What does DVD Stand For

DVD is commonly believed to be the acronym for Digital Video Disc. However, it is less commonly known that DVD, also stands for Digital Versatile Disc. It is popularly used for storage of video and data. DVDs are very similar to CDs with respect to their physical appearance. But, they are capable of storing more than six times the data that CDs store.

Who invented the DVD?

1993 witnessed the development of two high-density optical storage formats. MultiMedia Compact Disc supported by Philips and Sony began developing an optical storage media. Around the same time, Super Density (SD) had also begun with the similar developments. Companies like Toshiba, Hitachi, Thomson and others supported their work.

SD approached IBM to ask for support for their optical storage format. IBM was aware of the project by MMCD. IBM authorities decided to form a team of computer industry experts to decide which format should IBM support. The team of experts decided to boycott both the formats and urge both SD and MMCD to come up with a single format with joint effort. A single format, known by the name DVD, soon came up. The experts’ group joined hands with the Optical Storage Technology Association to obtain support of the Universal Disk format for the new DVDs.

DVD Formats

There are several DVD formats in use today. Non-recordable formats include the DVD-ROMs. DVD-R and the DVD-RW formats are categorized under the class of recordable DVD formats supported by the DVD Forum. The DVD+RW Alliance supports a couple of DVD formats, which offer higher storage capacities. You might find it interesting to know about the High Definition DVDs.