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Not to be confused with disk laser, a flat-configuration solid-state laser. A disk laser or active mirror (Fig1 is a type of Solid-state laser characterized by a heat sink and laser output that are realized on opposite sides of A solid-state laser is a Laser that uses a gain medium that is a Solid, rather than a Liquid such as in Dye lasers or a Gas
Laserdisc
Comparison: Laserdisc and DVD (CD,BD).
Media type Optical disc
Encoding NTSC, PAL
Capacity 60 minutes CLV
30 minutes CAV
Developed by MCA
Usage Home video
Data Storage
Optical disc authoring
v • d • e
Optical media types
Standards
Further reading
Laserdisc certification mark
Laserdisc certification mark

The LaserDisc or Laserdisc (LD) was the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Mifu01jpg|200px|thumb|right|Chinese calligraphy written in a language content format by Song Dynasty (A NTSC ( National Television System Committee) is the Analog television system used in the United States, Canada, Japan, Mexico PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is a colour -encoding system used in Broadcast television systems in large parts of the world MCA Inc (or Music Corporation of America) was an American Corporation in the music and television businesses Home video is a blanket term used for pre-recorded media that is either sold or hired for home entertainment Optical disc authoring, including DVD and Blu-ray Disc authoring (often referred to colloquially but improperly as burning) is the process of assembling In Computing, an optical disc drive ( ODD) is a Disk drive that uses Laser light or electromagnetic waves near the Light spectrum Optical disc authoring, including DVD and Blu-ray Disc authoring (often referred to colloquially but improperly as burning) is the process of assembling Optical disc authoring software is Computer software for authoring optical discs including CD-ROMs and DVDs They are also known by synonyms Optical disc authoring requires a number of different technologies working in tandem from the media to the firmware to the control electronics of the drive. In Optical disc authoring, there are multiple modes for recording including Disc-At-Once, Track-At-Once, and Session-At-Once. Packet writing is an Optical disc recording technology used to allow write-once and rewritable CD and DVD media to be used in a similar manner to a Video Single Disc (abbreviated as VSD was a disc-based format that carried the same analog video information as a Laserdisc, but on a 12-centimetre (4 A Compact Disc (also known as a CD) is an Optical disc used to store digital data, originally developed for storing digital audio Red Book is the standard for audio CDs ( Compact Disc Digital Audio system or CDDA) The DTS-CD, DTS Audio CD or 51 Music Disc (official name is an audio Compact Disc that contains music in Surround sound format Super Audio CD ( SACD) is a read-only optical audio disc format that can provide higher fidelity digital audio reproduction than the Red Photo CD is a system designed by Kodak for digitizing and storing photos in a CD A CD-R ( C ompact D isc- R ecordable is a variation of the Compact Disc invented by Philips and Sony. CD-ROM (an initialism of "Compact Disc Read-Only Memory " is a pre-pressed Compact Disc that contains data accessible to but not writable Compact Disc ReWritable (CD-RW is a rewritable Optical disc format This article is about 'CD Video' a hybrid analog/digital format Super Video CD ( Super Video Compact Disc or SVCD) is a Digital format for storing Video on standard Compact discs SVCD was intended A CD+G (also known as CD+Graphics) is a special audio Compact disc that contains Graphics Data in addition to the audio data CD-Text is an extension of the Red Book Compact Disc specifications standard for Audio CDs It allows for storage of additional information (e CD-ROM XA is an extension of the Yellow Book Mode 2 standard for CD-ROMs that combines compressed audio visual and computer data allowing all to be accessed CD-i or Compact Disc Interactive is the name of an interactive multimedia CD player developed and marketed by Royal Philips Electronics N A MiniDisc ( MD) is a Magneto-optical disc-based Data storage device initially intended for storage of up to 80 minutes of digitized audio In January 2004 Sony announced the Hi-MD media storage format as a further development of the MiniDisc-Format. DVD (also known as " Digital Versatile Disc " or " Digital Video Disc " - see Etymology)is DVD-R is a DVD recordable format A DVD-R typically has a storage capacity of 4 A DVD+R is a once-writable Optical disc with 47 GB (4377 GiB) of storage capacity (more precisely 2295104 sectors of 2048 Bytes DVD-R DL (DL stands for Dual Layer) also called DVD-R9, is a derivative of the DVD-R format standard DVD+R DL (DL stands for Double Layer) also called DVD+R9, is a derivative of the DVD+R format created by the DVD+RW Alliance. A DVD-RW disc is a rewritable Optical disc with equal storage capacity to a DVD-R, typically 4 DVD+RW is the name of a standard for Optical discs one of several types of DVD, which hold up to about 4 DVD-RW DL is a rewritable Optical disc standard with storage capacity of 8 A DVD+RW DL is a rewritable Optical disc with storage capacity of 8 DVD-RAM ( DVD – Random Access Memory) is a disc specification presented in 1996 by the DVD Forum, which specifies rewritable DVD-RAM media and the appropriate DVD-Ds, also referred to as disposable DVDs are a type of digital video disc that is designed to be used for a maximum 48 hours after the containing package is opened Ultra Density Optical ( UDO) is an Optical disc format designed for high-density storage of high-definition video and The Universal Media Disc ( UMD) is an Optical disc medium developed by Sony for use on the PlayStation Portable. not insert the publicly disclosed HD DVD key into this article for the time being not insert the publicly disclosed HD DVD key into this article for the time being not insert the publicly disclosed HD DVD key into this article for the time being not insert the publicly disclosed HD DVD key into this article for the time being not insert the publicly disclosed HD DVD key into this article for the time being Blu-ray Disc recordable (or BD-R) refers to two Optical disc formats that can be recorded with an Optical disc recorder. For the series of US government publications on Computer security standards see Rainbow Series. ISO 9660 a standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO defines a File system for CD-ROM media Joliet is the name of an extension to the ISO 9660 File system. The Rock Ridge Interchange Protocol (RRIP IEEE P1282 is an extension to the ISO 9660 volume format which adds POSIX File system semantics The El Torito Bootable CD Specification is an extension to the ISO 9660 CD-ROM specification The primary file system for Apple Macintosh computers is HFS (or HFS+ Mount Rainier ( MRW) is a format for writable Optical discs which provides the Packet writing and defect management Although research into Optical data storage has been ongoing for many decades the first popular system was the Compact Disc, introduced in 1982, adapted to data The laserdisc has great storage capacity, but limited backup-medium capacity; primarily, this technology was an expensive, high quality home video format. Home video is a blanket term used for pre-recorded media that is either sold or hired for home entertainment The laserdisc was commercialised under these brand names: Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Videodisc, Disco-Vision, DiscoVision, and MCA DiscoVision.

