Home video is recorded media sold or rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes , but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD and Blu-ray . In a different usage, "home video" refers to amateur video recordings, also known as home movies .
105-483: The LaserDisc ( LD ) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium, initially licensed, sold and marketed as MCA DiscoVision (also known simply as "DiscoVision") in the United States in 1978. Its diameter typically spans 30 cm (12 in). Unlike most optical-disc standards, LaserDisc is not fully digital , and instead requires the use of analog video signals. Although
210-489: A VCR , and those who did tended to rent rather than buy videos. The late 1980s saw the emergence of a great many small companies which specialized in producing special-interest home videos, also known as "nontheatrical programming" and "alternative programming". These new video programs differed radically from earlier forms of video content in that they were never intended for theatrical exhibition nor television broadcasting. They were created specifically for niche audiences in
315-892: A cult following, due to their collectability. Tokyo Raiders Tokyo Raiders is a 2000 Hong Kong action film set in Hong Kong and Tokyo , directed by Jingle Ma and starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai , Ekin Cheng and Kelly Chen . The success of the film led to the making of its sequel, Seoul Raiders , in 2005. Notably, the film was the last film to ever be released on LaserDisc , being released in September 2001. Derek Elley of Variety wrote that it "makes up in personality and an overall light, jokey tone what it lacks in sheer action smarts." Time Out London wrote, "Made to order for Chinese New Year release, this charmless action-comedy would like to be Charade but hasn't
420-597: A 4.7 in (12 cm) indentation in the loading tray, where the CD was placed for playback. At least two Pioneer models (the CLD-M301 and the CLD-M90) also operated as a CD changer, with several 4.7 in indentations around the circumference of the main tray. The Pioneer DVL-9, introduced in 1996, was both Pioneer's first consumer DVD player and the first combination DVD/LD player. The first high-definition video player
525-679: A DTS decoder. Many 1990s A/V receivers combined the AC-3 decoder and DTS decoder logic, but an integrated AC-3 demodulator was rare both in LaserDisc players and in later A/V receivers. PAL LaserDiscs have a slightly longer playing time than NTSC discs, but have fewer audio options. PAL discs only have two audio tracks, consisting of either two analog-only tracks on older PAL LaserDiscs, or two digital-only tracks on newer discs. In comparison, later NTSC LaserDiscs are capable of carrying four tracks (two analog and two digital). On certain releases, one of
630-564: A DVD can be played on a computer. Due to all these advantages, by the mid 2000s, DVDs had become the dominant form of prerecorded video movies in both the rental film and new movie markets. In the late 2000s, stores began selling Blu-ray discs, a format that supports high definition . Blu-ray is a digital optical disc data storage format, designed to supersede the DVD format, and is capable of storing several hours of video in high definition (HDTV 720p and 1080p). The main application of Blu-ray
735-603: A LaserDisc format that could store any form of digital data , as a data storage device similar to CD-ROM , with a large 3.28 GB storage capacity, comparable to the DVD-ROM format that would arrive 11 years later in 1995. The first LaserDisc title marketed in North America was the MCA DiscoVision release of Jaws on December 15, 1978. The last title released in North America was Paramount's Bringing Out
840-502: A VCR was $ 811, and the percentage of television-owning households with a VCR was unknown but probably just above zero. By 1992, the respective numbers for each of these categories were 105,502,000, $ 239, and 75.6%. During the 1980s, video rental stores became a popular way to watch home video. Video rental stores are physical retail businesses that rent home videos such as movies and prerecorded TV shows (sometimes also selling other media, such as video game copies on disc). Typically,
945-401: A clue how to handle plot structure, characterisation or secret-identity twists." Keith Phipps of The A.V. Club wrote that it "delivers the mix of humor, action, and style promised, though not delivered, by the big-screen version of Charlie's Angels ". Beyond Hollywood wrote, "Aside from an overbearing soundtrack and a hackneyed plot with too many silly twists, Tokyo Raiders is good for
1050-593: A few, such as Battlestar Galactica and Jaws , were time-compressed versions of their CAV or CLV DiscoVision originals. The time-compressed CLV re-issue of Jaws no longer had the original soundtrack, having had incidental background music replaced for the videodisc version due to high licensing costs (the original music would not be available until the THX LaserDisc box set was released in 1995). One Universal/Columbia co-production issued by MCA Disco Vision in both CAV and CLV versions, The Electric Horseman ,
1155-500: A given disc very quickly. By comparison, VHS would require tedious rewinding and fast-forwarding to get to specific points. Initially , LaserDiscs were cheaper than videocassettes to manufacture, because they lacked the moving parts and plastic outer shell which were necessary for VHS tapes to work, and the duplication process was much simpler. A VHS cassette had at least 14 parts (including the actual tape) while LaserDisc had one part with five or six layers. A disc could be stamped out in
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#17327767283441260-601: A handful of titles pressed by Technidisc that used CAA50. The final variant of CAA was CAA70, which could accommodate 70 minutes of playback time per side. There are no known uses of this format on the consumer market. Sound could be stored in either analog or digital format and in a variety of surround sound formats; NTSC discs could carry a stereo analog audio track, plus a stereo CD-quality uncompressed PCM digital audio track, which were ( EFM , CIRC , 16-bit and 44.1 kHz sample rate ). PAL discs could carry one pair of audio tracks, either analog or digital and
