Retroist Capacitance Electronic Disc Podcast
Welcome to Episode 16 of the 14th season of the Retroist Podcast. In this episode, I talk about a wonderful bit of technology that is quickly being forgotten, the Capacitance Electronic Disc or CED.
I had some exposure to the CED over the years. Both in my personal life at a friend’s house, but also while working at video stores where we both sold and rented them. Even though that was the case, I didn’t really think about doing an episode about them until having tackled laserdiscs in a past episode.
I begin by speculating on the motivation of an owner of a CED Player that I met in the Eighties. They seemed both heavily invested in the technology and at the same time completely irrational about its future. I didn’t appreciate or understand it at the time, but I think I might nowadays.
Then I discuss the technology itself. I talk about the evolution of playing video on discs, the companies behind the CED, the limitations and highlights of the format, the media itself, and much more.
CED is a finicky bit of technology, and it is had been slowly dying. So if you are lucky enough to get to watch a complete CED disc that works, appreciate it. Odds are, future generations will only get to read about them.
Listen and download the Capacitance Electronic Disc Podcast
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Production Notes
This is the 16th episode of the 14th season of the podcast. It was the sixteenth episode I recorded this season. This was the first time I recorded on the subject.
I was going to tell some stories about a sleepover at a friends house who had an amazing media center setup in the 80s. I will probably save that for another show.
The RCA section was about 2 minutes longer before the final cut.
I tried to dive more deeply into the European evolution of the format. I decided what I covered was probably a good enough overview.
A lot of good Selectavision commercials. I removed multiple to cut things down to size, but do search on YouTube. They also have some great promo videos from the time.
I had a large technical overview, that took forever to wrap my brain around. I decided to also record a briefer and simpler mind dump and decided that played better in the show
I still find CEDs from time to time for sale and have to resist buying them with all my might. Something very compelling about them for me.
I would get LaserDisc and VideoDisc confused as names all the time. Often merging them into one thing in my head, this despite the fact that they are very different technology.
All the music you hear in this episode is by the mighty Peachy.
Here is the amazing art provided by Christopher Tupa that I used for social media promotion. It’s a wonderful commentary on the relationship between CED, LD, and VHS
Thanks for listening to the show and I hope you have a great weekend.