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National Gallery of Australia

The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory, it was established in 1967 by the Australian Government as a national public art museum. it is under the directorship of Nick Mitzevich.

Establishment
Prominent Australian artist Tom Roberts had lobbied various Australian prime ministers, starting with the first, Edmund Barton. Prime Minister Andrew Fisher accepted the idea in 1910, and the following year Parliament established a bipartisan committee of six political leaders—the Historic Memorials Committee. The Committee decided that the government should collect portraits of Australian governors-general, parliamentary leaders and the principal "fathers" of federation to be painted by Australian artists. This led to the establishment of what became known as the Commonwealth Art Advisory Board, which was responsible for art acquisitions until 1973. Nevertheless, the Parliamentary Library Committee also collected paintings for the Australian collections of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Library, including landscapes, notably the acquisition of Tom Roberts' Allegro con brio, Bourke St West in 1918. Prior to the opening of the Gallery these paintings were displayed around Parliament House, in Commonwealth offices, including diplomatic missions overseas, and State Galleries.

From 1912, the building of a permanent building to house the collection in Canberra was the major priority of the Commonwealth Art Advisory Board. However, this period included two World Wars and a Depression and governments always considered they had more pressing priorities, including building the initial infrastructure of Canberra and Old Parliament House in the 1920s and the rapid expansion of Canberra and the building of government offices, Lake Burley Griffin and the National Library of Australia in the 1950s and early 1960s. In 1965 the Commonwealth Art Advisory Board was finally able to persuade Prime Minister Robert Menzies to take the steps necessary to establish the gallery. On 1 November 1967, Prime Minister Harold Holt formally announced that the Government would construct the building.

Location
The design of the building was complicated by the difficulty in finalising its location, which was affected by the layout of the Parliamentary Triangle. The main problem was the final site of the new Parliament House. In Canberra's original Griffin 1912 plan, Parliament House was to be built on Camp Hill, between Capital Hill and the Provisional Parliament House and a Capitol was to be built on top of Capital Hill. He envisaged the Capitol to be "either a general administration structure for popular receptions and ceremony or for housing archives and commemorating Australian Achievements". In the early 1960s, the National Capital Development Commission (NCDC) proposed, in accordance with the 1958 and 1964 Holford plans for the Parliamentary Triangle, that the site for the new Parliament House be moved to the shore of Lake Burley Griffin, with a vast National Place, to be built on its south side, to be surrounded by a large mass of buildings. The Gallery would be built on Capital Hill, along with other national cultural institutions.

In 1968, Colin Madigan of Edwards Madigan Torzillo and Partners won the competition for the design, even though no design could be finalised, as the final site was now in doubt. Prime Minister John Gorton stated that,
 * "The Competition had as its aim not a final design for the building but rather the selection of a vigorous and imaginative architect who would then be commissioned to submit the actual design of the Gallery."

Gorton proposed to Parliament in 1968 that it endorse Holford's lakeside site for the new Parliament House, but it refused and sites at Camp Hill and Capital Hill were then investigated. As a result, the Government decided that the Gallery could not be built on Capital Hill. In 1971, the Government selected a 17 ha site on the eastern side of the proposed National Place, between King Edward Terrace and for the Gallery. Even though it was now unlikely that the lakeside Parliament House would proceed, a raised National Place (to hide parking stations) surrounded by national institutions and government offices was still planned. Madigan's brief included the Gallery, a building for the High Court of Australia and the precinct around them, linking to the raised National Place at the centre of the Land Axis of the Parliamentary Triangle, which then led to the National Library on the western side.

Development of the design
Madigan's final design was based on a brief prepared by the National Capital Development Commission (NCDC) with input from James Johnson Sweeney and James Mollison. Sweeney was director of the Guggenheim Museum between 1952–1960 and director of The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and had been appointed as a consultant to advise on issues concerning the display and storage of art. Mollison said in 1989 that "the size and form of the building had been determined between Colin Madigan and J.J. Sweeney, and the National Capital Development Commission. I was not able to alter the appearance of the interior or exterior in any way...It's a very difficult building in which to make art look more important than the space in which you put the art". The construction of the building commenced in 1973, with the unveiling of a plaque by Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. Construction was managed by P.D.C. Constructions under the supervision of the National Capital Development Commission and it was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1982, during the premiership of Whitlam's successor, Malcolm Fraser. The building cost $82 million.

In 1975, the NCDC abandoned the plan for the National Place, leaving the precinct five metres above the natural ground level, without the previously proposed connections to national institutions and next to a vast space only partially taken up by Reconciliation Place, which does not substitute for the grand mass of buildings originally envisaged.

