References and further info
Total Rewind Virtual Museum of Vintage VCRs
BEFORE Laserdisc There was TeD– databits (2019)
https://www.hifi-archiv.info/telefunken.html - Contains scans of brochures of TeD, among other Telefunken products
THE SUMMER OF THE VIDEO DISC - Heinz Nixdorf Museums Forum
German Museum of Technology, Berlin
German Television Museum, Filzbaden
Computer Museum of Computer Science, University of Stuttgart.
Association for the Promotion of the Technical Collections, Dresden
Amazing Video Disc Plays Through Your TV – Arthur Fisher (Popular Science, January 1971)
Decca/AEGTelefunken Scraps LP Videodisk Plans - (Billboard, 25th September 1971)
Teldec Videodisk Plan for U.S. Expanded – Radcliffe Joe (Billboard, 9th
October 1971)
Look and Listen – C. P. Gilmore (Popular Science, December 1971)
Look and Listen – C. P. Gilmore (Popular Science, September 1972)
Teldec VideoDisk – Europe by Jan., ’74 – Radcliffe Joe (Billboard, 28th April
1973)
TED Videodisc to Be Shown at Show (Billboard, 7th July 1973)
TV LP Systemfor Ger. In Jan.; Disks $4.20, Player Around $478 – Walter Mallin (Billboard,
29th September 1973)
Teldec Holds Sales Meeting – (Billboard, 27th October 1973)
British Decca’s Group Volume Up 40 Percent to $291 Mil – (Billboard, 17th
November 1973)
Two Video-disc Players for TV – (Popular Science, December 1973)
Look and Listen – John R. Free (Popular Science, February 1974)
CES First Video Focus Tied to Education, Business – Stephen Traiman (Billboard, 15th June 1974)
Video Discs for your Color TV –
John R. Free (Popular Science, November 1974)
Vidisk Goliaths Starting to Stir - Stephen Traiman (Billboard, 16th November
1974)
’75 Debut forTED Videodisc – Nick Robertshaw (Billboard, 23rd November 1974)
Update From Asia – Hideo Eguchi (Billboard, 22nd February 1975)
Disco Tech: The LP-TV Revolution – Clive Irving (New York Magazine, 24th March 1975)
Floppy Future for the Video Disc?
– Richard Whittington (New Scientist, 22nd May 1975)
Automatic Changer Bared For TED Videodisk System - Wolfgang Spahr (Billboard, 9th
August 1975)
Videodisk Still an Allure: Publishers Patiently Await Medium’s Debut ‘Tomorrow’ - Is
Horowitz (Billboard, 22nd January 1977)
Vinyl Goes Visual – Adrian Hope
(New Scientist, 14th December 1978)
Telefunken Digital Mini Disc –
Gary Stock (Audio, June 1981)
A New Digital Disc – Gabriel Along (Somtrês No 39, March 1982)
Television Electronic Disc (TeD)
The 1970s were the early years of
home video. Been the early years mean that the concept was so new that there
was no standard format to build on …. let. The decade saw the creation of many
video formats for consumers, including Betamax, VHS, and LaserDisc. But they
were many more that only lasted a few years before been left forgotten in the
attic of old tech. One of these formats was the Television Electronic Disc
(TeD). Developed by Telefunken and Decca Records, the TeD, or Teldec, video
disc format was the first form of video disc to ever leave the prototype stage
and enter the hands of consumers as a complete product. But due to its
limitations, and the existence of video cassette recorders, it had a short
shelf life. Been a record player that plays video from flexible vinyl discs, it
has since become a tech curiosity that is rarely mentioned in the history of
video.