1365-452: A hard disk or flash storage – became available to purchase and rent. Despite the mainstream dominance of DVD, VHS continued to be used, albeit less frequently, throughout the 2000s; decline in VHS use continued during the 2010s. The switch to DVD initially led to mass-selling of used VHS videocassettes, which were available at used-goods stores, typically for a much lower price than
1470-496: A horizontal resolution of 425 television lines (TVL) for NTSC and 440 TVL for PAL discs, while VHS featured only 240 TVL with NTSC. Super VHS , released in 1987, reduced the quality gap, having horizontal luma resolution comparable to LaserDisc. But horizontal chroma resolution of Super VHS remained as low as that of standard VHS, about 40 TVL, while LaserDisc offered about 70 TVL of chroma resolution. LaserDisc could handle analog and digital audio where VHS
1575-418: A hyphen), with the first players referring to the format as Video Long Play . Pioneer Electronics later purchased the majority stake in the format and marketed it as both LaserVision (format name) and LaserDisc (brand name) in 1980, with some releases unofficially referring to the medium as Laser Videodisc . Philips produced the players while MCA produced the discs. The Philips-MCA collaboration
1680-425: A lifetime. By contrast, a VHS tape held all of its picture and sound information on the tape in a magnetic coating which was in contact with the spinning heads on the head drum, causing progressive wear with each use (though later in VHS's lifespan, engineering improvements allowed tapes to be made and played back without contact). The tape was also thin and delicate, and it was easy for a player mechanism, especially on
1785-438: A low quality or malfunctioning model, to mishandle the tape and damage it by creasing it, frilling (stretching) its edges, or even breaking it. By the advent of DVD , LaserDisc had declined considerably in popularity, so the two formats never directly competed with each other. LaserDisc was a composite video format: the luminance (black and white) and chrominance (color) information were transmitted in one signal, separated by
1890-407: A magnetic soundtrack, but in comparison to modern technologies, film projection was still quite expensive and difficult to use. As a result, home viewing of films remained limited to a small community of dedicated hobbyists willing and able to invest large amounts of money in projectors, screens, and film prints, and it therefore made little revenue for film companies. In 1956, Ampex pioneered
1995-476: A matter of seconds, whereas duplicating videotape required a complex bulk tape duplication mechanism and was a time-consuming process. By the end of the 1980s, average disc-pressing prices were over $ 5.00 per two-sided disc, due to the large amount of plastic material and the costly glass-mastering process needed to make the metal stamper mechanisms. Due to the larger volume of demand, videocassettes quickly became much cheaper to duplicate, costing as little as $ 1.00 by
2100-449: A player equipped with a special "AC-3 RF" output and an external demodulator in addition to an AC-3 decoder . 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. In the mid to late 1990s, many higher-end AV receivers included the demodulator circuit specifically for the LaserDisc player's RF-modulated Dolby Digital AC-3 signal. By
2205-504: A projection of the FM signal along the track on the disc. When reading, the FM carrier can be reconstructed from the succession of pit edges, and demodulated to extract the original video signal (in practice, selection between pit and land parts uses intersection of the FM carrier with a horizontal line having an offset from the zero axis, for noise considerations). If PCM sound is present, its waveform, considered as an analog signal, can be added to
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#17327767283442310-441: A release print was still at least $ 1,000 —early projector owners rented films by mail directly from the projector manufacturers. The Edison company's business model was fundamentally flawed because it had started with phonographs and did not differentiate home viewing from home listening. Edison exited the home viewing business in 1914; Pathé remained active a few years longer, but exited at some point during World War I . After
2415-402: A rental shop conducts business with customers under conditions and terms agreed upon in a rental agreement or contract , which may be implied, explicit, or written. Many video rental stores also sell previously viewed movies and/or new unopened movies. In the 1980s, video rental stores rented films in both the VHS and Betamax formats, although most stores stopped using Betamax tapes when VHS won
2520-407: A rocket, Fox bought Magnetic Video in 1978 and turned the company into its home video division . The home video market grew rapidly along with the widespread acquisition of affordable videocassette recorders by the majority of households during the 1980s. For example, in 1978, total number of VCRs purchased to date at wholesale in the United States was only 402,000, the average wholesale price of
2625-555: A single disc, which is spun at high speed, while VHS videocassettes had several moving parts that were far more vulnerable to breaking down under heavy wear and tear. Each time a VHS cassette was played, the magnetic tape inside had to be pulled out and wrapped around the inclined drum head inside the player. While a VHS tape can be erased if it is exposed to a rapidly changing magnetic field of sufficient strength, DVDs and other optical discs are not affected by magnetic fields. The relative mechanical simplicity and durability of DVD compared to
2730-623: A single laser pickup. Pioneer produced some multi-disc models which held more than 50 LaserDiscs. For a short time in 1984, one company offered a "LaserStack" unit that added multi-disc capability to existing players: the Pioneer LD-600, LD-1100, or the Sylvania/Magnavox clones. It required the user to physically remove the player lid for installation, where it then attached to the top of the player. LaserStack held up to 10 discs and could automatically load or remove them from
