1 00:00:04,480 --> 00:00:12,320 Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 2 00:00:12,360 --> 00:00:16,040 Speaker 1: and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 3 00:00:16,040 --> 00:00:19,520 Speaker 1: I'm an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and how the 4 00:00:19,600 --> 00:00:23,720 Speaker 1: tech are you? You know, nostalgia is a heck of 5 00:00:23,760 --> 00:00:28,240 Speaker 1: a thing. It's fairly typical for popular media to depict 6 00:00:28,280 --> 00:00:32,760 Speaker 1: stuff from a generation earlier. You know, studios are catering 7 00:00:32,800 --> 00:00:37,000 Speaker 1: to adults by reminding them of their childhoods. Plus, studios 8 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:40,159 Speaker 1: are run by people who are potentially thinking back to 9 00:00:40,200 --> 00:00:43,440 Speaker 1: their own childhoods and how much quote unquote better it 10 00:00:43,640 --> 00:00:46,880 Speaker 1: was back then. So we've seen this multiple times, right 11 00:00:47,360 --> 00:00:50,960 Speaker 1: back in the nineteen seventies. If you are of an 12 00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:54,720 Speaker 1: age as i am, back in the seventies and early eighties, 13 00:00:54,800 --> 00:00:58,920 Speaker 1: you had movies like Greece and the far Superior Grease Too, 14 00:00:59,280 --> 00:01:03,160 Speaker 1: which were set in the late fifties early sixties. These 15 00:01:03,280 --> 00:01:06,360 Speaker 1: days we see shows like Stranger Things and films like 16 00:01:06,600 --> 00:01:09,840 Speaker 1: The four thirty, these are set in the nineteen eighties. 17 00:01:10,440 --> 00:01:12,840 Speaker 1: We see this reflected in other ways as well. The 18 00:01:12,959 --> 00:01:16,600 Speaker 1: vinyl format for LPs and such was on its way 19 00:01:16,600 --> 00:01:21,080 Speaker 1: toward extinction with the introduction of other technologies like compact 20 00:01:21,120 --> 00:01:25,240 Speaker 1: discs CDs did a number on Vinyl as well as 21 00:01:25,280 --> 00:01:28,280 Speaker 1: audio cassette tapes, but then in the mid two thousands, 22 00:01:28,400 --> 00:01:31,920 Speaker 1: Vinyl began to mold a comeback. These days, Vinyl's a 23 00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:35,200 Speaker 1: booming business again, and the reasons for that are varied, 24 00:01:35,400 --> 00:01:39,600 Speaker 1: from the mythology of audio files about the superiority of 25 00:01:39,640 --> 00:01:43,280 Speaker 1: the Vinyl format to the desire to actually own a 26 00:01:43,360 --> 00:01:46,520 Speaker 1: copy of music rather than be beholden to some streaming 27 00:01:46,600 --> 00:01:49,680 Speaker 1: service that may or may not carry that music. In 28 00:01:49,720 --> 00:01:53,080 Speaker 1: the future, and I'll probably do a full episode about 29 00:01:53,120 --> 00:01:56,120 Speaker 1: the Vinyl revival and kind of trace how that came 30 00:01:56,120 --> 00:01:58,160 Speaker 1: to be, because I think that's a pretty interesting story. 31 00:01:58,320 --> 00:02:01,600 Speaker 1: But as I was thinking about all this, I decided 32 00:02:01,640 --> 00:02:06,000 Speaker 1: I should do another episode about obsolete media. Now. Originally 33 00:02:06,280 --> 00:02:08,560 Speaker 1: I was going to do a round up episode with 34 00:02:08,800 --> 00:02:14,720 Speaker 1: several different intrees, several different examples of obsolete media. I've 35 00:02:14,720 --> 00:02:17,000 Speaker 1: done some of these in the past, and in fact 36 00:02:17,040 --> 00:02:19,120 Speaker 1: I had to go and take a look back on 37 00:02:19,320 --> 00:02:23,240 Speaker 1: past episodes to figure out what technologies I had already covered. 38 00:02:23,480 --> 00:02:25,840 Speaker 1: I've done it a lot. In fact, I have an 39 00:02:25,840 --> 00:02:28,919 Speaker 1: episode from just two years ago that went into detail 40 00:02:29,440 --> 00:02:33,560 Speaker 1: about obsolete formats that I had completely forgotten about. Like 41 00:02:33,760 --> 00:02:36,680 Speaker 1: I remembered I had done episodes about obsolete media, but 42 00:02:36,720 --> 00:02:38,520 Speaker 1: I didn't remember that it was just two years ago 43 00:02:38,560 --> 00:02:40,760 Speaker 1: when I did a big one. In that one, I 44 00:02:40,840 --> 00:02:44,240 Speaker 1: covered stuff like the umatic video cassette, which Sony was 45 00:02:44,280 --> 00:02:47,639 Speaker 1: pushing out as a consumer product, but it mainly saw 46 00:02:47,800 --> 00:02:51,919 Speaker 1: use in broadcast studios, not in consumer technology. Instead, the 47 00:02:52,040 --> 00:02:55,520 Speaker 1: VHS and Betamax formats would take over that market, or 48 00:02:55,639 --> 00:03:01,560 Speaker 1: the tefifon or tefifhone format tefi fon. Took me a 49 00:03:01,600 --> 00:03:04,000 Speaker 1: while to track that down because it didn't spell it 50 00:03:04,520 --> 00:03:07,120 Speaker 1: in that episode from twenty twenty two, but that was 51 00:03:07,600 --> 00:03:10,960 Speaker 1: a media format out of West Germany or what was 52 00:03:11,320 --> 00:03:14,240 Speaker 1: West Germany at that time, and I dedicated about a 53 00:03:14,280 --> 00:03:16,799 Speaker 1: third of the episode to this tech back in twenty 54 00:03:16,840 --> 00:03:18,880 Speaker 1: twenty two and forgot about it. It's really cool though. 55 00:03:19,040 --> 00:03:22,320 Speaker 1: It uses a ribbon of plastic and a groove kind 56 00:03:22,360 --> 00:03:25,359 Speaker 1: of like what you would find on a record album, 57 00:03:25,560 --> 00:03:29,400 Speaker 1: and the plastic tape that's inside these cassettes. It's in 58 00:03:29,440 --> 00:03:32,000 Speaker 1: a loop, so it does loop all the way back around. 59 00:03:32,080 --> 00:03:34,880 Speaker 1: You don't have to rewind to the beginning or anything. 60 00:03:35,080 --> 00:03:38,120 Speaker 1: It was a neat technology, just didn't see much use 61 00:03:38,200 --> 00:03:41,240 Speaker 1: outside of Germany. But in previous episodes, I've also talked 62 00:03:41,240 --> 00:03:43,760 Speaker 1: about the organette, which is a device that works in 63 00:03:43,760 --> 00:03:46,800 Speaker 1: a way that's similar to a player piano. I talked 64 00:03:46,800 --> 00:03:50,840 Speaker 1: about wire recorders, where the recording medium was literally a 65 00:03:50,960 --> 00:03:54,320 Speaker 1: length of stainless steel wire. But in this episode, I'm 66 00:03:54,320 --> 00:03:56,800 Speaker 1: going to talk about a device that I've mentioned a 67 00:03:56,800 --> 00:04:00,120 Speaker 1: couple times before, but I have never dedicated a full 68 00:04:00,120 --> 00:04:02,880 Speaker 1: episode to it. And I'm doing this purely out of 69 00:04:02,960 --> 00:04:07,800 Speaker 1: nostalgia because I actually own one of these devices. In fact, 70 00:04:08,240 --> 00:04:11,720 Speaker 1: it's sitting immediately to my right as I am recording 71 00:04:11,760 --> 00:04:17,279 Speaker 1: this episode, and the tech is the RCA CED player, 72 00:04:17,720 --> 00:04:22,480 Speaker 1: or more officially, the RCA videodisc system. And I should 73 00:04:22,640 --> 00:04:25,240 Speaker 1: probably have warned you that this episode's going to have 74 00:04:25,279 --> 00:04:29,640 Speaker 1: some alphabet soup stuff going on. But RCA stands for 75 00:04:29,760 --> 00:04:32,640 Speaker 1: the Radio Corporation of America. That was a company that 76 00:04:32,760 --> 00:04:36,520 Speaker 1: had an absolutely critical role to play in the production 77 00:04:36,640 --> 00:04:40,039 Speaker 1: of media here in the United States. RCA's history is 78 00:04:40,080 --> 00:04:44,359 Speaker 1: one that includes dominating radio broadcasts and being a huge 79 00:04:44,400 --> 00:04:47,479 Speaker 1: player in the early recording industry, as well as much more. 80 00:04:47,760 --> 00:04:51,040 Speaker 1: Now I've done episodes about RCA. In fact, I did 81 00:04:51,080 --> 00:04:54,560 Speaker 1: a series of I think four episodes about the history 82 00:04:54,600 --> 00:04:57,919 Speaker 1: and evolution of RCA back in twenty nineteen. Because again, 83 00:04:57,960 --> 00:05:01,120 Speaker 1: this company is huge, it has a very long history, 84 00:05:01,440 --> 00:05:04,200 Speaker 1: and it has had a massive impact on the evolution 85 00:05:04,279 --> 00:05:09,120 Speaker 1: of technology in tons of different ways. However, the CED player, 86 00:05:09,680 --> 00:05:13,839 Speaker 1: I would argue, would not rank among those massive influences 87 00:05:13,960 --> 00:05:20,320 Speaker 1: on technology. CED stands for capacitance Electronic disc and I'll 88 00:05:20,360 --> 00:05:24,360 Speaker 1: explain why a little bit later. But first some history, 89 00:05:24,680 --> 00:05:26,960 Speaker 1: which is a bit complicated, as one of the best 90 00:05:27,000 --> 00:05:32,120 Speaker 1: accounts about the CED is stored on the CED format itself, 91 00:05:32,400 --> 00:05:36,679 Speaker 1: and since CED is an obsolete medium, it stanged hard 92 00:05:36,720 --> 00:05:40,159 Speaker 1: to get access to that material. Gosh, if only the 93 00:05:40,160 --> 00:05:43,120 Speaker 1: format hadn't gone obsolete, I could learn more about this 94 00:05:43,240 --> 00:05:46,400 Speaker 1: obsolete format, or at least that would be the case. 95 00:05:46,680 --> 00:05:49,560 Speaker 1: We're in not for the fact that YouTube exists, and 96 00:05:50,200 --> 00:05:56,719 Speaker 1: of course people have created YouTube videos of that recorded 97 00:05:56,760 --> 00:06:00,279 Speaker 1: material that was originally only on CED. The channel I 98 00:06:00,360 --> 00:06:04,520 Speaker 1: got access to this material from was the media Hoarder. 