Appointment of an acting director
The Commonwealth Art Advisory Board recommended that Laurie Thomas, a former director of the Art Gallery of Western Australia and of the Queensland Art Gallery be appointed director, but the Prime Minister John Gorton took no action on this recommendation, as he apparently favoured the appointment of James Johnson Sweeney, although he was already 70.

James Mollison was exhibitions officer in the Prime Minister's Department from 1969 and the Government's failure to appoint a director of the National Gallery of Australia required Mollison to become involved in the development of the design for the building with the architects led by Colin Madigan. In November 1970, the Commonwealth Art Advisory Board recommended that he should be re-designated as assistant director (development). In May 1971, following Gorton's fall from power, the Government endorsed Madigan's sketches for the building. The new Prime Minister, William McMahon announced the appointment of Mollison as acting director of the National Gallery of Australia in October 1971. Tenders for construction were called in November 1972, just before the McMahon government's defeat in the December 1972 election.

Building and garden
The National Gallery building is in the late 20th-century Brutalist style. It is characterised by angular masses and raw concrete surfaces and is surrounded by a series of sculpture gardens planted with Australian native plants and trees.

The geometry of the building is based on a triangle, most obviously manifested for visitors in the coffered ceiling grids and tiles of the principal floor. Madigan said of this device that it was "the intention of the architectural concept to implant into the grammar of the design a sense of freedom so that the building could be submitted to change and variety but would always express its true purpose". This geometry flows throughout the building, and is reflected in the triangular stair towers, columns and building elements.

The building is principally constructed of reinforced bush hammered concrete, which was also originally the interior wall surface. More recently, the interior walls have been covered with painted wood, to allow for increased flexibility in the display of artworks.

The building has 23,000 m2 of floor space. The design provides space for both the display and storage of works of art and to accommodate the curatorial and support staff of the Gallery. Madigan's design is based on Sweeney's recommendation that there should be a spiral plan, with a succession of galleries to display works of art of differing sizes and to allow flexibility in the way in which they were to be exhibited.

There are three levels of galleries. On the principal floor, the galleries are large, and are used to display the Indigenous Australian and International (meaning European and American) collections. The bottom level also contains a series of large galleries, originally intended to house sculpture, but now used to display the Asian art collection. The topmost level contains a series of smaller, more intimate galleries, which are now used to display the Gallery's collection of Australian art. Sweeney had recommended that sources of natural light should not detract from the collections, and so light sources are intended to be indirect.

The High Court and National Gallery Precinct were added to the Australian National Heritage List in November 2007.

Later extensions
The Gallery has been extended twice, the first of which was the building of new temporary exhibition galleries on the eastern side of the building in 1997, to house large-scale temporary exhibitions, which was designed by Andrew Andersons of PTW Architects. This extension includes a sculptural garden, designed by Fiona Hall. The 2006 enhancement project and new entrance was complemented by a large Australian Garden designed by Adrian McGregor of McGregor Coxall Landscape Architecture and Urban Design.

There have also been proposals, during the tenure of Director Brian Kennedy, for the construction of a new "front" entrance, facing King Edward Terrace. Madigan made known his concerns about these proposals and their interference with his moral rights as the architect and also expressed concerns about these changes. A former director, Betty Churcher, was particularly critical of Madigan, and told a journalist that "the dead hand of an architect cannot stay clamped on a building forever". When Ron Radford became director, he expanded the brief to include a suite of new galleries to display the collection of indigenous art and a new Australian Garden fronting King Edward Terrace.

The Minister for the Arts and Sport, Senator Rod Kemp, announced on 13 December 2006 that the Australian Government would provide $92.9 million for a major building enhancement project at the National Gallery of Australia, including around $20 million for previously approved building refurbishments. The building enhancements were designed to create new arrival and entrance facilities to improve public access to the Gallery's building and significantly increase display space, particularly for the collection of Australian Indigenous art. Stage 1 of the Indigenous galleries and new entrance project was officially opened on 30 September 2010 by Quentin Bryce, Governor-General of Australia. According to well-known architecture critic Elizabeth Farrelly, the new extension had three main tasks: "how to dock amicably with the existing architecture; how to provide the resulting whole with a new street "address"; how to create a logical, legible and deferential hanging space for the collection."

