The DVD format came about after another electronics storage standards war. This time between Philips/Sony and Toshiba. If you're not already aware this occured in the 1980's with the VHS and Betamax battle. This was won by JVC's VHS standard, and Sony's format betamax became history. To avoid a repeat of this disaster the IBM's president united Sony and Toshiba behind a single standard. After this the DVD Forum was founded in 1995. The ten founding companies were,

• Hitachi
• JVC
  
• Matsushita
  
• Mitsubishi
  
• Pioneer
  
• Philips
  
• Sony
  
• Thomson
  
• Time Warner
  
• Toshiba
  

The decision was that Toshiba's SD format would be used, but Sony demanded that two modifications be made to the tracking technology. And in September 1996 the DVD specification Version 1.0 was finally released. You may not remember but the first DVD players and discs were released in,

• 1996 in Japan
• 1997 in United States
• 1998 in Europe
• 1999 in Australia

Of course like most technologies dvd was extremely expensive, and it took awhile before they dropped below the £200 mark. Which is the price designated as mass market. By 2003, VHS players had virtually disappeared from many high street shops. Present day, you will be hard pressed to find any VHS machines for sale - Dixons has already stopped selling them. Whereas, you can pick up an entry level DVD player for £30, and a good one for £80.