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In 1996, after a modestly successful 18 year
run as the high-end video format for movie

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buffs dedicated to quality, Laserdisc was
clearly doomed.

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The Digital Versatile Disc, or DVD, was slowly
making its way onto the market.

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Boasting the same physical form factor as
the ubiquitous and wildly successful compact disc,

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along with the promise of high-quality
digital video, DVD was clearly poised to be

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the next high-quality home video format.

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But unlike Laserdisc which never made its
way out of the very high-end market niche,

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DVD would quickly become the standard mass
market home video format.

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By 2003, it would surpass VHS in popularity,
and it still sells relatively well in 2018.

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What allowed DVD to succeed where Laserdisc
failed?

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DVD shared the biggest downside of Laserdisc
when comparing it to VHS--

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you couldn’t record on them (at least initially).

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And for a good while, DVDs and players came
at a significant price premium.

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From a quality standpoint, DVD wasn’t that
much better than Laserdisc, in fact some early

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DVD titles were mastered very poorly and looked
worse than a Laserdisc release.

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And while DVD was more convenient than Laserdisc,
by the 1990’s convenience wasn’t THE major

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downside to Laserdisc.

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Both side play machines existed to save you
the trouble of flipping the disc, and there

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was even one relatively rare model, 
the LD-W1, that could play 2 discs uninterrupted.

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As usual, there’s not one simple answer.

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A number of things came together to make DVD
spread like wildfire.

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Sell like hotcakes.

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Disseminate like the Borg.

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Resistance is futile.

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So first, a little history.

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Many people erroneously believe that DVD stands
for Digital Video Disc, but that’s not entirely true.

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As already stated, the V originally stood
for Versatile.

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The video format is officially referred to
as DVD-Video.

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If you thought the V stood for Video, you
might be under the impression that DVD was

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the first digital video format for consumers.

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But DVD wasn’t the first digital video format
for consumers.

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That was the Video CD.

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Video CD is only a few years older than DVD,
being released in 1993.

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From the perspective of efficiency, the VCD
is a remarkable achievement.

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A 74 minute audio CD holds only 650 megabytes,
the original capacity of the format.

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In that same 650 megabytes, a video CD holds
74 minutes of video.

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That’s pretty impressive.

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But of course, that video was highly compressed.

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In fact, the video was ridiculously compressed.

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With a resolution of only 352 by 240 in NTSC
countries, there was only the same level of

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detail as VHS.

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And the compression left tons of everyone’s
favorite blocky MPEG artifacts.

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Imagine taking a VHS tape, then uploading
it to YouTube in 2005.

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It’s that bad.

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Some years ago I ran across this set of the
Back to the Future trilogy on VCD, originally

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from either Singapore or Malaysia.

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Let’s compare a scene from the VCD release
to a VHS release.

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[Kids, we’re gonna have to eat this cake
by ourselves.]

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[Your Uncle Joey didn’t make parole again.]

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[I think it would be nice if you all dropped
him a line]

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Honestly, I’d rather watch it on VHS.

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The sound quality is noticeably better on
tape, with VHS Hi-Fi really beating the pants

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off the 224 kbits/second MP2 audio on the
VCD.

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♫ The power of love ♫

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♫ is a curious thing ♫

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♫ Make one man weep ♫

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♫ make another man sing ♫

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♫The same song again ♫

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♫ but with much better sound ♫

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♫ It’s a bit slower ♫

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♫ with a lower pitch, too♫

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As you may imagine, VCD wasn’t very popular
here in the states.

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However, in Asia it was very popular.

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VHS didn’t have a strong foothold yet when
VCD was released, and the machines could tolerate

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the high humidity of some Asian regions much
better than tape-based formats.

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However, I will be fair and show the VCD playing
through a CRT television.

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CRTs hide many of the flaws in a VCD and make
it much more tolerable.

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And although the limited recording time meant
most movies were spread across two discs (with

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a few perhaps needing three) the common carousel
CD changer mechanisms were easy to adapt into

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a VCD player, which would just require you
to load up the discs ahead of time.

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DVD was also beat to the punch (in the US
anyway) by digital satellite television services,

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with DirecTV launching digital service in
1994.

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But we’re talking about home video here,
so back to DVD.

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What made DVD possible was the use of a red
laser rather than the infrared laser in use

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with the compact disc.