Sculpture garden renewal and ouroboros
A project for the renewal of the sculpture garden was under way as of 2021. As part of the project, in September 2021 the gallery under director Nick Mitzevich commissioned a huge sculpture by Lindy Lee, 4 m high and based on the ouroboros (an ancient symbol depicting a snake eating its own tail), to be placed near its main entrance of the gallery. Scheduled to be finished in 2024, the sculpture is the NGA's most expensive commission to date. Two art critics criticised the purchase in 2021: John McDonald of The Sydney Morning Herald thought that the money could have been better spent filling some significant gaps in its collection, while Christopher Allen concurred, and thought that it merely "offer[s] a passive experience to audiences who are unwilling or unable to engage more actively with works of art".

Directorship
In 1976, the newly established ANG Council advertised for a permanent director to fill the position that James Mollison had been acting in since 1971. The new Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser announced the appointment of Mollison as director in 1977.

James Mollison
James Mollison is notable for establishing the Gallery and building on the collection that had already been assembled of mainly Australian paintings by purchasing icons of modern western art, the best known were the 1974 purchases of Blue Poles by Jackson Pollock ($1.3m), and Woman V by Willem de Kooning ($650,000). These purchases were very controversial at the time, but are now generally considered to be visionary acquisitions.

He also built up the other collections, often with the help of donations. Starting in 1973 Mollison secured funding from Philip Morris to acquire contemporary Australian photography for the ANG, though Ian North was not appointed Foundation Curator of Photography until 1980. In 1975, Arthur Boyd presented several thousand of his works to the Gallery. In 1977 Mollison persuaded Sunday Reed to donate Sidney Nolan's remarkable Ned Kelly series to the ANG. Nolan had long disputed Reed's ownership of these paintings, but the donation resolved their dispute. In 1981, Albert Tucker and his wife presented a substantial collection of Tucker's collection to the Gallery. As a result of these and more recent donation, it has the finest collection of Australian art in existence.

He also arranged many touring exhibitions, most famously The Great Impressionist Exhibition of 1984.

His successor, Betty Churcher has said that when she took over in 1990, he "was of almost legendary stature [and] had single-handedly built a great and comprehensive collection from the ground up; indeed he had presided over the collection for more than twenty years with great flair, and over the institution for seven years — it was in the truest sense, his Gallery, his professional achievement."

Betty Churcher
Betty Churcher became director in 1990. She had been formerly director of the Art Gallery of Western Australia. While director of the National Gallery, she was dubbed "Betty Blockbuster" because of her love of blockbuster exhibitions.

Churcher initiated the building of new galleries on the eastern side of the building, opened in March 1998, to house large-scale temporary exhibitions. It was under her directorship that the name of the Gallery was changed from the Australian National Gallery to its current title.

During her period, the Gallery purchased, among many other artworks, Golden Summer, Eaglemont by Arthur Streeton for $3.5 million. This was the last great Heidelberg School painting still in private hands.

Brian Kennedy
Brian Kennedy was appointed director in 1997. He expanded the traveling exhibitions and loans program throughout Australia, arranged for several major shows of Australian art abroad, increased the number of exhibitions at the museum itself and oversaw the development of an extensive multi-media site. On the other hand, he discontinued the emphasis of his predecessor, Churcher, of showing blockbuster exhibitions.

During his directorship, the National Gallery of Australia gained government support for improving the building and significant private donations and corporate sponsorship. Private funding supported his notable acquisitions of David Hockney's A Bigger Grand Canyon for $4.6 million in 1999, Lucian Freud's After Cézanne for $7.4 million in 2001 and Pregnant Woman by Ron Mueck for $800,000.

He also introduced free admission to the gallery, except to major exhibitions. He campaigned for the construction of a new front entrance to the Gallery, facing King Edward Terrace, but this did not come to pass during his tenure.

Kennedy's cancellation of the Sensation exhibition (scheduled at the National Gallery of Australia from 2 June 2000 to 13 August 2000) was controversial, as it was seen by many as censorship. This exhibition was created by the Young British Artists of the Saatchi Gallery. Its most controversial work was Chris Ofili’s The Holy Virgin Mary, a painting which used elephant dung and was accused of being blasphemous. The then Mayor of New York, Rudolph Giuliani campaigned against the exhibition, claiming it was "Catholic-bashing" and an "aggressive vicious, disgusting attack on religion." In November 1999, Kennedy cancelled the exhibition and stated that the events in New York had "obscured discussion of the artistic merit of the works of art."

Kennedy was also repeatedly under attack over allegations that the air-conditioning was exposing its staff to cancer. Despite his denials that there was any problem with the air-conditioning, claims that the issue had been 'swept under the carpet' persisted. The air-conditioning was finally renovated in 2003. Kennedy announced that he would not seek extension of his contract in 2002. He has denied that he was under any government pressure to do so.