2835-561: A time every few months and active shows to be released on DVD after the end of each season. Prior to the television DVDs, most television shows were only viewable in syndication , on limited "best of" VHS releases of selected episodes or released slowly in volumes with only two or three episodes per tape. These copyrighted movies and programs generally have legal restrictions on them preventing them from, among other things, being shown in public venues, shown to other people for money, or copied for other than fair use purposes (although such ability
2940-402: A transparent disc, was invented by David Paul Gregg and James Russell in 1963 (and patented in 1970 and 1990). The Gregg patents were purchased by MCA in 1968. By 1969, Philips had developed a videodisc in reflective mode, which has advantages over the transparent mode. MCA and Philips then decided to combine their efforts and first publicly demonstrated the videodisc in 1972. LaserDisc
3045-496: A wavelength of 780 nm. In March 1984, Pioneer introduced the first consumer player with a solid-state laser, the LD-700. It was also the first LaserDisc player to load from the front and not the top. One year earlier, Hitachi introduced an expensive industrial player with a laser diode, but the player had poor picture quality (due to an inadequate dropout compensator), and was made only in limited quantities. After Pioneer released
3150-580: Is as a medium for video material such as feature films and for the physical distribution of video games. The plastic disc is the same size as DVDs and compact discs . Blu-ray was officially released on June 20, 2006, beginning the high-definition optical disc format war , in which Blu-ray Disc competed against the HD DVD format. Toshiba , the main company supporting HD DVD, conceded in February 2008. Blu-ray has competition from video on demand (VOD) and
3255-727: Is limited by some jurisdictions and media formats – see below). After the passage of the Video Recordings (Labelling) Act of 1985 in the United Kingdom, videotapes and other video recordings without a certification symbol from the British Board of Film Classification on their covers – or on the tapes themselves – were no longer allowed to be sold or displayed by rental shops. These tapes are called "Pre-Certs" (i.e. Pre-certification tapes). Recently these tapes have generated
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3360-489: Is recorded on the other side of this disc" are below the turtle. 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. After DiscoVision Associates shut down in early 1982, Universal Studio's videodisc software label (called MCA Videodisc until 1984), began reissuing many DiscoVision titles. Unfortunately, quite
3465-465: Is still not available in any other home video format with its original score intact; even the most recent DVD release has had substantial music replacement of both instrumental score and Willie Nelson's songs. An MCA release of Universal's Howard the Duck shows only the start credits shown in widescreen before changing to 4:3 for the rest of the film. For many years, this was the only disc-based release of
3570-601: Is usually required to elapse between theatrical release and availability on home video to encourage movie theater patronage and discourage copyright infringement . Home-video releases originally followed five to six months after theatrical release, but since the late 2000s, most films have begun being distributed on video after three to four months. As of 2019, most major theater chains mandate an exclusivity window of 90 days before home-video release, and 74–76 days before electronic sell-through . Christmas and other holiday-related movies are sometimes not released on home video until
3675-470: The MPEG-2 encoding process as video is prepared for DVD. Early DVD releases held the potential to surpass their LaserDisc counterparts, but often managed only to match them for image quality, and in some cases, the LaserDisc version was preferred. Proprietary human-assisted encoders manually operated by specialists could vastly reduce the incidence of artifacts, depending on playing time and image complexity. By
3780-486: The composite domain (having a video bandwidth and resolution approximately equivalent to the 1-inch (25 mm) Type C videotape format ) with analog frequency modulation (FM) stereo sound and pulse-code modulation (PCM) digital audio . Later discs used D-2 instead of Type C videotape for mastering. The LaserDisc at its most fundamental level was still recorded as a series of pits and lands much like CDs, DVDs, and even Blu-ray discs are today. In true digital media,
3885-511: The format war late in the decade. The shift to home viewing radically changed revenue streams for film companies, because home renting provided an additional window of time in which a film could make money. In some cases, films that performed only modestly in their theater releases went on to sell significantly well in the rental market (e.g., cult films ). During the 1980s, video distributors gradually realized that many consumers did want to build their own video libraries, and not just rent, if
3990-475: The "official" name of the format remained LaserVision. In the early 1990s, the format's name was changed again to LaserDisc. Pioneer Electronics also entered the optical disc market in 1977 as a 50/50 joint venture with MCA called Universal-Pioneer and manufacturing MCA-designed industrial players under the MCA DiscoVision name (the PR-7800 and PR-7820). For the 1980 launch of the first Universal-Pioneer player,
4095-461: The "original" 20 dB CX system). This also relaxed calibration tolerances in players and helped reduce audible pumping if the CX decoder was not calibrated correctly. At least where the digital audio tracks were concerned, the sound quality was unsurpassed at the time compared to consumer videotape. However, the quality of the analog soundtracks could vary greatly depending upon the disc and, sometimes,
