The DVD Forum (initially DVD Consortium) was an industry consortium for DVD specifications from 1995 to 2025.

History

The founding companies were

Hitachi () is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1910 and headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo. The company is active in various industries, including digital systems, power and renewable ener ...

Panasonic is a Japanese multinational electronics manufacturer, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka, Kadoma, Japan. It was founded in 1918 as in Fukushima-ku, Osaka, Fukushima by Kōnosuke Matsushita. The company was incorporated in 1935 and renamed and c ...

Mitsubishi The is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries. Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group traces its origins to the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company that existed from 1870 to 194 ...

, Pioneer,

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), simply branded Philips, is a Dutch multinational health technology company that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarter ...

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

, Thomson,

Warner Bros Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American film studio, filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios Burbank, Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and th ...

Toshiba is a Japanese multinational electronics company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems, elevators and escalators, electronic components, semiconductors ...

, JVC,

NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC (abbreviated as NBCU and Trade name, doing business as NBCUniversal or Comcast NBCUniversal since 2013) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media and Show business, entertainment conglomerate (comp ...

and

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...

. The DVD Forum was created to facilitate the exchange of information and ideas about the DVD format, another evolution of the

LaserDisc LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. It was developed by Philips, Pioneer Corporation, Pioneer, and the movie studio MCA Inc., MCA. The format was initially marketed in the United State ...

format, and to enable it to grow through technical improvement and innovation. The organization hoped to promote worldwide acceptance of DVD for

entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and Interest (emotion), interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but it is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have deve ...

consumer electronics Consumer electronics, also known as home electronics, are electronic devices intended for everyday household use. Consumer electronics include those used for entertainment, Communication, communications, and recreation. Historically, these prod ...

and

information technology Information technology (IT) is a set of related fields within information and communications technology (ICT), that encompass computer systems, software, programming languages, data processing, data and information processing, and storage. Inf ...

applications. Membership in the DVD Forum was open to any company or organization involved in DVD research, development, or manufacturing; software firms and other DVD users interested in developing the format were also encouraged to join. Forum members could support other formats in addition to DVD. The DVD Forum was responsible for the official DVD format specification. The group handled licensing of the DVD format and logo through the DVD Format and Logo Licensing Corporation (DVD FLLC), which also published the official "DVD Book" format specifications.DVD FLL
About DVD Format/Logo Licensing Corporation
, Retrieved on 2009-07-24 Reference materials and newsletters were published for DVD Forum members. In 2003, the DVD Forum had 213 members. In 2007, it had 195 registered members. In 2008, it had 159 registered members, and in 2010, it had 98 registered members. In 2012 this downward trend continued with the membership standing at 80 members. From 1 April 2012, the Forum operated in a "Reduced Activity Mode"; however, the DVD FLLC was still active in 2020. In October 2024, the DVD FLLC announced the deactivation of its website and confirmed that they were "preparing the scheme that enables any Licensees to manufacture DVD products without 'License' on and after January 1, 2025." In January 2025, the DVD FLLC announced its own dissolution on January 31, 2025 (together with the DVD Forum itself, according to its charter) and the deposit of the DVD Specifications at the

National Diet Library The is the national library of Japan and among the largest libraries in the world. It was established in 1948 for the purpose of assisting members of the in researching matters of public policy. The library is similar in purpose and scope to ...

of Japan.

Related standards

Competing standards developed by the rival DVD+RW Alliance are for the "plus" formats ( DVD+R,

DVD+RW DVD recordable and DVD rewritable are a collection of optical disc formats that can be written to by a DVD recorder and by computers using a DVD writer. The "recordable" discs are write-once read-many (WORM) media, where as "rewritable" discs a ...

). Alliance leaders

and Thomson were also founding members of the DVD Forum, established in 1997. , both plus and dash formats seem equally popular with customers, and both are compatible with the vast majority of DVD players.

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dvd Forum Technology consortia DVD Organizations established in 1995 HD DVD Organizations disestablished in 2025

History

Related standards

See also

Notes

External links