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The shorter wavelength of light produced by
a red laser could focus on a much smaller

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spot, enabling a significantly finer data
stream on the disc, and thus allowing 4.7

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gigabytes of data to be stored on a single
layer, almost 7 times as much as the CD.

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And for those wondering, yes, history would
repeat itself when Blu-Ray adopted the blue-violet laser.

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Ah, but it wasn’t just 4.7 gigabytes.

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One of the most interesting innovations in
DVD was the use of dual layers.

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In many DVDs, the metalization of the first
data later is actually translucent.

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This allows the laser to be focused on it
and reflected back just like any other disc,

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but it also allows for the laser to partially
shine through it.

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By changing the focal point of the laser,
it can read a second set of pits located behind the first.

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This didn’t quite double the capacity of
the discs, but it brought a significant boost

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from 4.7 gigabytes up to 8.5.

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Blu-Ray discs also use this technique, with
some discs having 4 layers and holding over

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100 gigabytes.

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You may have noticed when the DVD player switches
from one layer to the other.

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When watching a DVD, there’s typically a
point where the video briefly freezes and

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then resumes.

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This happens because the laser has reached
the end of the first layer, and needs to switch

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to the second.

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Usually the folks behind mastering a DVD would
take care as to ensure this happens across

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a quiet jump cut to a change in scenery, thus
reducing the noticeability of the pause.

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Also of note as that on the second layer,
the data spiral is encoded from the outside in,

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so the laser carriage doesn’t have to
travel back to the center and further cause delays.

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With so much more data to play with, DVD supported
much higher resolutions and bitrates than

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a video CD, supporting the full standard definition
resolution of their respective region.

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NTSC discs had a resolution of 720 X 480,

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and PAL/SECAM discs had a resolution of 720 X 576.

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And because it was a digital format, variable
bit rates could be used to pack more content

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onto a single disc, so long as reduced quality
was acceptable.

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DVD also added some very useful features.

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The navigation of the disc via menus created
a much more interactive experience, and even

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allowed for games of a sort.

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Though DVD also allows for blocking out navigation
features, sometimes forcing you to sit through

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annoying previews.

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That was never a thing on Laserdisc.

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And let’s not even mention regional encoding.

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Managing special features is much easier on
a DVD.

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Subtitles were stored alongside video and
generated by the player on demand, enabling

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the addition of many different languages at
once.

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Laserdisc did technically offer closed captioning
as well, but it was limited to the closed

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captioning decoding abilities of the TV it
was plugged into.

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And in case you didn’t know, most VHS titles
were also closed captioned.

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Are you seeing how the captions don’t match
the dialogue?

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That’s some lazy captioning right there.

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The nerve.

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DVDs also enjoyed far more audio options,
with support for multiple languages, different

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surround sound formats, and commentaries all
on one disc.

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In fact, up to 8 separate audio streams are
supported at once.

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Laserdisc did offer some of these features,
for instance the Laserdisc release here of

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the Wizard of Oz features a Spanish and French
dub on each of the analog tracks.

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[She’s worse than the other one]

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[Who killed my sister?]

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[Who killed the Witch of the East?]

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[Was it you?]

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[¿Quién mató a mi hermana?]

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[¿Quién mató a la Bruja del Este?]

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[¿Eras tú?]

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[Qui a assassiné ma soeur?]

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[Qui a tué la fée de l'Est?]

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[Toi, sans doute!]

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But it wasn’t possible to pack anything
else in.

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If you wanted to offer a surround sound track,
you’d lose one analog track at a minimum.

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This leaves room for either a commentary or
a second language alongside the standard digital audio

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--but not both.

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If DTS audio was present on a Laserdisc, then you’d lose
the digital track and be left only with analog

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stereo or two mono selections.

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However, the digital audio on a Laserdisc
isn’t compressed at all, whereas on a DVD

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it often is to save space.

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OK, you’ve probably interacted with a DVD
player before, so there’s not too much use

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droning on about the format’s capabilities.

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Instead, let’s look at the machine I showed
earlier.

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This was one of my more fortuitous Goodwill
finds, particularly due to its history.

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The DVL-700 by Pioneer was released in 1997,
with this machine being manufactured in September

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of that year.

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This was the bleeding edge of technology.

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The Laserdisc Archive claims this to be the
world’s first combination DVD/LD player,

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but the Laserdisc Archive also claims that
the DVL-9 was released in Japan in 1996, so…

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maybe?

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Anyway, DVD was released in Japan in November
of 1996, and the US in March of 1997.

