History
Although research into optical data storage has been ongoing for many decades, the first popular system was CD, 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for audio recordings, although its place for other multimedia recordings and optical data storage has largely been superseded by DVD.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 acronym of "Digital Video Disc", then backronymed as "Digital Versatile Disc" and officially just "DVD") was the mass market successor to CD. DVD was rolled out in 1996, again initially for video and audio. DVD recordable formats developed some time later: DRD- in late 1997 and DVD+ in 2002. Although DVD was initially intended to prevent a format war in fact one did arise between these two formats. It was resolved with both surviving however: DVD-R predominating for stand-alone DVD recorders and players, and (for computers) most DVD devices being engineered as dual format, to be compatible with both. As of 2007 DVD is the de facto standard for pre-recorded movies, and popular storage of data beyond the capacity of CD.
With the development of high definition television, and the popularization of broadband and digital storage of movies, a further format development took place, again giving rise to two camps: HD DVD and Blu-ray, based upon a switch from red to blue-violet laser and tighter engineering tolerances. As of 2007 both have significant releases in the pre-recorded movie sector, but they are still only commencing their roll-out for data storage and more general use, and have as yet made little impact on the global market for data storage. The result of this format war is not yet determined.
Read more about this topic: Comparison Of Popular Optical Data-storage Systems
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Books of natural history aim commonly to be hasty schedules, or inventories of God’s property, by some clerk. They do not in the least teach the divine view of nature, but the popular view, or rather the popular method of studying nature, and make haste to conduct the persevering pupil only into that dilemma where the professors always dwell.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Tell me of the height of the mountains of the moon, or of the diameter of space, and I may believe you, but of the secret history of the Almighty, and I shall pronounce thee mad.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“No one can understand Paris and its history who does not understand that its fierceness is the balance and justification of its frivolity. It is called a city of pleasure; but it may also very specially be called a city of pain. The crown of roses is also a crown of thorns. Its people are too prone to hurt others, but quite ready also to hurt themselves. They are martyrs for religion, they are martyrs for irreligion; they are even martyrs for immorality.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)