Ron Radford
Ron Radford was appointed director in late 2004. He was formerly director of the Art Gallery of South Australia.

Radford has lent out the Gallery's old masters collection (European art, prior to the 19th century) for long-term display to state galleries, noting that he "considers the collection of less than 30 paintings, put together by Mollison to give context to the modern collection, as too small to make any impact on the public". He has been quoted as saying that the gallery should concentrate on its strengths – European art of the first half of the 20th century, 20th-century American art, photography, Asian art and the 20th-century drawing collection, and to fill the gaps in the Australian collection.

In September 2005, there was considerable publicity about an offer to the gallery of Sketch for Deluge II by Wassily Kandinsky for $35 million. The gallery did not subsequently go through with the purchase.

Radford has been notable in securing funding and completing the building of the new entrance to the Gallery as well as an extension for Indigenous galleries, public and function areas. In developing the collection he has been notable for a series of acquisitions of indigenous art, in particular the largest collection of watercolours by Albert Namatjira and the James Turrell sculpture and installation Within without (2010).

Gerard Vaughan
In October 2014, it was announced that Gerard Vaughan would be the new director of the National Gallery of Australia from 10 November. He was formerly director of the National Gallery of Victoria from 1999 to 2012.

In 2014, the gallery sued antiquities dealer Subhash Kapoor in New York Supreme Court for allegedly hiding evidence that an 11th-century sculpture of Shiva Nataraja known as the Sripuranthan Natarajan Idol, bought by the gallery for A$5.6 million in 2008, had been stolen from an Indian temple in Tamil Nadu. The National Gallery voluntarily removed a bronze statue of the Dancing Shiva from display, as the Indian government formally requested the statue's return.

Nick Mitzevich
In April 2018, it was announced that Nick Mitzevich, the third NGA director to be appointed from the Art Gallery of South Australia, would take over at the start of July 2018. His term at the NGA has encountered several challenges: in January 2020 the gallery had to be shut because of smoke from bushfires and then again after a hailstorm. A couple of months later, the Covid pandemic struck, leading to a closure of over 70 days. In January 2021, Mitzevich had plans to re-hang the permanent collection, swapping the location of international art with that of Australian art.

Women Hold Up Half The Sky
Women Hold Up Half The Sky was a large exhibition held in March to April 1995, to celebrate International Women's Day. Named after Adelaide artist Ann Newmarch's famous print of the same name included in the exhibition, the exhibition was curated by Roger Butler. It was opened by Carmen Lawrence, and also included a travelling exhibition called Sydney by Design. The exhibition was part of the national commemoration of the UN's International Women's Year, and the accompanying book, The National Women's Art Book, was edited by Joan Kerr.

Comprising around 300 works from the gallery's own collection, the exhibition included the work of Agnes Goodsir, Bessie Davidson, Clarice Beckett, Olive Cotton, Grace Cossington Smith, Yvonne Audette, Janet Dawson, Lesley Dumbrell, Margaret Worth, Rosalie Gascoigne, Bea Maddock, Judy Watson, Frances Burke, Margaret Preston, Olive Ashworth, and other artists of the previous 150 years.

The Painters of the Wagilag Sisters story 1937-1997
The exhibition The Painters of the Wagilag Sisters story 1937-1997 was a major exhibition of the work of more than 100 Aboriginal artists held in 1997, curated by Nigel Lendon and Tim Bonyhady. The artists were Yolngu painters from Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, including senior member of the Rirratjingu clan Mawalan Marika as well as Ramingining artist Philip Gudthaykudthay (aka "Pussycat"). The artworks all related to the story of ancestral creator beings of Arnhem Land known as the Wagilag sisters.

National Indigenous Art Triennial
The NGA held the inaugural National Indigenous Art Triennial (NIAT), Culture Warriors, from 13 October 2007 to 10 February 2008. The guest curator was Brenda L Croft, Senior Curator, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art. The exhibition was the largest survey show of Indigenous art at the NGA in over 15 years, and featured works by selected artists created during the previous three years. A free exhibition, it featured artists from every state and territory.

The 2nd National Indigenous Art Triennial, unDISCLOSED, ran from May to July 2012 and featured 20 Indigenous artists, including Vernon Ah Kee, Julie Gough, Alick Tipoti, Christian Thompson, Lena Yarinkura, Michael Cook and Nyapanyapa Yunupingu. The theme alludes to "the spoken and the unspoken, the known and the unknown, what can be revealed and what cannot". The exhibition afterwards toured the country, shown at Cairns Regional Gallery, the Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art in Adelaide and the Western Plains Cultural Centre in Dubbo, NSW.

