Cloak & Dagger CED

[joshk]

I picked up a Cloak & Dagger CED the other day. Picked it up mostly for the Atari history. Not sure what I am going to do with it because I don't have a player, but anyone have any idea on the rarity on an item like this? Thanks

 

[Gunstar]

Well, I can tell you that CED in itself is EXTREMEMLY rare, you may never find a player for that disk! This isn't even Laserdisk, it was an alternative ANALOG format that showed up about the same time as Laserdisk back in the '80's. It actually plays the movies the same way records/lp's were played on a record player; inside that case is a disk very similiar to a vynl record with a physical "needle" instead of a laser eye that plays the movies...a VERY interesting concept/invention that never made it very far, even laserdisk did better and it never became a "standard" either...chalk it up with the Beta's of the world; maybe it was more popular in other parts of the world (outside the U.S.) like beta and videocd is, I don't know...you may have a very rare and valued item there, I don't really know. I do know that I've been searching for a VHS/videocd or DVD of this movie for some time with no luck.

[Nimtene]

I never heard of CEDs before I read your post. Your

image makes the movie look reasonably small. I just

thought you were zoomed in. But I didn't realize how

big these things really were, until I did a search, and

saw a few other images of them on Ebay. I suppose

they are about vinyl record size. I always liked the

large cover art from the vinyl records and laserdisks.

It's a good find you have, and a great collectable to

have, but the movies don't seem to appear especially

expensive on EBay. But there are a few CED players

on sale there. Maybe you can get lucky and pick one

up for cheap, and watch the movie someday.

 

I found myself a copy of the C&D vhs at the swap

meet for a dollar a few months back, and I enjoyed

watching it just recently. My eyes widen, and I start

drooling when I see all those old atari games on the

rack in the background. Unfortunately, my VCR was

being difficult, and ended up eating the cassette.

[George Gray]

CED's were actually very common in the early 1980's. From about 1980 to 1984, you could find the players at places like K-Mart, Woolco and Radio Shack. The movies were a lot more available than Laserdisc ever was. There were at least three video chains in the Richmond (VA) area that routinely RENTED them as well as sold them. You could get the movies for about twenty bucks. This was during a time when the average (and inferior) VHS tapes sold for about $79. I had three players at one time. One stereo unit and two mono units. The picture quality, on a new disc, was better than VHS, though the discs DID wear....alot. After a dozen or so plays, you could see noticeable drop out, skipping (that was kinda cool once the irritation wore off) and color fading. They definitely were never meant for long term use. The stylus was generally a ruby, though I think some diamond tipped stylii were in use very early on. I'm not sure just how long RCA continued to press the movies, but I recall buying my last new movie sometime in 1986. At the peak of my collection, I had over three hundred titles. I now have zero. I became a Laser convert and never looked back. (IMHO...nothing has yet equalled the quality of Laserdisc, not even the DVD. If you ever want to show off your expensive monitor, get a Laser player and copies of The Little Mermaid and the remake of the Thing. )

[Gunstar]

yeah, it looks like they are more common then I thought...I recently found a unit at a "thrift" store, the owner said it was display only, to demonstrate about 30 CED's he has in stock, but that he also has a couple other players, that don't work for whatever reason. I've been trying to buy one from him (he wants at least $120 for the working one IF he desides to sell it to me...but if they wear out as quickly as you say, I'm not sure I want it...I just always thought they were less common than Lazerdisk, since in chicago, around where I grew up, laserdisk was the high-end common device and I never heard of CED...I do want to get a Lazerdisk, and I agree that they are better quality, picture-wise, than DVD, but the new surround sound modes on DVD have lazerdisk sound beat! (mostly stereo standard I assume)

[George Gray]

yeah, it looks like they are more common then I thought...I recently found a unit at a "thrift" store, the owner said it was display only, to demonstrate about 30 CED's he has in stock, but that he also has a couple other players, that don't work for whatever reason. I've been trying to buy one from him (he wants at least $120 for the working one IF he desides to sell it to me...but if they wear out as quickly as you say, I'm not sure I want it...I just always thought they were less common than Lazerdisk, since in chicago, around where I grew up, laserdisk was the high-end common device and I never heard of CED...I do want to get a Lazerdisk, and I agree that they are better quality, picture-wise, than DVD, but the new surround sound modes on DVD have lazerdisk sound beat! (mostly stereo standard I assume)

 

The discs do wear fairly quickly, but if you can get the player and discs for, say, half what that guy wants, it's probably worth it. I don't think I'd pay $120, but that's my opinion. However, if the player is in the '400' model line AND has the remote, it might be worth it. Those players featured 'random access' like the Laserdiscs. I *THINK* there was even one or two 'interactive movies' released prior to the demise of the system.

 

Laserdisc, at least players and movies released in the last 10 years of the Laserdisc era, featured Digital Audio. They were capable of 5.1 dolby and, on higher end players, had digital out. There were combo CD/LD players and many of the higher end models could even 'flip' the disc for you (meaning they had dual laser pickups so you did'nt have to remove the disc, turn it over and put it back in after an hour of play. Something you always had to do with the CED's.) Laserdisc sound is just as good as DVD sound, but DVD has more capability. At the very end of the Laserdisc era, you could get a combo DVD/LD player. These, I believe are very difficult to find now. Pioneer ceased LD production several years ago.

[Nimtene]

I've always been a fan of my Laserdisc

player; haven't gotten a DVD player yet.

And last weekend at the swap meet, I

found a LD copy of Cloak & Dagger to

replace my dead VHS copy. I'll sure be

putting that pause button to good use

during the atari game sequences! Yay!

[AtariDude]

I checked with Amazon.com and you can still obtain Cloak and Dagger for under $14. It would be great if we could get this movie on DVD but I think given the fact that it came out in 1984, it would probably take a write in to the company that produced it to convince them to convert it into DVD.

[NiteCretr]

http://www.cedmagic.com

 

Everything you ever wanted to know about the format from a guy who's also a big retro gamer.