Despite being technologically superior to VHS, the laserdisc was not as popular or as successful as it might have been; nevertheless, in the U. S. and Japan, there developed a niche following among collectors, more so in Japan where the laserdisc format was prevalent and so better supported. The compact disc, the DVD, the Blu-ray disc and all other optical-disc storage media formats developed since the laserdisc have technical features which originated with the laserdisc format. A Compact Disc (also known as a CD) is an Optical disc used to store digital data, originally developed for storing digital audio DVD (also known as " Digital Versatile Disc " or " Digital Video Disc " - see Etymology)is

Contents

History

Laserdisc technology, using a transparent disc[1], was invented by David Paul Gregg in 1958 (and patented in 1961 and 1990)[2][3]. David Paul Gregg was the inventor of the Laserdisc. Gregg was inspired to create the laserdisc in the late 1950s Year 1958 ( MCMLVIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1961 ( MCMLXI) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1990 ( MCMXC) was a Common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar) By 1969 Philips had developed a videodisc in reflective mode, which has great advantages over the transparent mode. Year 1969 ( MCMLXIX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV ( Royal Philips Electronics Inc. MCA and Philips decided to join their efforts. MCA Inc (or Music Corporation of America) was an American Corporation in the music and television businesses Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV ( Royal Philips Electronics Inc. They first publicly demonstrated the videodisc in 1972. Year 1972 ( MCMLXXII) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. LD was first available on the market, in Atlanta, on December 15, 1978, two years after the VHS VCR and four years before the CD, which is based on laserdisc technology. Events 533 - Byzantine general Belisarius defeats the Vandals, commanded by King Gelimer, at the Battle of Year 1978 ( MCMLXXVIII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1978 Gregorian calendar) PLEASE BEAR IN MIND THAT THIS IS A GENERAL ARTICLE ABOUT VCRs/VIDEOCASSETTE RECORDERS A Compact Disc (also known as a CD) is an Optical disc used to store digital data, originally developed for storing digital audio Philips produced the players and MCA the discs. The Philips/MCA cooperation was not successful, and discontinued after a few years. Several of the scientists responsible for the early research (Richard Wilkinson, Ray Deakin, and John Winslow) founded Optical Disc Corporation (now ODC Nimbus), and that company is still the world leader in optical disc mastering technology.

The first laserdisc title marketed in North America was the MCA DiscoVision release of Jaws in 1978. Jaws is a 1975 thriller / horror Film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley 's best-selling The last two titles released in North America were Paramount's Sleepy Hollow and Bringing Out the Dead in 2000. Sleepy Hollow is a 1999 period Horror film directed by Tim Burton, interpreting the legend of The Headless Horseman Bringing Out the Dead is a 1999 English language film directed by Martin Scorsese, and based on the novel by Joe Connelly. A dozen or so more titles continued to be released in Japan until the end of 2001. The last Japanese-released LD-format movie title was Tokyo Raiders. Tokyo Raiders ( ( Pinyin: Dōngjīng Gōnglüè is a 2000 Hong Kong action film set in Hong Kong and Tokyo

It was estimated that in 1998, laserdisc players were in approximately 2% of US households (roughly two million). [4] By comparison, in 1999, players were in 10% of Japanese households. [5] Laserdisc has been completely replaced by DVD in the North American retail marketplace, as neither players nor software are now produced there. DVD (also known as " Digital Versatile Disc " or " Digital Video Disc " - see Etymology)is Laserdisc has retained some popularity among American collectors and, to a greater degree, in Japan, where the format was better supported and more prevalent during its life. In Europe, laserdisc has always remained an obscure format.

Technical information

The standard home video laserdisc is 30 cm (11. 81 inches) in diameter and made up of two single-sided aluminum discs layered in plastic and bonded with glue. Although read and featuring properties similar to a compact disc or DVD, a Laserdisc is for the most part an entirely analog system with video stored in the composite domain with analog sound and/or some form of digital audio. A Compact Disc (also known as a CD) is an Optical disc used to store digital data, originally developed for storing digital audio DVD (also known as " Digital Versatile Disc " or " Digital Video Disc " - see Etymology)is Composite video is the format of an Analog television (picture only signal before it is combined with a sound signal and modulated onto an RF Digital audio uses Digital signals for Sound reproduction. This includes analog-to-digital conversion, digital-to-analog conversion, storage The first laserdiscs featured in 1978 were entirely analog but the format evolved to incorporate simple digital stereo sound to multi-channel formats such as Dolby Digital and DTS. Dolby Digital is the marketing name for a series of lossy audio compression technologies developed by Dolby DTS (also known as Digital Theater Systems) owned by DTS Inc ( is a multi-channel digital Surround sound format used for both commercial/theatrical

Since digital encoding and compression schemes were either unavailable or impractical in 1978, three encoding formats based on the rotation speed were used:

As Pioneer introduced Digital Audio to Laserdisc in 1985, they further refined the CAA format. CAA55 was introduced in 1985 with a total playback capacity of 55 minutes 5 seconds, and was necessary to resolve technical issues with the inclusion of Digital Audio. Several titles released between 1985 and 1987 were analog audio only due to the length of the title and the desire to keep the film on 1 disc (e. g. , "Back to the Future"). By 1987, Pioneer had overcome the technical challenges and was able to once again encode in CAA60—allowing a total of 60 minutes, 5 seconds. Pioneer further refined CAA, offering CAA45—encoding 45 minutes of material, but filling the entire playback surface of the side. Used on only a handful of titles, CAA65 offered 65 minutes 5 seconds of playback time. The final variant of CAA is CAA70, which could accommodate 70 minutes of playback time. There are not any known uses of this format on the consumer market.

All of these timing parameters are based on the NTSC standard of 30fps. The PAL and SECAM standards of 25fps increases the playback capacity of all the various formats by 20%.

Audio

Audio could be stored in either analog or digital format and in a variety of surround sound formats; NTSC discs could carry two analog audio tracks, plus two uncompressed PCM digital audio tracks, which were CD encoded channels, (EFM, CIRC, 16 bit and 44. Sound' is Vibration transmitted through a Solid, Liquid, or Gas; particularly sound means those vibrations composed of Frequencies 51, Multichannel audio, Multichannel music Surround 3D Surround 5 NTSC ( National Television System Committee) is the Analog television system used in the United States, Canada, Japan, Mexico For processes which reduce the amount of time it takes to listen to and understand a recording see Time-compressed speech. Digital audio uses Digital signals for Sound reproduction. This includes analog-to-digital conversion, digital-to-analog conversion, storage Eight-to-Fourteen Modulation ( EFM) is a data encoding technique used by CDs and pre- Hi-MD MiniDiscs EFM and EFMPlus were both invented 1 kHz sample rate)[6]. Sampling theorem The Nyquist–Shannon sampling theorem states that perfect reconstruction PAL discs could carry one pair of audio tracks, either analog or digital; in the UK the term LaserVision is used to refer to discs with analog sound, while LaserDisc is used for those with digital audio. PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is a colour -encoding system used in Broadcast television systems in large parts of the world The digital sound signal in both formats are EFM-encoded as in CD[6]. Eight-to-Fourteen Modulation ( EFM) is a data encoding technique used by CDs and pre- Hi-MD MiniDiscs EFM and EFMPlus were both invented A Compact Disc (also known as a CD) is an Optical disc used to store digital data, originally developed for storing digital audio Dolby Digital (also called AC-3) and DTS, which are now common on DVD titles, first became available on Laserdisc, and Star Wars: Episode I (1999) which was released on Laserdisc in Japan, is among the first home video releases ever to include 6. Dolby Digital is the marketing name for a series of lossy audio compression technologies developed by Dolby DTS (also known as Digital Theater Systems) owned by DTS Inc ( is a multi-channel digital Surround sound format used for both commercial/theatrical Star Wars Episode I Phantom Menace is a 1999 military sci-fi film written and directed by George Lucas. Year 1999 ( MCMXCIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar) 1 channel Dolby Digital EX Surround. [7] Unlike DVDs, which carry Dolby Digital audio in digital form, Laserdiscs store Dolby Digital in a frequency modulated form within a track normally used for analog audio. Extracting Dolby Digital from a Laserdisc required a player equipped with a special "AC-3 RF" output and an external demodulator in addition to an AC-3 decoder. For the drum and bass musician see Decoder (artist A decoder is a device which does the reverse of an Encoder, undoing the The demodulator was necessary to convert the 2. 88 MHz modulated AC-3 information on the disc into a 384 kbit/s signal that the decoder could handle. The hertz (symbol Hz) is a measure of Frequency, informally defined as the number of events occurring per Second. In telecommunications Bit rate or Data transfer rate is the average number of Bits characters or blocks per unit time passing between equipment in a data transmission DTS audio, when available on a disc, replaced the digital audio tracks; hearing DTS sound required only an optical digital audio connection to a DTS decoder. TOSLINK or Optical Cable is a standardized Optical fiber connection system