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So this machine was made only 6 months into
the US existence of DVD.

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Now just in case you’ve somehow forgotten,
computing power in 1997 was pretty paltry

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compared to today.

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Let me just remind you that the website for
this film remains online as a time capsule

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of the 1996 computing experience.

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Yeah.

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Decoding standard definition video at the
bitrate of a DVD was quite the task for a

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desktop computer of the time.

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Though DVD players were purpose-built for
that task, they were still packing some sophisticated

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hardware for the time.

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This machine actually has a cooling fan onboard,
which you can hear running whenever it’s

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turned on.

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Of course these days playing a DVD is child’s
play to a $200 laptop, but to bring us back

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on track let’s look a little closer at this
machine.

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It made a great deal of sense for Pioneer
to introduce a player that could play both

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Laserdiscs and these newfangled DVDs, as their
customer base probably had a sizeable collection

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of laserdiscs already.

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One device capable of both would probably
be preferred to managing two devices.

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Now, this machine took an odd approach to
reading both DVDs and Laserdiscs.

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Rather than use a single red laser which could
be adapted to read laserdiscs and CDs, Pioneer

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further altered the Both-Side Play mechanism
by using two separate lasers for Laserdisc

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and DVD playback.

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OK, here’s where things get a little weird.

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In many Pioneer players, for some reason the
engineers thought it was worth the extra complexity

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to build two disc trays in one.

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You’ll see there are two eject buttons--one
labeled LD, and the other CD/DVD.

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Press LD and the entire tray opens for you
to deposit your laserdisc.

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But press CD/DVD, and a small tray will exit
through the middle portion here.

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This wasn’t new for the DVD capable machines,
they had been doing this since at least 1992

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with a feature they called “Direct CD”.

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Now here’s where I go---

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WHY????

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I admit it looks silly, but you could easily
just plop a CD or DVD into the center of the

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large tray.

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All the little tray did was make them create
another mechanism to drive just the center

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portion out of the machine.

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I never understood this, and to me it just
seems a wasted effort on extra complexity.

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If anything I’d say this was out of vanity,
so that people could show off the small size

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of the DVD when playing it.

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00:11:34,430 --> 00:11:37,829
But as I said, they were doing this years
earlier, so who knows.

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00:11:37,829 --> 00:11:43,360
In a strange twist, Pioneer botched an opportunity
to actually make the dual tray thingy useful.

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Because this unit uses a separate laser for
the DVD and Laserdisc functions, it could

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have used these buttons to prepare the correct
laser.

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00:11:49,980 --> 00:11:54,141
See, if you put a DVD in the middle of the
large tray, it will first try to read it as

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a Laserdisc or CD.

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00:11:55,949 --> 00:12:00,339
When it realizes it can’t focus on the pits--they’re
too small for the infrared laser--it sends

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the laser back, and brings the red laser to
the rescue.

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Then it will play the DVD.

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Pioneer did make it smart enough to always
prepare the infrared laser when you select

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Laserdisc eject, but it didn’t go the other
way around.

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Why?

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00:12:12,870 --> 00:12:17,720
Well, because for some incredibly silly reason,
Pioneer didn’t use the red laser for CDs.

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They totally could have, but when you eject
a DVD and then play a CD, it will try to read

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the disc with the red laser, and upon realising
it’s not a DVD, it sends it back and brings

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out the infrared laser.

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Why on Earth does it do that?

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Does anyone know?

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00:12:31,199 --> 00:12:35,800
I’m genuinely curious as to why Pioneer
used the red laser for DVD’s only.

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I don’t know of a DVD player that can’t
also play CDs, and they don’t have two lasers

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at their disposal.

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00:12:42,670 --> 00:12:46,480
When you take a closer look inside the machine,
you’ll see that the two ribbon cables coming

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from lasers’ waiting room are going to different
places.

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00:12:50,589 --> 00:12:53,629
There are two large circuit boards stacked
on top of each other.

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It’s my pretty strong guess that one of
these boards handles DVD playback, and the

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other Laserdisc and CD playback.

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00:13:00,560 --> 00:13:04,509
This sort of gives a clue to the odd, irrational
behavior of this machine.

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00:13:04,509 --> 00:13:09,689
It seems like this isn’t so much a combination
DVD/LD player, it’s more of a Laserdisc

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00:13:09,689 --> 00:13:14,810
player that’s had a DVD player shoved inside
it like some sort of digital parasite.