The 3rd National Indigenous Art Triennial, Defying Empire, was held from 26 May to 10 September 2017, curated by Tina Baum, NGA Curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art. The title references the 50th anniversary of the 1967 referendum, that recognised Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as Australians for the first time.

The 4th Triennial Ceremony, takes place from 26 March to 31 July 2022. It explores the idea of ceremony, and is curated by Hetti Perkins.

Balnaves Contemporary Series
In 2018 the Balnaves Contemporary Intervention Series was launched, delivered in partnership with the Balnaves Foundation. The platform, later renamed to Balnaves Contemporary Series, commissions artists to create new work. Artists commissioned by this project include Jess Johnson and Simon Ward (2018); Sarah Contos (2018); Patricia Piccinini (Skywhales, 2020–21); Judy Watson and Helen Johnson; and Daniel Crooks (2022).

Know My Name
Know My Name is "an initiative of the National Gallery of Australia to celebrate the significant contributions of Australian women artists". Launched in 2019, after it was discovered that only 25 per cent of the gallery's collection was made by women through information from the Countess Report. This exhibition features exhibitions, events, commissions, creative collaborations, publications and partnerships that highlight the talent and work of women artists. As part of the program, the NGA also instigated a new set of principles to ensure gender parity in the organisation, programming and collections.

The exhibition Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now: Part One, held from 14 Nov 2020 to 9 May 2021, featured art made by women, drawn from the NGA's own collection as well as other institutions around Australia. Featured artists included Margaret Olley, Yvonne Koolmatrie, Tracey Moffatt, Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Mabel Juli, Rosemary Laing, Grace Cossington Smith, Thea Proctor, Betty Muffler, Stella Bowen, Dora Chapman, Fiona Foley, Brenda L. Croft, Discount Universe and many others. A book entitled Know My Name was published to accompany the exhibition in 2020. A four-day conference was held to coincide with the exhibition's opening.

Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now: Part Two was opened on 12 June 2021 and finishes on 26 June 2022. The two exhibitions do not purport to be a complete account, but rather "[look] at moments in which women created new forms of art and cultural commentary such as feminism... [highlighting] creative and intellectual relationships between artists across time".

Body Sculpture
In 2020 the gallery purchased American artist Jordan Wolfson's "Cube" for A$6.67 million, about half the museum's annual acquisition budget. The final transport and installation of the work was then delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic; it was finally unveiled in 2023. Renamed Body Sculpture, the robotic artwok is the first solo presentation of Wolfson's work in Australia, and a world premiere of the work, which is on display alongside key works from the national collection selected by the artist from 9 December 2023 until 28 July 2024.

Other exhibitions

 * The Great Impressionist Exhibition (1984)
 * Ken Tyler: Printer Extraordinary (1985)
 * Angry Penguins and Realist Painting in Melbourne in the 1940s (1988)
 * Under a Southern Sun (1988–89)
 * Australian Decorative Arts, 1788–1900 (1988–89)
 * Word as Image: 20th Century International Prints and Illustrated Books (1989)
 * Rubens and the Italian Renaissance (1992)
 * The Age of Angkor: Treasures from the National Museum of Cambodia (1992)
 * Surrealism: Revolution by Night (1993)
 * 1968 (1995)
 * Turner (1996)
 * Rembrandt: A Genius and his Impact (1997–98)
 * New Worlds from Old: 19th Century Australian and American Landscapes (1998)
 * An Impressionist Legacy: Monet to Moore, The Millennium Gift of Sara Lee Corporation (1999)
 * Monet & Japan (2001)
 * William Robinson: A Retrospective (2001–02)
 * Rodin: A Magnificent Obsession, Sculpture and Drawings (2001–02)
 * Margaret Preston, Australian Printmaker (2004–05)
 * No Ordinary Place: The Art of David Malangi (2004)
 * The Edwardians: Secrets and Desires (2004)
 * Bill Viola: The Passions (2005)
 * James Gleeson: Beyond the Screen of Sight (2005)
 * Constable: Impressions of Land, Sea and Sky (2005)
 * Imants Tillers: Inventing Postmodern Appropriation (2006)
 * George W. Lambert Retrospective: Heroes & Icons (2007)
 * Turner to Monet: The Triumph of Landscape (2008)
 * Degas: Master of French Art (2009)
 * McCubbin: Last Impressions 1907–1917 (2009)
 * Masterpieces from Paris (2010), on loan from Musée d'Orsay.
 * Ballets Russes: The Art of Costume (2011)
 * Renaissance: 15th & 16th Century Italian Paintings from the Accademia Carrara, Bergamo (2011–2012)
 * Toulouse-Lautrec - Paris & the Moulin Rouge (2012–2013)
 * Jeffrey Smart (2021–2022)

NGA Youth Council
The National Gallery Youth Council is a group of young creatives recruited from across the country who represent and advocate for young people at the gallery. The group, aged between 15 and 25, meet online monthly and work with staff and artists to develop and deliver a variety of programs for young people.

