The Invention Of The Dvd

The Invention of the DVD

Many people enjoy watching or listening to DVDs every day. Now people can see more than just the movie. They can enjoy many different special features or quickly go to a certain spot in the movie without having to rewind or fast forward. Many people do not know how this invention came to be. Who invented the DVD and how did they do it? What are the different types DVDs? The invention we enjoy today only exists because of the hard work of many people.

The DVD was not invented by any single person. There were ten companies that sent representatives to work on it together. Some of these companies had been working on two ideas: the Multimedia Compact Disc (MMCD) and the Super Disc (SD). These new discs would have more storage space than a CD. By working together, they came up with the DVD. Officially the letters DVD do not stand for anything and they cannot be trademarked. Some people think DVD means "digital video disc" and other people think it means "digital versatile disk." Time Warner did trademark the DVD logo.

Development on the MMCD and the SD started in the early 1990s. In September 1995, DVD format was announced. The first DVD player was made by Philips and was sold in Japan in November 1996 and in the United States in March 1997. By 1999, Wal-Mart began selling them because they were getting cheaper. DVDs made up a small amount of total video sales at this time. In 2004, DVDs were the majority of the sales. Today, some DVD players are cheaper than a VCR.

There are three main types of DVDs. Video DVDs have videos, subtitle tracks, extra features, and chapters (like on a CD). In 2000, Sony created the PlayStation2 console; which plays DVD videos and video games. Audio DVDs have slide shows, music videos, and menu options. They also have high definition sound and Dolby Digital or DTS audio options. Data DVDs only hold data.

Many people had to work