player, becomes part of a flux capacitor.

00:18:12.740 --> 00:18:13.870
Now you know.

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

00:18:19.900 --> 00:18:21.030
be spoiling the end.

00:18:21.030 --> 00:18:22.030
Fun fact!

00:18:22.030 --> 00:18:27.210
The first shipment of DeLoreans left Belfast
just two days before the CED system was officially

00:18:27.210 --> 00:18:30.360
released on March 22nd, 1981.

00:18:30.360 --> 00:18:34.520
The player was able to control where the stylus
landed on the disc with an electromagnet,

00:18:34.520 --> 00:18:37.610
as well as by moving the carriage that contains
the stylus.

00:18:37.610 --> 00:18:42.020
Ordinarily the carriage would just move in
steps as the stylus followed the disc (and

00:18:42.020 --> 00:18:46.550
the disc contained some basic digital signaling
to tell the player where it was), but when

00:18:46.550 --> 00:18:50.900
using the picture search function, the player
could bump the stylus forwards and backwards

00:18:50.900 --> 00:18:53.460
with the electromagnet for finer control.

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

00:18:57.830 --> 00:19:01.340
it was stuck thanks to the position signals that weren't advancing,

00:19:01.340 --> 00:19:03.500
and kick the stylus forward a couple of grooves

00:19:03.500 --> 00:19:04.840
to get unstuck.

00:19:04.840 --> 00:19:09.040
And getting stuck was, unfortunately, not
uncommon.

00:19:09.040 --> 00:19:13.460
♫ ♫

00:19:13.460 --> 00:19:15.300
[ suddenly no more ♫ ]

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.

00:19:22.010 --> 00:19:26.740
And in fact, the caddies themselves could destroy the discs if they weren’t stored right.

00:19:26.740 --> 00:19:30.990
See, this system wasn’t just late, it was
awfully flawed.

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

00:19:34.630 --> 00:19:36.220
the discs themselves.

00:19:36.220 --> 00:19:41.500
RCA’s VideoDiscs were sold for between $15
and about $30, although the vast majority

00:19:41.500 --> 00:19:47.360
were priced at $20 and up, and some special
box sets shot way past $30.

00:19:47.360 --> 00:19:51.740
Now that’s not… terribly expensive, even
for 1981 dollars.

00:19:51.740 --> 00:19:57.120
In 1981 vinyl LPs were starting to push into
the $10 territory for high-profile releases,

00:19:57.120 --> 00:20:01.500
so you could say SelectaVision discs cost
about the same as 2 new record albums.

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)

00:20:05.480 --> 00:20:09.320
movie for the same cost as at best an hour
of music.

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

00:20:13.840 --> 00:20:15.280
it was a little better.

00:20:15.280 --> 00:20:20.580
And honestly, the quality of the image coming
from these discs is perfectly fine.

00:20:20.580 --> 00:20:24.280
The only problem is… 
this can happen.

00:20:25.980 --> 00:20:30.780
[ unintelligible audio as the disc skips uncontrollably ]

00:20:31.220 --> 00:20:33.320
How common was this when the system was new?

00:20:33.840 --> 00:20:35.060
It’s hard to say.

00:20:35.060 --> 00:20:39.770
The caddy design was fairly good and would
keep dust from getting in there, so perhaps

00:20:39.770 --> 00:20:42.790
these discs all worked great in 1981.

00:20:42.790 --> 00:20:44.770
For now, let’s just assume they did.

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

00:20:49.250 --> 00:20:50.380
that disc over.

00:20:50.380 --> 00:20:54.670
And, that’s a somewhat strange task with
this player.

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,

00:20:59.850 --> 00:21:03.860
shove it back in all the way again, and pull it
out again.

00:21:03.860 --> 00:21:07.780
That’s… a little more cumbersome than
just flipping an LP over.

00:21:07.780 --> 00:21:08.960
Or a Laserdisc.

00:21:08.960 --> 00:21:09.780
Ahhh yeah....

00:21:09.900 --> 00:21:11.860
What about that other videodisc format?

00:21:11.860 --> 00:21:15.100
Well, it certainly didn’t help RCA’s mission,
here.

00:21:15.100 --> 00:21:18.140
But, it might not have mattered much at all.

00:21:18.140 --> 00:21:22.360
Early laserdiscs typically weren’t mastered
all that well, and comparing the quality between

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.

00:21:27.380 --> 00:21:32.440
However, it’s possible that had RCA decided
to take one of the innovations of Laserdisc

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.

00:21:37.710 --> 00:21:39.720
Or perhaps at all.

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

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

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

00:21:54.980 --> 00:21:59.540
media throughout the 1980’s and into today,
especially if it had been released in the

00:21:59.540 --> 00:22:00.880
mid ‘70s.

00:22:00.880 --> 00:22:01.880
Thanks for watching!

00:22:01.880 --> 00:22:05.540
I know this story meandered around a lot,
but I promise everything you learned here

00:22:05.540 --> 00:22:08.620
will make the next video make a little more
sense.

00:22:08.620 --> 00:22:11.670
And it will also make the CED make even less
sense.

00:22:11.670 --> 00:22:15.240
As always, I’d like to thank the fine folks
supporting this channel through Patreon.

00:22:15.240 --> 00:22:19.210
Viewers like you make this channel possible,
and I really appreciate your support.

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

00:22:22.809 --> 00:22:24.720
check out my Patreon page.

00:22:24.720 --> 00:22:27.000
Thanks for your consideration, and I’ll
see you next time.

00:22:28.100 --> 00:22:30.900
♫ capacitavely smooth jazz ♫

00:22:31.740 --> 00:22:33.100
Somehow…

00:22:33.420 --> 00:22:36.300
[sounds of discs clattering together]

00:22:37.900 --> 00:22:38.400
No…

00:22:38.660 --> 00:22:40.840
So, that’s how RCA became a thing.

00:22:40.840 --> 00:22:42.520
R… [clears throat] So?

00:22:42.520 --> 00:22:43.020
So.

00:22:43.020 --> 00:22:43.520
So?

00:22:43.520 --> 00:22:44.020
So.

00:22:44.020 --> 00:22:49.700
Why on Earth was RCA so determined to make
video work on vinyl?

00:22:49.700 --> 00:22:50.700
Simple.

00:22:52.140 --> 00:22:53.320
[smirks]

00:22:55.260 --> 00:22:57.500
Or don’t fall down, that works too...

00:22:57.500 --> 00:23:00.930
...hundreds of tape duplicators to make duplicate
recording in real t…

00:23:00.930 --> 00:23:04.220
augh, no no no, I scr aarr arr... that was
tape recorders!

00:23:04.220 --> 00:23:05.500
Duplicators is a term

00:23:05.500 --> 00:23:06.120
that

00:23:07.100 --> 00:23:09.780
you’d probably
get the context of, but no.

00:23:09.780 --> 00:23:12.120
In PAL [coughs]

00:23:12.120 --> 00:23:14.680
And It was, remember res… no.

00:23:14.680 --> 00:23:15.340
no no no.

00:23:15.340 --> 00:23:16.000
no no no no no.