I was reading about LaserDiscs for no reason today. I've seen a LaserDisc once ever. They're pretty interesting. It actually predates and paved the way for the CD. In fact, the technology was invented in 1958. LaserDiscs, called Discovision at the time, originally came out in 1978. The last movie to be put onto LaserDisc was Tokyo Raiders, which came in in 2000. That's right. LaserDiscs were around for 22 years, mostly thanks to Hong Kong and Japan. The last LaserDisc player was made on January 14, 2009. 2009!
Each side of the LaserDisc holds up to 60 minutes of video. So, pretty much every movie ever on LaserDisc was interrupted halfway through so you can flip the disc over. Of course, when they came out, everyone used LPs and were used to flipping halfway through enjoying something.
If the disc only had one side worth of programming, this LaserDisc Turtle image would show up if you played the wrong side.
One major disadvantage to the LaserDisc versus the VHS was that you couldn't really record or store data to LaserDisc. Oh wait, yes you could, but it looked like this:
BAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!
The Future: HVDs and 5D DVDs
HVD = Holographic Versatile Disc. Ah, the future of the 1950s is here! It's the size of a DVD. Each disc can hold 1 to 6 Terabytes! Holy balls! The disc is read with a blue laser and a green laser simultaneously. Oh, yeah, that green laser is a 1 Watt laser, which is amazingly high for a consumer product. (3 Watt lasers can burn through walls!) Start saving now, though, because the players will cost $15,000 and the discs about $150.
5D DVD = 5-Dimensional DVD. Basically, the data is written on tiny particles which are placed on the disc in layers, which are then read by 3 different lasers. Oh yeah and the discs will hold just 10 Terabytes. Yes!
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