In 1981 RCA introduced Selectavision even though they knew they had little chance of getting these things into most people’s homes. Laserdiscs had been on the market for several years and video cassette recorders were starting to become more affordable and popular. But RCA had invested millions of dollars and spent 17 years engineering a way to extend the playing time of the LP record and embed full color, full motion video. The fact that they were successful seems incredible given the age of the vinyl medium. It had been around for a long time.
That’s part of what makes this format so wonderful.
It’s an analog medium and when properly set up and viewed it can create a rich, warm viewing experience, far closer to a movie theater showing film than DVD. Yes I said that and I know there will be many that will think I am wrong. If you are one of them leave a comment at the bottom of this post and I will be happy to send you screen shots and a couple of reasons why what I’m saying makes sense. This is what family cinema was meant to be. It isn’t about lines of resolution and eight channels of sound, it’s about experiencing film as nostalgia, as fun, as intimacy, together as a family, even as art. Consider how a painting compares to the print or the digital copy of that painting. The original painting has a richness and a vivid quality that is difficult to describe in words. It has an immediacy and a temperature. Prints and digital images, although fine for technical analysis, do not create the same connection with the viewer.
There are other ways that collectors of CED’s (Capacitance Electronic Discs or Selectavision for short) connect with this unique format. They take special pride in the jukebox like mechanism that extracts the vinyl disc from its protective plastic jacket. They appreciate the fantastic sound quality of stereo transfers- most stereo discs carry the Dolby Stereo/Surround information signal which can be decoded with modern receivers. They admire technicolor movies that have a certain ‘glow’ on this format. (Still image screenshots do not demonstrate this strength because the effect is accumulative via moving images and scene transitions.) They enjoy watching classic movies on classic 4:3 television screens. They reminisce and appreciate a time when small screen sizes meant watching movies and shows from a physically closer position- circled around a TV in a cozy nook.
These folks probably never gave up their vinyl record collections and who can blame them? They’re laughing on that one, by the way. For the Silo, Jarrod Barker.
-Unaltered CED Movie Screenshots-
The Thomas Crown Affair 1968 director Norman Jewison
Rocky2 1979 director Sylvester Stallone
TRON 1982 Director Steven Lisberger
Black Orpheus 1959 Director Marcel Camus
Superman The Movie 1978 Director Richard Donner
The Hound of the Baskervilles 1959 Director Terrance Fisher
Playboy Collectors Video #2
Star Trek: The Motion Picture 1979 Director Robert Wise
Return of the Jedi 1983 Director Richard Marquand
We’ve added another piece to our CED Media collection. Thief of Hearts…. Blue caddy, white spine, no cut out. Totally 80’s movie- music by Harold Faltermeyer (Axel F Beverley Hills Cop ), solid Dolby Surround track and Stereo CX.
The Diary of Anne Frank.. best viewed intimately on a small black and white vintage television.
Wargames- very fun to watch on CED
Well said Douglas! It’s difficult to explain what CED ‘looks’ like and ‘feels’ like and taking photographs of the screen doesn’t really work out well either. But there is something magical about a CED that’s been cared for and playing well on a classic TV. It has a smooth, animation like feel because of the warm colors and absence of digital artifacts. Glad you enjoyed the article 🙂
Tony Fleetwood: That is a killer Demensia system! Wow! Congratulations! Looks like you hit the jackpot!
I love this format. I have a laserdisc player and a Betamax VCR, or two, but for me the picture quality – not sharpness – is what brings me back to this format time after time. I wholeheartedly agree that the picture has a warmth to it that makes for an extremely inviting viewing experience. I am also amazed at how nice the sound can be, especially on a stereo disc, but even on a mono disc, like “Blondie: Eat to the Beat.” And as for skipping, I have had minimal problems with discs skipping, which I mostly attribute to the fact that I am super picky about not using discs that look like they have been abused. All in all, I loved the format as a kid and I love it now. Thanks for a great article.
Wow take a look at the selling price for this early RCA Stereo CED player-
Andrew Tisch “Hi everyone. What displays do you use when watching your CEDs? CRT, plasma, projector? Sticking with vintage or using the latest and greatest. Most my CED watching is done via a 46″ Samsung LED. Lately I’ve been playing with running the player through a DVD recorder and HDMI into the tv. I keep it 4:3, black bars don’t bother me 😊
Haha”
Louis Cortez “crt is the only way flat screens look terrible and deppressing.thats why there are 8 segments on a CED its for the electron beam.”