Collection
The collection of the National Gallery of Australia held more than 166,000 works of art as of 2012. and includes:
 * Australian art
 * Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art (mostly recent, but in traditional forms)
 * Art in the European Tradition (from European settlement to the present day)
 * Western art (from Medieval to Modern, mostly Modern)
 * Eastern art (from South and East Asia, mostly traditional)
 * Modern Art (international)
 * Pacific Arts (from Melanesia and Polynesia mostly traditional)
 * Photography (International & Australian)
 * Crafts (dishes to dresses, international)
 * Sculpture garden (Auguste Rodin to Modern)

Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art
This collection is dominated by the Aboriginal Memorial of 200 painted tree trunks commemorating all the indigenous people who had died between 1788 and 1988 defending their land against invaders. Each tree trunk is a dupun or log coffin, which is used to mark the safe tradition of the soul of the deceased from this world to the next. Artists from Ramingining painted it to mark the Australian Bicentenary and it was accepted for display by the Biennale of Sydney in 1988. Mollison agreed to purchase it for permanent display before its completion.

Australian art (non-Indigenous)
This includes works by:
 * John Glover – Mount Wellington and Hobart Town from Kangaroo Point
 * Frederick McCubbin – Afterglow, Bush Idyll (on long term loan from private collection)
 * Tom Roberts – Going Home, Storm Clouds, In a corner on the Macintyre, An Australian Native, The Sculptor's Studio
 * Arthur Streeton – From McMahons Point – Fare 1 Penny, The Selector's Hut, Golden Summer, Spirit of the Drought
 * Charles Conder – The Yarra, Heidelberg, Bronte Beach, Under a Southern Sun
 * Margaret Preston – Flying over the Shoalhaven River, Flapper
 * Grace Cossington Smith – Interior in Yellow
 * Lloyd Rees – A South Coast Road
 * William Dobell – The Red Lady
 * Albert Tucker – Pick up, Images of modern evil (collection), Victory Girls
 * Russell Drysdale – The Drover's Wife, The Rabbiter and his Family
 * Sidney Nolan – Ned Kelly, The Slip, The Burning Tree, Constable Fitzpatrick and Kate Kelly, Stringybark Creek, The Chase, Kelly Crossing the Bridge (and many other Ned Kelly paintings), Kiata, Head of a Soldier
 * Arthur Boyd – The Mining Town, Boat Builders, Eden
 * Joy Hester – Nude in Hat, Mother and Child
 * John Perceval – Boy with Cat
 * Ron Mueck – Pregnant Woman
 * Patricia Piccinini – The Skywhale

Western art
The focus of the Gallery's international collection is primarily on late 19th-century and 20th-century art although not all artworks are on display. There is a strong collection of modern works. It includes works by:

 * Paul Cézanne – L'Après-midi à Naples (Afternoon in Naples)
 * Claude Monet – Haystacks, Midday and Water Lilies
 * Fernand Léger – Trapeze Artists
 * Pablo Picasso - A complete set of the Vollard Suite
 * Jackson Pollock – Blue Poles, Totem Lesson 2
 * Willem de Kooning – Woman V
 * Andy Warhol – Elvis, Electric Chair
 * Mark Rothko – Multiform, Black, Brown on Maroon or Deep Red and Black
 * Roy Lichtenstein – Kitchen Stove
 * David Hockney – A Bigger Grand Canyon
 * Lucian Freud – After Cézanne
 * Henri Matisse - Oceania, the Sea, Oceania, the Sky
 * Constantin Brâncuși - Bird in Space
 * Albert Gleizes - Woman with Black Glove (Femme au gant noir)

The Gallery has a small collection of European Old Master paintings, which are on long-term loan to the National Gallery of Victoria and the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Eastern art
This includes:
 * Tang Standing Horse figure, a Tang dynasty tomb figure.

