High-definition optical disc format war High-definition optical disc format war The high-definition optical disc format war was between the Blu-ray and HD DVD optical disc standards for storing high-definition video and audio; it took place between 2006 and 2008 and was won by Blu-ray Disc. The two formats emerged between 2000 and 2003 and attracted both the mutual and exclusive support of major consumer electronics manufacturers, personal computer manufacturers, television and movie producers and distributors, and software developers. Blu-ray and HD DVD players became commercially available starting in 2006. In early 2008, the war ended when several studios and distributors shifted to Blu-ray disc. On
Optical disc to be used in the Library of Congress archiving efforts. The STC disks utilized a sealed cartridge with an optical window for protection . The CD-ROM format was developed by Sony and Denon, introduced in 1984, as an extension of Compact Disc Digital Audio and adapted to hold any form of digital data. The same year, Sony demonstrated a LaserDisc data storage format, with a larger data capacity of 3.28 GB. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Optex, Inc. of Rockville, MD, built an erasable optical digital video disc system using Electron Trapping Optical Media (ETOM). Although this technology