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In today’s world of rapidly developing technology,

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there are an ever-increasing number of technical standards and formats.

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And every time a new format is created, its
creators suddenly find themselves tasked with

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figuring out some way of distinguishing this
format from all the other ones.

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Now, often times you can use simple physical
characteristics, but that doesn’t necessarily

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indicate what the format is.

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For example, compact discs and DVDs look virtually
identical, and while an eagle-eyed person

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obsessed with technological trivia can figure
out the differences soon enough, it helps

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to create some sort of logo.

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This logo isn’t just there for identification
purposes, either.

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In its traditional use, it signifies compatibility
with the technical specifications of the format.

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For example, the venerable VHS cassette.

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This mark isn’t simply descriptive.

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It appears on all videocassette recorders
that use the VHS specifications,

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it appears on all videocassettes that use the VHS specifications,

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and it doesn’t appear on cassettes or recorders

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that don’t use the VHS specifications.

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So, even though a quarter of a century passed
between the manufacture of these two machines,

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because they both have that little logo on
it, we can rest assured that a recording made

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with this machine will play on this machine,
and vice versa.

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And that’s the point to these labels.

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Every format has some sort of mark for compatibility.

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The Compact Disc logo indicates compatibility
with Compact Disc players, and if I might

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add I think that this logo is starting to
dip into the retro-cool category.

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Something about it is just a delightful mix
of futuristic, retro, and wholesome...

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*stares off into distance and gets distracted*

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Anyway,
yes this logo would get little additions underneath

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it to distinguish all the various versions
of CD that eventually came about,

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but you’ll find this Compact Disc 
mark on any player designed to…

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play them.

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Just match up the symbol on the disc with
the symbol on the player and you’ll be sure

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of compatibility.

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Same goes for DVD.

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Does this disc have the DVD logo?

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Well, so does your player.

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Same goes for USB.

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Do you see the pitchfork of knowledge?

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Then that’s a USB device.

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Of course, thunderbolt over USB-C (along with
power delivery) is making this increasingly

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more confusing but let’s hope we get that
sorted soon.

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And while we’re at it, thanks to Pioneer
and their near-complete dominance over the

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format, we call these things Laserdiscs without
realizing that LaserDisc, and in particular

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this logo, is what Pioneer decided to brand
their players and discs following the Laservision

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videodisc standard.

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Guys, I’m trying to demonstrate the usefulness
of these symbols

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and here you are mucking it up.

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The designers (and patent holders) of whatever
system we’re talking about create these

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symbols not only to demonstrate compatibility
for the benefit of consumers,

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but also to enforce it from manufactures

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and collect those sweet, sweet licensing fees in the process.

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[♫ upbeat promotional music ♫] 
Do YOU want to manufacture compact disc players?

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Sweet!

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Just pay us an exorbitant fee, and then we’ll
give you the knowledge you need to build your

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CD player!

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Then, we’ll charge you a few dollars for
each player you make, and then,

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and ONLY then,

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can you put our coveted little logo on it!

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It does protect consumers, I guess,

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but most importantly it makes us MONEY!

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And it wasn’t just players.

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As recently as 2001, Sony and Philips were
collecting royalty fees for discs, too.

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At that time, Philips got 1.8 cents per disc,
and Sony got 1.2 cents per disc.

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That might not seem like much, but considering
how many copies of albums were being sold,

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that’s still plenty huge.

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For example, Linkin Park’s debut album Hybrid
Theory sold 27 million copies worldwide, meaning

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that Philips made nearly half a million dollars,
and Sony raked in $324,000.

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So while this little logo may seem like a
simple compatibility mark, it was also a serious

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money maker.

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But now we come to the meat and potatoes of
this video;

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SD cards.

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I think it’s safe to say that SD has come
to prominence in the removable flash media market.

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And just like all the other standards both
flash and otherwise, SD uses a logo to both

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ensure and enforce compatibility.

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SD stands for Secure Digital, although I prefer
to think of it as

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Super Dope

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and the SD Association

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is who makes the rules.

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The SDA is way less in it for the money, as
they are a nonprofit group and only charge

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$2,500 to join.

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As far as I can tell, they don’t assess
a fee to their members on a per-manufactured-card

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basis to use that logo.

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Their self-described function is as follows:

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“The SD Association establishes the technical

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and specification standards for SD memory
card applications, continuously promotes SD

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as the leading industry standard, and encourages
the development of digital A/V, wireless communication,

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and digital networking products that utilize
the many unique benefits of SD standards.”

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Fun stuff.

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But, about that logo.

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Why is the D in SD...

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a disc?

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I’m fairly confident that this isn’t a
disc, but I’ll ask my sources.

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Is this a disc?

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No, it’s not a disc!

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Is this a disc?

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Yes all signs seem to indicate that
this is indeed not a disc.

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Well, that settles it.

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Two out of two sources agree that this is
not a disc.

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So, um,

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why is there a disc in the logo?