At least where the digital audio tracks were concerned, the sound quality was unsurpassed at the time, but the quality of the analog soundtracks varied greatly depending on the disc and, sometimes, the player. Many early and lower-end LD players had poor analog audio components, and many early discs had poorly mastered analog audio tracks, making digital soundtracks in any form most desirable to serious enthusiasts. Early DiscoVision and Laserdisc titles lacked the digital audio option, but many of those movies received digital sound in later re-issues by Universal, and the quality of analog audio tracks generally got far better as time went on. Many discs that had originally carried old analog stereo tracks received new Dolby Stereo and Dolby Surround tracks instead, often in addition to digital tracks, helping boost sound quality. Dolby Stereo (or Dolby Analog) was the original analog optical technology developed by Dolby Laboratories for 35 mm film prints in 1976 2 0-1 channels (dolby surround labelsvg|right|200px|thumb]] Dolby Surround was the earliest consumer version of Dolby's multichannel analog film sound decoding format Later analog discs also applied CX Noise Reduction, which improved the signal-noise ratio of their audio. CX is a Noise reduction system for recorded analog audio It was developed by CBS Laboratories (a division of CBS) in the early 1980s as a

Both AC-3 and DTS surround audio were clumsily implemented on Laserdiscs, leading to some interesting player- and disc-dependent issues. A disc that included AC-3 audio forfeited the right analog audio channel to the modulated AC-3 stream. If the player did not have an AC-3 decoder available, the next most attractive playback option would be the digital Dolby Surround or stereo audio tracks. If either the player did not support digital audio tracks (common in older players), or the disc did not include digital audio tracks at all (uncommon for a disc which is mastered with an AC-3 track), the only remaining option was to fall back to a monophonic presentation of the left analog audio track. However, many older analog-only players not only failed to decode AC-3 streams, but weren't even aware of their potential existence. Such a player will happily play the analog audio tracks verbatim, resulting in garbage output in the right channel.

On a DTS disc, digital PCM audio is not available, so if a DTS decoder was also not available, the only option is to fall back to the analog Dolby Surround or stereo audio tracks. In some cases, the analog audio tracks were further made unavailable through replacement with supplementary audio such as isolated scores or audio commentary. This effectively reduced playback of a DTS disc on a non-DTS equipped system to mono audio—or in a handful of cases, no film soundtrack at all. [8]

Only one 5. 1 surround sound option existed on a given Laserdisc (either Dolby Digital or DTS), so if surround sound is desired, the disc must be matched to the capabilities of the playback equipment (LD Player and Receiver/Decoder) by the purchaser. A fully capable Laserdisc playback rig includes a newer Laserdisc player that is capable of playing digital tracks, has a digital optical output for digital PCM and DTS audio, is aware of AC-3 audio tracks, and has an AC-3 coaxial output; an external or internal AC-3 RF demodulator and AC-3 decoder; and a DTS decoder. Many A/V receivers combine the AC-3 decoder and DTS decoder logic, but an integrated AC-3 demodulator is rare both in Laserdisc players and in newer A/V receivers. [9]

Hardware

The earliest players used Helium-neon laser tubes to read the media with red-orange light, later players used infrared semiconductor laser diodes. A helium-neon laser, usually called a HeNe laser, is a type of small Gas laser. Infrared ( IR) radiation is Electromagnetic radiation whose Wavelength is longer than that of Visible light, but shorter than that of A semiconductor' is a Solid material that has Electrical conductivity in between a conductor and an insulator; it can vary over that A laser diode is a Laser where the active medium is a Semiconductor similar to that found in a Light-emitting diode. It is difficult to find one of the tube players now, in part because of the limited operating lifetime of laser tubes, but mostly because they represent only a small fraction of the total players made. Optical hobbyists have also been known to cannibalize the laser tube machines, further depleting their ranks.

Most machines made were single-sided; players which required manually turning the disk over to play the other side. A number of players were made that were 'double-sided', in that the machine could automatically reverse the spin direction and move the pickup head to the other side of the disk.

Many Laserdisc players manufactured from the late 1980s through the time of the format's death had both composite (red, white and yellow RCA type connectors) and S-Video outputs on the rear panel. The 1980s was the decade spanning from January 1 1980 to December 31 1989. An RCA jack, also referred to as a phono connector or CINCH/AV connector, is a type of Electrical connector that is commonly used in the audio/video Super Video or Separated Video abbreviated S-Video and also known as Y/C is an analog video signal that carries the video data as two separate When using the S-Video connection, the player would utilize its own internal comb filter, designed to help reduce picture noise by separating the luminance (brightness) and color parts of the signal, while using the composite outputs forced the player to rely on the comb filter of the display device. In Signal processing, a comb filter adds a delayed version of a signal to itself causing constructive and destructive interference. Although using the S-Video connection was often considered to yield superior results in the late 80s and early 1990s, most of today's mid and high level television sets contain better comb filters than the vast majority of players were equipped with. In these instances, where a player is being used with a more modern display, using the composite output and allowing the display device's internal comb filter to do the work may yield better results.

Combi-players

Most players made after the mid-1980s were capable of also playing audio CDs. These players included a 12cm (5 inch) indentation in the loading tray, where the CD would be placed for play. At least one Pioneer model also operated as a CD-changer, with several 12cm indentations around the circumference of the main tray.

In 1996, the first model DVD/LD combi-player (and first Pioneer DVD player, for that matter) was the Pioneer DVL-9 released in Japan. The Pioneer Elite DVL-90, an updated version, followed by a similar, though supposedly lower-end model, the DVL-700, were released in 1997. Successors to this model include the Pioneer DVL-909, Pioneer DVL-919, and the Pioneer Elite DVL-91. Although the DVD/LD combi players offered competent LD performance, they paled in comparison to high end LD players such as the Pioneer Elite CLD-99 and the Pioneer Hi-Vision/MUSE HLD-X9.

The Pioneer DVL-909 lacks support for DTS output. However, a modification to the player can allow this player to support DTS streams on DTS discs, essentially turning the DVL-909 into a Pioneer Elite DVL-91.

The last model DVD/LD player was the Japanese only DVL-H9, but the older DVL-919 is still sold in the U. S. and appears on Pioneer's North American website. However, it has not been actively marketed since the late 1990s. The DVL-919 supports DTS output. The DVL-919's DVD section is unremarkable by modern standards, and does not support progressive scan (480p) even though it has component output. As noted above, the LD section, while competent, is inferior to earlier high end LD players. A few Pioneer dealers offer North American specification DVL-919s, and a unit purchased in April 2004 had a manufacture date of December 2003. Pioneer representatives reportedly state that the product is officially discontinued, and that warranty coverage for 919s will be based on the date of manufacture rather than on the date of sale.

High-end Japanese players

Certain Japanese players, which are considered to be of higher quality or of greater capacity for quality playback than the North American units, are occasionally imported by enthusiasts. These include the CLD-R7G, LD-S9, HLD-X9 and HLD-X0. All four are manufactured by Pioneer and three contain technology that was never officially available in North American Laserdisc players.

The CLD-R7G, LD-S9 and HLD-X9 share a highly advanced comb filter, allowing them to offer a considerable advantage in picture quality over most other LD players when the S-Video connection is used. In Signal processing, a comb filter adds a delayed version of a signal to itself causing constructive and destructive interference. The comb filter present in these players is unique and is purportedly the finest comb filter ever used in consumer A/V gear: it is still currently in use in Mitsubishi's top-spec CRT rear-projection television sets (the Diamond and now defunct Platinum series sets) and Pioneer's Elite line of rear-projection televisions.