Born
– 17th March 1975
Price of Discs at launch – DM10
Sleeve
size – 23 x 21.2cm
Disc
Diameter – 21 cm
Rotation
Speed - 1800 rpm (NTSC) / 1500 rpm (PAL)
Play Direction – clockwise
Max
poss record length – 10 minutes
Audio
– Mono only
Horizonal resolution – (Telefunken claims) about 240 lines
TeD Disc
“She looks like a record. But she is much lighter, thinner, and unbreakable.” – Sales Brochure
A TeD disc is a 21cm (8in) diameter circle of 0.1mm thin
flexible PVC plastic foil. It is claimed that a TeD disc can made cheaply, can
be sent through the post or inserted into books or magazines, and can withstand
1,000 plays. Ten minutes of colour video, with mono sound, is encoded in
one single spiral groove as a
FM radio signal, which is decoded by the TV’s tuner. The amount of information
needed to be captured to record TV signals is 100 times that needed to record
only sound. To increase groove density the information is recorded as “hills
and dales” – it’s depth varies. Without the changes in width
caused by the conventional means of recording records, the grooves are more
uniform in width and can be squeezed closer together. This results in grooves
that are between 7-8µm wide, packing 130-150 per
millimetre, or 7,000 grooves per inch (10-13 times that of a vinyl LP). TeD
discs are single-sided and one frame of video is recorded per revolution,
allowing freeze frame functionality.
Inventing TeD
Telefunken and Decca created a subsidiary
to develop new technology relating to vinyl records, called Teldec. Work began
in Hamburg in 1965, when Teldec lab engineers Hans-Joachim Klemp and Horst
Redlich were working on ways to increase the capacity of vinyl records. Initially,
because of the high frequencies needed to be captured to record images, they thought
a fully mechanical system was impossible. In the end of 1966, the duo discussed
the problem with magnetic tape expert from Telefunken Eduard Schüller (who
helped create the first ever tape recorder). He proposed cutting grooves into
magnetized material, where a magnet can pick up the higher frequencies. However,
during one experiment, the ferrite scanning head broke in a prototype, but it
continued receiving a signal. The broken part was vibrating, producing the high
frequency signals. After many experiments and calculations, carried out by
another magnetic tape expert from Telefunken, Dr. Gerhard Dickopp, it was
discovered from this accident that mechanical vibration can reproduce the
frequencies needed to record video, removing the need for magnetic material.
Dickopp proved this by making discs out of non-magnetic PVC plastic sheets. Schüller
decided that an all-mechanical system was possible after all. The result of all
this was a depth-varying groove vibrating a piezoelectric crystal in a
cartridge developed by Klemp. A team of several graduate engineers worked on
TeD. One of them was Dr Günter Joschko.
First Images
In May 1969, a black-and-white photograph of Decca President Sir Edward Lewis (who was visiting them at the time) was successfully recorded and played back on a disc. By 1970, video was recorded, with the first been of Horst Redlich’s secretary. In spring 1970 the working prototype was presented to Telefunken’s bosses.
Data Capacity of TeD
What they developed was (in 1970) the most compact data storage system ever created, at 500,000 bits per square millimetre. For comparison, that’s ten times that of photographic film, fifty times that of illustrated print media, and a hundred times that of traditional vinyl records. In theory, a 30cm disc could record just over 15 minutes of video.
Hinting the Public
The format was first announced in a press conference in Berlin on 24th June 1970, with an functioning model playing a black-and-white recording of Teldec-signed singer Manuela singing ‘Alles und viel mehr’. At the end of 1970 it was presented in New York. Press reactions were very positive. Popular Science called it “the grooviest record ever.” Plans were announced for the format’s release in 1972, with players priced at between 500 and 1,000DM. They hope it would be a success because the discs can be pressed cheaply. At the 1971 Berlin Radio Exhibition the playing of a colour image from a disc was demonstrated for the first time. In the original plan, a 21cm disc contained 5 minutes (which was shown in Berlin) and a 30cm disc contained 12 minutes, which could increase to 15 minutes in the future. This plan was soon scrapped, and the launch was delayed to 1973. In October 1972 Telefunken announced that the format has been renamed “TeD” and they had increased the playtime of discs to 10 minutes on a 21-cm disc.
False Birth
TED was finally introduced a
complete product, ready to sale, at the 1973 Berlin Radio Exhibition, with
plans to launch in Germany in January 1974, in Scandinavia in spring 1974 and,
later, the UK.
But it was withdrawn a few weeks
later. The paper jackets made to protect the discs were found to be damaging
them during transport and storage, prompting a redesign. Impurities in the
sleeve material were affecting the recording surface. On 17th March
1975, the improved TeD disc player finally went on sale in Germany.
