Videocassettes were actually a medium used for storing different videos and sounds. Video cassettes are 4 inches deep, 1inch thick and a little more than 7 inches wide clamshell made of plastic. 5 screws hold them together. They have a cover. This cover guards the tape. These video cassettes have a long tape. This is actually a magnetic tape where all the videos and sounds are stored in the form of a coded message. When it is inserted in the player, then the player decodes those messages and plays the cassette. In this article we will discuss the journey from video cassettes to DVDs.

A Japanese company called Victor Company of Japan limited in 1976 made the first video cassette. This company is betterly known as JVC. During that time videocassettes were not that much popular. But after 1990s, this system became very popular. Various companies started making videocassettes during this time. Companies like Sony; Philips became pioneers in this field.

The sound and picture quality was pretty good. The biggest problem though lay in storage capacity, which was quite limited. The tapes also were very sensitive. The user needs to take good care of them. If somehow the tapes got torn, then the whole cassette became useless. The player also needs to be neat and clean. The tapes can tangle up in an untidy record player.

As time moved on these cassettes started becoming obsolete and V.C.Ds replaced them. V.C.D means Video Compact Disc. V.C.Ds do not have any tape. They use a compression standard, which is called MPEG. This system is totally digital. V.C.D can store up to 800 Megabytes of data.

But V.C.Ds are also becoming obsolete nowadays. The D.V.D is the latest addition in the world of digital formats. It consists of laser diode, with a wavelength of 650nm. DVDs have a writing speed of 1350 KB per second.

DVDs are mainly of five types.

- Single sided, double layer

- Single sided, single layer

- Double sided single layer

- Double sided dual layer on both sides

- Double sided, dual layer on one side, single on one side

A DVD has many advantages. They have a large storage capacity. It is many times bigger than the C.Ds or Videocassette. The picture and sound quality here is brilliant.

DVDs can exist for a long period of time. Unless there is any scratch on them, they can go on and on. Nowadays even scratched discs are a no problem for the listeners. There are many players available which support the scratched DVDs too.

This disc can play both audio as well as video. There are some of them who only play audio files. Others can play both of them.

Writing a movie in a DVD is very easy. You just need a DVD writer. Just because the storage capacity is better in here, you do not need to buy two blank DVDs like CDs to write a full cinema. A full film can be stored in just one disc.

There are many popular brands like, which can offer you good quality DVDs for a reasonable price.