4200-547: The 900 years since the original Domesday Book in England. From 1991 until the late 1990s, the BBC also used LaserDisc technology (specifically Sony CRVdisc) to play out their channel idents . A standard home video LaserDisc is 12 in (30 cm) in diameter and made up of two single-sided aluminum discs layered in plastic. Although similar in appearance to compact discs or DVDs , early LaserDiscs used analog video stored in
4305-524: The AC-3 signal to the standard Dolby Digital signal that was compatible with the standard Dolby Digital/PCM inputs on capable AV receivers. Another type marketed by Onkyo and Marantz converted the RF AC-3 signal to 6-channel analog audio. The two FM audio channels occupied the disc spectrum at 2.3 and 2.8 MHz on NTSC formatted discs and each channel had a 100 kHz FM deviation. The FM audio carrier frequencies were chosen to minimize their visibility in
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4410-676: The Dead on October 3, 2000. Film titles continued to be released in Japan until September 21, 2001, with the last Japanese movie released being the Hong Kong film Tokyo Raiders from Golden Harvest . The last known LD title is Onta Station vol. 1018, a karaoke disc released on March 21, 2007. Production of LaserDisc players ended in July 2009, when Pioneer stopped making them. Pioneer continued to repair and service players until September 30, 2020, when
4515-647: The FM carrier, which modulates the width of the intersection with the horizontal threshold. As a result, space between pit centers essentially represent video (as frequency), and pit length code for PCM sound information. Early LaserDiscs featured in 1978 were entirely analog but the format evolved to incorporate digital stereo sound in CD format (sometimes with a TOSlink or coax output to feed an external digital-to-analog converter or DAC), and later multi-channel formats such as Dolby Digital and DTS . Since digital encoding and compression schemes were either unavailable or impractical in 1978, three encoding formats based upon
4620-504: The LD-700 player bore the term "Pioneer LaserDisc brand videodisc player". From 1981 until the early 1990s, all properly licensed discs carried the LaserVision name and logo, even Pioneer Artists titles. On single-sided LaserDiscs mastered by Pioneer, playing the wrong side would cause a still screen to appear with a happy, upside-down turtle that has a LaserDisc for a belly (nicknamed the "LaserDisc Turtle"). The words "Program material
4725-428: The LD-700, gas lasers were no longer used in consumer players, despite their advantages, although Philips continued to use gas lasers in their industrial units until 1985. Most LaserDisc players required the user to manually turn the disc over to play the other side. A number of players (all diode laser based) were made that were capable of playing both sides of the disc automatically, using a mechanism to physically flip
4830-737: The United States, and over 154 million subscriptions total, including free trials. It is available worldwide except in mainland China (due to local restrictions), Syria, North Korea, and Crimea (due to U.S. sanctions). The company also has offices in India , the Netherlands , Brazil , Japan , and South Korea . Netflix is a member of the Motion Picture Association . Netflix began producing media itself in 2012 and since then took more of an active role as producer and distributor for both films and television series. Following
4935-599: The VP-1000 was noted as a "laser disc player", although the "LaserDisc" logo was displayed clearly on the device. In 1981, "LaserDisc" was used exclusively for the medium itself, although the official name was "LaserVision" (as seen at the beginning of many LaserDisc releases, just before the start of the film). Pioneer reminded numerous video magazines and stores in 1984 that LaserDisc was a trademarked word, standing only for LaserVision products manufactured for sale by Pioneer Video or Pioneer Electronics. A 1984 Ray Charles ad for
5040-655: The aforementioned Jaws . Philips' preferred name for the format was "VLP", after the Dutch words Video Langspeel-Plaat ("Video long-play disc"), which in English-speaking countries stood for Video Long-Play. The first consumer player, the Magnavox VH-8000 even had the VLP logo on the player. For a while in the early and mid-1970s, Philips also discussed a compatible audio-only format they called "ALP", but that
5145-412: 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. Only one 5.1 surround sound option existed on a given LaserDisc (either Dolby Digital or DTS). As such, if surround sound
5250-505: The analog tracks is used to carry a modulated AC-3 signal for 5.1 channel audio (for decoding and playback by newer LaserDisc players with an "AC-3 RF" output). Older NTSC LaserDiscs made before 1984 (such as the original DiscoVision discs) only have two analog audio tracks. The earliest players employed gas helium–neon laser tubes to read discs and had a red-orange light with a wavelength of 632.8 nm , while later solid-state players used infrared semiconductor laser diodes with
5355-399: The audiences, with most media consumers in urban areas globally having domestic Internet access. As early as 1906, various film entrepreneurs began to consider the business potential of home viewing of films, and in 1912, both Edison and Pathé started selling film projectors for home use. Because making release prints was (and still is) very expensive—as of 2005, the cost of making
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#17327767283445460-471: The beginning of the 1990s. LaserDiscs potentially had a much longer lifespan than videocassettes. Because the discs were read optically instead of magnetically, no physical contact needed 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 would not wear the information-bearing part of the discs, and properly manufactured LaserDiscs could theoretically last beyond