99 00:06:04,880 --> 00:06:09,560 Speaker 1: They posted a historical video on YouTube. So RCA actually 100 00:06:09,600 --> 00:06:13,400 Speaker 1: made a video disc or CED for its own employees 101 00:06:13,440 --> 00:06:16,120 Speaker 1: who had worked on the player. So these are people 102 00:06:16,160 --> 00:06:20,240 Speaker 1: within RCA who had dedicated their time and efforts into 103 00:06:20,279 --> 00:06:24,000 Speaker 1: the creation of this technology, and RCA wanted to acknowledge 104 00:06:24,040 --> 00:06:27,360 Speaker 1: them and to say, y'all did amazing work. Even though 105 00:06:27,400 --> 00:06:33,120 Speaker 1: the product ultimately failed in the marketplace, the technological achievements 106 00:06:33,400 --> 00:06:37,719 Speaker 1: were really substantial. And this ced that RCA made for 107 00:06:38,080 --> 00:06:42,800 Speaker 1: RCA employees was titled Memories of Video disc So this 108 00:06:42,960 --> 00:06:44,920 Speaker 1: was already when the format was on the way out, 109 00:06:45,120 --> 00:06:48,120 Speaker 1: and that format only lasted a couple of years after 110 00:06:48,120 --> 00:06:51,000 Speaker 1: being introduced. And I just think that's pretty neat. You 111 00:06:51,000 --> 00:06:53,680 Speaker 1: know that a company would actually spend the resources to 112 00:06:53,920 --> 00:06:56,320 Speaker 1: make a record of the work that folks had done 113 00:06:56,360 --> 00:06:59,200 Speaker 1: on a technology that ultimately was a market failure. Like 114 00:06:59,240 --> 00:07:03,080 Speaker 1: most companies' do that, right, They wouldn't take the time 115 00:07:03,279 --> 00:07:07,120 Speaker 1: and spend the money to create a record of this 116 00:07:07,279 --> 00:07:11,720 Speaker 1: and to say this is an exploration of the work 117 00:07:11,800 --> 00:07:15,200 Speaker 1: and effort and innovation that went into this technology. They 118 00:07:15,240 --> 00:07:17,600 Speaker 1: just wouldn't do it. They would kind of like mark 119 00:07:17,640 --> 00:07:19,600 Speaker 1: it off the books and try to move on as 120 00:07:19,640 --> 00:07:23,280 Speaker 1: fast as possible. But anyway, the story actually begins in 121 00:07:23,320 --> 00:07:26,360 Speaker 1: the nineteen fifties when RCA engineers, led by a guy 122 00:07:26,400 --> 00:07:30,080 Speaker 1: named Thomas Stanley, began to experiment with ways to record 123 00:07:30,160 --> 00:07:35,240 Speaker 1: not just audio, but also video onto grooved discs like 124 00:07:35,600 --> 00:07:38,720 Speaker 1: vinyl record albums. So RCAA had been a really important 125 00:07:38,720 --> 00:07:42,520 Speaker 1: company during the early days of record players. They bought 126 00:07:42,600 --> 00:07:46,760 Speaker 1: the Victor Talking Machine Company and became RCA Victor, so 127 00:07:47,080 --> 00:07:51,320 Speaker 1: that was a massive move, Victor being like the oldest 128 00:07:51,360 --> 00:07:56,640 Speaker 1: company to produce gramophones or phonographs, and RCA even introduced 129 00:07:56,640 --> 00:08:00,520 Speaker 1: a thirty three and a third RPM format before World 130 00:08:00,600 --> 00:08:04,520 Speaker 1: War Two, so RPM being revolutions per minute, most records 131 00:08:04,520 --> 00:08:08,080 Speaker 1: were at seventy eight RPM. It was challenging playing records 132 00:08:08,080 --> 00:08:11,920 Speaker 1: at slower RPMs, which would allow you to fit more 133 00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:15,880 Speaker 1: material per side of a record, but it also meant 134 00:08:15,880 --> 00:08:19,120 Speaker 1: that the quality of the audio played back would often 135 00:08:19,600 --> 00:08:24,680 Speaker 1: take a hit. Right faster RPMs you typically would get 136 00:08:24,800 --> 00:08:29,200 Speaker 1: better audio quality, but you could fit less material per side. 137 00:08:29,640 --> 00:08:33,440 Speaker 1: Slower you could fit more material, but the quality wasn't 138 00:08:33,440 --> 00:08:35,959 Speaker 1: as good. RCA had created a thirty three and a 139 00:08:36,080 --> 00:08:39,880 Speaker 1: third format leading up to World War Two. Actually, I 140 00:08:39,880 --> 00:08:42,360 Speaker 1: think it was around nineteen thirty when they introduced that, 141 00:08:42,880 --> 00:08:45,360 Speaker 1: and this version of thirty three and a third was 142 00:08:45,440 --> 00:08:49,560 Speaker 1: different from the post war format. After the war, you 143 00:08:49,640 --> 00:08:54,080 Speaker 1: had Columbia Records, which introduced micro grooves and allowed for 144 00:08:54,160 --> 00:08:58,200 Speaker 1: the LP or long playing format. So while RCA did 145 00:08:58,200 --> 00:09:01,080 Speaker 1: have a thirty three and a third version, it wasn't 146 00:09:01,080 --> 00:09:04,000 Speaker 1: an LP album. It couldn't fit as much information as 147 00:09:04,000 --> 00:09:08,920 Speaker 1: a microgroove record would later on, but it was still neat. Unfortunately, 148 00:09:09,320 --> 00:09:13,280 Speaker 1: the record players that had a thirty three and a 149 00:09:13,360 --> 00:09:18,120 Speaker 1: third speed available to them were exorbitantly expensive, and it 150 00:09:18,200 --> 00:09:20,520 Speaker 1: was the middle of the Great Depression, and as you 151 00:09:20,600 --> 00:09:24,000 Speaker 1: might imagine, those two factors together meant this particular medium 152 00:09:24,040 --> 00:09:27,880 Speaker 1: didn't get much traction in the market. But RCAA engineers 153 00:09:28,120 --> 00:09:31,959 Speaker 1: were really well acquainted with the concept of encoding information 154 00:09:32,320 --> 00:09:35,440 Speaker 1: within the groove of a rotatable disc and using a 155 00:09:35,480 --> 00:09:39,680 Speaker 1: stylus to pick up that information, convert that information into 156 00:09:39,800 --> 00:09:43,080 Speaker 1: an electric signal, and then amplify that signal so it 157 00:09:43,080 --> 00:09:46,600 Speaker 1: could be played back as audio on an electronic device. 158 00:09:47,040 --> 00:09:50,560 Speaker 1: While RCAA would engage in fierce competition against rivals like 159 00:09:50,600 --> 00:09:53,800 Speaker 1: Columbia Records, giving rise to a format war that ultimately 160 00:09:53,920 --> 00:09:57,040 Speaker 1: ended in a truce, it would also continue to innovate 161 00:09:57,480 --> 00:09:59,959 Speaker 1: with this kind of technology. So by the late night 162 00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:03,640 Speaker 1: teen fifties, the thinking was that if a grooved album 163 00:10:03,960 --> 00:10:07,800 Speaker 1: can hold the information necessary for audio playback. When used 164 00:10:07,800 --> 00:10:11,000 Speaker 1: with the proper turntable and stylus, it could potentially do 165 00:10:11,160 --> 00:10:14,840 Speaker 1: so even for other kinds of information. With a fine 166 00:10:14,960 --> 00:10:19,160 Speaker 1: enough stylus and precise grooves that were of a small 167 00:10:19,280 --> 00:10:23,520 Speaker 1: enough form factor, you could presumably include data that encoded 168 00:10:23,600 --> 00:10:26,520 Speaker 1: not just an audio signal, but a video signal as well. 169 00:10:26,960 --> 00:10:30,200 Speaker 1: Initial work was sporadic, but in nineteen sixty four a 170 00:10:30,240 --> 00:10:34,880 Speaker 1: pair of engineers named Eugene Kaiser and John Clemens tackled 171 00:10:34,880 --> 00:10:40,000 Speaker 1: this problem in earnest But how would you encode the information? 172 00:10:40,440 --> 00:10:44,000 Speaker 1: Physical grooves would need to be incredibly precise, and the 173 00:10:44,040 --> 00:10:49,160 Speaker 1: stylust would have to be unbelievably tiny or fine pointed. 174 00:10:49,920 --> 00:10:52,280 Speaker 1: The folks at RCA came up with the idea of 175 00:10:52,400 --> 00:10:56,880 Speaker 1: using capacitance. So capacitance is the capability of a conductor 176 00:10:56,920 --> 00:11:00,280 Speaker 1: to store an electrical charge, and using a pair of 177 00:11:00,360 --> 00:11:03,800 Speaker 1: such conductors, you can measure the difference of a separated 178 00:11:03,840 --> 00:11:08,160 Speaker 1: electric charge between the two of them, a difference in voltage. 179 00:11:08,160 --> 00:11:12,240 Speaker 1: In other words, lots of variables determine this difference in voltage. 180 00:11:12,280 --> 00:11:15,480 Speaker 1: For example, the plate area of the two capacitors is 181 00:11:15,480 --> 00:11:18,520 Speaker 1: a factor how much overlap is between the two plates 182 00:11:18,600 --> 00:11:21,679 Speaker 1: that affects the difference in voltage between them. So if 183 00:11:21,720 --> 00:11:24,199 Speaker 1: you were to move the plates relative to one another 184 00:11:24,280 --> 00:11:27,960 Speaker 1: to change the amount of overlap, you actually change the 185 00:11:28,040 --> 00:11:32,439 Speaker 1: difference in voltage as well. Another variable is applied voltage, 186 00:11:32,480 --> 00:11:35,439 Speaker 1: So obviously, if you change the voltage that is applied 187 00:11:35,640 --> 00:11:39,280 Speaker 1: to one capacitor, it's going to affect the difference in 188 00:11:39,360 --> 00:11:43,760 Speaker 1: voltage between it and a second capacitor. But another variable 189 00:11:44,040 --> 00:11:47,280 Speaker 1: is distance. If you change the distance between the two 190 00:11:47,440 --> 00:11:51,640 Speaker 1: separated capacitors, they will register a change in voltage. So 191 00:11:51,960 --> 00:11:55,280 Speaker 1: if you keep all other variables constant and the only 192 00:11:55,360 --> 00:11:59,720 Speaker 1: thing you allow to change is the distance between the capacitors, 193 00:11:59,840 --> 00:12:03,200 Speaker 1: you can use that as your encoding mechanism for data. 194 00:12:03,480 --> 00:12:07,080 Speaker 1: And that was the secret to the CED. The disc 195 00:12:07,559 --> 00:12:10,320 Speaker 1: would have a layer of carbon on it. This is 196 00:12:10,520 --> 00:12:14,040 Speaker 1: a conductive material, and inside the grooves of the disc, 197 00:12:14,080 --> 00:12:16,080 Speaker 1: if you could get in there, like the trench of 198 00:12:16,160 --> 00:12:19,200 Speaker 1: the Death Star in Star Wars, you would see that 199 00:12:19,280 --> 00:12:23,400 Speaker 1: the floor of that groove had little peaks and valleys. 