RCA began developing its Capacitance Electronic Disc system in 1964 and finally launched SelectaVision in 1981: movies encoded in microscopic grooves on conductive vinyl and read with a physical stylus. RCA predicted the player would achieve higher first-year sales than any major video product in history. Instead, it arrived against videocassette machines that could both play and record.
The Smithsonian records that RCA stopped making the players in April 1984 because of poor sales and VCR competition. A future of home video arrived inside a plastic caddy, dragging a needle through yesterday.
Sources: Smithsonian National Museum of American History; RCA launch press release archive; CED development history.
Image: Athnex / Wikimedia Commons, public domain.