Sculpture garden
The sculpture garden includes works by:

 * Bert Flugelman – Cones
 * Antony Gormley - Angel of the North (life-size maquette)
 * Fujiko Nakaya – Fog sculpture, this only operates between noon and 2pm. It has been seen as a work of Gas sculpture.
 * Henry Moore – Hill Arches
 * Mark di Suvero – Ik Ook
 * Auguste Rodin – The Burghers of Calais (1 of 12 sets)
 * Aristide Maillol – La Montagne (The Mountain)
 * Clement Meadmore – Virginia
 * Barnett Newman – Broken Obelisk

title: National Gallery of Australia


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Sniffin' Glue

Sniffin' Glue and Other Rock 'N' Roll Habits..., widely known as simply Sniffin' Glue, was a monthly punk zine started by Mark Perry in July 1976 and released for about a year. The name is derived from a Ramones song "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue." Some of the zine's writers, such as Danny Baker, later became well-known journalists.

Although initial issues only sold 50 copies, circulation soon increased to 15,000. The innovative appeal of Sniffin' Glue was its immediacy: ""Sniffin' Glue was not so much badly written as barely written; grammar was non-existent, layout was haphazard, headlines were usually just written in felt tip, swearwords were often used in lieu of a reasoned argument. . .all of which gave Sniffin' Glue its urgency and relevance.""

The early days of the punk movement largely failed to attract the attention of television or the mainstream press, and Sniffin' Glue was a key source of photographs of, and information about, contributors to the scene.

NME acclaimed Sniffin' Glue as "the nastiest, healthiest and funniest piece of press in the history of rock'n'roll habits" and it became a chronicle of the early days of British punk rock as well as pioneering the DIY punk ethic. For the final issue Mark's sidekick Sniffin' Glue photographer, business affairs and later band manager Harry Murlowski recorded "Love Lies Limp" released as a flexi disc record - the first release from Mark Perry's band Alternative TV.

Fearing absorption into the mainstream music press, Perry ceased publication in 1977. In the last issues he encouraged his readers to follow him with their own punk fanzines.

Sniffin' Glue is often incorrectly credited as the source of the illustration featuring drawings of three guitar chord shapes, captioned, "this is a chord, this is another, this is a third. Now form a band", this drawing actually originally appeared in January 1977 in another fanzine Sideburns and was later reproduced in The Stranglers' fanzine Strangled.

In 2000, Mark Perry published Sniffin' Glue: The Essential Punk Accessory, which is a compilation of all the issues of the fanzine with some new material written by him. Sniffin' Glue is referenced in the song "Three Sevens Clash" by The Alarm, a tribute to 1977, and a follow on from their previous punk tribute "45 RPM".

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Sniffin' Glue


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Community Arts Music Association

Community Arts Music Association (CAMA) of Santa Barbara is the oldest arts organization in Santa Barbara, California, United States.

CAMA began in the fall of 1919 when a group of community-minded Santa Barbarans came together in the years following World War I to create the Civic Music Committee. Their goal was to present musical performances, beginning with the new Los Angeles Philharmonic, founded by philanthropist William Andrews Clark, Jr. that same year. The group's work was taken over by the Community Arts Association's Music Branch in 1926, which in time evolved into today's Community Arts Music Association.

Since the 1920s, CAMA has presented such artists as Pablo Casals, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Vladimir Horowitz, Jascha Heifetz, Igor Stravinsky, Artur Schnabel, Isaac Stern and Marian Anderson, with yearly performances from the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Since the 1950s, the orchestra series has expanded and now includes concerts by a variety of orchestras, from the New York Philharmonic to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

title: Community Arts Music Association


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William Andrews Clark Jr.

William Andrews Clark Jr. (March 29, 1877 – June 14, 1934) was a Los Angeles–based philanthropist and the youngest surviving son of copper baron and U.S. Senator William Andrews Clark Sr. and his first wife, Katherine.

Early life
William Andrews Clark Jr. was born on March 29, 1877, in Deer Lodge, Montana. His father was William A. Clark and his mother was Katherine Louise Stauffer. He was educated in France and in the New York area and graduated from the University of Virginia with a bachelor's degree in law in 1899.

Career and hobbies
Clark was a partner in the law firm Clark & Roote in Butte, Montana. He also served on the boards of several of his father's mining and industrial concerns.

Book collection
In the mid-1910s, he began collecting antiquarian and fine press books as a serious hobby (he had dabbled in book buying previous to this). In 1919, he hired bibliographer Robert E. Cowan to consult on book-buying purchases and to help with the compilation of a printed library catalog. The first volume of this was printed in 1920 by San Francisco printer John Henry Nash.

Philanthropy
He founded the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which debuted in the Trinity Auditorium in 1919, and bequeathed his library of rare books and manuscripts, the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, to the University of California, Los Angeles upon his death in 1934. He also helped to fund the construction of the Hollywood Bowl.

