Capacitance Electronic Disc

Analog video disc playback system Capacitance Electronic DiscA CED of The Boys from Brazil (1978), exposed from its protective caddy. The cover art in this image has been edited to remove copyrighted material.Media typevideo Playback mediaCapacity60 minutes NTSC video per side, 27,000 still frames per sideRead mechanismStylusUsageHome videoReleasedMarch 22, 1981Discontinued1986 (RCA) The Capacitance Electronic Disc (CED) is an analog video disc playback system developed by Radio Corporation of America (RCA), in which video and audio could be played back on a TV set using a special stylus and high-density groove system similar to phonograph records. First conceived in 1964, the CED system was widely seen as a technological success which was able to increase the density of a long-playing record by two orders of magnitude. Despite that achievement, the CED system fell victim to poor planning, various conflicts with RCA management, and several technical difficulties. That slowed development and stalled production of the system for 17 years, until 1981, by which time it had been made obsolete by laser videodisc (DiscoVision, later called LaserVision and LaserDisc) as well as Betamax and