DiscoVision!

It’s funny what one can find while looking stuff up on Wikipedia…

Once upon a time, before the CD, there was the LaserDisc. The LaserDisc was MASSIVE compared to DVDs. Anyways, the orginal name of the LaserDisc, was DiscoVision. What an absolutly HORRIBLE name. The DiscoVision was around from ‘69 to ‘82. The patent holder for the LaserDisc (Discovision Associates (DVA)) also manages and licenses intellectual property related to laserdisc, compact disc, and optical disc technologies.

Who knew? LaserDisc survived until 2000. I bet none of you have even heard of it. The last two movies sold in LaserDisc format was Sleepy Hollow and Bringing Out the Dead. The first being Jaws in ‘78. The CD hit the market in ‘82, and the DVD in 1995. DVD orginally stood for “Digital Video Disc”, however was renamed “Digital Versatile Disc” in 1995. A lot of people forget that DVDs aren’t just for video applications, and that a lot of new games are released on them.

It’s also interesting to note that historically, DVDs were supposed to be 5GB, but due to some changes, it ended up being 4.7GB. Also, a lot of people get confused between DVD-R and DVD+R, myself included. I guess the rule of thumb is DVD-R is the most widely supported format for consumer video DVD players. DVD+R is technically the better of the two, but as the Wikipedia states, most people wouldn’t notice the difference.