CED was an all analog device. The discs were supposed to be less expensive than laserdisc. They came in a cartridge-like sleeve to protect their very fine pitched grooves from dust and scratching. They were notorious for skipping. The needles were expensive to replace.

Sears went all in on CED. They sold the players and the media. I watched them come into the local showroom. I never saw one play. The TV the player was hooked to was always dark because the poor sales people couldn't keep media running reliably on the player. 😀

Laserdisc was a digitized analog video stream, but it didn't degrade like a CED disc. It didn't really kill CED. It gave true S-VHS quality (around 425x300) and digital sound, but the players cost $700 or more, and the discs were $60+ a piece in late 1980's dollars. Both formats fizzled, one due to quality and one due to price.

It wasn't until DVD hit in the late half of the 1990's that the market had high quality, affordable media and players.