Tony Fleetwood “i use this,” https://youtu.be/yvoeftGo7Lg
DIMENSIA intelligent audio video
Andrew Tisch “Tony Fleetwood, that is one hell of a setup. I’ve only ever seen the Dimensia equipment in old ads. Very cool.”
Jarrod Barker “4:3 LCD displays /monitors look great IF you can find one”
John McCallister “I’m using a SKT 400 hooked up to a Epson Movie Mate 3 LCD HDMI Projector on a 100″ screen. I had this hooked up with the AV input and it was sad!!!!! I just hooked it up with a AV TO HDMI converter @ 720P and the difference is crazy good !!!!! Not sure if you can see the difference in the pictures but it is substantial!!!!”
Andrew Tisch “Seems noticeable. Looks like the colors got better.”
John McCallister “And much clearer !”
Jason Lewis “Lumagen and DLP projector”
Isaiah Finan “CRT. You’ll find it hard to replicate the color of CED unless it’s on a high end LED TV or equivalent.”
Justin Brickner “I use a Sony HD LCD monitor that has digital noise correction on the analog inputs it works great.”
IMDRanged1 hour agoHighlighted reply
I noticed some times the home releases of certain movies, they switch the aspect ratio to take advantage of the “full screen” because they were shot by the director for IMAX. The Dark Knight Blu Ray did this and also the Blu Ray 3D version of Guardian of the Galaxy which was based on IMAX-3D version of it where it did switch but also took advantage of allowing 3D elements to leap beyond the top and bottom black bars: When Drax coughs up yellow goo and the strange derby game which the little lizard thing is flung and eaten by the larger lizard.
A bit on aspect ratios….since the vast majority of CED Selectavision movie discs were mastered in 4:3 or Pan and Scan format, they sometimes come under fire for not displaying “the full film”. However, some people prefer 4:3 ratio when projected to 100″ or bigger as this ‘fills the entire field of vision’-not just left and right, but up and down. For those enjoying older Tube televisions and antique televisions, Pan and Scan ‘fills the entire’ display since those television sets are much more square than today’s wide flat screens.
Matthew McClane
“In the early 1990s, I first became interested in LaserDisc as it was the only way to see films in their intended widescreen formats. Here’s an interesting article, though, that details ten recent films that instead were chosen by their directors to be presented in Academy Ratio 1.33. Interesting stuff.”
10 great modern films shot in Academy ratio http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/lists/10-great-modern-films-shot-43-academy-ratio
With his quixotic adventure film Jauja, set in 19th-century Patagonia and starring Viggo Mortensen, Lisandro Alonso is the latest filmmaker to ditch the conventional wide-screen format in order to resurrect the squarer ‘Academy’ ratio of earlier…
bfi.org.uk
Jarrod Barker IMAX is very close to 4:3 Academy ratio too.
Chris Jordan I do find the inclusion of Elephant to be a bit of a cheat, since that was an HBO original produced for viewing on 4×3 TVs, at a time when most/all original television content was still 4×3… But it is true that Van Sant used the format very effectively.
Steve Boudreau Thanks for posting this. Very cool.
Vincent Onorati Ida, Meek’s Cutoff, Fish Tank and Budapest are some of the best films of the decade so far. Maybe there’s something to shooting in 4×3.
I try to watch the greatest science fiction movie ever. The Empire Strikes Back on CED
Brian Bishop 🙂
Did you know? RCA Selectavision was not only the first home movie manufacturer to release a film in “Widescreen” (Amarcord) they also were the first to release specialty films such as this one, The Getting Of Wisdom from their Foreign Film Series
Even in 1981 RCA knew they were screwed. It feels like they knew they had no chance against LaserDisc/VHS/Beta, tho you gotta give credit to RCA for taking a brave move pushing this already obsolete on arrival tech after spending over a decade into it. I think that’s part of what gives CED it’s charm
James David Porter CED was the poor mans laserdisc…
Jarrod Barker Thats misleading. It was less costly than LD and the movies were cheaper so that just meant that you could buy MORE movies. I read that most laserdisc player owners (at the time of its manufacture popularity) had only a handful of movies but most CED player owners had dozens of movies. IF thats true than CED was the smart mans laserdisc.
James David Porter Jarrod Barker I bought three CED players and about 100 movies – still have a working SGT 250 and 80 movies….