200 00:12:23,440 --> 00:12:25,440 Speaker 1: The floor would come up at some points and dip 201 00:12:25,559 --> 00:12:28,920 Speaker 1: down in other points. Now, the stylus on a CED 202 00:12:29,160 --> 00:12:32,959 Speaker 1: player had a titanium electrode tip on it. It was 203 00:12:33,040 --> 00:12:36,760 Speaker 1: usually a diamond tipped stylus with a titanium electrode at 204 00:12:36,800 --> 00:12:39,280 Speaker 1: the very tip. Now, the size of the stylus was 205 00:12:39,320 --> 00:12:42,720 Speaker 1: such that it would fit into a groove, but the 206 00:12:42,760 --> 00:12:46,520 Speaker 1: stylus wasn't so long that it would actually touch the 207 00:12:46,679 --> 00:12:50,840 Speaker 1: floor of the groove. So the tip of the stylus 208 00:12:50,880 --> 00:12:54,560 Speaker 1: is suspended above the groove's floor, and the peaks and 209 00:12:54,640 --> 00:12:57,080 Speaker 1: valleys of the groove meant the floor would change the 210 00:12:57,160 --> 00:13:00,640 Speaker 1: distance between the floor itself and the titanium electrode on 211 00:13:00,679 --> 00:13:05,800 Speaker 1: the tip of that stylus, and that was changing the 212 00:13:05,880 --> 00:13:09,760 Speaker 1: distance between two capacitors, which resulted in a difference in 213 00:13:09,800 --> 00:13:15,120 Speaker 1: the voltage red by the stylus. Ultimately, this would be 214 00:13:15,200 --> 00:13:18,480 Speaker 1: the signal that would be sent to the player, which 215 00:13:18,520 --> 00:13:20,880 Speaker 1: would then decode the signal and send it on to 216 00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:23,600 Speaker 1: a television set, and then you could watch your copy 217 00:13:23,640 --> 00:13:26,800 Speaker 1: of you know, Singing in the Rain or Indiana Jones 218 00:13:26,840 --> 00:13:29,160 Speaker 1: and Raiders of the Lost Arc. I named both of 219 00:13:29,200 --> 00:13:33,560 Speaker 1: those titles because I know they appeared on CED, because 220 00:13:33,600 --> 00:13:37,480 Speaker 1: I have those titles. Those are two of the films 221 00:13:37,559 --> 00:13:40,839 Speaker 1: I actually own on CED, so that's why I chose them. 222 00:13:41,000 --> 00:13:44,000 Speaker 1: I was confident that they exist and This was really 223 00:13:44,120 --> 00:13:47,600 Speaker 1: a brilliant move because switching from physical vibrations. I mean, 224 00:13:47,600 --> 00:13:52,400 Speaker 1: that's how your regular vinyl records work, right. A stylus 225 00:13:52,440 --> 00:13:56,040 Speaker 1: goes through this groove. There are ridges and things cut 226 00:13:56,080 --> 00:14:00,200 Speaker 1: into the groove. The stylus or needle vibrates as it 227 00:14:00,240 --> 00:14:05,440 Speaker 1: travels through this groove. Those vibrations get transformed into an 228 00:14:05,440 --> 00:14:08,560 Speaker 1: electrical signal which then is amplified and sent to speakers 229 00:14:08,800 --> 00:14:11,679 Speaker 1: and played back as audio. You know, that's all physical, 230 00:14:11,920 --> 00:14:16,679 Speaker 1: but by going to capacitance, it allowed for the possibility 231 00:14:16,679 --> 00:14:19,720 Speaker 1: of video because you were able to have much more 232 00:14:20,120 --> 00:14:25,920 Speaker 1: precise encoding in a very dense format. I'll talk more 233 00:14:25,960 --> 00:14:28,840 Speaker 1: about it, but first let's take a quick break to 234 00:14:28,920 --> 00:14:40,920 Speaker 1: thank our sponsors. Before the break, I was talking about 235 00:14:40,920 --> 00:14:46,280 Speaker 1: how capacitance allowed for more data density than a purely 236 00:14:46,640 --> 00:14:50,760 Speaker 1: physical groove that a stylus would travel through and vibrate 237 00:14:50,880 --> 00:14:54,680 Speaker 1: as it moved through. There was no vibration with ced 238 00:14:55,520 --> 00:14:59,120 Speaker 1: stylus like that. Instead, it just traveled through the groove. 239 00:14:59,240 --> 00:15:02,200 Speaker 1: The groove was in a very very tight spiral, and 240 00:15:02,800 --> 00:15:06,200 Speaker 1: the grooves are incredibly small. You need to have a 241 00:15:06,240 --> 00:15:09,239 Speaker 1: microscope to really get a good look at the grooves 242 00:15:09,360 --> 00:15:12,520 Speaker 1: on a CED disc, but they are there, and the 243 00:15:12,560 --> 00:15:16,520 Speaker 1: stylust would travel through this groove and gradually move inward 244 00:15:17,040 --> 00:15:21,480 Speaker 1: as it spiraled in through a really long groove on 245 00:15:21,520 --> 00:15:24,280 Speaker 1: this disc, and it wouldn't vibrate it at all. It 246 00:15:24,280 --> 00:15:27,440 Speaker 1: would just be guided through the groove through the walls 247 00:15:27,480 --> 00:15:29,360 Speaker 1: of it itself, and it'd be the floor of the 248 00:15:29,400 --> 00:15:32,280 Speaker 1: groove and the distance between that and the tip of 249 00:15:32,320 --> 00:15:35,840 Speaker 1: the stylus that would determine the actual information. It became 250 00:15:35,920 --> 00:15:40,680 Speaker 1: possible to put an hour's worth of material onto each 251 00:15:41,040 --> 00:15:43,640 Speaker 1: side of one of these discs, but that didn't happen 252 00:15:43,680 --> 00:15:46,240 Speaker 1: all at once. The early prototypes were limited to a 253 00:15:46,280 --> 00:15:50,000 Speaker 1: few minutes up to half an hour of information per side. 254 00:15:50,360 --> 00:15:54,160 Speaker 1: For much of the early development of the CED, the 255 00:15:54,200 --> 00:15:57,960 Speaker 1: engineers demonstrated that the technology was viable, but it would 256 00:15:58,040 --> 00:16:01,680 Speaker 1: only be a viable product like it was viable from 257 00:16:01,680 --> 00:16:05,240 Speaker 1: a technological perspective, in the sense of it works, right, 258 00:16:05,320 --> 00:16:10,240 Speaker 1: we have demonstrated this technology works. Now. The technology working 259 00:16:10,320 --> 00:16:13,200 Speaker 1: is one thing, but having it work as a product 260 00:16:13,400 --> 00:16:16,160 Speaker 1: is another. You have to be able to demonstrate to 261 00:16:16,240 --> 00:16:19,960 Speaker 1: the customer that there's value, and without being able to 262 00:16:20,040 --> 00:16:23,120 Speaker 1: record more than half an hour per side, the value 263 00:16:23,160 --> 00:16:26,560 Speaker 1: just wasn't there yet, so the engineers were able to say, yes, 264 00:16:26,640 --> 00:16:30,160 Speaker 1: this technology is possible, but we need to make it practical. 265 00:16:30,200 --> 00:16:32,640 Speaker 1: In order to do that, we need to put more 266 00:16:32,680 --> 00:16:37,400 Speaker 1: time in working on this technology, and RCA was willing 267 00:16:37,440 --> 00:16:42,240 Speaker 1: to do that. And even with the final product, it 268 00:16:42,240 --> 00:16:44,480 Speaker 1: would mean that customers would have to flip a disc 269 00:16:44,720 --> 00:16:48,000 Speaker 1: about halfway through your standard two hour film. If a 270 00:16:48,080 --> 00:16:50,880 Speaker 1: film were longer than that, you would actually need multiple discs. 271 00:16:51,280 --> 00:16:53,880 Speaker 1: One other thing I should mention about these discs, RCA 272 00:16:53,960 --> 00:16:57,480 Speaker 1: would not present them as discs to the consumer, Like 273 00:16:57,520 --> 00:17:00,000 Speaker 1: you wouldn't take one out of a sleeve the way 274 00:17:00,040 --> 00:17:02,200 Speaker 1: you would a vinyl album and then put it on 275 00:17:02,280 --> 00:17:05,119 Speaker 1: a spindle and then lift a stylus and put it 276 00:17:05,160 --> 00:17:07,840 Speaker 1: at the edge. That's not how this would work. These 277 00:17:07,880 --> 00:17:11,800 Speaker 1: discs needed more protection than your typical vinyl album does, 278 00:17:12,080 --> 00:17:17,280 Speaker 1: so RCA chose to have them fit inside plastic sleeves. Essentially, 279 00:17:17,359 --> 00:17:20,919 Speaker 1: they were like cartridges. These cartridges were about the size 280 00:17:20,960 --> 00:17:24,560 Speaker 1: of your standard vinyl long playing album sleeve. Like if 281 00:17:24,560 --> 00:17:28,200 Speaker 1: you went out and bought an LP today, the cardboard 282 00:17:28,240 --> 00:17:31,280 Speaker 1: sleeve that it comes in is about the same size 283 00:17:31,880 --> 00:17:35,280 Speaker 1: by dimension as a CED cartridge. Although the cartridge would 284 00:17:35,320 --> 00:17:38,639 Speaker 1: be thicker. The cartridges made the CED media kind of 285 00:17:38,680 --> 00:17:43,800 Speaker 1: like very large, squareish cassettes, but inside was that grooved disc. 286 00:17:44,160 --> 00:17:47,840 Speaker 1: After inserting a CED cartridge into a player, the player 287 00:17:47,880 --> 00:17:51,200 Speaker 1: would extract the disc from the cartridge and the stylus 288 00:17:51,240 --> 00:17:53,160 Speaker 1: would move to the end of the groove. A lot 289 00:17:53,160 --> 00:17:56,239 Speaker 1: of players would then eject the empty cartridge out, and 290 00:17:56,640 --> 00:17:59,159 Speaker 1: you would just remove that from the player while you 291 00:17:59,280 --> 00:18:02,840 Speaker 1: watched the first half of your film. Other players kept 292 00:18:02,840 --> 00:18:06,320 Speaker 1: the cartridge housed inside the player itself, because either way, 293 00:18:06,720 --> 00:18:08,840 Speaker 1: after you got an hour's worth of video in the 294 00:18:08,920 --> 00:18:12,399 Speaker 1: US version or seventy five minutes per side for the 295 00:18:12,520 --> 00:18:15,760 Speaker 1: UK version, then you would need to remove the cartridge 296 00:18:15,960 --> 00:18:18,159 Speaker 1: or replace the empty one into the machine so that 297 00:18:18,200 --> 00:18:20,720 Speaker 1: it could spit the disc back inside of it. Then 298 00:18:20,720 --> 00:18:23,439 Speaker 1: you would flip the cartridge over reinsert it so that 299 00:18:23,480 --> 00:18:25,520 Speaker 1: you could watch the second half of the film and 300 00:18:25,560 --> 00:18:28,080 Speaker 1: then go from there. I actually have memories of having 301 00:18:28,160 --> 00:18:30,320 Speaker 1: to do this with Raiders of the Lost arc So 302 00:18:30,920 --> 00:18:32,919 Speaker 1: keeping in mind, this is a memory that is like 303 00:18:33,400 --> 00:18:36,360 Speaker 1: forty years old at this point, more than that, maybe 304 00:18:36,640 --> 00:18:39,160 Speaker 1: actually probably more than forty years old, but I remember 305 00:18:39,440 --> 00:18:41,680 Speaker 1: that the point where I needed to flip the cartridge 306 00:18:41,720 --> 00:18:43,679 Speaker 1: was right around the same time in the film that 307 00:18:43,840 --> 00:18:47,160 Speaker 1: Sala remarks the bad guys are digging in the wrong place. 