CED VideoDisc and Player Discussion

[TCNJSarnoff]

Dear fellow CED aficionados,

I am pleased to announce that next month The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) will be opening a new exhibition on RCA and its many contributions to the history of electronics.

"Innovations That Changed The World: An Introduction to the Sarnoff Collection" draws upon the more than 6,000 objects previously housed at the David Sarnoff Library in Princeton, NJ. Highlights include the first-ever color television picture tube, America's first commercially available electron microscope, and early examples of thin-film transistors, LCDs, and computer core memories. There is also a section dedicated to the SelectaVision VideoDisc system, RCA's last great consumer electronics project.

I am writing this post to invite you all to Ewing, NJ (outside of Trenton) for the exhibit's grand opening on October 2nd. Further information about this event, as well as an online collections database, can be found on our website: http://tcnj.edu/sarnoff. Also, please feel free to follow us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/TCNJSarnoff) and Twitter (@TCNJSarnoff). Your support for our efforts to preserve the history of electronics is greatly appreciated.

All the best,

Ben Gross
(Curator and consulting scholar, The Sarnoff Collection at TCNJ)

[Rixrex]

Well, that would be a great thing to see.

Thanks much, Ben, for calling the Selectavision system what it truly was, a great system. Many great achievements do not grab the commercial world by storm, but live on through the marvelous scientific and technical advancements required to create such.

I would dare to say that, if a videotape, laserdisc, CED videodisc and DVD were all put on a spacecraft in a sealed climate and with players that could resist degradation, and retrieved ages later in another solar system, the LD would arrive with laser-rot (the 2 glued discs separating), the videotape ruined by electomagnetism, the DVD unreadable due to factory defects, but the CED disc would be just fine after a reconditioning pre-play.

I found access to the Sarnoff Collection website here:

https://davidsarnoff.pages.tcnj.edu/

[kitchensynch]

If I'm not mistaken, there is a special disk in one of our interplanetary probes that has left the solar system with a message from Earth circa the Nixon administration (Voyager?) and also the inspiration for the plotline of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (remember V'ger will convert the carbon units)?


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A New Vista of RCA Victor COLOR!

[Dude111]

Welcome Ben!


Good luck with your exhibit

[SelectaVision420]

wow, i wonder what kind of stuff mr. sarnoff has in his collection! now thats a collection id like to pick!
_________________
(2)Sears 274 & 934(80150,10&11350), sft100, sgt250, sjt 090-400, vp550, VDR3000, VP2000 & 4000
complete '84 Dimensia Owner

[kitchensynch]

Probably some really cool stuff, but Mr. Sarnoff passed on in 1971 after shaping radio and television for the 20th century...

https://www.google.com/search?q=david+sarnoff&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=&oe=
_________________
A New Vista of RCA Victor COLOR!

[SelectaVision420]

[TCNJSarnoff]

Thanks for welcoming me to the forum, everyone!

In answer to your questions:

1.) As per the CEDMagic.com FAQ, the Voyager record was not a CED, but rather "gold-plated Audio LP mothers made of copper, which normally would be used to make stamping molds for vinyl LP's." Still, that won't stop me from calling attention to the distinction the next time I watch Star Trek: The Motion Picture on my SKT-400.

2.) Although David Sarnoff was the creator and namesake of the collection, it has continued to grow and evolve following his death in 1971. Today it remains dedicated to collecting and preserving the history of RCA from its formation in 1919 until its sale in 1986. We also have several artifacts related to research conducted at the former site of RCA Laboratories from 1986 up to the Sarnoff Library's closure in 2009.

3.) Margaret Graham's book on the VideoDisc is an excellent case study of corporate innovation, and one that I have consulted thoroughly in connection with this exhibition. I have also been fortunate to build upon its contents through conversations with several former RCA engineers who still live in the greater Princeton area. (If you come to the grand opening, you might even get to meet some of them!)

All the best,
-Ben

[kitchensynch]

It would be great but it's not happening on a Schwinn...
_________________
A New Vista of RCA Victor COLOR!

[SelectaVision420]

[TCNJSarnoff]

There are indeed VideoDiscs in the collection. In addition to a variety of mainstream titles, we also have an Aloha Conference disc and a copy of Memories of Videodisc: the final CED ever produced.

(FYI, the latter is viewable in its entirety on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIT7sStctbA&list=PLYGuWwHNhjzNG4TdBL__612wxMNTbrtPJ )

All the best,
-Ben

[kitchensynch]

I've watched it many times there. Helps me to remember the wonderful 80s when I was a teenager growing into adulthood. You feel a kinship with folks like that because you knew folks like that every day.

It wasn't any better than now but it was a lot quieter.
_________________
A New Vista of RCA Victor COLOR!

[SelectaVision420]

do you have " a walk through the universe? " in there as well?
_________________
(2)Sears 274 & 934(80150,10&11350), sft100, sgt250, sjt 090-400, vp550, VDR3000, VP2000 & 4000
complete '84 Dimensia Owner

[TCNJSarnoff]

Sadly, no.
Eventually, I plan to compile a list of our VideoDisc holdings and post it online. Once that happens, I will of course post a message on this forum.

All the best,
-Ben

[SelectaVision420]