Dead Video Format: RCA Selectavision CED Videodisc

As a bit of a nostalgiaholic, I am more than a little obsessed with dead audio and visual formats. I have in my lifetime lived in a household with a Betamax (my Dad purchased an early model when he was working at an Electronics store), VHS, Laserdisc, DVD and Blu-Ray players. A dream of mine is to one day have my own little room/portion of my house set up to play every format. In my last post I mentioned the RCA Selectavision CED player (Capacitane Electronic Disc) which appropriately was introduced to the marketplace in the year 1981, a friend of mine actually has a working player (he also has several working eight tracks!) and it got me thinking about the long deceased format.

The CED is a record like disc in a hard LP sized protective case, to play the film; you insert the entire case into the player which would then extract the disc before you then remove the case, an analog stylus similar to a audio record would then play the film. Like DVDs the CED allowed you to skip to chapters and like LPs and Laserdiscs, the player required flipping mid-way through the film.

What I like about the presentation is that the size allows for larger artwork displays versus the smaller and box shaped VHS and Beta tapes. We never had a Selectavision player, but I have a very specific memory of watching The Karate Kid in the format once at a facility while my mother was doing something (funny I can’t remember why I was there, but I remember the film and that it was a CED). I also recall that the Pettys, the parents of friends of my brother who some time would watch us, had a player and a lot of Disney cartoon collections for it.

Though the technology existed since the 1960's CED players and discs were not commercially produced until the year 1981 and were extinct by 1986.

Here are some fun related videos I found on YouTube

A commercial from the early 1980s—I like how the Dad in the first clip is kind of a dick, “Let’s just say I’m watching a great movie and you, you’re watching me”

And some demonstrations people made recently showing the intricacies of the player itself.

Anyone here ever own one of these? I am curious if the video quality was superior or on par with VHS. It doesn't look all that bad from the Saturday Night Fever clips, but the Blade Runner scenes look really fuzzy and full of ghosting.