Phillip Pellegrini It’s just a shame that the CED project and bad management took down the mighty RCA.
Brandon Bannen I always wondered what would’ve happened if CED was a massive success. Kinda sad that This is was the RCA killer
Daniel Perry I think it could have been a big success if they had not dragged their feet in the development stage. From what I understand even though RCA funded the project well there was only like 2 guys doing the development.
Phillip Pellegrini RCA also had a revolving door of management which didn’t help anything.
Beau Alcorn I had that player but stereo
Josh Gibson Actually RCA released it in competion with VHS, which they already cornered the market on. The fact is VHS tapes at the time were $50 to $80. They decided to release CED at the $20 to $30 price point for those who couldn’t afford VHS. Even the machines…
Brandon Bannen True but I was more referring to the fact that both CED and LD were disc based and CED was far inferior. I still think CED is the most interesting of all movie format. It’s read by a stylus, its more unique (expect for VHD )
Jeffery Smith Josh’s point is 100% accurate…..coming from a guy who lived through the introduction and then failure of this format…..my family bought one in 1982…..it was aimed at families for home movie nights….affordable home movie nights.
Jeffery Smith Oh….and we didn’t get a VCR until 1986. We rented a VHS player along with the tapes up until then….and we didn’t get cable TV until 1989. In fact, I was the guy who installed it when I got my first job out of high school installing cable in our area…..we lived in the sticks!
Brandon Bannen Growing up in the 90s wehad VHS (an 86 GE) which I still own and we loaned a neighbors CED. I didn’t buy my first beta until 2008 and for CED Around same time
Beau Alcorn It’s funny to think that people used to rent vcrs from the rental stores. My parents bought one early on but I remember renting NES, and N64 growing up
Justin Brickner Josh is right RCA poured a lot into advertising the CED players and discs. R&D even continued until 1984 when the project was axed. RCA did very well with CED during the initial release from 1981-1982 with the Stereo players doing okay at launch. Getti…See More
Jarrod Barker IMO they marketed the format incorrectly. Not to mention that laser reading vinyl technology was avail (just expensive due to not yet being mass market produced) and pressing plant conditions were set to improve. Basically the format could have surived…See More
Jarrod Barker Oh and if they had Pepsi challenged with a good CED technicolor disc vs same movie on VHS or even LD I think the consumer would have appreciated what CED did best- warm bold colours that still cant be beat
Justin Brickner The picture quality is quite good and natural for the technology at the time. Getting into the J/K players tracking is so much better my SJT-400 plays even my worst discs with ease. What would have been in RCA’s favor was releasing the CED system before VHS and Beta grabbed the market. Then it would have had a strong market share even when VHS prices dropped.
Brandon Bannen Yeah it was mostly just bad timing, that’s what my “revolutionary” part was about. By the time CED was released more advanced and reliable players were out. Had it been released earlier it could dominated the market like the atari 2600
Jarrod Barker Yeah and too much emphasis then and now on “# of lines of resolution”. Anyone visited an Art Gallery lately? How many lines of resolution does a Picasso painting have or a DiVinci? Picture quality depends on much more than “sharpness”. I keep saying it..
Justin Brickner Well it also an analog format so no digitization involved. RCA did use mastering equipment to sweeten the audio and video but little is taken away from the original format. What is also neat is that several films that were matte are full frame on CED.
Justin Brickner That’s what I like about Laserdisc is that it’s analog video but read with a laser.
Brandon Bannen That’s why I think LD looks more “smooth” and “organic” looking than DVD. Also the sound seems far better, at least on my player anyways
Justin Brickner However that didn’t happen because RCA did a complete redesign from the ground up in a very short amount of time. I credit the engineers for producing such an amazing product in such a short amount of time.
Brandon Bannen I will give them credit , the caddies were actually a pretty genius idea.
Justin Brickner The servo drive loading/unloading system was a good idea in theory but I would have stuck with mechanical loading and unloading.
Thanks for finding our story and for taking the time to comment Darlene. Some of the ‘old CED movies on LP’ are collectible and have some value. Most of them are not very expensive to buy on the used market. You can visit http://www.cedmagic.com and check for the rarity on the movies you have found. We’re looking for another player here for our office and if you have one of those please let us know.
after my husband passed away I went to the attic and started going through boxes.i found movies on lp,s,,the godfather,,grease and about 8 more.are they worth anything and are there collectors of these.thank you