Telefunken TP 1005
The first (and only) TeD player ever made was the
Telefunken TP 1005. Measuring 46 x 31 x 16 cm, and weighing 14kg (or two
Dachshunds), it was nicknamed the “flat safe.” They are two versions of it. The
first version from 1973 was silver. The later version from 1975 was black. Examining
it shows signs of it been a product of botched development that delayed it pass
multiple deadlines. It was a primitive product made for a different time. It’s
like an Atari console been on sale in the 1990s. It retailed originally for about
DM1,600 and 15,000 players were made.
“Its operation is child's play. Almost everything happens
automatically: loading the disc, repeating scenes, even cleaning the scanner.
You can find any scene in the program quickly and reliably and watch it as
often as you want.
The technology is as safe as the whole thing is new. The
TED system works absolutely reliably and ensures first-class picture and sound
reproduction.” – Sales Brochure
“You simply connect the video plate device to the antenna
socket on your television set. And you can play your individual video disc
program at any time.” – Sales Brochure
When questioned why this machine didn’t have a composite output, Günter Joschko said (in 2018) that “everyone would have seen that we could not have output the 3 MHz video bandwidth or the 240 lines in colour.”
Controls
This device has few buttons and a large control knob. After inserting a disc (in its sleeve) into the slot, you turn the knob 180° clockwise, to operate the disc loading mechanism. After loading the disc, you can press the “play” button. As the video plays, the knob will turn, indicating where in the 10-minutes of video your playing. When the video ends, the knob reaches its original rest position. To unload a disc, you turn the knob all the way around anti-clockwise. Apart from a power button above it, they are three control buttons below the knob – “play,” “stop,” and “select,” which you press to turn the knob to a particular part of the video to replay 10 seconds of it.
Turntable
The disc, in a protective paper sleeve record-side-down, is inserted into the player. A set of rollers removes the disc from the sleeve and feeds it (flipped the other way round) onto the “turntable.” Instead of a rigid turntable, as one might expect, the player spins the disc on a thin cushion of air above a curved platform. This makes the disc bend while playing, with the apex on the bend touching the stylus. Vertical movement of the disc is kept within 0.05mm.
Stylus
The TeD disc is read by a pressure-sensitive diamond stylus in the shape similar to that of a boat’s hull. This shape guarantees tracking when reading the grooves at high speed. The stylus is attached to a ceramic transducer, containing a piezoelectric crystal with two electrodes attached to its sides, which converts the oscillations picked up by the stylus, by changes in air pressure under it, onto electrical signals.
Tracking
Tracking is controlled by a steel cable pulley mechanism that moves the cartridge exactly one groove width per revolution of the disc. The grooves don’t need to guide the stylus, allowing them to be very thin.
Sharpener
One surprising hidden feature inside the player is it has a grinding disk that sharpens the stylus automatically after each play. It was found that the stylus wore out quickly, hence the retrofitted grinder. It’s manual claims that the stylus should last more than 500 plays and “unlike records, a worn needle cannot damage the disk.” But this limited the player’s ability to play video on repeat continuously, as “one would have noticed immediately that after the 10th plate the runner [stylus] had to be reshipped.”
There is nothing to indicate when a needle needs replacing, except a bad picture on screen. Replacing it involves opening up the machine, like replacing ink cartridges in a printer.
Multidisc Playing
From the beginning, to counteract the format’s limited play time, they were plans for disc changers to allow users to play multiple discs automatically. Initially, it was in the form of a multidisc magazine changer, which can play two discs at the same time to reduce transition time between discs. But when playing time doubled from five to ten minutes per disc, this was rethought, as “a short interruption after about ten minutes is acceptable”. A cheaper quick coupler was devised, which offered users more flexibility in choosing which discs they wanted to play next. In 1976 Sanyo developed a 12-disc autochanger. But none of these never reached consumers.
Content
Six publishers offered content on Bildplatte (“image
plates”) - Decca, Teldec Intertel, Telefunken (of course), Ufa/ATB, Ullstein AV
and Videophon. With a maximum play time of ten minutes, there was limits to
what content was available on the format, resulting in a very limiting library
of titles for consumers to buy.
