Editing Capacitance Electronic Disc (section)

=== Beginnings and release ===
RCA began developing the videodisc system in 1964, in an attempt to produce a phonograph-like method of reproducing video under the name 'Discpix'. Research and development was slow in the early years, as the RCA CED team originally consisted of only four men,<ref>{{cite web | title = First Successful RCA SelectaVision VideoDisc Produced in 1972 | publisher = CEDMagic.com | url = http://cedmagic.com/history/first-successful-ced.html | access-date = 2007-03-14}}</ref> but by 1972, the CED team had produced a disc capable of holding ten minutes of color video (a portion of the ''[[Get Smart]]'' episode "A Tale of Two Tails", re-titled "Lum Fong").<ref>{{cite web | title= Lum Fong - First Successful RCA VideoDisc Web Page | publisher = CEDMagic.com | url = http://cedmagic.com/featured/lum-fong/lum-fong.html | access-date = 2007-03-06}}</ref>

The first CED prototype discs were multi-layered, consisting of a vinyl substrate, nickel conductive layer, glow-discharge insulating layer and silicone lubricant top layer.  Failure to fully solve the stylus/disc wear and manufacturing complexity forced RCA to seek simpler construction of the disc.  The final disc was crafted using [[polyvinyl chloride|PVC]] blended with carbon to make the disc conductive.  To preserve stylus and groove life, a thin layer (up to 50 nm thick)<ref>https://patents.google.com/patent/US4216970</ref> of silicone (polysiloxane)<ref>https://patents.google.com/patent/US4216970</ref> or methyl alkyl siloxane<ref>https://patents.google.com/patent/US4330583</ref> was applied to the disc as a lubricant.

CED videodiscs were originally conceived as being housed in jackets and handled by hand similar to LP records, but during testing it was shown that exposure to dust caused skipped grooves. If dust was allowed to settle on the discs, the dust would absorb moisture from the air and cement the dust particle to the disc surface, causing the stylus to jump back in a [[locked groove]] situation. Thus, an idea was developed in which the disc would be stored and handled in a plastic [[Caddy (hardware)|caddy]] from which the CED would be extracted by the player so that exposure to dust would be minimized.<ref>{{cite web | title = Comparison of 1977 CED Media to Final Production Media | publisher = CEDMagic.com | url = http://cedmagic.com/history/ced-1977-vs-1982.html | access-date = 2007-03-10}}</ref>

After 17 years of research and development, the first CED player (model SFT100W) went on sale on March 22, 1981. A catalog of approximately 50 videodisc titles was released at the same time.<ref name=race>{{cite web | title = Race For Your Life, Charlie Brown - The First RCA VideoDisc Title | publisher = CEDMagic.com | url = http://cedmagic.com/history/race-for-your-life.html | access-date = 2007-03-10}}</ref> The first title to be manufactured was ''[[Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown]]''.<ref name=race /> Fifteen months later, RCA released the SGT200 and SGT250 players, both with [[stereo sound]] while the SGT-250 was also the first CED player model to include a wireless [[remote control]]. Models with [[random access]] were introduced in 1983.