308 00:18:47,760 --> 00:18:50,479 Speaker 1: I just remember that being like the key phrase that 309 00:18:50,560 --> 00:18:52,480 Speaker 1: meant in a second, I was gonna have to get 310 00:18:52,480 --> 00:18:55,280 Speaker 1: off my butt and get over to the player and 311 00:18:55,320 --> 00:18:58,040 Speaker 1: physically turn the cartridge over so that I could watch 312 00:18:58,080 --> 00:19:00,280 Speaker 1: the second half of Raiders of the Lost Ark. So 313 00:19:01,119 --> 00:19:03,960 Speaker 1: why did the US version, Why did that one store 314 00:19:04,119 --> 00:19:07,280 Speaker 1: sixty minutes of content per side but the UK managed 315 00:19:07,280 --> 00:19:10,240 Speaker 1: to cram in seventy five minutes per side. Well, that's 316 00:19:10,359 --> 00:19:13,560 Speaker 1: largely because of the different formats of the US and 317 00:19:13,600 --> 00:19:17,240 Speaker 1: the UK for video production and video playback, and how 318 00:19:17,280 --> 00:19:20,280 Speaker 1: that impacted the tech down the line. So in the 319 00:19:20,359 --> 00:19:24,720 Speaker 1: United States we use the NTSC standard for that version 320 00:19:24,720 --> 00:19:27,399 Speaker 1: of video. That standard had a resolution of seven hundred 321 00:19:27,400 --> 00:19:29,480 Speaker 1: and twenty by four hundred and eighty and it had 322 00:19:29,480 --> 00:19:34,040 Speaker 1: a refresh rate of sixty hertz or sixty refreshes per second. 323 00:19:34,480 --> 00:19:39,000 Speaker 1: The UK, however, used pal paal that has a resolution 324 00:19:39,119 --> 00:19:42,520 Speaker 1: of seven twenty by five seventy six, so better resolution 325 00:19:42,800 --> 00:19:45,840 Speaker 1: and a refresh rate of fifty hurtz, so a lower 326 00:19:45,880 --> 00:19:49,040 Speaker 1: refresh rate. Now, this difference in standards meant that the 327 00:19:49,080 --> 00:19:52,119 Speaker 1: tech to play video on US devices is usually not 328 00:19:52,280 --> 00:19:56,320 Speaker 1: compatible with UK media formats unless you have something that 329 00:19:56,359 --> 00:20:00,240 Speaker 1: can switch modes. That persists to this day, where you 330 00:20:00,280 --> 00:20:03,639 Speaker 1: can get different region formats like I don't know if 331 00:20:03,680 --> 00:20:08,000 Speaker 1: you've ever had the experience of ordering, say a DVD online, 332 00:20:08,480 --> 00:20:10,520 Speaker 1: receiving it, and then finding out it doesn't work in 333 00:20:10,560 --> 00:20:14,480 Speaker 1: your machine because it turns out the DVD was designed 334 00:20:14,480 --> 00:20:18,199 Speaker 1: for a different regions format than whatever player you have. 335 00:20:18,320 --> 00:20:20,560 Speaker 1: I've had that happen once or twice. Then I bought 336 00:20:20,560 --> 00:20:23,280 Speaker 1: a region free player, which aren't They aren't very expensive, 337 00:20:23,840 --> 00:20:27,040 Speaker 1: but lets me watch formats that were made in the UK, 338 00:20:27,560 --> 00:20:30,640 Speaker 1: which is great because I love certain UK series that 339 00:20:30,680 --> 00:20:34,480 Speaker 1: are to this day impossible to get in US formats. 340 00:20:34,560 --> 00:20:38,240 Speaker 1: I'm looking at you that, Mitchell and weblook anyway for 341 00:20:38,560 --> 00:20:44,600 Speaker 1: CED players. One way that this difference in formats manifests 342 00:20:45,280 --> 00:20:48,920 Speaker 1: is the speed at which the discs rotate within the 343 00:20:48,960 --> 00:20:52,639 Speaker 1: players themselves. So in the United States, if you were 344 00:20:52,680 --> 00:20:56,800 Speaker 1: able to look inside a CED player while it was running, 345 00:20:56,880 --> 00:20:59,600 Speaker 1: and if you were able to count how many times 346 00:20:59,640 --> 00:21:03,280 Speaker 1: the disc rotated per minute, you would see it's at 347 00:21:03,320 --> 00:21:07,120 Speaker 1: a revolution speed of four hundred and fifty revolutions per minute. 348 00:21:07,160 --> 00:21:10,520 Speaker 1: In the UK it's slower, it's three hundred and seventy 349 00:21:10,560 --> 00:21:13,680 Speaker 1: five revolutions per minute. Now, the size of the discs 350 00:21:13,800 --> 00:21:16,159 Speaker 1: is the same in the UK as it is in 351 00:21:16,160 --> 00:21:20,920 Speaker 1: the United States, but because they turn slightly more slowly 352 00:21:21,200 --> 00:21:24,240 Speaker 1: in the UK, it means you can fit more information 353 00:21:24,720 --> 00:21:27,720 Speaker 1: on a UK disc than you do on a US disc. 354 00:21:28,080 --> 00:21:33,639 Speaker 1: The US finishes about fifteen minutes earlier USA. USA. You except, 355 00:21:33,640 --> 00:21:35,840 Speaker 1: of course, you know, finishing first is not a good 356 00:21:35,840 --> 00:21:38,440 Speaker 1: thing in this particular context. It just means the UK 357 00:21:38,880 --> 00:21:42,240 Speaker 1: can fit more information per side than the United States, 358 00:21:42,720 --> 00:21:46,920 Speaker 1: So not really a benefit in this case. Now I've 359 00:21:46,960 --> 00:21:50,040 Speaker 1: described in a broad sense how these disks and the 360 00:21:50,080 --> 00:21:53,960 Speaker 1: players worked. You've got this variable in capacitance that ultimately 361 00:21:54,040 --> 00:21:57,280 Speaker 1: represents the information of a pre recorded video. But the 362 00:21:57,480 --> 00:22:01,600 Speaker 1: process to get there was incredibly complicated, right, Like I 363 00:22:02,280 --> 00:22:05,639 Speaker 1: kind of flippantly explained how this technology works. But you 364 00:22:05,720 --> 00:22:10,560 Speaker 1: have to remember every decision within RCA was one that 365 00:22:10,760 --> 00:22:15,160 Speaker 1: had to be arrived at through long experimentation and innovation. 366 00:22:15,560 --> 00:22:18,520 Speaker 1: They had to figure out not just to use capacitance, 367 00:22:18,520 --> 00:22:22,119 Speaker 1: but what materials they could use, which ones would be 368 00:22:22,359 --> 00:22:26,120 Speaker 1: ideal for mass production, which ones would work well when 369 00:22:26,200 --> 00:22:29,840 Speaker 1: you start designing the process for mass production, these are 370 00:22:29,880 --> 00:22:32,920 Speaker 1: not simple questions to answer. If you're working with an 371 00:22:33,040 --> 00:22:36,160 Speaker 1: entirely new technology, or at least one that's new enough 372 00:22:36,440 --> 00:22:42,320 Speaker 1: to necessitate big advances in manufacturing processes, that's a huge endeavor. 373 00:22:42,760 --> 00:22:45,760 Speaker 1: And I really want to call that out because I 374 00:22:45,840 --> 00:22:48,440 Speaker 1: just think it's remarkable when you when you think about 375 00:22:48,440 --> 00:22:50,600 Speaker 1: all the pieces that had to come into play for 376 00:22:50,680 --> 00:22:54,280 Speaker 1: this obsolete media format to even become a thing. Yeah, 377 00:22:54,359 --> 00:22:56,639 Speaker 1: we can make it a joke and say, oh, and 378 00:22:56,720 --> 00:23:01,199 Speaker 1: it all came to nothing because the format, But I 379 00:23:01,240 --> 00:23:03,000 Speaker 1: think that's the wrong way to look at it. I 380 00:23:03,040 --> 00:23:06,720 Speaker 1: think the right way is to say the engineers had 381 00:23:07,080 --> 00:23:11,000 Speaker 1: this one particular goal in mind, and they had to 382 00:23:11,080 --> 00:23:15,639 Speaker 1: agonize over all these different decisions that would lead to 383 00:23:15,720 --> 00:23:18,919 Speaker 1: the actual manifestation of that idea, and to me, that 384 00:23:19,000 --> 00:23:22,800 Speaker 1: was just a phenomenal story. Anyway, this is not a 385 00:23:22,840 --> 00:23:26,840 Speaker 1: simple task, right. You might find that one method that 386 00:23:26,920 --> 00:23:30,880 Speaker 1: you are considering works great, like it provides a really 387 00:23:30,920 --> 00:23:35,120 Speaker 1: good video experience. Maybe the video and sound are of 388 00:23:35,560 --> 00:23:38,640 Speaker 1: a quality that makes them superior to some other formats 389 00:23:38,680 --> 00:23:41,480 Speaker 1: that are on the market. However, you might also find 390 00:23:41,480 --> 00:23:46,000 Speaker 1: out that this particular approach is far too costly to 391 00:23:46,440 --> 00:23:48,919 Speaker 1: go into production. That if you were to do that, 392 00:23:49,400 --> 00:23:52,000 Speaker 1: the media player and the media itself would be so 393 00:23:52,160 --> 00:23:55,879 Speaker 1: expensive that no one would ever buy it. So it 394 00:23:55,960 --> 00:23:59,080 Speaker 1: can't just be the technology that you're taking into consideration. 