In addition to the advanced comb filter, the HLD-X9 contains a red-laser pickup, which significantly reduces crosstalk and picture-noise levels compared to players with the traditional infrared laser; it can also read through all but the worst cases of laser rot and surface wear. Laser rot (sometimes written as "LaserRot" after the original product name "LaserDisc" was a phenomenon observed by some users of the Laserdisc format in The HLD-X9 is, lastly, also a MUSE player, capable when properly equipped of playing back high definition Laserdiscs, called Hi-Vision or MUSE discs in Japan. MUSE ( Multiple Sub-nyquist Sampling Encoding System also known as Hi-Vision for marketing purposes was an early high-definition analog television standard developed

The HLD-X0 is Pioneer's original MUSE player, and is the player of choice for many enthusiasts despite the fact that it lacks the comb filter shared by the R7G, S9 and X9. It was entirely hand built from hand picked electronics and weighed a massive 36 kilograms. Many argue that the newer X9 was a more capable MUSE player but that the X0 had superior performance with standard NTSC discs. Nonetheless, the X9 remains the more popular of the two models, as it includes the newer comb filter and is a dual-side player, meaning that double sided discs don't need to be manually flipped over in order for both sides to be played.

Branding

During its development, MCA, which owned the technology, referred to it as the Reflective Optical Videodisc System; changing the name once in 1969 to Disco-Vision and then again in 1978 to DiscoVision (without the hyphen), which became the official spelling. MCA Inc (or Music Corporation of America) was an American Corporation in the music and television businesses Year 1969 ( MCMLXIX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. DiscoVision is the name of several things related to the video Laserdisc format Year 1978 ( MCMLXXVIII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1978 Gregorian calendar) MCA owned the rights to the largest catalog of films in the world during this time, and they manufactured and distributed the DiscoVision releases of those films under the "MCA DiscoVision" label beginning on December 15, 1978. Events 533 - Byzantine general Belisarius defeats the Vandals, commanded by King Gelimer, at the Battle of Year 1978 ( MCMLXXVIII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1978 Gregorian calendar)

Pioneer Electronics also entered the optical disc market in 1978, manufacturing players and printing discs under the name Laser Videodisc. ( is a Multinational Corporation that specializes in digital entertainment products based in Tokyo, Japan. For 1980 the name was compressed into LaserDisc and in 1981 the intercap was eliminated and "Laserdisc" became the final and common name for the format, supplanting the use of the "DiscoVision" name, which disappeared shortly thereafter; titles released by MCA became MCA Laserdiscs or (later) MCA-Universal Laserdiscs. Year 1980 ( MCMLXXX) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1980 Gregorian calendar) Year 1981 ( MCMLXXXI) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link displays the 1981 CamelCase (also spelled " camel case " and sometimes known as medial capitals) is the practice of writing compound words or phrases in which the The format has been incorrectly referred to as LV or LaserVision, although this actually refers to a line of Philips brand players; the term VDP or Video Disc Player was a somewhat more common and more correct name for players in general. Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV ( Royal Philips Electronics Inc.

During the early years, MCA also manufactured discs for other companies including Paramount, Disney and Warner Bros. Some of them added their own names to the disc jacket to signify that the movie was not owned by MCA. Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American motion picture production and Distribution company, based in Hollywood California. Warner Bros Entertainment Inc (or Warner Bros, Warner Bros Pictures) is one of the world's largest producers of Film and When MCA merged into Universal years later, Universal began reissuing many of the early DiscoVision titles as MCA-Universal discs. Universal Studios (sometimes called Universal Pictures or Universal City Studios) a subsidiary of NBC Universal, is a major Global American The DiscoVision versions had largely been available only in pan and scan and had often utilized poor transfers, the newer versions improved greatly in terms of both audio and video quality. Pan and scan is one method of adjusting Widescreen film images so that they can be shown within the proportions of a Standard definition 43 aspect ratio

Significant players

Laserdisc vs. The Pioneer CLD-1010 is a Laserdisc player introduced by Pioneer Electronics in 1987 as the last of their top-spec players not to be part of their "Elite" The Pioneer CLD-D703 was a part of Pioneer's seven-hundred-series of upper-mid-range Laserdisc players and the first player in the family The Pioneer HLD-X0 is a Laserdisc player manufactured by Pioneer Electronics in 1995 for sale in Japan. The DVL-XXXX Series of LaserDisc home video players were manufactured by Pioneer Corporation and were some of the last LaserDisc players manufactured before the format's retirement VHS

LD had a number of advantages over VHS. It featured a far sharper picture with a horizontal resolution of 425 TVL lines for NTSC and 440 TVL lines for PAL discs, while VHS only featured 240 TVL lines. Image resolution describes the detail an Image holds The term applies equally to Digital images film images and other types of images It could handle analog and digital audio where VHS was analog only, and the NTSC discs could store multiple audio tracks. This allowed for extras like director's commentary tracks and other features to be added on to a film, creating "Special Edition" releases that would not have been possible with VHS. Disc access was random and chapter based, like the DVD format, meaning that one could jump to any point on a given disc very quickly. By comparison, VHS would require tedious rewinding and fast-forwarding to get to specific points. Laserdiscs were cheaper than videocassettes to manufacture, because they lack the moving parts and plastic outer shell that are necessary for VHS tapes to work. A VHS cassette has at least 14 parts including the actual tape while laserdisc has one part with five or six layers.

Moreover, because the discs are read optically instead of magnetically, no physical contact needs to be made between the player and the disc, except for the player's clamp that holds the disc at its center as it is spun and read. As a result, playback does not wear the information-bearing part of the discs, and properly manufactured LDs will theoretically last beyond one's lifetime (however, see Laser rot, below). The Laserdisc (LD is an obsolete Home video disc format and was the first commercial Optical disc storage medium By contrast, a VHS tape holds all of its picture and sound information on the tape in a magnetic coating which is in contact with the spinning heads on the head drum, causing progressive wear with each use. Also, the tape is thin and delicate, and it is easy for a player mechanism (especially on a low quality or malfunctioning model) to mishandle the tape and damage it by creasing it, frilling (stretching) its edges, or even breaking it.

Special Editions

The format's support for multiple audio tracks allowed for vast supplemental materials to be included on-disc and made it the first available format for "Special Edition" releases; the 1984 Criterion Collection edition of Citizen Kane is generally credited as being the first "Special Edition" release to home video, and for setting the standard by which future SE discs were measured. Events The Walt Disney Company founds Touchstone Pictures to release movies with subject matter deemed inappropriate for the Disney name The Criterion Collection is a Privately held company that distributes "authoritative" consumer versions of "important classic and contemporary films" Citizen Kane ( 1941) is an American Dramatic film, and the first Feature film directed by Orson Welles, who also co-authored In addition, the format's instant seeking capability made it possible for a new breed of Laserdisc-based video arcade games, beginning with Dragon's Lair, to be born. An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in businesses such as Restaurants Pubs Video arcades and Family Entertainment Dragon's Lair was one of the first Laserdisc video games released in June 1983 by Cinematronics.

Disadvantages of the format

Despite the apparent advantages over competing technology at the time (namely VHS), the format was not without its flaws. The discs were 12" in diameter, heavy, cumbersome, easier to damage when handling than a VHS cassette, and manufacturers did not market LD units with recording capabilities to consumers. Also, because of their size, greater mechanical effort was required to spin the discs at the proper speed, resulting in much more noise generated than other media.

