Laser Discs

Laserdisc technology originally emerged during the late 1950s. A man named David Paul Gregg invented the format, and Philips and MCA struggled to develop the disc into a commercially marketable entity. At first, MCA and Philips teamed up successfully and released the first laserdiscs only two years after the advent of the VHS format in 1978.

Five years after the release of laserdiscs, CDs came out on the market. Whereas laserdiscs employed analog signals to burn grooves and pits, CDs used digital signals. Laserdiscs became fairly popular in both the United States and Japan. However, only the very rich could afford the technology, and so only about one million players were sold in the United States and four million were sold to Japanese households.

Laserdiscs were available in either CAV or CLV format. The CAV (constant angular velocity) read revolutions. The CLV (constant linear velocity), on the other hand, read the outside of the disc into the center. All told, the CLV disc could hold twice as much content as the CAV disc. Part of the problem with both formats, however, was that users had to flip the discs over in the middle of play.

Although laserdiscs featured better picture and superior audio to VHS tapes, they cost far too much for everyday users. That said, in 1984, the laserdisc special edition of the classic Orson Welles movie Citizen Kane became the very first special edition series ever to be released. Although laserdisc players and movies are no longer produced, collector forums abound, particularly in Japan.