Optical video recording technology, using a transparent disc,[4] was invented by David Paul Gregg and James Russell in 1958 (and patented in 1961 and 1990).[5][6] The Gregg patents were purchased by MCA in 1968. By 1969, Philips had developed a videodisc in reflective mode, which has advantages over the transparent mode. MCA and Philips then decided to combine their efforts and first publicly demonstrated the video disc in 1972.
LaserDisc was first available on the market, in Atlanta, Georgia, on December 15, 1978,[7] two years after the introduction of the VHS VCR, and four years before the introduction of the CD (which is based on laser disc technology). Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision (also known as simply "DiscoVision") in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to internally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical Videodisc, and Disco-Vision (with a dash), with the first players referring to the format as "Video Long Play".
Pioneer Electronics later purchased the majority stake in the format and marketed it as both LaserVision (format name) and LaserDisc (brand name) in 1980, with some releases unofficially referring to the medium as "Laser Videodisc". Philips produced the players while MCA produced the discs. The Philips-MCA cooperation was not successful, and discontinued after a few years. Several of the scientists responsible for the early research (Richard Wilkinson, Ray Dakin and John Winslow) founded Optical Disc Corporation (now ODC Nimbus).
In 1979, the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago opened their "Newspaper" exhibit which used interactive LaserDiscs to allow visitors to search for the front page of any Chicago Tribune newspaper. This was a very early example of public access to electronically stored information in a museum.
The first LaserDisc title marketed in North America was the MCA DiscoVision release of Jaws in 1978.[8] The last title released in North America was Paramount's Bringing Out the Dead in 2000.[9] The last Japanese released movie was the Hong Kong film Tokyo Raiders from Golden Harvest. A dozen or so more titles continued to be released in Japan, until the end of 2001. Production of LaserDisc players continued until January 14, 2009, when Pioneer stopped making them.[10][11][12]
In the mid-1980s Lucasfilm pioneered the EditDroid non-linear editing system for film and television based on the LaserDisc jukebox players described below.
Instead of printing dailies out on film, the processed negatives would be sent to the mastering plant to be assembled from their 10-minute camera negative elements into 20-minute film segments which would then be able to be mastered onto single-sided blank LaserDiscs, just as a DVD would be burnt at home today, and allow for much easier selection and preparation of an Edit Decision List. In the days before video assist was available in cinematography, this was the only other way a film crew could see their work.
The EDL went to the negative cutter who then cut the camera negative accordingly and assembled the finished film. Only 24 EditDroid systems were ever built, even though the ideas and technology are still in use today.
The only difference in the later systems was, just as a jukebox has only two playback heads, one for each side of the disc, or one head which rotates to the selected side, the later EditDroid experiments borrowed from hard-drive technology of having multiple discs on the same spindle and added numerous playback heads and numerous electronics to the basic jukebox design so that any point on each of the discs would be accessible within seconds. This eliminated the need for racks and racks of industrial LaserDisc players since EditDroid discs were only single-sided.
It was estimated that in 1998, LaserDisc players were in approximately 2% of U.S. households (roughly two million).[13] By comparison, in 1999, players were in 10% of Japanese households.[14] LaserDisc was released on June 10, 1981 in Japan[clarification needed], and a total of 3.6 million LaserDisc players were sold there.[15] A total of 16.8 million LaserDisc players were sold worldwide, of which 9.5 million were sold by Pioneer.[10][11][12]
By the early 2000s, LaserDisc was completely replaced by DVD in the North American retail marketplace, as neither players nor software were then produced. Players were still exported to North America from Japan until the end of 2001. The format has retained some popularity among American collectors, and to a greater degree in Japan, where the format was better supported and more prevalent during its life. In Europe, LaserDisc always remained an obscure format. It was chosen by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for the BBC Domesday Project in the mid-1980s, a school-based project to commemorate 900 years since the original Domesday Book in England. From 1991 up until the early 2000s, the BBC also used LaserDisc technology to play out the channel idents