Despite their large physical size, the space-consuming analog video signal of a Laserdisc limited playback duration to 30 or 60 minutes per side because of their refusal to reduce line count for increased playtime. After one side was finished playing, a disc would have to be flipped over in order to continue watching the film, and many films required two discs or more. Many players, especially units built after the mid-1980s, could "flip" discs automatically by rotating the optical pickup to the other side of the disc, but this was accompanied by a pause in the movie during the side change. If the movie was longer than what could be stored on 2 sides of a single disc, manually swapping to a second disc would be necessary at some point during the film. One exception to this rule is the Pioneer LD-W1, which had two disc platters.

Laser rot

Main article: Laser rot

To make matters worse, many early LDs were not manufactured properly; sometimes a substandard adhesive was used to sandwich together the two sides of the disc. Laser rot (sometimes written as "LaserRot" after the original product name "LaserDisc" was a phenomenon observed by some users of the Laserdisc format in The adhesive contained impurities that were able to penetrate the lacquer seal layer and chemically attack the metalized reflective aluminum layer, causing it to oxidize and lose its reflective characteristics. Redox (shorthand for reduction-oxidation reaction describes all Chemical reactions in which atoms have their Oxidation number ( Oxidation state This was a problem that was coined "laser rot" (or, "LaserRot", after the original official camel-case "LaserDisc" name of the underlying product) among LD enthusiasts. CamelCase (also spelled " camel case " and sometimes known as medial capitals) is the practice of writing compound words or phrases in which the Some forms of laser rot could appear as black spots that looked like mold or burned plastic which would cause the disc to skip and the movie to exhibit excessive speckling noise. But, for the most part, rotted discs may actually appear perfectly fine to the naked eye.

Later optical standards have been known to suffer similar problems, including a notorious batch of defective CDs manufactured by Philips-DuPont Optical in Europe during the early 1990s. CD rot (or DVD rot) is a phrase describing the tendency of CD or DVD disks to become unreadable due to physical or chemical deterioration The 1990s collectively refers to the years between and including 1990 and 1999

Coincidentally, the Laserdisc movie that has the most reported laser rot is the film Eraser (1996), as noted by the contributors of LaserDisc Database. Eraser is a 1996 Action film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Vanessa Williams. Year 1996 ( MCMXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar) The discs for this title were replicated by Sony Digital Audio Disc Corporation, U. S. , in Terre Haute, Indiana. Terre Haute ( is a city in Vigo County, Indiana near the state's western border with Illinois.

Laserdisc vs. DVD

Video

Laserdisc is a composite video format: the luminance (black and white) and chrominance (color) information are transmitted in one signal and it is the responsibility of the receiver to separate them. Composite video is the format of an Analog television (picture only signal before it is combined with a sound signal and modulated onto an RF While good comb filters can do so adequately, these two signals cannot be completely separated. On DVDs, data is stored in the form of blocks which make up each independent frame. The signal produced is dependent on the equipment used to master the disc. Signals range from composite and split, to YUV and RGB. Dependent upon which format used this can result in far higher fidelity, particularly at strong color borders or regions of high detail (particularly if there is moderate movement in the picture) and low-contrast details like skin tones, where comb filters almost inevitably smudge some detail.

Compared to the entirely digital DVD, Laserdiscs use only analog video. As the Laserdisc format is not digitally encoded and does not make use of compression techniques, it is immune from video macroblocking (most visible as blockiness during high motion sequences) or contrast banding (subtle visible lines in gradient areas, such as skies or light casts from spotlights) that can be caused by the MPEG-2 encoding process as video is prepared for DVD. A compression artifact (or artefact) is the result of an aggressive Data compression scheme applied to an Image, audio, or Video Colour banding is a problem of inaccurate colour presentation in Computer graphics. MPEG-2 is a standard for "the generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information" However, proprietary human-assisted encoders manually operated by specialist experts can vastly reduce the incidence of artifacts.


Audio

DVDs almost exclusively use compressed audio formats such as Dolby Digital and DTS which offer multichannel sound. Dolby Digital is the marketing name for a series of lossy audio compression technologies developed by Dolby DTS (also known as Digital Theater Systems) owned by DTS Inc ( is a multi-channel digital Surround sound format used for both commercial/theatrical Most Laserdiscs were encoded with stereo (often Dolby Surround) CD quality audio 16bit/44kHz tracks as well as analog audio tracks. [10] Many later release Laserdiscs included Dolby Digital and DTS audio tracks but at slightly lower bitrates than DVD. Dolby Digital is the marketing name for a series of lossy audio compression technologies developed by Dolby DTS (also known as Digital Theater Systems) owned by DTS Inc ( is a multi-channel digital Surround sound format used for both commercial/theatrical


Other Differences

Given the analog nature of Laserdiscs, without any forms of checksum or error correction, slight dust and scratches cause various problems that could affect video quality. Wearout and/or calibration drift on the playback hardware also play a role in degrading video quality, audio quality, and tracking accuracy. In contrast, the DVD format's digital nature and error correction ensures that the signal from a damaged disc will remain identical to that from a perfect disc right up until read errors become so bad as to prevent the disc from producing any usable data.

In the beginning, another advantage of LD was that you could skim over damaged spots, while a DVD would become unusable. Some newer DVD players feature a repair+skip algorithm, which alleviates this problem by continuing to play the disc, filling in unreadable areas of the picture with blank space or a frozen frame of the last readable image/sound. The success of this feature depends a lot upon the amount of damage. LD players, when working in full analog, recover from such errors faster than DVD players. Direct comparison is, however, almost impossible due to the differences between the two media. A 1" scratch on a DVD will probably cause more problems than a 1" scratch on an LD, but a fingerprint taking up, say, 1% of the area of a DVD would almost certainly cause fewer problems than a similar mark covering 1% of the surface of an LD.

Laserdisc players sometimes suffered a problem known as "crosstalk" on extended play discs, usually with equipment requiring service of the laser optical pickup assembly when this occurs. However, the problem with crosstalk may also occur with poorly manufactured CLV Laserdiscs or with discs that are excessively warped. The issue comes up when the optical pickup inside the player accidentally picks up the encoded video information from a track adjacent to where it was reading on the disc. The added information shows up as distortion in the picture, looking reminiscent of and referred to as "barber poles". Some players were better at compensating for and/or avoiding crosstalk entirely than others, provided that the cause of crosstalk was the disc and not the player. There is no crosstalk distortion on CAV standard play Laserdiscs as the rotational speed never varies, but, if the player calibration is out of order or if the CAV disc is faulty, other problems affecting tracking accuracy could occur, such as "laser lock", where the player reads the same track and, thus, the same two fields for one frame over and over again, causing the picture to freeze as if in pause.

On most television sets a given DVD player will produce a picture that is visually indistinguishable from other units, and quality differences between players only becomes easily apparent with higher-end equipment due to some post-processing of the MPEG-2 stream. In contrast, Laserdisc playback quality is highly dependent on hardware decoder quality (as with any analog format). Major variances in picture quality could appear between different makes and models of LD players, even when tested on a low to mid-range television. This had long lasting ramifications, as the pricing for high end players has remained comparably high (anywhere from US$200 to well over $1,000), while older and less desirable players can be purchased in working condition for as little as $25. The United States dollar ( sign: $; code: USD) is the unit of Currency of the United States; it has also been

Laserdisc players were known to provide the operator with a great degree of control over the playback process. Unlike many DVD players, the operator is immediately tied to the transport mechanism: pause, fast-forward, and fast-reverse commands are always accepted. There were no "User Prohibited Options" where content protection code instructs the player to refuse commands to skip a specific part (such as fast forwarding through an FBI warning). However, some DVD players, particularly in the higher-end units, have the ability to ignore the blocking code and play the video without restrictions. With CAV laserdiscs the user can access each individual frame of a video; a feature not common among DVD players. However, Some DVD players have cache features which stores a certain amount of the video in RAM which allows the player to index a DVD as quickly as an LD, even down to the frame in some players.


