DVD stands for digital versatile disc or more commonly known as digital video disc. DVD is the most recent generation of compact disc (CD) technology able to store huge amounts of data in GB, comparable to the hard disk commonly used in computers. DVD discs are available in two diameter sizes: the commonly used 12 cm and the 8 cm. The 12-cm DVD disc is the same size of the familiar CD (audio or ROM), but holds up to 25 times more data. This takes the DVD to a qualitatively higher level in terms of its application. For the first time, we a have a CD that can hold over 2hours of high-quality video with six channels of high-fidelity surround sound. Further development introduced the blue-laser based (as opposed to the red-laser based DVD-video) discs, namely HD DVD and Blu-ray DVD with a capacity of up to 50 GB suitable for up to 9h of HD video. Apart from video/audio applications, DVD discs may be used for a variety of other applications including archiving of books and still pictures as well as a mass storage device for computer applications and educational/training purposes which make use of interactive facilities.

The first DVD format, DVD-video format was introduced in 1996 with its specifications published in Book B. Previous to that, optical disc technology was limited to the CD and the Laserdisc using a 780 nm wavelength(infra-red) laser beam. The CD had two main formats: audio...