395 00:23:59,240 --> 00:24:02,320 Speaker 1: The market condition end up being a real factor you 396 00:24:02,359 --> 00:24:04,399 Speaker 1: have to consider as well. So they had to figure 397 00:24:04,400 --> 00:24:08,000 Speaker 1: out which processes could be replicated in mass production or 398 00:24:08,760 --> 00:24:12,679 Speaker 1: how much time is spent per unit being built in 399 00:24:12,760 --> 00:24:14,720 Speaker 1: order to make an actual business out of it. It 400 00:24:14,720 --> 00:24:16,600 Speaker 1: wasn't good enough just to figure out something that would 401 00:24:16,600 --> 00:24:18,359 Speaker 1: work on a technical level. It had to be a 402 00:24:18,400 --> 00:24:22,600 Speaker 1: practical consumer product as well. Meanwhile, other companies were busy 403 00:24:22,640 --> 00:24:26,320 Speaker 1: developing different technologies. You know, you had Sony's umatic cassettes 404 00:24:26,359 --> 00:24:28,720 Speaker 1: that I mentioned earlier. Then you had things like Beta 405 00:24:28,800 --> 00:24:34,520 Speaker 1: Max and VHS cassettes from players like from JVC. JVC 406 00:24:34,560 --> 00:24:37,359 Speaker 1: created VHS whereas Sony was behind Beta Max. Then you 407 00:24:37,400 --> 00:24:40,600 Speaker 1: also had Phillips which was working on the laser disc format. 408 00:24:40,800 --> 00:24:43,480 Speaker 1: They had started that work back in the late nineteen sixties, 409 00:24:43,760 --> 00:24:46,080 Speaker 1: so around the same time that RCA was working on 410 00:24:46,119 --> 00:24:49,480 Speaker 1: the video disc. All of these would impact the CED's 411 00:24:49,560 --> 00:24:52,640 Speaker 1: performance in the market, and that was beyond RCA's control. 412 00:24:52,880 --> 00:24:55,359 Speaker 1: I mean, the company could have made the decision to 413 00:24:55,440 --> 00:24:58,520 Speaker 1: pull the plug after looking at the competing formats on 414 00:24:58,560 --> 00:25:01,840 Speaker 1: the market. That was a thing they could consider, but 415 00:25:01,920 --> 00:25:06,399 Speaker 1: you know, they were already working with the constraints that 416 00:25:06,480 --> 00:25:09,560 Speaker 1: they had for just developing the technology in the first place, 417 00:25:09,960 --> 00:25:12,600 Speaker 1: and that was really the focus of the company. But 418 00:25:12,720 --> 00:25:16,760 Speaker 1: complicating matters at RCA were conditions that were outside the 419 00:25:16,760 --> 00:25:19,000 Speaker 1: control of any engineer who was working in the R 420 00:25:19,000 --> 00:25:22,359 Speaker 1: and D lab because you had a changing of management 421 00:25:22,400 --> 00:25:25,800 Speaker 1: that would impact the project itself and delay it by 422 00:25:25,840 --> 00:25:28,440 Speaker 1: a couple of years. Now, if any of y'all out 423 00:25:28,480 --> 00:25:31,800 Speaker 1: there have worked at a place where leadership has undergone 424 00:25:31,800 --> 00:25:35,520 Speaker 1: a pretty massive change, you can probably guess the sequence 425 00:25:35,560 --> 00:25:38,560 Speaker 1: of events. I'm not saying it's a universal law, but 426 00:25:38,760 --> 00:25:40,960 Speaker 1: at least in my own experience, and I get it 427 00:25:40,960 --> 00:25:44,560 Speaker 1: it's anecdotal, that's not evidence. But in my experience, when 428 00:25:44,640 --> 00:25:48,000 Speaker 1: one set of leaders leaves and a new set tends 429 00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:51,280 Speaker 1: to come in, something that frequently happens is the new 430 00:25:51,359 --> 00:25:53,879 Speaker 1: set of leaders will often want to make their mark 431 00:25:53,960 --> 00:25:58,560 Speaker 1: on the company, and often that also includes halting work 432 00:25:58,760 --> 00:26:03,399 Speaker 1: on pre existing essentially wiping those projects out all in 433 00:26:03,440 --> 00:26:06,439 Speaker 1: favor of doing something new that they are able to 434 00:26:06,520 --> 00:26:09,000 Speaker 1: sign their names to and say this was my baby 435 00:26:09,400 --> 00:26:13,440 Speaker 1: from beginning to end. That almost happened with RCA's video 436 00:26:13,520 --> 00:26:17,199 Speaker 1: disc project. So that's going to require us to do 437 00:26:17,400 --> 00:26:20,840 Speaker 1: a quick corporate history lesson. I covered this in much 438 00:26:20,880 --> 00:26:25,800 Speaker 1: more detail in that sequence of episodes about RCA, but 439 00:26:26,040 --> 00:26:29,240 Speaker 1: when we come back, I'll give a very quick version 440 00:26:29,520 --> 00:26:33,280 Speaker 1: of what was going on in leadership that would put 441 00:26:33,280 --> 00:26:36,919 Speaker 1: the video disc project into a kind of limbo for 442 00:26:37,000 --> 00:26:40,240 Speaker 1: a couple of years. Now. In some ways that limbo 443 00:26:40,480 --> 00:26:43,240 Speaker 1: is arguably a good thing because it gave the R 444 00:26:43,280 --> 00:26:45,959 Speaker 1: and D team more time to refine the product. In 445 00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:48,160 Speaker 1: other ways, it was a bad thing because it allowed 446 00:26:48,560 --> 00:26:52,760 Speaker 1: competing formats on the market to further establish themselves. But 447 00:26:52,800 --> 00:26:55,960 Speaker 1: we'll talk more about that once we come back from 448 00:26:56,040 --> 00:27:08,520 Speaker 1: this next quick break to think our sponsors. Okay, let's 449 00:27:08,640 --> 00:27:12,760 Speaker 1: get in a quick history lesson of the Radio Corporation 450 00:27:12,840 --> 00:27:15,760 Speaker 1: of America. So this company formed out of a time 451 00:27:15,800 --> 00:27:18,639 Speaker 1: when the United States had seized the assets of the 452 00:27:18,680 --> 00:27:26,399 Speaker 1: American Marconi Company. So American Marconi operated some radio broadcast stations, 453 00:27:26,560 --> 00:27:30,560 Speaker 1: not even stations centers like that was for wireless telegraphy. Essentially, 454 00:27:30,640 --> 00:27:33,760 Speaker 1: we weren't yet at the time where you're talking about 455 00:27:33,840 --> 00:27:39,760 Speaker 1: radio broadcast, but American Marconi owned and operated several such 456 00:27:39,920 --> 00:27:43,760 Speaker 1: transmission stations in the United States. The problem was the 457 00:27:43,800 --> 00:27:49,879 Speaker 1: American Marconi Company's parent company, Marconi, was headquartered in the UK, 458 00:27:50,520 --> 00:27:54,159 Speaker 1: so it was a foreign owned company. Now this is 459 00:27:54,440 --> 00:27:57,520 Speaker 1: getting into World War One, and once the United States 460 00:27:57,520 --> 00:28:00,719 Speaker 1: gets into World War One, the military decided that it 461 00:28:00,760 --> 00:28:05,119 Speaker 1: really needed control of radio telegraphy services as part of 462 00:28:05,160 --> 00:28:08,440 Speaker 1: the war effort. And the initial plan was that once 463 00:28:08,480 --> 00:28:12,359 Speaker 1: the war was over, the military, specifically the US Navy, 464 00:28:12,560 --> 00:28:16,760 Speaker 1: would return assets to the rightful owners who owned those 465 00:28:16,800 --> 00:28:21,119 Speaker 1: assets before the war. Except that did not happen because 466 00:28:21,119 --> 00:28:24,919 Speaker 1: the US Navy orchestrated a handoff of those assets to 467 00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:29,800 Speaker 1: a brand new all American entity RCA, and RCA would 468 00:28:29,840 --> 00:28:33,960 Speaker 1: be designated to control those assets. The idea being that 469 00:28:34,240 --> 00:28:38,600 Speaker 1: for something as fundamental as radio communication, you do not 470 00:28:38,800 --> 00:28:41,680 Speaker 1: want a foreign company to be in charge of that. 471 00:28:42,320 --> 00:28:47,200 Speaker 1: So how do you ensure that an American entity controls it? Well, first, 472 00:28:47,240 --> 00:28:49,440 Speaker 1: the US Navy tried to do it themselves, but the 473 00:28:49,560 --> 00:28:53,360 Speaker 1: US government said, no, that's not cool. You can't just 474 00:28:53,440 --> 00:28:56,280 Speaker 1: do a power grab like that. So then the Navy said, fine, 475 00:28:56,400 --> 00:29:00,959 Speaker 1: we'll make a brand new company that will ex specifically 476 00:29:01,040 --> 00:29:03,880 Speaker 1: to control these assets and will essentially be a monopoly, 477 00:29:04,400 --> 00:29:08,760 Speaker 1: and RCA was the product. RCA, in turn, was initially 478 00:29:08,880 --> 00:29:12,640 Speaker 1: actually owned and operated by a partnership formed between multiple 479 00:29:12,640 --> 00:29:18,160 Speaker 1: companies that included AT and T, General Electric, Westinghouse, and 480 00:29:18,680 --> 00:29:22,920 Speaker 1: this might surprise you, the United Fruit Company really anyway, 481 00:29:23,280 --> 00:29:27,920 Speaker 1: one early leader of RCA was a guy named David 482 00:29:28,040 --> 00:29:32,600 Speaker 1: Sarnoff who had worked at Marconi before all of that 483 00:29:32,960 --> 00:29:37,040 Speaker 1: changed everything. Now, to call Sarnoff a shrewd and ambitious 484 00:29:37,080 --> 00:29:42,280 Speaker 1: businessman is an understatement. He was like a phenomenon. He 485 00:29:42,360 --> 00:29:45,480 Speaker 1: took a lot of really big risks. He predicted a 486 00:29:45,480 --> 00:29:48,920 Speaker 1: lot of stuff, like he was pushing for radio broadcast 487 00:29:49,280 --> 00:29:53,000 Speaker 1: before anyone was even willing to consider it seriously. But 488 00:29:53,080 --> 00:29:57,840 Speaker 1: he saw the potential for radio broadcast and how huge 489 00:29:57,840 --> 00:30:02,080 Speaker 1: a market that could be, and most everyone else dismissed 490 00:30:02,080 --> 00:30:04,719 Speaker 1: his ideas they thought them too risky. But once he 491 00:30:04,760 --> 00:30:07,840 Speaker 1: was in charge of RCA, Oo boy, he went like 492 00:30:08,000 --> 00:30:11,320 Speaker 1: gangbusters and he proved that he was right. And that 493 00:30:11,640 --> 00:30:14,600 Speaker 1: regard I'm not saying Sarnoff was the best person in 494 00:30:14,680 --> 00:30:18,960 Speaker 1: all regards, but he was certainly incredibly prescient when it 495 00:30:19,000 --> 00:30:22,600 Speaker 1: came to the importance of radio communications. He led RCA 496 00:30:22,640 --> 00:30:26,440 Speaker 1: as president of the company until nineteen sixty five. At 497 00:30:26,440 --> 00:30:30,400 Speaker 1: that point his son, Robert Saranoff took over. David would 498 00:30:30,440 --> 00:30:34,040 Speaker 1: actually remain the CEO of RCA until nineteen sixty seven, 499 00:30:34,120 --> 00:30:36,800 Speaker 1: when he would retire from that. He remained chairman of 500 00:30:36,840 --> 00:30:40,240 Speaker 1: the board until nineteen seventy, and his son would take 501 00:30:40,280 --> 00:30:44,480 Speaker 1: over those positions as well. Interestingly, Robert Sarnoff did not 502 00:30:44,600 --> 00:30:47,920 Speaker 1: initially want to work at RCA. He wanted to make 503 00:30:47,960 --> 00:30:50,440 Speaker 1: a name for himself elsewhere, but he did ultimately come 504 00:30:50,480 --> 00:30:54,720 Speaker 1: over through the venue of NBC, which RCA owned. You 505 00:30:54,760 --> 00:30:57,880 Speaker 1: can learn more about that in those RCA episodes. So 506 00:30:58,160 --> 00:31:01,320 Speaker 1: Robert Saranoff took over the reigns of RCA, and like 507 00:31:01,360 --> 00:31:04,440 Speaker 1: his father, he also believed in taking risks and investing 508 00:31:04,440 --> 00:31:08,960 Speaker 1: in innovation. However, his time as leader was somewhat tumultuous. 