Some of the Arguments

While Dolby Digital and DTS offer multichannel sound, many Laserdisc enthusiasts claim that the uncompressed PCM tracks often can outperform the respective DVDs of a title in richness and depth (and, because of the ways in which 5. 1 tracks are often mastered, in dimension as well). One important factor in newer DVD releases' small advancement over Laserdiscs is their opting for 16bit/44kHz sound in lieu of the DVD standard's little-known 24bit/96kHz capabilities.

Some Laserdisc proponents believe analog laserdisc is theoretically capable of higher quality than the lossy quality of DVD. A lossy compression method is one where compressing data and then decompressing it retrieves data that may well be different from the original but is close enough to be useful Early DVD demo discs often had compression or encoding problems, lending additional support to such claims at the time. However, "LD-perfection" is rarely achieved in practice. Only the best LDs in the best playback systems exhibit such superior quality in comparison to the newer DVDs. Proponents of Laserdisc argue that Laserdisc maintains a "smoother", more "film-like" image while DVD still looks slightly more artificial. This is similar to the CD versus LP sound quality debates common in the audiophile community.

Comparison to other media

This is a list of modern-day, digital-type measurements (and traditional, analog horizontal resolutions in TV lines per picture height) for various media. The list only includes popular formats, not rare formats, and all values are approximate (rounded to the nearest 10), since the actual quality can vary machine-to-machine or tape-to-tape. For PAL media, replace 480 with 576 and 240 with 288. For ease-of-comparison all values are for the NTSC system, and listed in ascending order from lowest quality to highest quality.

Success of the format

The format was not well-received outside of videophile circles in North America due in large part to the high cost of the players and discs, which were far more expensive than VHS decks and tapes. A videophile (literally "one who loves sight" is one who is concerned with achieving high-quality results in the recording and playback of movies TV programs etc However, the format was more popular in Japan where prices were kept low to ensure adoption, resulting in minimal price differences between VHS tapes and the higher quality Laserdiscs. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. LD also quickly became the dominant format of choice amongst Japanese collectors of anime, who sought the higher video and sound quality of laserdisc and the availability of numerous titles not available on VHS. (anime in Japanese, Laserdiscs were also popular alternatives to videocasettes among movie enthusiasts in the more affluent regions of South East Asia, such as Singapore, due to their high integration with the Japanese export market and the disc-based media's superior longetivity compared to videocassette, especially in humid conditions.

The format also became quite popular in Hong Kong during the 1990s before the introduction of VCDs and DVD; although people rarely bought the discs, high rental activity helped the video rental business in the city grow larger than it had ever been previously. Hong Kong ( officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a territory located on China 's south coast on the Pearl River Delta, and borders The 1990s collectively refers to the years between and including 1990 and 1999

Despite the mild popularity, manufacturers refused to market recordable Laserdisc devices on the consumer market, even though the competing VCR devices could record onto cassette, which hurt sales worldwide. PLEASE BEAR IN MIND THAT THIS IS A GENERAL ARTICLE ABOUT VCRs/VIDEOCASSETTE RECORDERS The inconvenient disc size, the high cost of both the players and the media and the inability to record onto the discs combined to take a serious toll on sales, and contributed to the format's mediocre adoption figures.

Although the Laserdisc format has been supplanted by DVD, many LDs are still highly coveted by movie enthusiasts. This is largely because there are many films that are still only available on LD and many other LD releases contain supplemental material not available on subsequent DVD versions of those films.

LD players are also sometimes found in contemporary North American high school and college physics classrooms, in order to play a disc of the Physics: Cinema Classics series of mid-20th century Encyclopædia Britannica films reproducing classic experiments in the field which are difficult or impossible to replicate in the laboratories in educational settings. High school is the name used in some parts of the world (in particular Scotland, North America and Australia) to describe an institution Physics (Greek Physis - φύσις in everyday terms is the Science of Matter and its motion. The twentieth century of the Common Era began on The Encyclopædia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopaedia published by Encyclopædia Britannica Inc [11] These films have now been released on DVD. [12]

Laserdisc variations

Computer control

Early in the eighties, Philips produced a Laserdisc player model adapted for a computer interface, dubbed "professional". When hooked to a PC this combination could be used to display images or information for educational or archival purposes, for example thousands of scanned medieval manuscripts. This strange device could be considered a very early equivalent of a CD-ROM. In one case such a "Laserdisc-ROM" was still present, although rarely used. In 1986, a SCSI equipped Laserdisc player attached to a BBC Master computer was used for the BBC Domesday Project.

Apple's HyperCard scripting language provided Macintosh computer users with a means to design databases of slides, animation, video and sounds from Laserdiscs and then to create interfaces for users to play specific content from the disc. HyperCard was an Application program created by Bill Atkinson for Apple Computer Inc User-created "stacks" were shared and were especially popular in education where teacher-generated stacks were used to access discs ranging from art collections to basic biological processes. Commercially available stacks were also popular with the Voyager company being possibly the most successful distributor. [13]

Commodore International's 1992 multimedia presentation system for the Amiga, AmigaVision, included device drivers for controlling a number of Laserdisc players through a serial port. Commodore, the commonly used name for Commodore International, was a US-American Electronics company based in West Chester Pennsylvania The Amiga is a family of Personal computers originally developed by Amiga Corporation. Coupled with the Amiga's ability to use a Genlock, this allowed for the Laserdisc video to be overlaid with computer graphics and integrated into presentations and multimedia displays, years before such practice was commonplace. Genlock (for Gen erator Lock) is a common technique where the Video output of one source or a specific reference signal is used to synchronize

Pioneer also made computer-controlled units such as the LD-V2000. It had a back-panel RS-232 serial connection through a 5-pin DIN connector, and no front-panel controls except Open/Close. In Telecommunications, RS-232 (Recommended Standard 232 is a standard for serial binary data signals connecting between a DTE ( Data Terminal Equipment A DIN connector is a connector that was originally standardized by the Deutsches Institut für Normung (DIN the German national standards organization (The disc would be played automatically upon insertion. )

Under contract from the U. S. Military, Matrox produced a combination computer laserdisc player for instructional purposes. The computer was a 286, the laserdisc player only capable of reading the analog audio tracks. Together they weighed 43 pounds and sturdy handles were provided in case 2 people were required to lift the unit. The computer controlled the player via a 25-pin serial port at the back of the player and a ribbon cable connected to a proprietary port the motherboard. Many of these were sold as surplus by the military during the 90s, often without the controller software. It is nevertheless possible to control the unit by removing the ribbon cable and connecting a serial cable directly from the computer's serial port to the port on the laserdisc player.