5565-437: The continued sale of DVDs. As of January 2016, 44% of U.S. broadband households had a Blu-ray player. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, though, people continued to use VCRs to record over-the-air TV shows, because they could not make home recordings onto DVDs. This problem with DVD was resolved in the late 2000s, when inexpensive DVD recorders and other digital video recorders (DVRs) – which record shows onto
5670-558: The digital tracks on a PAL disc were 16-bit, 44.1 kHz as on a CD; in the UK, the term "LaserVision" is used to refer to discs with analog sound, while "LaserDisc" is used for those with digital audio. The digital sound signal in both formats is EFM -encoded, as in CD . Dolby Digital (also called AC-3) and DTS , which are now common on DVD releases, first became available on LaserDisc, and Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999) which
5775-580: The end of 2001. As of 2021, the format retains some popularity among "thousands" of American collectors, and to a greater degree in Japan, where the format was better supported and more prevalent during its lifespan. In Europe, LaserDisc always remained an obscure format. It was chosen by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for the BBC Domesday Project in the mid-1980s, a school-based project to commemorate
5880-405: The end of LaserDisc's run, DVDs were living up to their potential as a superior format. DVDs use compressed audio formats such as Dolby Digital and DTS for multichannel sound. Most LaserDiscs were encoded with stereo (often Dolby Surround) CD quality audio 16bit/44.1 kHz tracks as well as analog audio tracks. DTS-encoded LaserDiscs have DTS soundtracks of 1,235 kbit/s instead of
5985-416: The entirely digital DVD, LaserDiscs used only analog video. As the LaserDisc format was not digitally encoded and did not make use of compression techniques, it was immune to video macroblocking (most visible as blockiness during high motion sequences) or contrast banding (subtle visible lines in gradient areas, such as out-of-focus backgrounds, skies, or light casts from spotlights) which could be caused by
6090-516: The equivalent film on a used DVD. In July 2016, the last known manufacturer of VCRs, Funai , announced that it was ceasing VCR production. One of streaming's largest impacts was on DVD, which has become less popular with the mass popularization of online streaming of media . Media streaming's popularization caused many DVD rental companies, such as Blockbuster , to go out of business. In July 2015, The New York Times published an article about Netflix 's DVD-by-mail services. It stated that Netflix
6195-468: The film, until widescreen DVD formats were released with extras. Also, the 1989 and 1996 LaserDisc releases of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial are the only formats to include the cut scene of Harrison Ford , in the role of the school principal, telling off Elliott for letting the frogs free in the biology class. LaserDisc had several advantages over VHS . It featured a far sharper picture with
6300-495: The first commercially practical videotape recording system. The Ampex system, though, used reel-to-reel tape and physically bulky equipment not suitable for home use. In the mid-1970s, videotape became the first truly practical home-video format with the development of videocassettes , which were far easier to use than tape reels. The Betamax and VHS home videocassette formats were introduced, respectively, in 1975 and 1976, but several more years and significant reductions in
6405-800: The following year, when the holiday occurs again. Major studios have made films available for rental during their theatrical window on high-end services that charge upwards of $ 500 per rental and use proprietary hardware. Exceptions to the rule include the Steven Soderbergh film Bubble , which was released in 2006 to theaters, cable television, and DVD only a few days apart. Netflix has released some of its films, such as Roma and The Irishman , in limited theatrical release followed by streaming availability after less than 30 days. Many television programs are now also available in complete seasons on DVD. It has become popular practice for discontinued TV shows to be released to DVD one season at
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#17327767283446510-531: The format was capable of offering higher-quality video and audio than its consumer rivals, VHS and Betamax videotape, LaserDisc never managed to gain widespread use in North America. This was largely due to the high cost of the players and their inability to record TV programs. It eventually did gain some traction in that region and became mildly popular in the 1990s. It also saw a modest share of adoption in Australia and several European countries. By contrast,
6615-539: The format was introduced in Europe in 1983 with the LaserVision name, although Philips used "VLP" in model designations, such as VLP-600. Following lackluster sales there (around 12–15,000 units Europe-wide), Philips tried relaunching the entire format as "CD-Video" in 1987, with the name appearing not just on the new hybrid 12 cm discs , but also on standard 20 and 30 cm LaserDiscs with digital audio. While this name and logo appeared on players and labels for years,
6720-635: The format was much more popular in Japan and in the more affluent regions of Southeast Asia , such as Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia, and was the prevalent rental video medium in Hong Kong during the 1990s. Its superior video and audio quality made it a popular choice among videophiles and film enthusiasts during its lifespan. The technologies and concepts behind LaserDisc were the foundation for later optical disc formats, including Compact Disc (CD), DVD , and Blu-ray (BD). LaserDisc players continued to be produced until July 2009, when Pioneer stopped making them. Optical video recording technology , using
6825-420: The fragility of VHS made DVDs a far better format from a rental store's perspective. Though DVDs do not have the problems of videocassettes, such as breakage of the tape or the cassette mechanism, they can still be damaged by scratches. Another advantage from the perspective of video rental stores is that DVDs are physically much smaller, so they take less space to store. DVDs also offer a number of advantages for