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00:13:14,810 --> 00:13:20,079
With that said, it’s still not a good explanation
for only using the Laserdisc section for CDs.

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00:13:20,079 --> 00:13:23,930
I don’t see a reason why the DVD section
couldn’t have handled that.

225
00:13:23,930 --> 00:13:28,990
I suppose they might have just wanted the
infrared section to read CDs on the off chance

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00:13:28,990 --> 00:13:31,560
a 5 inch CD-video disc was played.

227
00:13:31,560 --> 00:13:36,389
In that case, the Laserdisc circuitry would
be needed to get the analog video off of the

228
00:13:36,389 --> 00:13:37,389
CDV disc.

229
00:13:37,389 --> 00:13:39,809
But, you ask, why not just use the red laser
for everything?

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00:13:39,809 --> 00:13:44,120
What’s to stop the player from using the
red laser on Laserdiscs, too?

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00:13:44,120 --> 00:13:45,709
Well, hold that thought.

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00:13:45,709 --> 00:13:50,069
There were machines that used a red laser,
and in Japan this was used for a very impressive

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00:13:50,069 --> 00:13:53,069
laserdisc offering we didn’t get in the
States.

234
00:13:53,069 --> 00:13:54,699
Like I said, hold that thought.

235
00:13:54,699 --> 00:13:59,500
Now when this machine was released, the art
of mastering a DVD had not yet been perfected.

236
00:13:59,500 --> 00:14:04,910
It was very common for a 1997 DVD release
of a film to look noticeably worse than a

237
00:14:04,910 --> 00:14:07,559
1997 Laserdisc release.

238
00:14:07,559 --> 00:14:10,519
And these early players had some really clunky
navigation.

239
00:14:10,519 --> 00:14:13,800
Want to fast forward and get a picture search?

240
00:14:13,800 --> 00:14:15,459
This is the best you’ll get.

241
00:14:15,460 --> 00:14:19,700
[So, it is down to you, and it is down to
me]

242
00:14:31,640 --> 00:14:34,280
That pales in comparison to a CAV Laserdisc.

243
00:14:34,290 --> 00:14:39,860
In fact, this machine featured a frame buffer
to allow for smooth fast forwarding on CLV discs.

244
00:14:39,860 --> 00:14:41,200
Take a look.

245
00:14:41,200 --> 00:14:48,420
♫ Delightfully jolly music of 1952 ♫

246
00:14:50,100 --> 00:14:52,340
That’s not fast by today’s standards,

247
00:14:52,350 --> 00:14:55,589
but it blows its own DVD performance out of
the water.

248
00:14:55,589 --> 00:14:59,759
But even on a conventional machine, searching
through a CLV disc was far better than the

249
00:14:59,760 --> 00:15:02,620
slow DVD search of 1997:

250
00:15:03,480 --> 00:15:04,800
[Too late!]

251
00:15:08,200 --> 00:15:10,100
[disap..p…]

252
00:15:10,820 --> 00:15:11,500
[Disa-what?]

253
00:15:11,700 --> 00:15:12,420
[...pear]                          [Shh!]

254
00:15:12,740 --> 00:15:17,340
But DVD did have a number of huge advantages
over Laserdisc that were oh so apparent even

255
00:15:17,350 --> 00:15:18,959
in 1997.

256
00:15:18,959 --> 00:15:23,339
Biggest among them, an entire movie was contained
on a single side of a tiny disc.

257
00:15:23,339 --> 00:15:27,279
The brief pause for the layer change was nothing
compared to the time it takes this machine

258
00:15:27,279 --> 00:15:30,010
to automatically switch sides on a Laserdisc.

259
00:15:30,010 --> 00:15:33,830
The discs were much easier to handle, and
since they had the same physical size of the

260
00:15:33,830 --> 00:15:38,100
ubiquitous compact disc, everyone was familiar
with how to interact with them.

261
00:15:38,100 --> 00:15:42,060
DVD also wasn’t so strictly limited on recording
time like the Laserdisc was.

262
00:15:42,060 --> 00:15:46,290
If a movie pushed into three hours, you could
just apply more compression and fit it all

263
00:15:46,290 --> 00:15:47,569
on a single disc.

264
00:15:47,569 --> 00:15:51,399
It was very very rare that movie needed a
second disc.

265
00:15:51,399 --> 00:15:55,819
And even if it did, the Dual-layer, double
sided disc meant you could just flip it over

266
00:15:55,819 --> 00:15:57,240
just like a Laserdisc.