509 00:31:09,280 --> 00:31:14,080 Speaker 1: RCA saw decline in its revenues. It also included a 510 00:31:14,120 --> 00:31:17,880 Speaker 1: controversial decision to sell off a computer division and did 511 00:31:17,920 --> 00:31:20,880 Speaker 1: so at a huge loss, and ultimately the board of 512 00:31:20,920 --> 00:31:26,120 Speaker 1: directors became disenchanted with Robert Sarnoff, and in nineteen seventy 513 00:31:26,160 --> 00:31:29,400 Speaker 1: five they decided to force him to step down as 514 00:31:29,520 --> 00:31:33,440 Speaker 1: leader of RCA. So he didn't have any real options here. 515 00:31:33,480 --> 00:31:37,240 Speaker 1: He had to step down, and in his place stepped 516 00:31:37,280 --> 00:31:41,240 Speaker 1: in a guy named Anthony Conrad. Now, Conrad did not 517 00:31:42,080 --> 00:31:45,560 Speaker 1: do the stereotypical move of let me wipe out everything 518 00:31:45,600 --> 00:31:48,880 Speaker 1: my predecessor worked on, which was good because at this 519 00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:51,800 Speaker 1: point at least good for the videos division, because the 520 00:31:51,920 --> 00:31:54,920 Speaker 1: video disc was already in development by the mid nineteen seventies. 521 00:31:54,920 --> 00:31:57,160 Speaker 1: In fact, it was getting close to a time when 522 00:31:57,440 --> 00:32:00,800 Speaker 1: it was planned to be released to the market. Anthony 523 00:32:00,840 --> 00:32:06,760 Speaker 1: Conrad continued to support the video disc operation. However, Conrad 524 00:32:06,840 --> 00:32:09,600 Speaker 1: himself was not going to last very long in this 525 00:32:09,720 --> 00:32:13,040 Speaker 1: position because the issue with Old Tony was while he 526 00:32:13,160 --> 00:32:16,360 Speaker 1: was able to turn things around for RCA and start 527 00:32:16,440 --> 00:32:21,200 Speaker 1: to improve the numbers that the board had blamed Robert 528 00:32:21,240 --> 00:32:25,720 Speaker 1: Sarnoff for, he was also boosting his own value because 529 00:32:25,760 --> 00:32:28,320 Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy six, just a year after he took 530 00:32:28,320 --> 00:32:31,480 Speaker 1: control of RCA, he had a pretty massive problem on 531 00:32:31,560 --> 00:32:34,840 Speaker 1: his hands. The Internal Revenue Service, the good old IRS, 532 00:32:34,920 --> 00:32:37,680 Speaker 1: was curious as to why mister Conrad had neglected to 533 00:32:37,760 --> 00:32:41,960 Speaker 1: file taxes for five years in a row, and rather 534 00:32:42,000 --> 00:32:45,840 Speaker 1: than explain himself to the board of directors, he abruptly 535 00:32:45,880 --> 00:32:49,520 Speaker 1: stepped down as the leader of RCA. So the new 536 00:32:49,880 --> 00:32:53,280 Speaker 1: leader would be a guy named Edgar Griffiths, and this 537 00:32:53,320 --> 00:32:57,560 Speaker 1: is where video Disc's luck ran out on the corporate side. 538 00:32:57,840 --> 00:33:00,840 Speaker 1: So again, the hope was to release the technology by 539 00:33:00,880 --> 00:33:04,080 Speaker 1: the mid to late nineteen seventies, but Griffiths didn't see 540 00:33:04,120 --> 00:33:08,480 Speaker 1: the benefit of the videodisc slash ced system and he 541 00:33:08,640 --> 00:33:13,560 Speaker 1: slashed the budget drastically. It all but canceled the project. 542 00:33:13,840 --> 00:33:17,040 Speaker 1: It did allow for continuation in R and D, but 543 00:33:17,440 --> 00:33:22,440 Speaker 1: all production plans were scrapped, so videodisc was kind of 544 00:33:22,480 --> 00:33:25,400 Speaker 1: in a limbo. I mean, the engineers were able to 545 00:33:25,440 --> 00:33:29,560 Speaker 1: continue to refine the technology, but it wasn't slated to 546 00:33:29,600 --> 00:33:33,640 Speaker 1: become a product. In late nineteen seventy eight, Fortune magazine 547 00:33:33,720 --> 00:33:36,920 Speaker 1: ran a piece about Griffiths, and the majority of the 548 00:33:36,920 --> 00:33:41,160 Speaker 1: piece was actually fairly complementary to griffs and his era 549 00:33:41,280 --> 00:33:44,360 Speaker 1: of leadership, especially in the wake of Conrad having to 550 00:33:44,440 --> 00:33:48,479 Speaker 1: step down suddenly, But the magazine seemed to suggest that 551 00:33:48,560 --> 00:33:51,239 Speaker 1: he was not a risk taker that he was, you know, 552 00:33:51,640 --> 00:33:54,640 Speaker 1: he was someone you could depend upon for stability, but 553 00:33:54,680 --> 00:33:56,520 Speaker 1: he wasn't going to take the company into new and 554 00:33:56,560 --> 00:34:00,600 Speaker 1: interesting places because he just was averse to risk. Now, 555 00:34:00,600 --> 00:34:04,120 Speaker 1: whether that's burred Griffiths to reverse course on the video 556 00:34:04,160 --> 00:34:07,960 Speaker 1: disc project or not, I don't know, but he did 557 00:34:07,960 --> 00:34:10,839 Speaker 1: approve the project once more, and things started moving toward 558 00:34:10,920 --> 00:34:13,760 Speaker 1: the development and production of a consumer video disc player 559 00:34:13,960 --> 00:34:18,879 Speaker 1: and the production of pre recorded media on CED discs. Now, 560 00:34:18,920 --> 00:34:21,480 Speaker 1: that delay might have been the best thing for the 561 00:34:21,560 --> 00:34:25,719 Speaker 1: video disc project internally, if I'm being honest, because the 562 00:34:25,800 --> 00:34:28,040 Speaker 1: version of the video disc in the mid nineteen seventies 563 00:34:28,120 --> 00:34:31,120 Speaker 1: was far more primitive than what would ultimately get released 564 00:34:31,160 --> 00:34:34,759 Speaker 1: to the public. The nineteen seventies era were discs that 565 00:34:34,840 --> 00:34:37,200 Speaker 1: were limited to a holding about a half hour worth 566 00:34:37,239 --> 00:34:40,040 Speaker 1: of content per side of the disc, and that would 567 00:34:40,080 --> 00:34:42,960 Speaker 1: mean that you would need multiple discs for your average film. 568 00:34:43,239 --> 00:34:45,440 Speaker 1: You would have to swap out. You wouldn't just flip 569 00:34:45,480 --> 00:34:48,080 Speaker 1: discs over, You'd have to swap discs out entirely in 570 00:34:48,160 --> 00:34:50,719 Speaker 1: order to watch a whole movie. Also, the materials that 571 00:34:50,760 --> 00:34:53,799 Speaker 1: they were using were having some issues with stuff like corrosion, 572 00:34:53,880 --> 00:34:56,879 Speaker 1: so they needed to develop different materials that could also 573 00:34:56,920 --> 00:35:00,480 Speaker 1: be mass produced that would be more corrosion resistant, so 574 00:35:00,840 --> 00:35:04,520 Speaker 1: the delay gave engineers time to refine their approach, switch 575 00:35:04,600 --> 00:35:08,719 Speaker 1: to different materials, moved to a diamond tipped stylist. They 576 00:35:08,760 --> 00:35:11,680 Speaker 1: originally were using like an emerald tip stylist I think, 577 00:35:11,960 --> 00:35:16,600 Speaker 1: which worked but had less longevity to it. The diamond 578 00:35:16,600 --> 00:35:20,200 Speaker 1: tip stylist was even smaller than previous versions. It meant 579 00:35:20,200 --> 00:35:22,600 Speaker 1: that they could make even smaller grooves, which meant they 580 00:35:22,600 --> 00:35:26,239 Speaker 1: could pack more information per side of a disc. That's 581 00:35:26,239 --> 00:35:29,880 Speaker 1: what effectively doubled how much info they could pack into 582 00:35:29,960 --> 00:35:33,760 Speaker 1: a side, and all that work, the engineering that creating 583 00:35:33,800 --> 00:35:37,880 Speaker 1: new plastic injection molding processes, all of that allowed for 584 00:35:37,920 --> 00:35:41,680 Speaker 1: the production of discs with grooves far, far, far smaller 585 00:35:41,719 --> 00:35:44,320 Speaker 1: than what you would have with an audio vinyl album. 