Video games

Main article: Laserdisc video game

A number of companies used the Laserdisc format as the basis for arcade video games during the 1980s and early 1990s, most notably Dragon's Lair and Space Ace. A laserdisc video game is an Arcade game that uses pre-recorded video (either Live-action or Animation) played from a Laserdisc, either as the The 1980s was the decade spanning from January 1 1980 to December 31 1989. The 1990s collectively refers to the years between and including 1990 and 1999 Dragon's Lair was one of the first Laserdisc video games released in June 1983 by Cinematronics. Space Ace is a Laserdisc video game produced by Don Bluth Studios Cinematronics, and Advanced Microcomputer Systems (later renamed RDI Video Hardware in the arcade cabinet jumped to various scenes on the Laserdisc according to the player's actions. The ability of Laserdisc to use full-motion video provided significantly more detailed and complex visuals (although at the expense of interactivity due to the non-realtime nature of the format) than the simplistic sprite-based graphics of other arcade games at the time. Significant players in the Laserdisc video game market included American Laser Games and Cinematronics. American Laser Games was a company based in Albuquerque, New Mexico that created a wide variety of Light gun Laserdisc video games The company Cinematronics Incorporated was a pioneering Arcade game developer that had its heyday in the era of vector display games

MUSE LD

In 1991, several manufacturers announced specifications for what would become known as MUSE Laserdisc, representing a span of almost 15 years until the feats of this HD analog optical disc system would finally be duplicated digitally by HD DVD and Blu-ray. This article compares the technical specifications of HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc, two mutually incompatible high definition optical disc formats that beginning in 2006 attempted Encoded using NHK's MUSE "Hi-Vision" analogue TV system, MUSE discs would operate like standard Laserdiscs but would contain high-definition 1125-line (1035 visible lines) video with a 5:3 aspect ratio. or Japan Broadcasting Corporation, is Japan 's Public broadcaster. MUSE ( Multiple Sub-nyquist Sampling Encoding System also known as Hi-Vision for marketing purposes was an early high-definition analog television standard developed The MUSE players were also capable of playing standard NTSC format discs and are superior in performance to non-MUSE players even with these NTSC discs. The MUSE-capable players had several noteworthy advantages over standard Laserdisc players, including a red laser with a much narrower wavelength than the lasers found in standard players. The red laser was capable of reading through disc defects such as scratches and even mild disc-rot that would cause most other players to stop, stutter or drop-out. Laser rot (sometimes written as "LaserRot" after the original product name "LaserDisc" was a phenomenon observed by some users of the Laserdisc format in Crosstalk was not an issue with MUSE discs, and the narrow wavelength of the laser allowed for the virtual elimination of crosstalk with normal discs.

In order to view MUSE encoded discs, it was necessary to have a MUSE decoder in addition to a compatible player. There are televisions with MUSE decoding built-in and set top tuners with decoders that can provide the proper MUSE input. Equipment prices were high, especially for early HDTVs which generally eclipsed US$10,000, and even in Japan the market for MUSE was tiny. Players and discs were never officially sold in North America, although several distributors imported MUSE discs along with other import titles. Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Lawrence of Arabia, A League of Their Own, Bugsy, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Bram Stoker's Dracula and Chaplin were among the theatrical releases available on MUSE LDs. Terminator 2 Judgment Day, commonly abbreviated as T2, is a 1991 action / Science fiction film directed co-written Lawrence of Arabia is a 1962 Epic film based on the life of T A League of Their Own is a 1992 Comedy-drama Film that tells a fictionalized account of the real-life All-American Girls Professional Bugsy is a 1991 film which tells the story of mobster Bugsy Siegel. Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a 1977 Science fiction film directed and written by Steven Spielberg. Bram Stoker's Dracula (aka Dracula) is a 1992 horror - Romance film produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola Several documentaries, including one about Formula One at Japan's Suzuka Circuit were also released. Suzuka International Racing Course ( Suzuka Circuit for short is a co-host of the Formula One Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix, and

Laserdisc sizes

The most common size of Laserdisc was 30 cm (12 inches). These approximated the size of LP vinyl records. A gramophone These discs allowed for 30 minutes per side (CAV) or 60 minutes per side (CLV). The vast majority of programming for the Laserdisc format was produced on these discs.

20 cm (8 inches) Laserdiscs were also published. These "EP"-sized LDs allowed for 20 minutes per side (CLV). An extended play ( EP) is a Vinyl record, CD, or Music download which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify They are much rarer than the full-size LDs, especially in North America. These discs were often used for music video compilations (e. g. , Bon Jovi's "Breakout", Bananarama's "Video Singles" or T'Pau's "View From A Bridge"). Bon Jovi is an American Hard rock band from Sayreville New Jersey. Bananarama are an English Girl group who have had success on the T'Pau was a late 1980s pop group led by Singer Carol Decker. They had a string of Top 40 hits in the UK, and

There were also 12 cm (5 inches) "single"-style discs produced that were playable on Laserdisc players. These were referred to as CD Video (CD-V) discs, and Video Single Discs (VSD). This article is about 'CD Video' a hybrid analog/digital format Video Single Disc (abbreviated as VSD was a disc-based format that carried the same analog video information as a Laserdisc, but on a 12-centimetre (4 A CD-V carried up to 5 minutes of analog Laserdisc-type video content (usually a music video), as well as up to 20 minutes of digital audio CD tracks. The original 1989 release of David Bowie's restrospective Sound and Vision CD box set prominently featured a CD-V video of Ashes To Ashes, and standalone promo CD-V's featured the video, plus 3 audio tracks: John, I'm Only Dancing, Changes and The Supermen. Sound + Vision is David Bowie 's box set compilation released on Rykodisc in 1989

CD-Vs are not to be confused with Video CDs (which are all-digital and can only be played on VCD players, DVD players, CD-i players, computers, and later-model Laserdisc players (such as the DVL series from Pioneer that can also play DVDs). DVD (also known as " Digital Versatile Disc " or " Digital Video Disc " - see Etymology)is CD-i or Compact Disc Interactive is the name of an interactive multimedia CD player developed and marketed by Royal Philips Electronics N CD-Vs can only be played back on Laserdisc players with CD-V capability. VSDs were the same as CD-Vs, but without the audio CD tracks. CD-Vs were somewhat popular for a brief time worldwide, but soon faded from view. VSDs were popular only in Japan and other parts of Asia, and were never really introduced to the rest of the world.

Picture discs

Picture discs have artistic etching on one side of the disc to make the disc more visually attractive than the standard shiny silver surface. This etching might look like a movie character, logo, or other promotional material. Sometimes that side of the LD would be made with colored plastic rather than the clear material used for the data side. Picture disc LDs only had video material on one side as the "picture" side could not contain any data. Picture discs are rare in North America.

LD-G

Pioneer Electronics, one of the format's largest supporters/investors, was also deeply involved in the karaoke business in Japan, and used Laserdiscs as the storage medium for music and additional content such as graphics. ( is a Multinational Corporation that specializes in digital entertainment products based in Tokyo, Japan. (kɑːrɑːˌoʊkɛ in Japanese karaoke) is a form of Entertainment in which Amateur Singers sing along with recorded Music (and/or a The format was generally called LD-G. While several other karaoke labels manufactured Laserdiscs, there was nothing like the breadth of competition in that industry that exists now, as almost all manufacturers have transitioned to CD+G discs (en route, possibly, to a new DVD-based format). A CD+G (also known as CD+Graphics) is a special audio Compact disc that contains Graphics Data in addition to the audio data

LaserActive

Main article: Pioneer LaserActive

Pioneer also marketed a format similar to LD-G, called LD-ROM. The Pioneer LaserActive was a short-lived Laserdisc -based game console released by Pioneer in 1993 A LD-ROM is a data storage format extension of the Laserdisc. It was used by Pioneer's LaserActive interactive Laserdisc player/video game console introduced in 1993, and contained analog video and audio, in combination with digital data (where the digital audio tracks would be on regular Laserdiscs). LD-ROM was used for several games that could be played on the LaserActive player/console.

Squeeze LD

With the release of 16:9 televisions in the mid 1990s, Pioneer and Toshiba decided that it was time take advantage of this aspect ratio. Squeeze LDs are enhanced 16:9 ratio widescreen Laserdiscs. The aspect ratio of an Image is its width divided by its height In the video transfer stage the movie is stored in an anamorphic format. The widescreen movie image was stretched to fill the entire video frame with less or none of the video resolution wasted to create letterbox bars. The advantage was a 33% greater vertical resolution compared to regular Laserdisc. This same procedure was used for DVD. Unlike most DVD players, very few LD players had the ability to unsqueeze the image for 4:3 sets. The aspect ratio of an Image is its width divided by its height If the discs were played on a 4:3 television the image would be distorted. Since very few people owned 16:9 displays, the marketability of these special discs was very limited.