267
00:15:57,240 --> 00:16:01,710
There was never a need for a second disc like
was so common on Laserdisc.

268
00:16:01,710 --> 00:16:05,660
The digital nature of the format allowed for
error correction and cheaper laser assemblies

269
00:16:05,660 --> 00:16:09,860
to be used, though admittedly it’s much
easier to scratch a DVD to the point of no

270
00:16:09,860 --> 00:16:12,000
return than it is a Laserdisc.

271
00:16:12,000 --> 00:16:16,290
And as perhaps the greatest advantage DVD
had, its small size meant it could actually

272
00:16:16,290 --> 00:16:18,410
work for the rental market.

273
00:16:18,410 --> 00:16:23,689
Netflix famously started as a mail rental
service for DVDs in 1998.

274
00:16:23,689 --> 00:16:25,980
Try doing that with Laserdiscs.

275
00:16:25,980 --> 00:16:30,019
DVD may have been far and away more convenient
than Laserdisc, but it still was a playback-only

276
00:16:30,019 --> 00:16:32,249
format in 1997.

277
00:16:32,249 --> 00:16:37,329
If the ability to record was what drove consumers
to VHS over Laserdisc, what caused DVD to

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00:16:37,329 --> 00:16:39,459
succeed where Laserdisc failed?

279
00:16:39,459 --> 00:16:42,180
I think its success came from four major places.

280
00:16:42,180 --> 00:16:46,129
First, the home video market was now well
established, so people had warmed up to the

281
00:16:46,129 --> 00:16:48,880
idea of buying and renting movies on tape.

282
00:16:48,880 --> 00:16:53,230
Second, DVD equipment and media plummeted
in cost relatively quickly.

283
00:16:53,230 --> 00:16:58,339
Third, by 2000 people were buying much larger
TVs than they were in the 80s and 90s, so

284
00:16:58,339 --> 00:17:02,180
the quality flaws of VHS were starting to
become more of an issue.

285
00:17:02,180 --> 00:17:06,520
And the fourth factor--which I think is the
biggest--was that it shared its physical attributes

286
00:17:06,520 --> 00:17:07,520
with the CD.

287
00:17:07,520 --> 00:17:10,640
So let’s start with the first thing--the
home video market.

288
00:17:10,640 --> 00:17:15,069
Because people were now accustomed to renting
or buying video content, a new format that

289
00:17:15,069 --> 00:17:19,470
was more convenient than both VHS and Laserdisc
was intriguing.

290
00:17:19,470 --> 00:17:22,030
No need to flip a disc OR rewind a tape.

291
00:17:22,030 --> 00:17:27,779
And since everyone already had a VCR for recording
TV, the inability of DVD to record wasn’t

292
00:17:27,779 --> 00:17:29,720
that big of a deal.

293
00:17:29,720 --> 00:17:33,899
Even when VCRs were common, to make the leap
to Laserdisc meant dealing with very high

294
00:17:33,899 --> 00:17:39,200
costs for purchasing discs, limited availability,
and also the added inconvenience of multiple

295
00:17:39,200 --> 00:17:41,320
sides and/or discs.

296
00:17:41,320 --> 00:17:44,950
Not many people saw all those downsides to
be worth the investment.

297
00:17:44,950 --> 00:17:50,029
But once DVD players started to come down
in price, the leap to DVD brought the quality

298
00:17:50,029 --> 00:17:57,299
boost of Laserdisc with none of its inconvenience--and
a lot of added convenience when compared to VHS.

299
00:17:57,299 --> 00:17:59,110
Now let’s look at how quickly the prices
dropped.

300
00:17:59,110 --> 00:18:03,240
In 1997, the cheapest DVD player was about
$500.

301
00:18:03,240 --> 00:18:04,510
But that’s actually not too bad.

302
00:18:04,510 --> 00:18:12,380
As a refresher, in 1993 the Pioneer CLD-S201,
a single side player, was $319, and this CLD-D502

303
00:18:12,380 --> 00:18:13,890
was $459.

304
00:18:13,890 --> 00:18:18,169
In August of 1997, this DVL-700 went for an
even thousand.

305
00:18:18,169 --> 00:18:22,919
But by 1999, you could get a DVD player for
as little as $250.

