LaserDisc

LaserDisc became the first optical disc format marketed to consumers when MCA DiscoVision launched on December 11, 1978, in Atlanta, Georgia—two years after VHS and four years before the Compact Disc that would inherit its technology. The first title released was Jaws on December 15, 1978, priced for consumers who wanted picture quality that VHS couldn't match.

The adjacent possible for optical video discs opened through converging streams of technology and commerce. David Paul Gregg and James Russell developed a transparent disc-based video system in 1963, patented in 1970. MCA, the entertainment conglomerate, acquired rights to this technology in 1968, seeing an opportunity to sell films directly to consumers. Meanwhile, Philips in the Netherlands had developed a reflective videodisc approach by 1969. The two companies began collaborating in the early 1970s, publicly demonstrating the format in 1972.

The technology was analog, not digital—unlike the CD that would follow. A laser read physical pits pressed into a 30-centimeter (12-inch) disc, converting optical patterns into video signals that standard televisions could display. The quality was markedly superior to VHS tape: LaserDisc could deliver 425 lines of horizontal resolution versus VHS's roughly 240. For movie enthusiasts, this mattered.

Philips produced the players while MCA manufactured the discs. The Magnavox VH-8000 player launched at $749—expensive, but not prohibitive for early adopters. The partnership ultimately proved unsuccessful and dissolved after several years. In 1980, Pioneer acquired a majority stake and began marketing the format as LaserVision (the format name) and LaserDisc (the brand). Pioneer's commitment kept the format alive through the 1980s and 1990s.

LaserDisc never achieved mass-market penetration in the United States—peaking at about 2% of households—but it dominated in Japan, where quality-conscious consumers and smaller living spaces favored discs over bulky tape libraries. More significantly, LaserDisc became the preferred format for cinephiles, home theater enthusiasts, and film collectors. It pioneered features that became standard: chapter selection, multiple audio tracks, director commentaries, and widescreen presentation.

The technical cascade from LaserDisc was substantial. Philips and Sony collaborated to develop the Compact Disc for audio, applying lessons from optical disc manufacturing and laser reading. DVD, arriving in 1996, combined CD-sized convenience with digital video that finally matched LaserDisc quality for mass consumers. Every optical disc format since—Blu-ray, HD DVD, UHD Blu-ray—descends from the technology MCA and Philips commercialized in 1978.

Pioneer ended LaserDisc player production in July 2009, thirty-one years after the format's launch. By then, the format's legacy lived on in every DVD player and Blu-ray drive, and in the expectations it created for home video: that movies at home should look and sound like movies in theaters.