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The 1990s in America

DVDs

by Michael Adams

Definition An optical disc storage format primarily used by consumers to watch films and television programs

DVDs arrived in the mid-1990’s and soon challenged the supremacy of videocassettes for home viewing.

In the 1970’s and 1980’s, the Video Home System (VHS) videocassette recorder (VCR) revolutionized home entertainment by allowing viewers to videotape television programs and watch them at their leisure and to rent or buy films on videotape. This viewing flexibility was undercut for some because the picture and sound quality of videocassettes was generally inferior to what could be seen and heard on television and especially in movie theaters. Then, digital video discs (DVDs) were developed to offer viewers considerably improved picture and sound.

Robert Minkhorst, president of Philips Consumer Electronics Company, displays a digital video disc during the 1996 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

ph_DVD.jpg

(AP/Wide World Photos)

Format Development

Two years after its introduction in 1976, VHS had a challenger in the laser disc, which offered much sharper images, offering 425 lines of horizontal resolution in contrast to VHS’s 240. With Criterion’s special edition release of Citizen Kane (1941) in 1985, which provided supplemental material about the film (generally referred to as bonus materials, or extras), another advantage was introduced. Laser discs never caught on with the public, however, because of their cumbersome size (comparable to long-playing records), their susceptibility to damage, their high cost, and their inability to record television programs. Three million laser disc players had been sold in the United States by 1997.

Consumers waited patiently while a cheaper, more adaptable technology was developed. By 1993, Philips and Sony had developed the smaller MultiMedia Compact Disc, while Toshiba had created its Super Density Disc. Philips and Sony, wanting to avoid a format war, eventually decided to proceed with the specifications of the Toshiba disc, and the DVD was born. Though the industry initially insisted that “DVD” stood for “digital versatile disc,” most consumers assumed it meant “digital video disc,” and the nomenclature was changed.

DVDs and DVD players entered the U.S. market in late 1997. At first, only recent popular films were offered, with older and more esoteric films becoming available late in the 1990’s. Some consumers were hesitant at first because the first DVDs were not recordable, but those who had been reluctant to buy laser discs quickly embraced the cheaper, smaller (the same size as audio compact discs), and easier-to-store discs. These buyers found that the picture, with the same resolution as laser discs, was vastly superior to that of videocassettes, and when connected to the proper equipment (receiver, speakers), multichannel audio was possible. As a result, Pioneer, the main champion of laser discs, abandoned this format in June, 1999.

Quick Success

Though DVDs were initially slow to catch on with the general public, matters soon changed as more and more consumers heard about the improved audiovisual quality and saw it demonstrated in electronics stores. The entertainment industry had assumed that DVDs would slowly supplement or perhaps even replace VHS, but experts underestimated the public by assuming that consumers would continue to rent much more than they purchased. Though some had developed VHS collections of their favorite films, the bulky tapes took up considerable room. DVDs occupied much less space, were at first only slightly costlier than VHS cassettes, and were much more durable, inviting multiple viewings.

Contributing to this early success was the inclusion of extras. Following the lead of laser discs, the makers of DVDs offered commentaries by filmmakers and film scholars. Viewers could watch films either with or without commentaries, which explained the production details of the films and, with older films, placed them in a historical context. Consumers wanted more and more extras and soon got on-set interviews, documentaries about the making of the films, deleted scenes, and more.

DVDs also offered viewers the option, for many films made since the mid-1950’s, of watching them in a full-screen format that filled every inch of screen space but cut off the corners of the images or in the film’s original wide-screen format, meaning that the tops, bottoms, and sides of images were no longer excised. As television screens became larger, the wide-screen format option became more important.

In 1998, two million DVD players were sold in the United States, three thousand titles were available, and 9.3 million DVDs were sold. In 1999, four million players were sold, 6,300 titles were available, and twenty million DVDs were sold. DVDs and DVD players had an advantage that VHS and VCRs did not: the Internet. By the late 1990’s, consumers had discovered the ease of purchasing online, finding that players and DVDs could be found at lower prices than in stores. By the end of 1999, four titles had sold over a million copies each: Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999), The Matrix (1999), Saving Private Ryan (1998), and Titanic (1997).

Internet commerce and DVDs have been linked since the introduction of the format. While videocassettes had been rented from stores such as the Blockbuster chain, DVDs could be rented online from Netflix starting in April, 1998. When the company introduced a flat monthly fee for unlimited rentals of DVDs delivered quickly by mail in September, 1999, online renting of DVDs took off.

Impact

Because DVDs were introduced relatively late in the 1990’s, their full impact did not become clear until the early twenty-first century. Once the initial consumer excitement over improved picture, sound, and storage subsided, more and more titles were demanded, especially classic and obscure films, along with increased extras. Many enthusiastic DVD collectors built libraries of hundreds and thousands of titles. DVD producers were pleasantly shocked by the number of people wanting to own complete seasons of their favorite television shows. What began as an alternative to VHS eventually changed America’s viewing habits as much as the earlier innovation had. As a result, VHS itself slowly faded, with the last mass-market VHS title issued in 2006.

Citation Types

Type

Format

MLA 9th

Adams, Michael. "DVDs." The 1990s in America, edited by Milton Berman, Salem Press, 2009. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=1990_1174.

APA 7th

Adams, M. (2009). DVDs. In M. Berman (Ed.), The 1990s in America. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.

CMOS 17th

Adams, Michael. "DVDs." Edited by Milton Berman. The 1990s in America. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2009. Accessed December 14, 2025. online.salempress.com.

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