Info about DVDs?

I didn't know exactly what a DVD is, so I decided to have a look on the net and look for some info about such a famous audio and video device.

DVD is also known as Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc. It's defined as "an optical disc storage media format” and was invented in 1995. It's used both for video and data storage. DVDs are of the same dimensions as compact discs (CDs), but store more than six times as much data.
Variations of the term DVD refer to the way data is stored on the discs:

• DVD-ROM (read only memory) has data that can only be read and not written;
• DVD-R and DVD+R (recordable) can record data only once, and then function as a DVD-ROM;
• DVD-RW (re-writable), DVD+RW and DVD-RAM (random access memory) can all record and erase data multiple times.

DVD-Video and DVD-Audio discs refer to properly formatted and structured video and audio content, respectively. Other types of DVDs, including those with video content, are called DVD Data discs.

The format went on sale in Japan in November 1996, in the United States in March 1997, in Europe in October 1998 and in Australia in February 1999. By June 2003, weekly DVD Video rentals outnumbered weekly VHS cassette rentals. Nowadays DVD Video is the dominant form of home video distribution worldwide.

Although the specifications for video and audio requirements vary by global region and television system, many DVD players support all possible formats. DVD Video also supports features such as menus, selectable subtitles, multiple camera angles, and multiple audio tracks.

DVD Audio is a format for delivering high fidelity audio content on a DVD. It offers many channel configuration options at various sampling frequencies. Compared with the CD format, the much higher-capacity DVD format enables the inclusion of considerably more music and/or far higher audio quality.

Now I know something more about DVDs and hope you got some info, too!