6930-514: The frame number on the remote keypad, a feature not common among DVD players. Some DVD players have a cache feature, 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. Home video Released in 1978, LaserDisc (LD) is another home video format, which never managed to gain widespread use on North American and European retail markets due to high cost of
7035-401: The home video market, and through its home video division, Buena Vista Home Entertainment , the company did just that during the 1980s and 1990s. This spectacular success "catapulted the head of Disney's video division, Bill Mechanic , into executive stardom." In 1994, Mechanic left Disney to become head of Fox Filmed Entertainment . Another executive, Bob Chapek , would later ascend through
7140-561: The hyphen), which became the official spelling. Technical documents and brochures produced by MCA Disco-Vision during the early and mid-'70s also used the term "Disco-Vision Records" to refer to the pressed discs. 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" software and manufacturing label; consumer sale of those titles began on December 11, 1978, with
7245-628: The image. To help deal with this, Pioneer decided to implement the CX Noise Reduction System on the analog tracks. By reducing the dynamic range and peak levels of the audio signals stored on the disc, filtering requirements were relaxed and visible beats greatly reduced or eliminated. The CX system gives a total NR effect of 20 dB, but in the interest of better compatibility for non-decoded playback, Pioneer reduced this to only 14 dB of noise reduction (the RCA CED system used
7350-468: The late 1990s, with LaserDisc players and disc sales declining due to DVD's growing popularity, the AV receiver manufacturers removed the demodulator circuit. Although DVD players were capable of playing Dolby Digital tracks, the signals out of DVD players were not in a modulated form and were not compatible with the inputs designed for LaserDisc AC-3. Outboard demodulators were available for a period that converted
7455-813: The launch of various streaming services during the early 2020s, in particular those operated by the major Hollywood studios, home video continued to decline. One of the most prominent examples of this effect was with Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment which, following the launch of Disney+ in 2019 and its international expansion in the following years, began to discontinue physical distribution entirely in certain regions such as Latin America, Asia (excluding Japan), Australia, New Zealand, Portugal and Hungary, or to outsource its activities to other regional distributors (like Divisa Home Video for Spain, Eagle Pictures for Italy, Leonine Studios for Germany, and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment for North America. A time period
7560-430: The number of topics, including "...dog handling videos, back pain videos and cooking videos", which were not previously thought of as marketable. Next, even "golf and skiing tapes* started selling. Contemporary sources noted, "new technology has changed the territory" of the home video market. In the early 2000s, VHS gradually began to be displaced by DVD . The DVD format has several advantages over VHS. A DVD consists of
7665-451: The pits (or their edges) directly represent 1s and 0s of a binary digital information stream. On a LaserDisc, the information is encoded as analog frequency modulation and is contained in the lengths and spacing of the pits. A carrier frequency is modulated by the baseband video signal (and analog soundtracks). In a simplified view, positive parts of this variable frequency signal can produce lands and negative parts can be pits, which results in
7770-614: The player or change sides in around 15 seconds. The first mass-produced industrial LaserDisc player was the MCA DiscoVision PR-7820, later rebranded the Pioneer PR7820 . In North America, this unit was used in many General Motors dealerships as a source of training videos and presentation of GM's new line of cars and trucks in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Most players made after the mid-1980s were capable of also playing Compact Discs . These players included
7875-416: The player to refuse commands to skip a specific part (such as fast forwarding through copyright warnings). (Some DVD players, particularly higher-end units, do have the ability to ignore the blocking code and play the video without restrictions, but this feature is not common in the usual consumer market.) With CAV LaserDiscs, the user could jump directly to any individual frame of a video simply by entering
7980-741: The player. Many early and lower-end LaserDisc players had poor analog audio components, and in turn, many early discs had poorly mastered analog audio tracks, making digital soundtracks in any form more 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 improved greatly 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, which helped boost sound quality. Later analog discs also applied CX noise reduction , which improved
8085-632: The players and their inability to record TV programs (unlike the VHS ), although it retained some popularity among videophiles and film enthusiasts during its lifespan; the format had greater prevalence in some regions of Southeast Asia such as Japan , Hong Kong , Singapore and Malaysia where it was better supported. Film titles were released in LD format until 2001, production of LD players ceased in 2009. The home video business distributes films , television series , telefilms and other audiovisual media to
8190-453: The price was right . Rather than sell a few thousand units at a wholesale price of $ 70 into the rental channel, video distributors could sell hundreds of thousands of units at a wholesale price of $ 15-20 into the retail " sell-through " channel. The "ultimate accelerant" for the rise of the "sell-through" home video market was the development of children's home video. The pre-1980s conventional wisdom that consumers had no interest in watching
