DVD

DVD

DVD. The Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) is an optical information storage technology with multiple applications. Lasers read pitted digital patterns stamped on DVDs. American, Dutch, and Japanese manufacturers, specifically Philips Electronics, Sony Corporation, Matsushita Electric Industrial Company, and Toshiba Corporation, innovated DVDs simultaneously to surpass compact disc (CD) memory capabilities. Industrial DVD standards were released in 1995 after producers of rival formats, Super Density and Multi Media Compact Disc agreed to coordinate efforts which resulted in the creation of DVDs.

DVDs consist of two extremely thin, round plastic discs known as substrates, which are sealed together. Each DVD can store 4.7 gigabytes of compressed information per side, enough to hold a two-hour movie. If the sides are double-layered, a DVD can contain 17 gigabytes.

American manufacturers first distributed DVD players and introduced DVD-Video for movie storage in 1997. Starting that year, people could also access computer programs stored on DVD-Read-Only Memory (DVD-ROM). In 1998, DVD-Random-Access Memory (DVD-RAM) enabled users to record data on DVDs. By 2000, DVD-Audio provided an alternative to CD players and acoustically supplemented DVD-Video. Consumers eagerly bought several million units of DVD products making them the most quickly adopted technology in the history of electronics.

Most computers manufactured since the late 1990s have incorporated DVD drives. In the early 2000s, engineers had refined DVD technology, issuing new types of recording players and disc polymers. Electronics companies continued to secure patents for innovative DVD designs.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

De Lancie, Philip, and Mark Ely. DVD Production. Boston: Focal Press, 2000.

Purcell, Lee. CD-R/DVD: Disc Recording Demystified. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2000.

Taylor, Jim. DVD Demystified. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2001.

Elizabeth D. Schafer

See also Computers and Computer Industry ; Electricity and Electronics .