LaserDisc
LaserDisc is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. It was developed by Philips, Pioneer, and the movie studio MCA. The format was initially marketed in the United States in 1978 under the name DiscoVision, a brand used by MCA. As Pioneer took a greater role in its development and promotion, the format was rebranded LaserVision. While the LaserDisc brand originally referred specifically to Pioneer's line of players, the term gradually came to be used generically to refer to the format as a whole, making it a genericized trademark. The discs typically have a diameter of, similar in size to the phonograph record. Unlike most later optical disc formats, LaserDisc is not fully digital; it stores an analog video signal.
Many titles featured CD-quality digital audio, and LaserDisc was the first home video format to support surround sound. Its 425 to 440 horizontal lines of resolution was nearly double that of competing consumer videotape formats, VHS and Betamax, and approaching the resolution later achieved by DVDs. Despite these advantages, the format failed to achieve widespread adoption in North America or Europe, primarily due to the high cost of players and their inability to record.
In contrast, LaserDisc was significantly more popular in Japan and in wealthier regions of Southeast Asia, including Singapore, and Malaysia, and it became the dominant rental video format in Hong Kong during the 1990s. Its superior audiovisual quality made it a favorite among videophiles and film enthusiasts throughout its lifespan.
The technologies and concepts developed for LaserDisc laid the groundwork for subsequent optical media formats, including the compact disc and DVD. LaserDisc player production ended in July 2009 with Pioneer's exit from the market.
History
The origins of optical recording date back to 1963, when David Paul Gregg and James Russell developed a transparent disc-based system, later patented in 1970. MCA acquired the rights to this technology in 1968. Separately, by 1969, Philips had developed a videodisc using reflective technology, which offered advantages over the transparent method. MCA and Philips began collaborating in the early 1970s and publicly demonstrated the videodisc format in 1972. Internally, the technology was known by several names, including Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical Videodisc, and Video Long Play.The format was commercially introduced as MCA DiscoVision on December 11, 1978, in a test market launch in Atlanta, Georgia, two years after the debut of VHS and four years before the introduction of the CD, which is based on laser disc technology. The first LaserDisc title released in North America was the MCA DiscoVision edition of Jaws on December 15, 1978. Philips produced the players, while MCA manufactured the discs; however, the partnership ultimately proved unsuccessful and was dissolved after several years.
In 1980, Pioneer acquired a majority stake in the format and began marketing it as both and LaserDisc. Some releases informally referred to it as. Pioneer's LaserDisc players debuted in Japan in October 1981.
By 1984, Philips and Sony had introduced LV-ROM, a version of the format designed to store digital data, offering a capacity of 3.28 GB, foreshadowing the capabilities of later formats such as CD-ROM or DVD-ROM.
Although LaserDisc never achieved mass-market success, the format gained modest popularity in select markets and developed a niche following. In Japan, market penetration reached approximately 10% of households by 1999. In the United States, about 2% of households owned a player. As of 2021, LaserDisc retains a small collector community in the United States and Japan. In Europe, the format remained obscure, though it saw limited institutional use. Notably, the British Broadcasting Corporation employed LaserDisc for the BBC Domesday Project in the mid-1980s, and from the early 1990s through the late 1990s, also used Sony's CRVdisc variant to broadcast television idents.
LaserDisc was largely supplanted by the DVD format by the early 2000s. The last LaserDisc title released in North America was Paramount's Bringing Out the Dead on October 3, 2000. In Japan, new titles continued to be released until September 21, 2001, with the final film being the Hong Kong action movie Tokyo Raiders from Golden Harvest. The last known LaserDisc release of any kind was Onta Station vol. 1018, a karaoke title issued exclusively in Japan on March 21, 2007.
Pioneer ceased production of LaserDisc players in July 2009. The company continued to offer maintenance services until September 30, 2020, when the remaining parts inventory was exhausted. A total of 16.8 million LaserDisc players were sold worldwide, including 9.5 million units sold by Pioneer.
