History Of DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format that is used to store video, audio and computer data. Also known as Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc, DVD was developed and invented by Sony in 1995. A DVD is capable of storing six times more data than a compact disc (CD), although both have the same dimensions. It encompasses home entertainment, computers and business information with a single digital format. Today, it has replaced laserdiscs, videotapes, various video game cartridge formats and many CD-ROM applications. It became the most successful consumer electronics product within three years of its introduction. Read on further to know some interesting and amazing information on the history, origin and background of DVD.

 

 

The year 1993 saw the development of two optical disc storage formats, by two different groups. The first group, backed by Phillips and Sony, came up with the MultiMedia Compact Disc (MMCD), while the other group, supported by Toshiba, Time Warner, Matsushita Electric, Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric, Pioneer, Thomson and JVC, developed the Super Density (SD) disc. Soon, IBM was approached by the SD camp asking for guidance on the file system to use for their disc. At the same time, the camp also intended to garner support for their format for storing computer data. At the same time, the researcher from IBM’s Almaden Research Center who had received the request from SD camp learnt about MMCD project.

 

Instead of taking an instant decision, the researcher created a group of computer industry experts that included representatives from Apple, Microsoft, Sun, Dell and many others. The group was titled as Technical Working Group or TWG. TWG decided to boycott both the disc storage formats, unless they came up with a single, converged standard. Phillips and Sony agreed to get together with the SD camp to launch a single format with technologies from both the groups. EFMPlus modulation, created by Kees Immink, was chosen for the purpose, since it was highly resilient to disc damage, such as scratches and fingerprints. This modulation was 6% less efficient, as it had a capacity of 4.7 GB as opposed to the modulation originally created by Toshiba, which gave a capacity of 5 GB.

 

Eventually, a single format was developed and it came to be known as DVD. The present DVD, which is being used for the DVD player and DVD-ROM computer applications, was finalized in December 1995. The DVD Video format was first introduced by Toshiba in Japan in November 1996, in the United States in March 1997, in Europe in October 1998, and in Australia in February 1999. The DVD Forum replaced the DVD Consortium in May 1997. By 2003, DVD sales and rentals outsold those of VHS. Major US retails stopped selling VHS and by June 2005, Wal-Mart and other retailers phased out the VHS format entirely to bring in the popular DVD format.

 

The PlayStation 2 (PS2) console that was sold by Sony in 2000 was able to play DVD movies, apart from video games. Since PS2 cost about the same as DVD player, most electronic stores that did not carry video games started carrying PS2s. In 2003, Sony introduced a multi-format DVD burner (combo drive or DVD-Multi), which is being offered by many manufacturers today, as it is compatible with multiple DVD formats. Today, there are different variations to DVDs, such as DVD-ROM (read only memory), DVD-R and DVD+R (recordable), DVD-RW (re-writable), DVD+RW and DVD-RAM (random access memory). There are two other types of DVDs as well, DVD-Video that can format and structure video content and DVD-Audio that can format and structure audio content.