Press Release Wired Press Release: Blu-rays are back; Streaming Isn’t Everything (1 Viewer)

[The Drifter]

Laserdisc didn't really take off until the late-80s. There were a lot of problems with early pressings, and for the first several years, they used the same pan-and-scan masters as videotape, with marginally better picture and sound quality. Sometimes they were worse, because they'd use time compression to fit movies slightly over two hours on a single disc.

Towards the end of the decade, they started releasing newer, letterboxed transfers with digital sound that really showed off what the format was capable of.

That's coincides with what I remember. This is why I was surprised when I just read that the first LD came out in 1978 (per my Wikipedia quote above). I didn't actually know anyone that had an LD player until the very early '90's.

 

[David Norman]

That being said, it's possible the technology to make DVD's didn't exist in the late '70's (when LD's were first introduced).

No if's about it