After the futuristic-looking compact disc (CD) took the audio market by storm—consigning the humble cassette tape to the back of a billion cupboards—it was only a matter of time before technological wizards set their sights on abolishing the VHS tape.
Although the technology for LaserDisc already existed, it never really took off in the way that CD technology did, and so the market for a compact digital video disc was still very much open. The first proposals for a high-density CD were put forward in 1993, leading to the creation of two competing formats. Electronic powerhouses Sony and Philips led their collected investors forward with the MMCD format, going head to head with industry giants Toshiba, Masushita, and Time Warner's effort, the SD. Then, in 1995, a combined effort—known as the DVD—was officially announced and consequently developed by a consortium of ten companies.
The DVD was capable of storing two hours of high- quality digital video, eight tracks of digital audio, and thirty-two tracks of subtitle information, as well as offering the practical benefits of being lightweight, compact, easily rewindable, and durable. Dual-layer DVDs later doubled this capacity, and two-sided DVDs (which can be flipped over like vinyl LPs) doubled it again without creating needless bulk.
Although DVD is often cited as being an acronym for digital video disc or digital versatile disc, the official line on it—as stated in 1999 by the 250 company members in the DVD Forum—is that it is simply a three- letter name. So, in short, DVD stands for DVD.