Design
A standard LaserDisc used for home video was in diameter, roughly the same size as a phonograph record. Each disc consisted of two single-sided aluminum platters bonded together with plastic. At a basic level, LaserDiscs used a series of tiny pits and flat areas etched into the disc surface. These core technologies would later be reused in CDs and DVDs. As a result, all three formats appear similar in physical design. However, LaserDisc differed significantly in how it stored information.LaserDiscs stored analog video using a composite signal format, offering picture quality comparable to the Type C videotape format, with approximately 425 to 440 horizontal lines of resolution. A carrier frequency was modulated by the video signal, and this signal was physically represented by the pattern of pits and lands on the disc. During playback, a laser read these patterns, enabling the player's circuitry to reconstruct the original analog signal.
Audio was originally recorded as analog stereo using frequency modulation. Later discs introduced digital audio using pulse-code modulation, and by the 1990s, some titles supported digital surround sound formats such as Dolby Digital and DTS. These digital tracks were typically output through optical or coaxial connections to an external digital-to-analog converter. Digital PCM audio was encoded by directly summing its baseband signal with the FM-modulated video and analog audio carriers. This combined signal was then clipped, creating a square wave whose transitions are recorded as the pattern of pits and lands on the disc. The frequency of these transitions represented the high-frequency video information. Meanwhile, the lower-frequency digital and analog audio signals caused variations in the signal's duty cycle, which can be visualized as relative changes in pit length.
Because digital compression techniques were not yet available or practical in the late 1970s, three different playback formats were developed based on the disc's rotation speed:
; CAV: Constant angular velocity, also known as Standard Play, offered several advanced playback features, including freeze-frame, variable slow motion, and reverse playback. CAV discs were played at a constant rotational speed, 1,800 rpm for NTSC or Hi-Vision and 1,500 rpm for PAL, with one video frame read per revolution. This allowed for 54,000 individual frames to be stored on a single side, equating to 30 minutes of video for NTSC and Hi-Vision, or 36 minutes for PAL. A key advantage of CAV was reduced visibility of crosstalk between adjacent tracks, as any interference would occur at the same point in adjacent frames. Although less common than constant linear velocity discs, CAV was often used for special edition releases to showcase bonus features and effects. Notably, each frame on a CAV disc could be referenced by number, a feature valued by film scholars and enthusiasts for studying continuity, staging, and production details.
; CLV: Constant linear velocity, also known as Extended Play, did not support the advanced playback features of CAV discs, except when used with high-end LaserDisc players equipped with a digital frame store, which could simulate functions like freeze-frame and variable-speed playback. CLV discs gradually slowed their rotational speed during playback to increase storage capacity, ranging from 1,800 to 600 rpm for NTSC, and 2,470 to 935 rpm for Hi-Vision. This allowed up to 60 minutes of video per side for NTSC and Hi-Vision formats, or up to two hours per disc. For films under two hours, the entire feature could fit on a single disc, which reduced production costs and removed the need to change discs mid-movie, especially convenient for users with dual-sided players. Most LaserDisc titles were released in CLV format, though some used a mix, with one side in CLV and the other in CAV. This allowed selected scenes, such as the climax or bonus features, to be presented in CAV, enabling frame-accurate navigation and highlighting special effects.
; CAA: Constant angular acceleration was introduced in the early 1980s to address crosstalk distortion and tracking issues found in CLV discs. Unlike CLV, which slows the disc gradually, CAA changes the rotation speed in controlled steps, improving playback while remaining compatible with existing players. Most disc manufacturers switched to CAA, though the term rarely appeared on consumer packaging. When digital audio was added to LaserDisc in 1985, it created bandwidth issues with CAA, reducing playback time to 55 minutes per side. As a result, some movies included only analog audio to fit the entire film on one disc. By 1987, Pioneer improved the CAA format to support a full 60 minutes of video with digital audio. Pioneer also extended CAA disc playback to 65 minutes per side for a few titles and developed a 70-minute format, though this longer version was never used commercially.
Audio
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. PAL discs could carry one pair of audio tracks, either analog or digital and 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 and DTS, which are now common on DVD releases, first became available on LaserDisc, and Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace which was released on LaserDisc in Japan, was among the first home video releases ever to include 6.1 channel Dolby Digital EX Surround. 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 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 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 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.
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, 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 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, 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. As such, if surround sound was desired, the disc must be matched to the capabilities of the playback equipment 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 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. On certain releases, one of the analog tracks is used to carry a modulated AC-3 signal for 5.1 channel audio. Older NTSC LaserDiscs made before 1984 only have two analog audio tracks.