Comparison of high definition optical disc formats Comparison of high definition optical disc formats This article compares the technical specifications of multiple high definition formats, including HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc; two mutually incompatible, high definition optical disc formats that, beginning in 2006, attempted to improve upon and eventually replace the DVD standard. The two formats remained in a format war until February 19, 2008 when Toshiba, HD DVD's creator, announced plans to cease development, manufacturing and marketing of HD DVD players and recorders. Other high-definition optical disc formats were attempted, including the multi-layered red-laser Versatile Multilayer Disc and a Chinese made format called EVD. Both appear
History of optical storage media History of optical storage media Although research into optical data storage has been ongoing for many decades, the first popular system was the Compact Disc, introduced in 1982, adapted from audio (CD-DA) to data storage (the CD-ROM format) with the 1985 "Yellow Book", and re-adapted as the first mass market optical storage medium with CD-R and CD-RW in 1988. Compact Disc is still the "de facto" standard for audio recordings, although its place for other multimedia recordings and optical data storage has largely been superseded by DVD. DVD (initially an initialism abbreviation of "Digital Video Disc," then modified to "Digital