At the Berlin Radio Show in 1973, plans were to release software
from November, which will include “pop music performances, classical music,
animated cartoons and sport and hobbies programs.”
In 1974 they reportedly had 150 titles ready, including Disney cartoons, feature films on 12-in discs, five-disc Laurel & Hardy films, a Polish ballet, and popular and classical music. Boxsets, containing multiple discs, were made - especially for feature films.
A catalogue advertising a range of over 130 titles
available on TeD (now and later) listed them in the following categories -
“Popular Knowledge” (documentaries, hobbies, and self-help)
“Entertainment” (music, sports, cartoons, and feature
films)
“Children’s and Youth Programs” (which also include
cartoons)
“Training/Further Education” (language courses, profession, and medical education material)
Highlights in that catalogue
include -
· Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) - first feature-length movie
released on the format (on a set of ten discs).
· Highlight clips from various noted
football matches
· An 18-part documentary series
exploring Alaska, Siberia, and Greenland
· Clips from the 1972 Munich Olympics
· 12 Asterix cartoons
· Judo Boy (“A cartoon series
from Japan, the land of judo and karate.”)
· A Videoshow, featuring Su Kramer, Jurgen Marcus, and The Les Humphries Singers.
Licensees
Telefunken offered a “very liberal licencing policy” when it came to allowing others to adopt the format. There was interest from Japan and some from the US. In 1972 Panasonic were said to be negotiating for a licence and Teldec was haggling with several US manufacturers. Sanyo was given a licence to produce an NTSC version of the format in 1973. It was shown at VIDCOM in Cannes in 1974. In 1975, Hitachi was negotiating for a licence. In 1976 the Nippon Video Systems software consortium was formed. Japan’s General Corporation took a manufacturing licence in July 1976, expecting TeD to be in the Japanese market in April 1977. That never happened, due it how successful TeD was back in Germany.
What Happened to TeD?
"The video disc, launched in
the spring [of 1975] with great advertising effort on the market, is still
struggling for recognition. Short playing time, high price, a poorly
thought-out range of programs curb consumers' desire to buy." – UFA Newsreel
(9th September 1975)
As soon as TeD went on sale in 1975 it was already considered a failure, with one Clive Irving, in New York Magazine, calling it “a Mickey Mouse affair.” Apart from its 10-minute per disc play time, one reason for this was, in 1972, Philips demonstrated a prototype for a superior technology, involving reading discs with lasers. This later evolved into the LaserDisc format and (later) the Compact Disc and the DVD. Dragging a needle along grooves began to look like old technology. Also, by 1975, the first video cassette recorders were already on sale in Europe. Also, as Europe was in an economic recession at the time, there was little appetite for new gadgets, let alone video players. And if one did, most would have bought a more versatile VCR than a TeD player. TeD disappeared from the market in 1977 and was pretty much dead by 1978, when Telefunken made their first VHS VCR. Like RCA, with its CED system, Telefunken didn’t fare well as a result of TeD.
TeD’s Second Life?
In the late-1970s Teldec took
another stab at the technology as a digital audio format. Digital data was
recorded in the same way analogue video was in the grooves (hills and dales)
and played back with a stylus. Discs came in two forms. “Mini-Disks” were 135mm
(5.3in) wide, double-sided 60-minute records in a caddy. “Mikrodisks” were 75mm
(2.9in) wide double-sided 10-minute stereo records, also in a caddy. In 1980,
after a demonstration, the DAD Committee, a study group set up by the Japanese
government to decide which digital audio disc format would become the industry’s
future standard, choose it for consideration, along with JVC’s Audio High
Density (AHD) disc and Philips and Sony’s Compact Disc. Telefunken argued that their
format’s players and discs final prices will be comparable to that of
high-quality turntables and vinyl LPs. In fact, conventional record presses
could be used to make disks. They could be even be cheaper to make, as three
minidisks or six mikrodisks can be pressed at once with the same press as a regular
LP. This format never left the prototype stage, due to lack of interest.
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