RF Generation Message Board

Yesterday a more than 2 year search for a CED player finally ended. At a thrift store I found an RCA Selectavision CED Videodisc player. It only cost me $8 bucks and works like a charm.

For those that don't know Videodisc is a movie format that uses a stylus like a record player to read the data. The movies come in these plastic caddies that look like huge floppy disks. They are roughly the size of a 33 1/3 LP.

You slide the plastic caddy into the player and a mechanism grabs the disc, then you remove the caddy and play the movie. A neat concept as you never have to physically handle the disc. You can't scratch it or get finger prints on it if you can't touch it. The movies are 2 sided like records and Laser Discs. Quality looked comparable to early VHS. Not a stellar movie format but an interesting curiosity. The belts and stylus on these things can go so finding one in working order is a challenge.

I've had about 15 movies for the thing for a couple of years but had never managed to find the player. I had one near miss about 2 years ago at a thrift. There was one in the donation bin but they would not sell it to me as it had not been priced. They wouldn't hold it for me either. I went back every day for a week and asked about it. No one could give me an answer and it never turned up on the shelf.

I'd looked at them on Ebay but was not willing to shell out $40 or $50 bucks for one. Plus it weighs a ton so shipping would be expensive.

I watched Clash of the Titans on mine last night and was pretty damn pleased.

Congrats Den!  That is pretty exciting!

Ken

Damn, that's sweet!  I've never heard of the thing but I like the conecpt!

Damn that sounds cool!

Thats awesome!!!!

I think I have seen those movies at the thrigts from time to time. If I see any I will let you know.

Sounds cool man - I think I saw a whole bunch of those 'tapes' at a flea market in California once...I remember wondering what the hell those were meant for ;)

Enjoy the rest of the tape movies ;)

I know there is a huge pile (40 to 50 I would guess) of videodisc movies at a local Goodwill (I believe they were CED not LaserDisc), not sure what the price of them is.  I believe the movies showing on the top were disney titles but I didn't look any further. Let me know if your interested or looking for any specific titles.  

Edit: Nevermind, I stopped at lunch they are laserdisc movies.  On the plus side while I was there I did pickup a wireless router (802.11b) for $2.99 and my first VSmile game Aladdin sealed for $1.99

I have a laserdisc player too. what did they have and at what price?

I didn't really look at the selection (they have a big stack of them) since they were laserdisc, I think the price was $2.89 or $3.98 each.   I stop there pretty often so I will get more details (perhaps tomorrow!)

Any Criterion ones I would like.

cool. thanks for checking.

Ok here's the list:

Revenge *
Ben Hur *
Ship Wrecked
Alice in Wonderland
Torn Curtain *
Beverly Hills Cop
Babe
American Graffiti
The Falcon & the Snowman *
Vertigo *
The FBI Murders
Old Yeller
F.I.S.T. *
Animal Farm
Ghost Busters
Dillenger
King David
Bonnie & Clyde
Judgement Night
All is Quiet on the Western Front *
Doctor Zhivago *
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Platoon *
Cliffhanger
Cool World
Betrayed *
North by Northwest *
Lady in White
Die Hard *
On the Waterfront
The Package
Bulletproof
The Professional *
Broadcast News *
Fearless *
Duel
The Conversation
Ride the High Country
Breaker Morant
Harvey
My Darling Clementine
Ordinary People *
The Day of the Jackal *

The single disk movies are $2.99 and the double disks (marked with *) are $4.99 and don't forget NY wants it's part and adds 8.25% tax

don't make a special trip but next time you're there I'd be interested in Bonnie and Clyde and American Grafitti.

were the sleeves still in good shape?

What makes you think I may go there again  ;)  I'll stop back in early next week and see if they still have them.

In general the sleeves were all in good shape, if those look questionable I will let you know.

I didn't check to see if any were Criterion editions. I think a few are possible titles, I will check when I stop back next week.

oh I don't know, just a gut feeling I guess.

but thanks man!

So I guess now I am a CED collector too. I didn't even know about CED's until this thread was started. The wife and I were out garage saleing today and at the last sale we were going to go to we found a stack of CED movies. This is what I got for $10:

Airplane!
American gigolo
An officer and a gentleman
An officer and a gentleman part 2
Barbarella
Betrayal
Big bad mama
Blazing saddles
Blue thunder
Breathless
Cabaret
Cabaret
Cheech & Chong's Up in smoke
Coma
Comedy tonight
Cousin Cousine
Escape from New York
Every which way but loose
Eyes of Laura Mars
Fame part 1
Fame part 2
Flaming star
Friday the 13th
Friendly persuasion part 1
Friendly persuasion part 2
Grease
Harry & son
Herbie Hancock and the Rockit band
Improper channels
In praise of older women
James Bond 007 The spy who loved me
Logan's run
Lolita part 1
Lolita part 2
Lookin' to get out!
Love in the afternoon
M*A*S*H goodbye, farwell and amen
Metalstorm
Neighbors
Ordinary people
Peter Allen and the rockettes
Police academy
Raging bull part 1
Raging bull part 2
RCA's All-star country music fair
REO Speedwagon in concert
Revenge of the nerds
Rich and famous
Richard Pryor live in concert
Richard Pryor live in concert
Richard Pryor some kind of hero
Road games
Rocky IV
Rod Stewart live at the Los Angeles forum
Roman Polanski's “Tess”
Roman Polanski's “Tess”
Romancing the stone
Running brave
Soylent green
Star Trek The trouble with tribbles/ The Tholian web
Stir crazy
Stripes
Superman III
The Bad news bears
The Blue lagoon
The Comancheros
The Cotton Club
The Cotton Club
The Defiant ones
The End
The French connection
The Godfather part 2
The Hobbit
The King of comedy
The Last unicorn
The Man with two brains
The Pink Panther strikes again
The Sunshine boys
The Survivors
The Toy
The Toy
Time bandits
Tootsie
Westworld
Willie Nelson Kris Kristofferson Songwriter



The ones that say part one or part two is because the CED format can only hold about 2 hours and if they needed more space they had to make a second disk. There are a couple that don't specifically say part 1 or part 2 but I assume that is the case for the repeats. It looks like I only got the second half of the first Godfather movie because there is no second disk.

This isn't something I would normally buy but there has been quiet the drought for me video game wise and the wife really wanted them. We do profess to be collectors of all media so I guess this is a pretty good step in that direction.

I have to get a CED player now, its a bummer having these 80 or so movies around that I can't watch.  :-\

well good luck finding one. that's a hell of an awesome movie score.

there are always some on ebay but they are pretty heavy and delicate. shipping is expensive but beyond that I'd be concerned about the thing arriving in one piece. I've seen how UPS guys handle packages.

It took me over 2 years to finally stumble on one at a thrift store.

Yeah the lady we bought them from said she had just seen a player at a local thrift store. We went there right after the garage sale and asked the employees but they hadn't seen it, so I don't know if she meant a different store or what. Oh well, one more thing to keep an eye out for I guess.

I almost bought one at the local Salvation Army, but my mom wouldn't spot me the cash -- and I would have had the $$$ the day after.

Ah well...

If they are I will buy them from you if you have the cash to get them. If not no big deal.

I finally made it back to that store and found only one Criterion edition in the lot it's Ghostbusters.  I did notice one corner of the cover had a bend in it, other than that it looked ok.  I think it's a single disk movie $2.99, that's shouldn't be a problem to spot you that. ;)  I'll PM you when I pick it up later this week.

Dont get it I already have that one. Thanks anyways.

No problem