Video Laser disc

 

LaserVision Protocols appeared as early as 1969, and a first unit was publicly demonstrated in 1972. Philips had been independently developing optical video recording in Eindhoven since 1970 and had been collaborating with DiscoVision since 1975. In 1976, the optical video disc was released on the American market in Atlanta. On all video discs, the image and sound were analog; however, on the Laserdisk discs manufactured after 1984, the sound was digitally encoded. The system became a commercial flop because Philips viewed itself as a hardware manufacturer and left the production of software (the discs) to third parties. Initially, they saw no potential in the new system, so players entered the market but no discs. Moreover, it was a disadvantage that video discs were not yet offered for rent in the rapidly emerging video rental stores, meaning the video recorder, which had been introduced a few years earlier, prevailed over the optical system for the time being.