DVDs offer significantly higher storage capacity than compact discs (CD) while having the same dimensions.

The Oxford English Dictionary comments that, "In 1995, rival manufacturers of the product initially named digital video disc agreed that, in order to emphasize the flexibility of the format for multimedia applications, the preferred abbreviation DVD would be understood to denote digital versatile disc."

One was the Multimedia Compact Disc (MMCD), backed by Philips and Sony (developers of the CD and CD-i), and the other was the Super Density (SD) disc, supported by Toshiba, Time Warner, Matsushita Electric, Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric, Pioneer, Thomson, and JVC.

[17][18] On May 3, 1995, an ad hoc, industry technical group formed from five computer companies (IBM, Apple, Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, and Microsoft) issued a press release stating that they would only accept a single format.

Philips/Sony strongly insisted on the source code, EFMPlus, that Kees Schouhamer Immink had designed for the MMCD, because it makes it possible to apply the existing CD servo technology.

[23] The DVD specification ended up similar to Toshiba and Matsushita's Super Density Disc, except for the dual-layer option.

[24] After other compromises between MMCD and SD, the group of computer companies won the day, and a single format was agreed upon.

The computer companies also collaborated with the Optical Storage Technology Association (OSTA) on the use of their implementation of the ISO-13346 file system (known as Universal Disk Format) for use on the new DVDs.

[b][4] The format's release in the U.S. was delayed multiple times, from August 1996,[27] to October 1996,[28] November 1996,[29] before finally settling on early 1997.

[30] Players began to be produced domestically that winter, with March 24, 1997, as the U.S. launch date of the format proper in seven test markets.

[c][6][31] Approximately 32 titles were available on launch day, mainly from the Warner Bros., MGM, and New Line libraries,[32][d] with the notable inclusion of the 1996 film Twister.

[33] However, the launch was planned for the following day (March 25), leading to a distribution change with retailers and studios to prevent similar violations of breaking the street date.

The sound system company revealed details in a November 1997 online interview, and clarified it would release discs in early 1998.

[36] However, this date would be pushed back several times before finally releasing their first titles at the 1999 Consumer Electronics Show.

[45] By 2007, about 80% of Americans owned a DVD player, a figure that had surpassed VCRs; it was also higher than personal computers or cable television.

During mastering, a studio could make the transition less obvious by timing it to occur just before a camera angle change or other abrupt shift, an early example being the DVD release of Toy Story.

[58] Later in the format's life, larger data buffers and faster optical pickups in DVD players made layer transitions effectively invisible regardless of mastering.

HP initially developed recordable DVD media from the need to store data for backup and transport.

DVD players are a particular type of devices that do not require a computer to work, and can read DVD-Video and DVD-Audio discs.

DVD drives limit reading speed to 16× (constant angular velocity), which means 9280 rotations per minute.

For that reason, the increase of reading speeds of dual layer media has stagnated at 12× (constant angular velocity) for half-height optical drives released since around 2005,[g] and slim type optical drives are only able to record dual layer media at 6× (constant angular velocity), while reading speeds of 8× are still supported by such.

The format went on sale in Japan on November 1, 1996,[4] in the United States on March 24, 1997, to line up with the 69th Academy Awards that day;[6] in Canada, Central America, and Indonesia later in 1997; and in Europe,[8] Australia, and Africa in 1998.

DVD-Video became the dominant form of home video distribution in Japan when it first went on sale on November 1, 1996, but it shared the market for home video distribution in the United States for several years; it was June 15, 2003, when weekly DVD-Video in the United States rentals began outnumbering weekly VHS cassette rentals.

In fact, experts claimed that the DVD would remain the dominant medium for at least another five years as Blu-ray technology was still in its introductory phase, write and read speeds being poor and necessary hardware being expensive and not readily available.

Some analysts suggested that the biggest obstacle to replacing DVD was due to its installed base; a large majority of consumers were satisfied with DVDs.

[93][94][95][96] With increasing numbers of homes having high speed Internet connections, many people had the option to either rent or buy video from an online service, and view it by streaming it directly from that service's servers, meaning they no longer need any form of permanent storage media for video at all.

Star Trek: The Next Generation was the only such show that had a Blu-ray release, as prints were re-scanned and edited from the ground up.

The life expectancies for 95% survival estimated in this project by type of product are tabulated below:[102][dubious – discuss]