RCA SelectaVision

History
RCA SelectaVision originated as a line of video products in the late 1970s when RCA Corporation introduced the first VHS VCR in North America. Prior to this, during the 1960s, RCA was in the process of developing the CED (Capacitance Electronic Disc), which was a videodisc-based format. Basically, video and audio could be played back on a television set using a special stylus and high-density groove system similar to vinyl records (also called phonograph records). RCA waited too late until 1981 to officially launch the format and called it the SelectaVision VideoDisc.

Players
The players themselves were manufactured by three companies besides RCA, such as Hitachi Co., Ltd., Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. and Toshiba Corporation. However, the players were sometimes sold under the brands of seven other companies.

Market reception
The format's competitors, Koninklijke Philips N.V. and Pioneer Corporation, manufactured optical discs read with lasers called LaserDiscs instead. On April 4, 1984, after the sales of only 550,000 units, RCA announced that they were discontinuing the players. As a result of the huge financial losses, RCA was reacquired by General Electric Company (which originally owned the company between its 1919 foundation and 1932) in February 1986 and, by that point, abandoned the SelectaVision name.

Distributed libraries

 * 00100: 20th Century-Fox
 * 00200: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
 * 00300: National Telefilm Associates
 * 00400: RKO Pictures
 * 00500: ITC Entertainment
 * 00600: Paramount Pictures
 * 00700: Walt Disney Productions
 * 00800: Avco Embassy Pictures Corporation
 * 00900: New World Pictures
 * 01000: The Rank Organisation
 * 01100: Castle Hill Productions
 * 01200: NBC Enterprises, Inc.
 * 01300: United Feature Syndicate
 * 01400: United Artists Corporation
 * 01500: Viacom International
 * 01600: NFL Films
 * 01700: ABC Video Enterprises
 * 01800: Cinema 5 Distributing
 * 01900: Filmways Pictures
 * 02000: Miscellaneous, including:
 * Blue Marble Company
 * British Home Entertainment
 * Chrysalis Records
 * Community Television of Southern California
 * Corporation for Entertainment and Learning
 * The Cousteau Society
 * Dome Productions
 * Don Kirshner Productions
 * Fantasy Films
 * Grateful Dead Productions
 * Hartwest Productions
 * The Jackson Company
 * Learning Corporation of America
 * Major League Baseball Productions
 * MTM Enterprises
 * Quinn Martin Productions
 * RBC Films
 * Scholastic Productions
 * Special Events Entertainment
 * Survival Anglia Ltd.
 * Tomorrow Entertainment
 * WGBH Educational Foundation
 * 03000: Columbia Pictures
 * 03100: Warner Bros.
 * 03200: National Geographic Society
 * 03300: Universal Pictures
 * 03400: United Artists Corporation (continued)
 * 03600: Paramount Pictures (continued)
 * 04000: Columbia Pictures (continued)
 * 07000: Demo discs
 * 08000: New World Video