Laser disc was an early optical disc format for playing films that was released in 1978 but failed to gain widespread adoption except in Japan. It was invented in 1958 by David Paul Gregg and was intended to replace VHS and Betamax tapes, but was too expensive due to the high cost of both the discs and players. Laser disc's double-sided format and short playback times per side also contributed to its lack of success compared to cheaper VHS tapes. The last laser disc was released in 2001 in Japan before the format died out completely.

1. Laser Disc

2. What is it?
• It was a form of technology used to play
films. It was supposed to replace VHS and
Betamax but was unsuccessful in most
places except for Japan as it managed to
stay around up until 2001 but died off
because not many people wanted to use that
format anymore, they wanted to use a newer
format.
• It was first released to the public on
December 15th 1978.

3. The inventor of laser disc
 The inventor of laser disc was David Paul
Gregg and he invented this in 1958.
 He originally patented it as the videodisk in
1961 but in 1968 his patents were
purchased by the MCA which it the music
corporation of America who further
developed his technology which helped to
create DVD etc.

4. What films it played
 The first movie to be released on laser disc
was ‘Jaws’ in North America in 1978.
 The last laser disc to be released in North
America were ‘Sleepy Hollow’ and ‘Bringing
out the Dead’ which was in the 2000.
 The last film to be released in Japan were
Hong Kong film ‘Tokyo Raiders’ from golden
harvest which was in 2001.
 By 1992 the average price of a laser disc
was $30 which is equivalent to £20 where as
VHS only cost between £5- £10.

5. Why it was not successful
 The laser disc was not successful because it was really
expensive and on top of that they players that was used to play
it was really expensive also.
 It was double sided which made it prone to damage.
 Each side only held 30-60 minutes of films on each side so
you’d have to turn it over half way through the film.
 Also depending on the film you would need several discs to
watch it.
 Laser disc did not take off so well because people were still
content to use VHS where as with DVD people were already
accustomed because it looked like a CD.
 This is the same case for blu-ray now, people are used to DVD
and it’s too soon to move to the next thing.