8295-495: The prices of both equipment and videocassettes were needed before both formats started to become widespread in households. The first company to duplicate and distribute feature films from major film studios on home video was Magnetic Video . Magnetic Video was established in 1968 as an audio and video duplication service for professional audio and television corporations in Farmington Hills, Michigan . After Betamax
8400-452: The public could purchase a film projector for one of those film formats and rent or buy home-use prints of some cartoons, short comedies, and brief "highlights" reels edited from feature films. The Super 8 film format, introduced in 1965, was marketed for making home movies, but it also boosted the popularity of show-at-home films. Eventually, longer, edited-down versions of feature films were issued, which increasingly came in color and with
8505-575: The public in the form of videos in various formats, either bought or rented and then watched privately in purchasers' homes. Most theatrically released films are now released on digital media (both optical and download-based), replacing the largely obsolete videotape medium. As of 2006 , the Video CD format remained popular in Asia. DVDs have been gradually losing popularity since the late 2010s and early 2020s, when streaming media became mainstream for
8610-456: The quick failures of these early attempts at home viewing, most feature films were essentially inaccessible to the public after their original theatrical runs. For most of the 20th century, the idea that ordinary consumers could own copies of films and watch them at their convenience in their own homes "was beyond the grasp of reasonable expectations." Some very popular films were given occasional theatrical re-releases in urban revival houses and
8715-453: The ranks of Disney's home video division to become chief executive officer of the entire company in 2020, and for that reason (before his sudden 2022 departure) was called "the home entertainment industry's single biggest success story." Until the mid-1980s, home video was dominated by feature film theatrical releases such as The Wizard of Oz , Citizen Kane , and Casablanca from major film studios . At that time, not many people owned
8820-570: The receiver. While good comb filters could separate the signals adequately, the two signals could not be completely separated. On DVD-Video , images are stored in the YCbCr format, with the chroma information being entirely discrete, which results in far higher fidelity, particularly at strong color borders or regions of high detail (especially if there is moderate movement in the picture) and low-contrast details such as skin tones, where comb filters almost inevitably smudge some detail. In contrast to
8925-438: The reduced bitrate of 768 kbit/s commonly employed on DVDs with optional DTS audio. LaserDisc players could provide a greater degree of control over the playback process. Unlike many DVD players, the transport mechanism always obeyed commands from the user: pause, fast-forward, and fast-reverse commands were always accepted (barring malfunctions). There were no "User Prohibited Options" where content protection code instructed
9030-603: The remaining parts inventory was exhausted. It was estimated that in 1998, LaserDisc players were in approximately 2% of U.S. households (roughly two million). By comparison, in 1999, players were in 10% of Japanese households. A total of 16.8 million LaserDisc players were sold worldwide, of which 9.5 million were sold by Pioneer. By 2001, LaserDisc had been completely replaced by DVD in the North American retail marketplace, as media were no longer being produced. Players were still exported to North America from Japan until
9135-460: The rotation speed were used: As Pioneer introduced digital audio to LaserDisc in 1985, it further refined the CAA format. CAA55 was introduced in 1985 with a total playback capacity per side of 55 minutes 5 seconds, reducing the video capacity to resolve bandwidth issues with the inclusion of digital audio. Several titles released between 1985 and 1987 were analog audio only due to the length of
9240-467: The same films again and again at home turned out to be entirely wrong with respect to children. Many harried parents discovered that it was a good investment to pay $ 20 to purchase a videocassette that could reliably keep their children riveted to the television screen for over an hour—and not just one time, but many, many times. The Walt Disney Company recognized that its flagship animation studio's family-friendly films were superbly positioned to conquer
9345-507: The screening rooms of a few archives and museums. Beginning in the 1950s, most could be expected to be broadcast on television, eventually. During this era, television programs normally could only be viewed at the time of broadcast . Viewers were accustomed to the fact that there was no easy way to record television shows at home and watch them whenever desired. In 1924, Kodak invented 16 mm film , which became popular for home use, and then later developed 8 mm film . After that point,
9450-411: The signal-to-noise ratio of the audio. DTS audio, when available on a disc, replaced the digital audio tracks; hearing DTS-encoded audio required only an S/PDIF compliant digital connection to a DTS decoder. On a DTS disc, digital PCM audio was not available, so if a DTS decoder was also not available, the only option was to fall back to the analog Dolby Surround or stereo audio tracks. In some cases,
9555-491: The small community of film buffs who for decades had willingly paid hundreds of dollars to purchase release prints. Therefore, in 1977, Magnetic Video originally priced its videocassettes at $ 50 to $ 70 each—a princely sum at a time when the average price of an American movie ticket was $ 2.23—and sold them only to wholesalers capable of handling a minimum order of $ 8,000. When the American home video market suddenly took off like