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Well, you know how sometimes a company announces
that they’re gonna develop a thing,

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and then they put a lot of R&D effort into developing
the thing,

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but it turns out that another set of companies is ALSO developing a thing,

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and now you’ve got a situation of two competing  things?

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[crickets chirping]

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That happened in the developmental stages
of DVD.

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Philips and Sony were backing an updated version
of their very own Compact Disc, which they

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called the MultiMedia Compact Disc or MMCD.

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Meanwhile, all of these other manufacturers
were backing a different kind of disc.

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That disc had a different name from MultiMedia Compact Disc.

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See, what makes DVDs able to store more data
than a CD is that the pits are packed more densely.

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This new disc had a greater pit density than
a CD.

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In fact, you might say its density was kinda
super.

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It was a super density disc.

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SD!

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Toshiba designed this logo for use in the
never realized Super Density disc.

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I’ve mentioned this before in my video introducing
the DVD and its murder of Laserdisc, but the

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creation of the DVD standard hinged on the
aforementioned companies coming to an agreement

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on which format to use.

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This agreement was in large part forced by
computer companies, who envisioned using this

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standard for data storage, and who didn’t
want to pick sides

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and wind up on the wrong one.

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[crickets chirping]

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When the companies agreed and morphed the
competing standards into the one,

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the only,

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the glorious DVD,

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suddenly Toshiba had this
useless logo that they designed sitting around.

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And, rather than be wasteful about it, they
slapped it onto a new flash memory standard.

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Sandisk and Matsushita partnered with Toshiba,
and the Secure Digital format was born.

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Just to add to the trivia, SD was essentially
just a modification

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of the earlier MultiMediaCard (MMC),

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but support for DRM was added
as part of its specifications.

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It is likely (though I have not confirmed
it) that its name was chosen because it was

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designed to fit within the Secure Digital
Music Initiative, which was essentially the

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record industry’s last ditch effort to try
and get tech companies to move away from MP3s

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and into a more locked down standard.

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It didn’t work, but the name stuck anyway.

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From my perspective, it looks very much like
Toshiba, having created this logo, set out

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to make a new memory card standard, and the
Secure Digital Music Initiative just sort

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of fell into their laps.

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They designed it to work within that initiative,
and if music were to be distributed on cards,

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it might be helpful to put a disc in the logo

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because, you know,

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that’s what music used to go on.

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Anyway, regardless of what exactly transpired,
we do know for sure that this logo is a leftover.

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Perhaps you’ve never even noticed that the
D is an optical disc.

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I didn’t until I first read about it.

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And to be fair, many designs don’t put the
little lines through the D

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so it’s harder to make the connection.

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[Ding]

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But now that we all know, we can laugh
at the follies of the past, and be thankful

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that the standard endures, with one unifying
logo

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letting us know everything we need to….

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[sigh]

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Jeez guys, how many more revisions are you
gonna go through?

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Won’t you ever be satisfied!

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Isn’t half a terabyte on your fingernail
enough!?

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I mean really, we’ve got 4K TV now, how
much more data are we gonna need?

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Why don’t you just--

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Thanks for watching, and I hope you enjoyed
this little explanation of the mysterious

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disc in the discless format.

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It’s not so much mysterious as much as it is
a hand me down.

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The remains of a project long ago abandoned,
but which ended up being useful after all.

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If a little thematically inconsistent.

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As always, thank you to everyone who supports
the channel on Patreon, especially the fine

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folks you see scrolling up your screen.

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With the generous support of people like you,
Technology Connections has changed from my

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weird little hobby to my actual job!

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And I’m very grateful for your support.

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If you would like to support the channel with
a pledge of your own, and get perks like early

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video access, occasional behind-the-scenes
footage, as well as the inside scoop on the

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latest projects, please check out my Patreon
page.

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Thank you for your consideration, and I’ll
see you next time!

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♫ incomprehensibly smooth jazz ♫

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[Sigh]

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I got about half-way through the script
before I realized that the camera wasn’t recording...

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and it’s a shame because there
were some great bloopers in there.

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To my surprise, while going through DVDs to
show the logo, I discovered that Disney DVDs

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don’t actually use the official DVD logo.

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They use their own “Disney DVD” thing,
which makes me wonder just how they made/make

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their DVDs.

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Are they correctly licensed and the DVD association
(now One-red) just lets them use their own

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logo?

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I can’t imagine Disney isn’t being above
board, but I wonder just how their own logo

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fits into the whole DVD ecosystem.

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Ya know?

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That’s prolly not a good use of that tense,
and I didn’t even write it so, like…

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where did that come from?

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That’s a great question, Bertie.

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Pioneer decided to call these things Laserdiscs
without realizing…

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[really long pause]

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no.

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No (more ominously).

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And just like all the other standards, both
flash and otherwise, SD--

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people and their road rage, and interrupting my videos,

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just calm down people.

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The SDA is way-- eugh.

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The SDA--

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Distinguising this formblabelleughth