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CED in the History of Media Technology

The consumer PAL version of the Teldec VideoDisc system was introduced in West Germany on March 17th, 1975, and unlike the 1970 prototype, the discs were enclosed in paper caddies to avoid finger contact. The discs were limited to only 10 minutes of playback time, a problem with the consumer model as twelve disc changes would have been necessary for a two hour movie. The player was initially priced at $650, and discs from $4 to $12. The stylus sled had an expected life of 100 to 200 hours, with replacements being about $8.

Teldec planned to market the system in the U.S. through its Japanese licensees Sanyo and Nippon, but the NTSC system would have been limited to just over 8 minutes of playback, as the discs needed to rotate at 1800 RPM rather than 1500 RPM. Teldec demonstrated a 12-disc changer, but withdrew the consumer version after about a year due to dismal sales. The system survived a few years longer in an industrial version. In 1980, a jukebox holding up to 50 Teldec discs was released, which appears to be the last product marketed for the system.