Friday the 13th On a Different Home Video Format…. CED?
I was researching different home video formats this weekend and came across a format I had never heard of, CED. This format, from what I have read, was conceived before Laserdisc, Beta and VHS. Now, I was around in the early eighties only as a kindergartener, but my dad told me he never even heard of this. I get a pass, but he does not. Read below to get the skinny on this early home video format.
“This is a CED, Capacitance Electronic Disc, manufactured by RCA in the early 1980’s. It is not a Laser Disk, CD, or DVD, and is not compatible with any other video or audio format. The CED is video and audio recorded onto a vinyl disc, and played with a needle, similar to an LP record. This technology was introduced by RCA in 1980. Thereafter, VHS, BETA, 12” Laser Discs, and DVD’s came along. The CED Players were available under at eleven Brand Names. Over 2024 Video Titles were printed in the CED format. To learn more about CED Technology, go to cedmagic.com.”
Production ceased on these discs and their players in 1986, but produced CED’s for the first 5 Friday the 13th movies. I’m pretty sure there were no extras, just the movie on the disc. These discs are very hard to find now, but I am sure eBay will hold some hidden treasures for those who want to work hard at adding to their collection. Check out the covers below courtesy of the Laserdisc Database.
Wow – I remember the early 80s, and I don’t recall this format at all, either. Bizarre!
i love that alternate scene photo for friday the 13th part 2 on that cover its awesome
That Part V Cover is what i remember from my childhood as the VHS Cover also. I thnk it’s the best bad cover of them all. Who greenlit the use of an actual modern goalie mask?
I was also around in the early 80’s and have never heard of this format. Cool covers, and neat little known fact.
i like the part 2 cover!!
I remember these discs. They were these discs encased in plastic cartridge-like housing. You can occasionally find a player at a Salvation Army or other vintage shops. I’ve never actually seen one played, but I’d be interested in seeing what kind of quality they produced.
I have these in 1-5… I bought a CED player but have never hooked them up. They are nice to have just in a collection.
I have The Final Chapter on CED. I dont have a player. Found it at a goodwill for $0.49! I thought it was a record. These are really cool to have for collectors. They are easily obtainable on Ebay for around $5 a piece. I’d like to own them all.
I’ve never understood the Part V cover. Not the right kind of mask used in the movie. Also, never understood the backwards mask on Part IV cover. That’s never been fixed. And, could somebody please explain why Paramount stopped using the original poster art on the DVDs after part IV and the original logos. I had to make my own covers for 5-8. The new Deluxe edition covers suck. I’m putting those in a drawer and keeping the original discs on my shelf.
Speaking of poster art, why can’t studios produce hand drawn or painted poster art like they used to instead of the photoshop crap they do nowadays? I love those.
I JUST got part 4 on ebay for only 2.99 as a “buy it now” today! Sorry, folks, it was the only one I could find. I’ll post some pics of it when I get it!!!
http://cgi.ebay.com/Friday-the-13th-The-Final-Chapter-CED-Video-Disc-RARE_W0QQitemZ110382513022QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_Movies_Other_Formats?hash=item19b34f7b7e
We’ll try to catch up to you one of these days scab
Scab is lieing!
These were absolute crap. I remember that they would jump and skip while watching them. Not much better than VHS in terms of video quality either. Kind of annoying having to flip the disc over half way through to finish watching a movie too.
I Have not heard of the CED for a long time. We use to have one and , it was not bad for its time.
All video formats have came along way, it would be nice to have that player again, along with some movies, just to go down memory lane.
Friday the 13th the final chaper was the first movie I watched on the CED, it would skip now and then though.
I remember my mom had parts 1 and 4 on CED when I was a kid. I remember the cover to part 4 scaring the shit out of me as a kid so my sister used it to fuck with me.
I’d like to get a hold of these, being the video nerd that I am.
Yeah I LOVED Video Disc growing up! Almost all the earlier 80’s horror I watched as a kid was on this format. Yeah the negative was they are a record basically so anytime someone would walk across the room it could skip half way through the movie and considering rentals were hot at the time, these things got MESSED up passing through so many hands and could be unwatchable at times.
Pro’s were they laid the platform for “chapters/skipping” combining digital with analog, features the VHS never had and they were cheap compared to a brand new $1000 VCR.
But I first saw Friday the 13th Part IV on CED and then Part 1 and so on. Plus the covers were always cooler on those bigger cases (like the big laser disc ones) Plus my dad bought me a brand new sealed part V that I got to tear open.
Oh the memories.
SkaryMoviez,
You do realize, according to the description on eBay, that the disc is encased in a cover that does not have the Final Chapter on it, right? The guy says that he just threw it into whatever caddie they had available at the time. Just don’t want you disappointed when it arrives.
Ahh how far we have come since the dawn of home entertainment. And to think the CED format was the shit back then. My father-in-law bought a CED player at a garage sale a few years back. He thought it was a lsserdisc player. It came with six movies and I know two of them where Raiders of the Lost Ark and Jaws.
For more information :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitance_Electronic_Disc
I actually have a CED player and all 5 of the f13 discs plus a shitload of other horror titles. Amityville, TCM, Squirm. You guys shoulda hurried up and been born in the 80’s. The discs have grooves and are read with a really small needle like having a video on a record. Halfway through the movies you hafta put the shell in to flip the disc over by hand. It’s nostalgically awesome now, but back then it was a bitch. You’d be staring at the TV thinking “OH shit, don’t make me flip this over now, there’s some guy with a fuckin chainsaw under the couch or behind the TV.” Each disc weighs more than a loaf of bread, and the player it’s self, a cinder block.
I just hope that they don’t make the same mistake with Jason as they did with Batman, like with nipples on the batsuit and everything.
I have seen these type of discs. My father was trying to sell ceramics in this little hole in the wall flea market, and I had to go with him sometimes. I remember there being a copy of a James Bond movie (nothing to do with Friday the 13th) but I thought it was interesting. Be worth seeing how it works, though.
Let me tell you…a friend and I watched Grease (oddly Paramount) on one of these things. And just like a record, they do that skipping/ looping thing and its the most hilarious thing you’ll ever see.
yea the cover 4 part 2 is pretty cool
jasonsfury: Yeah, I noticed that about the ebay description. I figured for 2.99 it wasn’t a big loss. Besides, I can be crafty and print off my own cover
My friends all know me as “the friday the 13th guy”, so my buddy saw a Part 1 CED at a garage sale and picked it up for me for about 25 cents. I had no idea what this thing actually was! Thank you!
I have all five movies for the CED. I used to watch them all the time. The machine sucked and the needle broke easily. My parents used to buy them alot. I think we had like over a 100 movies.
I’ve never heard of CED. I like part 2’s cover, they should’ve used it for the original VHS and the future DVD releases… jasonsfury, thanks for the info.