586 00:35:44,520 --> 00:35:46,640 Speaker 1: Like I said, you need a microscope to really get 587 00:35:46,640 --> 00:35:48,680 Speaker 1: a good look at them. It also allowed for the 588 00:35:48,719 --> 00:35:52,319 Speaker 1: development of the cartridge system to protect those discs, as 589 00:35:52,360 --> 00:35:55,040 Speaker 1: well as players that could accept the format. And all 590 00:35:55,080 --> 00:35:57,200 Speaker 1: of that came to a point when in early nineteen 591 00:35:57,239 --> 00:35:59,800 Speaker 1: eighty one, the video disc player was ready for the 592 00:35:59,880 --> 00:36:03,360 Speaker 1: US market, and it wouldn't launch in the UK until 593 00:36:03,400 --> 00:36:07,000 Speaker 1: two years later in nineteen eighty three. Now, RCA's original 594 00:36:07,360 --> 00:36:12,160 Speaker 1: CED player, the SFT one hundred select A Vision Video 595 00:36:12,239 --> 00:36:15,280 Speaker 1: Disc Player. It launched at four hundred ninety nine dollars 596 00:36:15,320 --> 00:36:18,560 Speaker 1: and ninety five cents in nineteen eighty one. Now, if 597 00:36:18,560 --> 00:36:21,880 Speaker 1: we adjust for inflation, that would be close to one thousand, 598 00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:24,520 Speaker 1: seven hundred and seventy five bucks today, which is big 599 00:36:24,520 --> 00:36:28,320 Speaker 1: old yauza. That is expensive. And again, you could not 600 00:36:28,520 --> 00:36:32,320 Speaker 1: record media to the discs. You could only purchase pre 601 00:36:32,360 --> 00:36:35,359 Speaker 1: recorded media, and those were mostly films, but there were 602 00:36:35,360 --> 00:36:39,440 Speaker 1: also other things like collections of cartoons and short documentaries 603 00:36:39,440 --> 00:36:42,120 Speaker 1: and that kind of stuff. The actual discs sold for 604 00:36:42,200 --> 00:36:45,080 Speaker 1: between fourteen dollars ninety eight cents. That was largely for 605 00:36:45,080 --> 00:36:47,480 Speaker 1: the stuff like the cartoons and things, up to thirty 606 00:36:47,560 --> 00:36:51,360 Speaker 1: nine dollars ninety eight cents for the more deluxe multidisc sets, 607 00:36:51,560 --> 00:36:55,720 Speaker 1: but most fell around twenty dollars. Again, if we adjust 608 00:36:55,760 --> 00:36:59,160 Speaker 1: for inflation, that ranges out to around fifty three dollars 609 00:36:59,200 --> 00:37:01,040 Speaker 1: on the low end up to one hundred and forty 610 00:37:01,040 --> 00:37:03,680 Speaker 1: two dollars on the upper end. So pretty expensive to 611 00:37:03,760 --> 00:37:06,960 Speaker 1: buy a single piece of media. But keep in mind 612 00:37:06,960 --> 00:37:11,160 Speaker 1: that at this point RCA had invested hundreds of millions 613 00:37:11,160 --> 00:37:17,080 Speaker 1: of dollars to develop and then produce the videodisc format. 614 00:37:17,520 --> 00:37:21,840 Speaker 1: The price also reflected the planned longevity of the technology itself, 615 00:37:21,880 --> 00:37:26,200 Speaker 1: so discs had a layer of this silicon based lubricant 616 00:37:26,280 --> 00:37:29,040 Speaker 1: on them that was there in order to reduce wear 617 00:37:29,080 --> 00:37:32,600 Speaker 1: and tear on the stylus inside the CD player and 618 00:37:32,640 --> 00:37:36,640 Speaker 1: to extend the stylus's useful lifespan. The estimate that RCA 619 00:37:36,800 --> 00:37:39,879 Speaker 1: gave was that a stylus would last for around one 620 00:37:39,960 --> 00:37:44,040 Speaker 1: thousand hours of play, and that your average disc could 621 00:37:44,080 --> 00:37:47,040 Speaker 1: be played around five hundred times before it would need 622 00:37:47,080 --> 00:37:50,680 Speaker 1: to be replaced. And most folks, even hardcore fans, aren't 623 00:37:50,680 --> 00:37:53,640 Speaker 1: going to watch the same title five hundred times, unless 624 00:37:53,640 --> 00:37:56,680 Speaker 1: we're talking about like the Rocky Horror Picture Show and 625 00:37:56,680 --> 00:37:59,360 Speaker 1: you've got a standing engagement every Friday at midnight. But 626 00:37:59,440 --> 00:38:03,640 Speaker 1: even then we're talking like ten years of playback. Still, 627 00:38:03,960 --> 00:38:07,440 Speaker 1: RCA's technology, while impressive, was largely laughed at when the 628 00:38:07,520 --> 00:38:11,680 Speaker 1: video disc finally debuted. The Beta MAX and VHS formats 629 00:38:11,680 --> 00:38:15,080 Speaker 1: had emerged in the nineteen seventies. They allowed not only 630 00:38:15,200 --> 00:38:19,040 Speaker 1: for the ability for consumers to buy pre recorded films 631 00:38:19,080 --> 00:38:21,239 Speaker 1: and TV series and that kind of stuff, but also 632 00:38:21,680 --> 00:38:25,279 Speaker 1: record stuff themselves directly off the TV. You could buy 633 00:38:25,280 --> 00:38:28,840 Speaker 1: a blank cassette and just record whatever you wanted, Plus 634 00:38:29,000 --> 00:38:31,560 Speaker 1: you didn't have to flip the cassette over halfway through 635 00:38:31,640 --> 00:38:34,640 Speaker 1: watching something. The cassette formats could hold enough video for 636 00:38:34,800 --> 00:38:37,720 Speaker 1: a full film, or much more if you were willing 637 00:38:37,760 --> 00:38:40,759 Speaker 1: to sacrifice fidelity in the process, because you could set 638 00:38:40,800 --> 00:38:43,719 Speaker 1: the tape to record at a slower setting, and that 639 00:38:43,760 --> 00:38:47,520 Speaker 1: would extend how much media you could fit per cassette, 640 00:38:47,600 --> 00:38:50,400 Speaker 1: but it would mean that the quality of the recorded 641 00:38:50,400 --> 00:38:54,040 Speaker 1: footage could take a bit of a hit in the process. 642 00:38:54,440 --> 00:38:58,000 Speaker 1: In addition, Phillips had released the laser disc player back 643 00:38:58,040 --> 00:39:01,160 Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy eight, three fully before the video disc 644 00:39:01,200 --> 00:39:04,239 Speaker 1: would come out. The laser disc, as the name implies, 645 00:39:04,520 --> 00:39:08,879 Speaker 1: used a laser to read information off of a disc. Now, 646 00:39:08,960 --> 00:39:12,560 Speaker 1: unlike CDs, DVDs, and Blu ray discs, which all use 647 00:39:12,840 --> 00:39:16,680 Speaker 1: sequences of pits that are very tiny, like again you 648 00:39:16,719 --> 00:39:19,600 Speaker 1: need a microscope to see them, but these pits indicate 649 00:39:19,880 --> 00:39:23,200 Speaker 1: binary bits of information. They are zeros and ones. Well, 650 00:39:23,239 --> 00:39:28,120 Speaker 1: the laser disc is actually an analog format, whereas CDs, DVDs, 651 00:39:28,120 --> 00:39:31,480 Speaker 1: and Blu rays are all purely digital formats. The laser 652 00:39:31,480 --> 00:39:35,680 Speaker 1: disc also used pits, but the spacing between those pits 653 00:39:35,719 --> 00:39:39,560 Speaker 1: and the length of the pits themselves represented analog information, 654 00:39:40,160 --> 00:39:43,560 Speaker 1: not binary zeros and ones. So while the laser disc 655 00:39:43,640 --> 00:39:48,440 Speaker 1: format resembled the binary based optical formats of CDs and later, 656 00:39:48,920 --> 00:39:52,640 Speaker 1: the actual method of encoding and decoding the information was 657 00:39:52,760 --> 00:39:56,680 Speaker 1: totally different. It was more akin to what you would 658 00:39:56,719 --> 00:39:59,840 Speaker 1: find in an analog vinyl record. Laser discs had so 659 00:40:00,080 --> 00:40:03,640 Speaker 1: more limitations to ced systems. Depending on the format of 660 00:40:03,680 --> 00:40:06,160 Speaker 1: the laser disc in question, it could hold up to 661 00:40:06,320 --> 00:40:10,440 Speaker 1: an hour of material per side, so in an older 662 00:40:10,560 --> 00:40:13,520 Speaker 1: laser disc player, you would have to physically flip the 663 00:40:13,600 --> 00:40:17,479 Speaker 1: laser disc over halfway through playing. Now, later players would 664 00:40:17,480 --> 00:40:21,640 Speaker 1: actually introduce double sided play features in the players themselves. 665 00:40:21,920 --> 00:40:26,480 Speaker 1: The reading mechanism inside the player would physically move from 666 00:40:26,560 --> 00:40:29,080 Speaker 1: one side to the other side of the disc, which 667 00:40:29,120 --> 00:40:30,960 Speaker 1: would save you the effort of having to get up 668 00:40:31,000 --> 00:40:33,680 Speaker 1: halfway through the movie. But it's still been an interruption 669 00:40:33,760 --> 00:40:37,239 Speaker 1: in your viewing experience unless whatever you watched was just 670 00:40:37,280 --> 00:40:41,160 Speaker 1: an hour long or shorter. But laser disc could also 671 00:40:41,239 --> 00:40:44,759 Speaker 1: show a higher resolution image than video disc could, so 672 00:40:44,840 --> 00:40:47,719 Speaker 1: laser disc had a horizontal resolution of four hundred and 673 00:40:47,719 --> 00:40:52,080 Speaker 1: twenty five lines for NTSC based players and four forty 674 00:40:52,239 --> 00:40:56,600 Speaker 1: for PAL based players. VHS resolution was at two hundred 675 00:40:56,640 --> 00:41:01,040 Speaker 1: and forty lines for NTSC at least initially. While RCA 676 00:41:01,160 --> 00:41:06,000 Speaker 1: didn't release actual resolution information about their format, the bandwidth 677 00:41:06,080 --> 00:41:09,279 Speaker 1: on disc translates to around the same resolution as a 678 00:41:09,400 --> 00:41:12,080 Speaker 1: VHS tape, so in the neighborhood of two hundred and 679 00:41:12,080 --> 00:41:16,080 Speaker 1: forty horizontal lines, again as opposed to the four hundred 680 00:41:16,080 --> 00:41:20,040 Speaker 1: and twenty five of LaserDisc. So yeah, CED resolution was 681 00:41:20,040 --> 00:41:24,440 Speaker 1: not spectacular. Now, despite lagging in the technical stats, some 682 00:41:24,680 --> 00:41:28,920 Speaker 1: video disk enthusiasts felt their chosen format was actually superior 683 00:41:29,400 --> 00:41:32,799 Speaker 1: to laser disc, largely because RCA was known for doing 684 00:41:32,840 --> 00:41:37,040 Speaker 1: a really good job at producing masters, that meaning the 685 00:41:37,200 --> 00:41:41,720 Speaker 1: master copies of movies from which all other subsequent copies 686 00:41:41,760 --> 00:41:45,160 Speaker 1: are made. So if you're copying a bad copy, then 687 00:41:45,160 --> 00:41:47,359 Speaker 1: it doesn't matter how good your player is, right, it's 688 00:41:47,400 --> 00:41:49,120 Speaker 1: just going to be the quality is going to be 689 00:41:49,160 --> 00:41:51,560 Speaker 1: as good as the copy is and know better. So 690 00:41:52,040 --> 00:41:55,360 Speaker 1: the argument that video disc enthusiasts made was that RCA 691 00:41:55,560 --> 00:41:59,920 Speaker 1: was just really good at creating very clean master copies. 692 00:42:00,520 --> 00:42:05,640 Speaker 1: So even though technically the video disc player could not 693 00:42:06,120 --> 00:42:11,120 Speaker 1: compete with LaserDisc from a resolution standpoint. In actual use, 694 00:42:11,160 --> 00:42:13,640 Speaker 1: you would get a better experience. That was the argument 695 00:42:13,680 --> 00:42:16,520 Speaker 1: they made. I don't know how valid it is now. 696 00:42:16,600 --> 00:42:19,160 Speaker 1: Other companies would also make their own video disc players. 