306
00:18:22,919 --> 00:18:26,490
VCRs were still over a hundred dollars at
this point, so the price disparity was beginning

307
00:18:26,490 --> 00:18:27,490
to shrink.

308
00:18:27,490 --> 00:18:31,370
By 2002, DVD players could be had for less
than a hundred dollars.

309
00:18:31,370 --> 00:18:35,580
By now, VCRs and DVD players cost about the
same, and it was around this time that the

310
00:18:35,580 --> 00:18:37,930
ubiquitous combo units started to appear.

311
00:18:37,930 --> 00:18:43,039
The picture quality advantage of DVD was starting
to become quite critical by the late nineties.

312
00:18:43,039 --> 00:18:48,370
Even on your average CRT TV, the DVD looks
noticeably better than VHS.

313
00:18:48,370 --> 00:18:52,840
Make that a 27 inch CRT or bigger, and the
difference is even clearer.

314
00:18:52,840 --> 00:18:57,580
DVDs could also encode widescreen content
without significant image quality loss.

315
00:18:57,580 --> 00:19:03,110
By stretching a standard aspect ratio frame
to fit a 16:9 frame, there wasn’t any detail

316
00:19:03,110 --> 00:19:04,110
lost.

317
00:19:04,110 --> 00:19:09,279
This was called anamorphic widescreen, and
worked much the same as film projectors did.

318
00:19:09,279 --> 00:19:12,620
Widescreen content was produced natively on
the disc like this.

319
00:19:12,620 --> 00:19:17,299
On a 4:3 display, the DVD player would generate
the black bars for letterboxing, and squish

320
00:19:17,299 --> 00:19:19,720
the video downward to fit the frame.

321
00:19:19,720 --> 00:19:24,500
But if set to a 16:9 display output, the DVD
player would not add the black bars, and it

322
00:19:24,500 --> 00:19:28,210
would produce a picture that appeared to be
squeezed in from left to right.

323
00:19:28,210 --> 00:19:32,409
It would send a signal to the TV to tell it
stretch this back out out to either side,

324
00:19:32,409 --> 00:19:35,210
thus restoring the correct aspect ratio.

325
00:19:35,210 --> 00:19:40,500
If a movie was released on VHS in widescreen,
the black bars are there as part of the video

326
00:19:40,500 --> 00:19:43,850
signal, which means there’s less actual
image on screen.

327
00:19:43,850 --> 00:19:49,070
To fill a widescreen display requires zooming
in, which drastically harms image quality.

328
00:19:49,070 --> 00:19:54,350
Many early DVDs were not encoded with anamorphic
widescreen, so on these releases the letterboxing

329
00:19:54,350 --> 00:19:57,529
is unfortunately part of the actual video.

330
00:19:57,529 --> 00:20:00,200
These discs also require zooming to fill the
frame.

331
00:20:00,200 --> 00:20:03,820
Now let’s look at what allowed the cost
of DVD to fall so quickly.

332
00:20:03,820 --> 00:20:09,250
The biggest factor is probably that at its
core, it’s nothing more than a modified CD.

333
00:20:09,250 --> 00:20:13,000
Take a look at the disc mechanism from a first
generation PlayStation.

334
00:20:13,000 --> 00:20:16,530
Open up any modern optical drive and you see
the same basic stuff.

335
00:20:16,530 --> 00:20:19,480
A spindle to hold a disc, and a laser to read
it.

336
00:20:19,480 --> 00:20:23,380
The only things that separate this drive from
what’s in the PlayStation are a stronger

337
00:20:23,380 --> 00:20:27,340
and faster spindle motor, and a red laser
rather than infrared.

338
00:20:27,340 --> 00:20:32,390
The simple fact was that a DVD drive was just
a slightly altered CD drive, and we were pumping

339
00:20:32,390 --> 00:20:34,419
those things out like crazy.

340
00:20:34,419 --> 00:20:40,779
Computers, car stereos, the CD Walkman, PlayStations,
boomboxes and home stereos all had a CD drive

341
00:20:40,779 --> 00:20:41,779
in them.

342
00:20:41,779 --> 00:20:47,080
As a personal example, in 1999 I can think
of five CD players in my home--my dad’s

343
00:20:47,080 --> 00:20:52,179
car, my personal walkman, our main stereo,
my brother’s bookshelf system, and our home

344
00:20:52,179 --> 00:20:56,380
computer all had a CD drive of some sort.

345
00:20:56,380 --> 00:21:00,590
Manufacturing facilities existed all over
the world to produce these CD drives.

