Info about Laser Discs
Laser Discs: The First Optical Disc Medium
The first commercial optical disc was the Laserdisc, It was used mainly for showing movies.
When the laserdisc was being developed it was called a Reflective Optical Video Disc System. In 1969, MCA had acquired the patent on the new technology and they renamed the format DiscoVision. It was put on the market for the public in 1978. MCA had the rights for the largest film catalog in the world at this time. They reproduced many of the movies on the new optical disc. MCA also made discs for other production companies like Disney, Warner Brothers and Paramount. Some of these companies added their own logo the disc cover to show that the movie rights were not owned by MCA. When MCA was blended into Universal Studios, Universal remade a lot of the early disc titles.
The laserdisc had many advantages over the VHS tapes that had been released in 1976. The picture was much sharper on the disc and the audio was a great improvement in sound quality. Many movies that originally used analog sound were remade with digital sound tracks. The laserdiscs had the ability to go very quickly from one point to another just like a DVD does.
The discs did not wear like the VHS tapes because there was no contact necessary between the disc and the player. They were read optically instead of magnetically like the VHS tapes. The discs were cheaper to make than VHS tapes because they did not have any moving parts or a plastic casing that was required for a VHS tape to work.
There were disadvantages to the format. They were twelve inches wide, and they were heavy and fragile. There was no means for people to record on the discs at home. Also, each side of the laserdisc could only hold thirty to sixty minutes of material and then the disc would need to be turned. Most disc players did this automatically, but it created a pause in the movie. If a movie was over two hours long, more than one disc was needed.
The differences between DVD technology and laserdisc technology have led some movie buffs to prefer the laserdisc. This is because the true laserdisc only uses analog audio and some people think that analog provides a better quality sound. Also, the first DVD discs had some problems with encoding and this further convinced supporters of the laserdisc that it was better. However, perfection was almost never achieved in the production of the laserdisc and only those that were perfect were of better quality than the current DVDs.
The laserdiscs did not use encoding or compressed material so there were no problems with the color or scenes with a lot of motion. Some laserdisc users will still say that the laserdisc presents a smoother picture that is more like film and DVDs have an artificial look.
A disadvantage of the laserdisc was that the picture could frequently flicker, and even the slightest dust particles could decrease the life of the hardware or the audio and video on the disc. The picture could often be distorted on the laserdiscs because the player would pick up information from another track. This could be avoided by some of the high end players.