697 00:42:19,200 --> 00:42:22,879 Speaker 1: They licensed the technology from RCA and released them under 698 00:42:22,920 --> 00:42:26,719 Speaker 1: their own brands. So, for example, the player I own 699 00:42:27,040 --> 00:42:31,279 Speaker 1: is actually branded by Sears. Sears didn't make it, but 700 00:42:31,360 --> 00:42:34,000 Speaker 1: they did apply their brand to it. Do you remember 701 00:42:34,040 --> 00:42:37,320 Speaker 1: Sears Some of you probably do anyway, Yeah, my player 702 00:42:37,400 --> 00:42:41,439 Speaker 1: is a Sears ced video disc player. Other companies also 703 00:42:41,480 --> 00:42:44,040 Speaker 1: made their own versions for a couple of years anyway, 704 00:42:44,440 --> 00:42:47,640 Speaker 1: But unfortunately, the video disc was up against really stiff 705 00:42:47,680 --> 00:42:52,640 Speaker 1: competition and it just couldn't compete the convenience of VHS and, 706 00:42:52,719 --> 00:42:56,080 Speaker 1: to a lesser extent, Beta Max the higher fidelity of 707 00:42:56,160 --> 00:42:59,320 Speaker 1: laser disc. They all meant that customers did not flock 708 00:42:59,480 --> 00:43:02,279 Speaker 1: to the video disc format, and at the end of 709 00:43:02,360 --> 00:43:05,759 Speaker 1: the first year of production, RCA had sold around one 710 00:43:05,800 --> 00:43:08,600 Speaker 1: hundred thousand units. That was a problem because the company 711 00:43:08,640 --> 00:43:12,960 Speaker 1: had estimated sales twice that number, which is a big oldoof. 712 00:43:13,320 --> 00:43:17,240 Speaker 1: The VCR was the main reason that the video disc 713 00:43:17,400 --> 00:43:20,640 Speaker 1: player floundered. Folks could purchase a device that would let 714 00:43:20,640 --> 00:43:24,520 Speaker 1: them play back pre recorded movies or actually record stuff 715 00:43:24,560 --> 00:43:26,760 Speaker 1: of their own, and it cost around the same amount 716 00:43:26,920 --> 00:43:30,200 Speaker 1: as a videodisc machine would. So the video disc was 717 00:43:30,200 --> 00:43:33,160 Speaker 1: not able to record, you know, material, I mentioned that 718 00:43:33,239 --> 00:43:36,360 Speaker 1: already you could only buy the pre recorded stuff. Plus 719 00:43:36,719 --> 00:43:38,919 Speaker 1: there was a rental market that was beginning to form 720 00:43:38,960 --> 00:43:43,960 Speaker 1: around VHS tapes. Pre Recorded movies were pretty darn expensive 721 00:43:43,960 --> 00:43:47,080 Speaker 1: no matter what format you were talking about, but renting 722 00:43:47,360 --> 00:43:51,000 Speaker 1: was relatively cheap, so rental businesses were popping up around 723 00:43:51,080 --> 00:43:54,040 Speaker 1: the US, and it changed how people would access entertainment. 724 00:43:54,440 --> 00:43:57,719 Speaker 1: The video disc format didn't make a significant entrance into 725 00:43:57,760 --> 00:44:01,200 Speaker 1: the rental market, so again they were left behind by VHS. 726 00:44:01,520 --> 00:44:04,440 Speaker 1: While RCA would introduce the player to the UK market 727 00:44:04,440 --> 00:44:07,200 Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty three, the company had decided to pull 728 00:44:07,200 --> 00:44:10,719 Speaker 1: the plug on the format just six months later. In 729 00:44:10,760 --> 00:44:14,040 Speaker 1: April nineteen eighty four, RCA made the tough decision to 730 00:44:14,120 --> 00:44:18,040 Speaker 1: abandon plans to manufacture any more video disc players. The 731 00:44:18,080 --> 00:44:21,839 Speaker 1: sales just didn't justify the cost of manufacturing, and in fact, 732 00:44:21,960 --> 00:44:24,440 Speaker 1: RCA was going to take a major bath on the 733 00:44:24,480 --> 00:44:27,239 Speaker 1: whole thing. Now, that doesn't mean everything ground to a 734 00:44:27,320 --> 00:44:30,239 Speaker 1: halt in nineteen eighty four. There were still movies that 735 00:44:30,280 --> 00:44:33,400 Speaker 1: were being produced in the format for a couple of years. 736 00:44:33,680 --> 00:44:36,239 Speaker 1: That ended in nineteen eighty six, which is why you 737 00:44:36,239 --> 00:44:39,440 Speaker 1: can actually find CED copies of movies like Back to 738 00:44:39,480 --> 00:44:42,680 Speaker 1: the Future at things like thrift stores or flea markets. 739 00:44:43,239 --> 00:44:45,480 Speaker 1: And Back to the Future came out in nineteen eighty five, 740 00:44:45,560 --> 00:44:47,719 Speaker 1: that was a full year after RCA had stopped making 741 00:44:47,840 --> 00:44:51,600 Speaker 1: video disc players. In total, the various manufacturers made around 742 00:44:51,640 --> 00:44:55,080 Speaker 1: seven hundred and fifty thousand video disc players, and most 743 00:44:55,120 --> 00:44:58,160 Speaker 1: of those were coming from RCA itself. According to the 744 00:44:58,200 --> 00:45:02,120 Speaker 1: site cedmagic dot com, which proves that no matter what 745 00:45:02,200 --> 00:45:04,480 Speaker 1: the interest is, there's a website for It has a 746 00:45:04,520 --> 00:45:09,400 Speaker 1: searchable database of CED titles, and the webmaster says it 747 00:45:09,440 --> 00:45:15,359 Speaker 1: contains approximately one thy seven hundred NTSCCEED titles. It also 748 00:45:15,440 --> 00:45:18,879 Speaker 1: includes the database of another two hundred titles listed as vaporware, 749 00:45:19,160 --> 00:45:21,200 Speaker 1: meaning the author of the website has been unable to 750 00:45:21,280 --> 00:45:24,960 Speaker 1: verify that the title was actually produced in the CED format. 751 00:45:25,200 --> 00:45:28,640 Speaker 1: There remains a small group of collectors and hobbyists who own, restore, 752 00:45:28,719 --> 00:45:32,120 Speaker 1: and repair video disc players. As I said, I actually 753 00:45:32,520 --> 00:45:35,279 Speaker 1: do own a player and a few titles, although In 754 00:45:35,280 --> 00:45:37,759 Speaker 1: my case, it's because my family literally bought this thing 755 00:45:37,840 --> 00:45:41,360 Speaker 1: back in the early nineteen eighties before RCA had abandoned 756 00:45:41,400 --> 00:45:43,880 Speaker 1: the format. I haven't hooked mine up to a television 757 00:45:43,880 --> 00:45:47,279 Speaker 1: in decades, and I suspect it probably wouldn't work if 758 00:45:47,320 --> 00:45:50,080 Speaker 1: I did. I don't even know what condition the discs 759 00:45:50,120 --> 00:45:53,280 Speaker 1: I own are in. I haven't popped open the cartridges 760 00:45:53,320 --> 00:45:55,839 Speaker 1: to look. I would be surprised if they're in good 761 00:45:55,880 --> 00:45:58,560 Speaker 1: shape because we were pretty hard on our media in my house, 762 00:45:58,719 --> 00:46:01,000 Speaker 1: and at any given time, we owned as many as 763 00:46:01,040 --> 00:46:04,600 Speaker 1: five cats. So with that much cat hair, even a cartridge, 764 00:46:04,600 --> 00:46:07,520 Speaker 1: even a sealed system, I suspect it has had some 765 00:46:08,120 --> 00:46:10,480 Speaker 1: impact to it. I don't think we're ever going to 766 00:46:10,520 --> 00:46:13,200 Speaker 1: see a ced revival the way we have with vinyl, 767 00:46:13,400 --> 00:46:16,839 Speaker 1: because vinyl was an established media format that lasted for 768 00:46:16,880 --> 00:46:20,040 Speaker 1: decades before it took a back seat to competing formats 769 00:46:20,120 --> 00:46:23,040 Speaker 1: like cassette tapes and CDs and such As I said, 770 00:46:23,040 --> 00:46:24,839 Speaker 1: I should probably do a full episode on what led 771 00:46:24,840 --> 00:46:27,640 Speaker 1: to the vinyl revival of the mid two thousands, because 772 00:46:27,640 --> 00:46:30,360 Speaker 1: that's interesting both from a tech and a social perspective. 773 00:46:30,719 --> 00:46:32,879 Speaker 1: But the video disc I think a lot of folks 774 00:46:32,880 --> 00:46:36,080 Speaker 1: were unaware this format even existed, or they dismissed it 775 00:46:36,080 --> 00:46:38,360 Speaker 1: out of hand. And it's not like I could recommend 776 00:46:38,400 --> 00:46:41,360 Speaker 1: it versus other formats like DVDs and Blu rays. The 777 00:46:41,440 --> 00:46:44,880 Speaker 1: resolution is much less impressive, the range of titles is 778 00:46:45,000 --> 00:46:48,719 Speaker 1: way more limited, the aspect ratio is positively prehistoric. Gets 779 00:46:48,760 --> 00:46:51,640 Speaker 1: stuck in that four to three format, and chances are 780 00:46:51,719 --> 00:46:53,239 Speaker 1: the discs that you find are going to be in 781 00:46:53,320 --> 00:46:57,239 Speaker 1: varying degrees of playability. But for collectors there is a 782 00:46:57,280 --> 00:47:01,000 Speaker 1: certain charm to it, and for RCAA history, the technology 783 00:47:01,040 --> 00:47:03,920 Speaker 1: is important because it marks an incredible era of innovation 784 00:47:04,000 --> 00:47:07,160 Speaker 1: and engineering, followed by a dramatic decline in the company 785 00:47:07,160 --> 00:47:11,719 Speaker 1: itself for reasons beyond just video discs spectacular failure in 786 00:47:11,760 --> 00:47:14,840 Speaker 1: the market. But there you go, an epic episode about 787 00:47:14,840 --> 00:47:18,480 Speaker 1: an obsolete technology, all brought to you by the fact 788 00:47:18,480 --> 00:47:21,879 Speaker 1: that I happen to own one. I get that that's 789 00:47:22,040 --> 00:47:27,160 Speaker 1: very biased, it's incredibly subjective, but I hope all of 790 00:47:27,160 --> 00:47:29,880 Speaker 1: you out there are doing well, and I'll talk to 791 00:47:29,880 --> 00:47:40,400 Speaker 1: you again really soon. Tech Stuff is an iHeartRadio production. 792 00:47:40,680 --> 00:47:45,719 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 793 00:47:45,840 --> 00:47:51,440 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,