346
00:21:00,590 --> 00:21:04,929
All they needed to do to start making DVD
drives was to upgrade the motor and laser.

347
00:21:04,929 --> 00:21:07,020
Pretty much everything else could stay the
same.

348
00:21:07,020 --> 00:21:11,190
The only really expensive components in the
early DVD players were the electronics needed

349
00:21:11,190 --> 00:21:14,450
to process the data on the disc into a video
output.

350
00:21:14,450 --> 00:21:17,789
But as we know, electronics tend to get cheap
fast.

351
00:21:17,789 --> 00:21:22,110
It only took a few years for the DVD player’s
hardware to plummet in price, at which point

352
00:21:22,110 --> 00:21:24,770
a DVD player could be had very cheaply.

353
00:21:24,770 --> 00:21:28,649
DVDs were also significantly helped out by
the fact that the computer industry adopted

354
00:21:28,649 --> 00:21:30,960
them as a data storage format.

355
00:21:30,960 --> 00:21:35,309
In the nineties and early 2000’s, optical
storage was still the best bang for your buck

356
00:21:35,309 --> 00:21:36,950
in terms of storage space.

357
00:21:36,950 --> 00:21:41,390
In 1998, the iMac was released with a 4 gigabyte
hard drive.

358
00:21:41,390 --> 00:21:46,299
A single layer DVD could store more than the
entire hard drive of your typical computer.

359
00:21:46,299 --> 00:21:50,559
In fact, the development of DVD was done in
tandem with computer OEMs.

360
00:21:50,559 --> 00:21:55,710
There were initially two competing standards--Philips
and Sony were working on the MultiMedia Compact

361
00:21:55,710 --> 00:22:00,360
Disc, and Toshiba, Time Warner, Matsushita
Electric, Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric, Pioneer,

362
00:22:00,360 --> 00:22:06,659
Thomson, and JVC were all backing a different
format called SD, or Super Density Disc.

363
00:22:06,659 --> 00:22:08,500
The computer manufacturers stepped in and
said,

364
00:22:08,500 --> 00:22:10,460
look, either you guys agree on one standard,

365
00:22:10,460 --> 00:22:12,140
or don’t expect us to play along.

366
00:22:12,140 --> 00:22:13,140
Got it?

367
00:22:13,140 --> 00:22:16,740
It’s a good thing this happened, as it avoided
yet another format war.

368
00:22:16,740 --> 00:22:20,990
With the computer industry on board, DVD drives
started to appear in devices like desktops

369
00:22:20,990 --> 00:22:22,070
and laptops.

370
00:22:22,070 --> 00:22:26,740
This massive scale continued to drive the
cost of DVD downward, and it also meant that

371
00:22:26,740 --> 00:22:30,570
people could now play their movies on the
go with a laptop, or at the very least use

372
00:22:30,570 --> 00:22:33,100
their desktop as a second place to watch a
movie

373
00:22:33,100 --> 00:22:35,500
(assuming their computer was capable of handling the video).

374
00:22:44,300 --> 00:22:48,280
The discs themselves were also far easier
to make than a Laserdisc.

375
00:22:48,289 --> 00:22:53,539
Though the dual layers added extra complexity,
they were made much the same as a CD.

376
00:22:53,539 --> 00:22:58,510
The production of Laserdiscs, while technically
still mass production, was a tiny tiny business

377
00:22:58,510 --> 00:23:00,669
compared to pressing CDs.

378
00:23:00,669 --> 00:23:05,350
When DVDs became available, the same businesses
that made CDs could adapt some of their existing

379
00:23:05,350 --> 00:23:10,429
equipment to produce DVDs, and by needing
less raw materials the discs were cheaper

380
00:23:10,429 --> 00:23:12,029
to make over the long run.

381
00:23:12,029 --> 00:23:13,720
And then, there’s the PlayStation 2.

382
00:23:13,720 --> 00:23:22,920
[The blissful sound of the PS2 startup]

383
00:23:22,920 --> 00:23:25,880
Sony,
having realized the benefit of the much larger

384
00:23:25,880 --> 00:23:31,840
storage capacity of DVD, decided to make DVD
the format of choice for their new console.

385
00:23:31,840 --> 00:23:35,340
And they also made sure it could play a DVD-Video
disc.

386
00:23:35,340 --> 00:23:39,269
Released in 2000, the PS2 was a pretty early
DVD player.