9660-583: The so-called "sell-through" channel, to be purchased at retail or ordered directly by consumers and viewed exclusively as home videos. It was pointed out at the time that [L]imitations within the video marketplace may be gone tomorrow. More people are finding innovative ways to create visually stimulating entertainment and information for the video tape player... Like contemporary book publishing, you can produce and distribute yourself to very narrow markets or seek broad-based distributors for mass-oriented appeal. Special-interest video increased to larger audiences
9765-594: The title and the desire to keep the film on one 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 per side. There were
9870-553: The video image, so that even with a poorly mastered disc, audio carrier beats in the video would be at least ‑35 dB down, and thus, invisible. Due to the frequencies chosen, the 2.8 MHz audio carrier (Right Channel) and the lower edge of the chroma signal were very close together, and if filters were not carefully set during mastering, there could be interference between the two. In addition, high audio levels combined with high chroma levels could cause mutual interference, leading to beats becoming visible in highly saturated areas of
9975-473: The viewer: DVDs can support both standard 4:3 and widescreen 16:9 screen-aspect ratios, and can provide twice the video resolution of VHS. Skipping ahead to the end is much easier and faster with a DVD than with a VHS tape (which has to be rewound). DVDs can have interactive menus, multiple language tracks, audio commentaries, closed captioning, and subtitling (with the option of turning the subtitles on or off, or selecting subtitles in several languages). Moreover,
10080-521: Was born, initially, as a rental business. Film studios and video distributors assumed that the overwhelming majority of consumers would not want to buy prerecorded videocassettes, but would merely rent them. They felt that virtually all sales of videocassettes would be to video rental stores and set prices accordingly. According to Douglas Gomery , studio executives thought that the handful of consumers actually interested in purchasing videocassettes in order to watch them again and again would be similar to
10185-484: Was continuing their DVD services with 5.3 million subscribers, which was a significant decrease from the previous year, but their streaming services had 65 million members. Netflix's primary business is its subscription-based streaming service , which offers online streaming of a library of films and television programs, including those produced in-house. As of April 2019, Netflix had over 148 million paid subscriptions worldwide, including 60 million in
10290-460: Was desired, the disc must be matched to the capabilities of the playback equipment (LaserDisc player and receiver/decoder) by the purchaser. A fully capable LaserDisc playback system included a newer LaserDisc player that was capable of playing digital tracks; had a digital optical output for digital PCM and DTS encoded audio; was aware of AC-3 audio tracks; and had an AC-3 coaxial output, an external or internal AC-3 RF demodulator and AC-3 decoder, and
10395-609: Was first available on the market in Atlanta, Georgia , on December 11, 1978, two years after the introduction of the VHS VCR , and four years before the introduction of the CD (which is based on laser disc technology). Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision (also known as simply DiscoVision ) in 1978, the technology was previously referred to internally as Optical Videodisc System , Reflective Optical Videodisc , Laser Optical Videodisc , and Disco-Vision (with
10500-558: Was launched in the United States in 1976, Magnetic Video chief executive Andre Blay wrote letters to all the major film studios offering to license the rights to their films. Near the end of 1977, Magnetic Video entered into a first-of-its-kind deal with 20th Century Fox . Magnetic Video agreed to pay Fox a royalty of $ 7.50 per unit sold and a guaranteed annual minimum payment of $ 500,000 in exchange for nonexclusive rights to 50 films, which had to be at least two years old and had already been broadcast on network television . Home video
10605-496: Was mostly analog only (VHS could have PCM audio in professional applications but it was uncommon), and the NTSC discs could store multiple audio tracks. This allowed for extras such as director's commentary tracks and other features to be added onto 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
10710-416: Was released on LaserDisc in Japan, was among the first home video releases ever to include 6.1 channel Dolby Digital EX Surround (along with a few other late-life releases from 1999 to 2001). Unlike DVDs, which carry Dolby Digital audio in digital form, LaserDiscs stored Dolby Digital in a frequency modulated form within a track normally used for analog audio. Extracting Dolby Digital from a LaserDisc required
10815-593: Was soon dropped as the Compact Disc system became a non-compatible project in the Philips corporation. Until early 1980, the format had no "official" name. The LaserVision Association, made up of MCA, Universal-Pioneer, IBM , and Philips/Magnavox, was formed to standardize the technical specifications of the format (which had been causing problems for the consumer market) and finally named the system officially as "LaserVision". After its introduction in Japan in 1981,
10920-629: Was the Pioneer HLD-X0. A later model, the HLD-X9, featured a superior comb filter , and laser diodes on both sides of the disc. During its development, MCA (which co-owned the technology), referred to it as the Optical Videodisc System , "Reflective Optical Videodisc" or "Laser Optical Videodisc", depending on the document. They changed the name once in 1969 to Disco-Vision and then again in 1978 to DiscoVision (without
11025-512: Was unsuccessful – and was discontinued after a few years. Several of the scientists responsible for the early research (Richard Wilkinson, Ray Dakin and John Winslow) founded Optical Disc Corporation (now ODC Nimbus). LaserDisc was launched in Japan in October 1981, and a total of approximately 3.6 million LaserDisc players had been sold before its discontinuation in 2009. In 1984, Sony offered
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