There were no titles available in the US except for promotional purposes. Upon purchase of a Toshiba 16:9 television viewers had the option of selecting a number of Warner Brothers 16:9 films. Titles include Unforgiven, Grumpy Old Men, The Fugitive, and Free Willy. This article is about the 1992 film For other uses see Unforgiven (disambiguation. Grumpy Old Men is a 1993 Warner Bros Romantic comedy film starring Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, and Ann-Margret The Fugitive is a 1993 American film based on the TV series of the same name. Free Willy is a 1993 Family film directed by Simon Wincer, and released by Warner Bros The Japanese lineup of titles was different. A series of releases under the banner "SQUEEZE LD" from Pioneer of mostly Carolco titles included Basic Instinct, Stargate, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Showgirls, Cutthroat Island, and Cliffhanger. Carolco Pictures Inc Carolco International NV or Anabasis Investments was an independent production company that within a decade went from producing such blockbuster successes as Basic Instinct is an American thriller / Neo-noir film directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Joe Eszterhas Stargate is a 1994 science fiction / Action film, directed by Roland Emmerich and written by Dean Devlin and Emmerich with Terminator 2 Judgment Day, commonly abbreviated as T2, is a 1991 action / Science fiction film directed co-written Showgirls is a 1995 film directed by Paul Verhoeven, starring former teen actress Elizabeth Berkley as a drifter who Cutthroat Island is a 1995 Pirate -themed Action film starring Geena Davis and directed by her then-husband Renny Harlin Cliffhanger is a 1993 Action film directed by Renny Harlin and starring Sylvester Stallone and John Lithgow. Oddly enough Terminator 2 was released twice in Squeeze LD, the second release being THX certified and a notable improvement over the first.

Recordable Formats

A Pioneer LaserRecorder that could be connected to a computer or a video source
A Pioneer LaserRecorder that could be connected to a computer or a video source
A CRV Disc with a VHS tape for size comparison
A CRV Disc with a VHS tape for size comparison

Another type of video media, CRVdisc, or "Component Recordable Video Disc" were available for a short time, mostly to professionals. Developed by Sony, CRVdiscs resemble early PC CD-ROM caddies with a disc inside resembling a full sized LD. is a multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato Tokyo, Japan, and one of the world's largest Media conglomerates with A personal computer ( PC) is any Computer whose original sales price size and capabilities make it useful for individuals and which is intended to be operated CD-ROM (an initialism of "Compact Disc Read-Only Memory " is a pre-pressed Compact Disc that contains data accessible to but not writable CRVdiscs were blank, write-once, read-many media that could be recorded once on each side. CRVdiscs were used largely for backup storage in professional/commercial applications.

Another form of recordable Laserdisc that is completely playback-compatible with the Laserdisc format (unlike CRVdisc with its caddy enclosure) is the RLV, or Recordable LaserVision disc. It was developed and first marketed by the Optical Disc Corporation (ODC, now ODC Nimbus) in 1984. RLV discs, like CRVdisc, are also a WORM technology, and function exactly like a CD-R disc. A CD-R ( C ompact D isc- R ecordable is a variation of the Compact Disc invented by Philips and Sony. RLV discs look almost exactly like standard Laserdiscs, and can play in any standard Laserdisc player after they've been recorded. The only difference an RLV disc has over regular factory-pressed Laserdiscs is their reflective purple-violet (or blue with some RLV discs) color resulting from the dye embedded in the reflective layer of the disc to make it recordable, as opposed to the silver mirror appearance of regular LDs. The purplish color of RLVs is very similar to some DVD-R and DVD+R discs. DVD-R is a DVD recordable format A DVD-R typically has a storage capacity of 4 A DVD+R is a once-writable Optical disc with 47 GB (4377 GiB) of storage capacity (more precisely 2295104 sectors of 2048 Bytes RLVs were popular for making short-run quantities of Laserdiscs for specialized applications such as interactive kiosks and flight simulators. In the Mediterranean Basin and the Near East, a kiosk ( Persian کوشک Kushk Arabic كشك Koshk Turkish Köşk A flight simulator is a system that tries to copy or simulate, the experience of flying an aircraft

In spite of nonrecordability being commonly regarded as the primary weakness of the Laserdisc format, these recordable LD systems were never marketed toward the general public, and are so poorly known as to create the misconception that a home recording system for Laserdiscs is impossible.

Facts

The Laserdisc turtle, used on the non-program side of some single sided Laserdiscs
The Laserdisc turtle, used on the non-program side of some single sided Laserdiscs

See also

References

  1. ^ U.S. Patent 3,430,966  Transparent recording disc, 1969. Videodisc (or video disc) is a general term for a Laser - or Stylus -readable random-access circular disc that contains both audio and Video The Capacitance Electronic Disc (or CED) was a video playback system developed by RCA, in which video and audio could be played back on a TV using a special analog Video High Density (VHD is a Videodisc format which was marketed predominantly in Japan by JVC.
  2. ^ U.S. Patent 3,530,258  Video signal transducer, 1970.
  3. ^ U.S. Patent 4,893,297  Disc-shaped member, 1990.
  4. ^ New and emerging video technologies: A status report (October 29, 1998). Retrieved on 2007-10-05. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 869 - The Fourth Council of Constantinople is convened to decide about what to do about Patriarch Photius of Constantinople
  5. ^ Bittersweet Times for Collectors of Laser Disk Movies (April 29, 1999). Retrieved on 2007-10-05. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 869 - The Fourth Council of Constantinople is convened to decide about what to do about Patriarch Photius of Constantinople
  6. ^ a b Digital audio modulation in the PAL and NTSC video disc formats, J. Audio Eng. Soc. vol. 32, pp. 883, 1984. Retrieved on 2008-02-24. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 303 - Galerius, Roman Emperor, publishes his edict that begins the persecution of Christians in his portion of the
  7. ^ Laserdisc Forever Review of Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace (May 9,2000). Retrieved on 2007-10-05. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 869 - The Fourth Council of Constantinople is convened to decide about what to do about Patriarch Photius of Constantinople
  8. ^ DTS Digital Surround LaserDisc (January 24, 2005). Retrieved on 2007-07-20. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1304 - Wars of Scottish Independence: Fall of Stirling Castle - King Edward I of England takes the last rebel stronghold
  9. ^ LaserDisc FAQ. PrecisionLaserdisc. com. Retrieved on 2007-07-20. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1304 - Wars of Scottish Independence: Fall of Stirling Castle - King Edward I of England takes the last rebel stronghold
  10. ^ (2.7) How does DVD compare to laserdisc?. AllforMP3. com. Retrieved on 2007-07-20. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1304 - Wars of Scottish Independence: Fall of Stirling Castle - King Edward I of England takes the last rebel stronghold
  11. ^ Kay Hansen Littler. Physics: CINEMA CLASSICS. Department of Physics, University of North Texas. Retrieved on 2007-07-20. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1304 - Wars of Scottish Independence: Fall of Stirling Castle - King Edward I of England takes the last rebel stronghold
  12. ^ AAPT. Physics: CINEMA CLASSICS. AAPT. Retrieved on 2008-01-15. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 588 BC - Nebuchadrezzar II of Babylon lays siege to Jerusalem under Zedekiah 's reign
  13. ^ Jeff Martin. Voyager Company CD-ROMs: Production History and Preservation Challenges of Commercial Interactive Media (PDF). Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) Resource Guide. Retrieved on 2007-07-20. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1304 - Wars of Scottish Independence: Fall of Stirling Castle - King Edward I of England takes the last rebel stronghold

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