LaserDiscs are a home video format, which means that they're used to watch movies in the same way that DVDs are used to watch movies—but don't fret—they came way before those tiny discs! LaserDiscs were created by MCA, Phillips, and Pioneer and were. initially branded under the name DiscoVision, though two years later in the 1980s they got rebranded back to LaserDisc.
During the 1980s, LaserDiscs were in some serious competition with VHS. The thing is, they inevitably lost the battle and faded into obsolescense because...
Due to TVs at the time being pretty outdated, on screen there wasn't that much of a difference between VHS and LaserDisc quality-wise, even if LaserDisc was a teeny bit better.
To watch videos on LaserDisc, you would need a LaserDisc player which were usually rather pricey because of how new the technology and research was at the time.
Funnily enough, LaserDiscs were cheaper to produce compared to VHS ($5 compared to $10), but VHS tapes started being mass produced and inevitably beat our giant movie plates.
One of the neat perks of having a VHS player is that it could usually record stuff as well and be burned to a tape. The issue is that since LaserDiscs are half analog and half digital—which I'll go into more depth about in a bit—
There's a more in-depth guide [here] , so if you'd like to read about it in more depth, you can go there.
Either way, LaserDisc are usually made in a factory like records, and they go through these key processes:
Pre-mastering is really all the stages that are before actually mastering the disc such as checking the audio and video for any mistakes (such as with still frames) and making sure it's up to technical standard.
Disc mastering is when the information is actually being encoded via analog signals. At first, due to how it appears to be in a similar manner to a CD being burned with a laser digitally, it isn't digital. For more information, you can read the article listed above.
Unlike CDs or DVDs that are burned, LaserDiscs go through a process more akin to that of a record—being stamped down.
There's a bunch of companies that worked with LaserDiscs*, putting their titles on them, and they're a lot of the same companies you know and love today! For example, to name a few:
Universal Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Warner Bros. Pictures
Disney
*At this time, they were known as DiscoVision.
LaserDiscs have occasionally been used mostly as karaoke discs or even audio-only, but it isn't very common and most LaserDiscs of this type tend to be accompanied by sound. There are LaserDisc video games, which honestly surprised me quite a bit whilst I was researching this. This was because the format had instant-access capabilities and also their random-access capabilities which led to LaserDisc arcade games and also specialized consoles for them such as Pioneer Laseractive and Halcyon gaming consoles.