387
00:23:39,269 --> 00:23:44,070
Sony really made a genius move there, as parents
could be persuaded by their kids to buy one

388
00:23:44,070 --> 00:23:46,100
"because it can also play DVDs!"

389
00:23:46,100 --> 00:23:49,010
And it would push
the format along massively.

390
00:23:49,010 --> 00:23:54,340
The PS2 may have been the single greatest
catalyst for pushing the DVD into the mainstream.

391
00:23:54,340 --> 00:24:00,150
Nintendo missed a huge opportunity by using
the mini-DVD discs in the GameCube.

392
00:24:00,150 --> 00:24:04,600
Without the ability to play DVD Video, that’s
a harder sell for your parents.

393
00:24:04,600 --> 00:24:08,120
Of course, Sony would repeat the same strategy
with the introduction of Blu-Ray

394
00:24:08,120 --> 00:24:09,620
in the PlayStation 3.

395
00:24:09,620 --> 00:24:13,320
Lastly, DVD recording ended up being a somewhat common thing.

396
00:24:13,330 --> 00:24:20,410
The DVD-RAM disc was introduced in 1996, with
the more common DVD-R coming the following year.

397
00:24:20,410 --> 00:24:25,070
It took a while for consumer devices to get
to reasonable prices, but set top boxes capable

398
00:24:25,070 --> 00:24:31,399
of recording directly onto DVDs were available
and DVD-Camcorders were available by the early 2000’s.

399
00:24:31,399 --> 00:24:34,840
However, using a DVD recorder wasn’t really
that common.

400
00:24:34,840 --> 00:24:38,970
For those who wanted to record TV, their VCR
was often seen as good enough.

401
00:24:38,970 --> 00:24:43,880
And once hard-drive based DVRs for recording
TV came along, few people were still using

402
00:24:43,880 --> 00:24:45,389
physical media for that anyway.

403
00:24:45,389 --> 00:24:48,980
All of these developments just passed Laserdisc
by.

404
00:24:48,980 --> 00:24:53,960
Being a primarily analog medium, it was rarely
used in the computing industry.

405
00:24:53,960 --> 00:24:58,080
While an all-digital Laserdisc could have
been made, it’s large size would still have

406
00:24:58,080 --> 00:24:59,710
been inconvenient.

407
00:24:59,710 --> 00:25:04,350
When DVD was released, it had obvious applications
outside of home video.

408
00:25:04,350 --> 00:25:09,250
The support of the computing industry (and
gaming industry) made it explode, and economies

409
00:25:09,250 --> 00:25:14,530
of scale would ensure DVD media and machines
to play them were cheap cheap cheap.

410
00:25:14,530 --> 00:25:18,049
Now before I end the video, remember how I
asked why Pioneer couldn’t have used the

411
00:25:18,049 --> 00:25:20,490
red laser for all functions in this machine?

412
00:25:20,490 --> 00:25:24,970
Well, there are some Laserdisc players that
did use a red laser.

413
00:25:24,970 --> 00:25:29,050
In my next video on Laserdisc, which will
likely be the last in the series, I’ll talk

414
00:25:29,050 --> 00:25:34,140
about the laserdisc format we didn’t get
in the States--The MUSE High Definition Laserdisc.

415
00:25:34,140 --> 00:25:36,680
That's right.  HD Laserdisc.

416
00:25:36,680 --> 00:25:38,539
Thanks for watching, I hope you enjoyed the
video!

417
00:25:38,539 --> 00:25:42,010
If this is your first time coming across the
channel and you liked what you saw, please

418
00:25:42,010 --> 00:25:43,159
consider subscribing!

419
00:25:43,159 --> 00:25:47,280
I’d also like to take the time to thank
this channel’s supporters on Patreon.

420
00:25:47,280 --> 00:25:49,720
Patrons of the channel are what keep these
videos coming.

421
00:25:49,720 --> 00:25:53,450
If you’re interested in becoming a patron
as well, please check out my Patreon page

422
00:25:53,450 --> 00:25:56,820
through the link on your screen, or down below
in the description.

423
00:25:56,820 --> 00:25:59,000
Thanks for your consideration, and I’ll
see you next time!

424
00:26:06,860 --> 00:26:10,960
The only thing that separates this drive from
what’s in the Playstation are…

425
00:26:11,660 --> 00:26:12,160
Things.

426
00:26:12,240 --> 00:26:12,900
Sh*t