Personal life
In 1902, he married Mabel Duffield Foster (1880–1903), who died of sepsis following the birth of their son William Andrews Clark III ("Tertius") (1902–1932), who died in a plane crash in Arizona in 1932.

In 1907, he married Alice McManus (1883–1916), a native Nevadan, and they moved their permanent home to Los Angeles in the early 1910s (Clark County, Nevada is named for his father). Their house at Adams Boulevard and Cimarron Street occupied the grounds that the Clark Library is now located.

Clark also had romantic relationships with men. Notable among his lovers was Harrison Post, who co-transcribed Clark's collection of Oscar Wilde's letters to Lord Alfred Douglas. Clark also put Post in charge of the interior decoration of the Clark Library. According to library staff, the thirteen naked men painted on the library's ornate ceiling all have Post's face. Post lived in a mansion across from Clark's on Cimarron Street and inherited a substantial trust fund on Clark's death.

Death
He died on June 14, 1934, at Salmon Lake, Montana. He is entombed in the family mausoleum which he built on the island in Sylvan Lake at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Both of his wives and his son are also in the mausoleum.

title: William Andrews Clark Jr.


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Cama

Cama may refer to:
 * Cama, a Parsi name
 * Cama (animal), a cross between a camel and a llama
 * Cama, Switzerland, a municipality in the Graubünden
 * Cama Hospital in Mumbai, India
 * Cama (surname)

CAMA is an abbreviation for:
 * California-Arizona Maneuver Area, formerly known as the Desert Training Center, or DTC
 * Centralized Automatic Message Accounting
 * Christian and Missionary Alliance, an Evangelical Protestant denomination
 * Community Arts Music Association, Santa Barbara, California
 * Computer-Assisted Mass Appraisal, software used to establish real estate appraisals for property tax calculations

title: Cama


text:
LaserDisc

The LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium, initially licensed, sold and marketed as MCA DiscoVision (also known simply as "DiscoVision") in the United States in 1978. Its diameter typically spans 30 cm. Unlike most optical-disc standards, LaserDisc is not fully digital, and instead requires the use of analog video signals.

Although the format was capable of offering higher-quality video and audio than its consumer rivals, VHS and Betamax videotape, LaserDisc never managed to gain widespread use in North America. This was largely due to the high cost of the players and their inability to record TV programs. It eventually did gain some traction in that region and became popular in the 1990s. However, it was not the most popular format in several  countries in  Europe and Australia.

By contrast, the format was much more popular in Japan and in the more affluent regions of Southeast Asia, such as Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia, and was the prevalent rental video medium in Hong Kong during the 1990s. Its superior video and audio quality made it a popular choice among videophiles and film enthusiasts during its lifespan. The technologies and concepts behind LaserDisc were the foundation for later optical disc formats, including Compact Disc (CD), DVD, and Blu-ray (BD). LaserDisc players continued to be produced until July 2009, when Pioneer stopped making them.

History
Optical video recording technology, using a transparent disc, was invented by David Paul Gregg and James Russell in 1963 (and patented in 1970 and 1990). The Gregg patents were purchased by MCA in 1968. By 1969, Philips had developed a videodisc in reflective mode, which has advantages over the transparent mode. MCA and Philips then decided to combine their efforts and first publicly demonstrated the videodisc in 1972.

LaserDisc was first available on the market in Atlanta, Georgia, on December 11, 1978, two years after the introduction of the VHS VCR, and four years before the introduction of the CD (which is based on laser disc technology). Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision (also known as simply DiscoVision) in 1978, the technology was previously referred to internally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical Videodisc, and Disco-Vision (with a hyphen), with the first players referring to the format as Video Long Play.

Pioneer Electronics later purchased the majority stake in the format and marketed it as both LaserVision (format name) and LaserDisc (brand name) in 1980, with some releases unofficially referring to the medium as Laser Videodisc. Philips produced the players while MCA produced the discs. The Philips-MCA collaboration was unsuccessful – and was discontinued after a few years. Several of the scientists responsible for the early research (Richard Wilkinson, Ray Dakin and John Winslow) founded Optical Disc Corporation (now ODC Nimbus).

LaserDisc was launched in Japan in October 1981, and a total of approximately 3.6 million LaserDisc players had been sold before its discontinuation in 2009.

In 1984, Sony offered a LaserDisc format that could store any form of digital data, as a data storage device similar to CD-ROM, with a large 3.28 GB storage capacity, comparable to the DVD-ROM format that would arrive 11 years later in 1995.

The first LaserDisc title marketed in North America was the MCA DiscoVision release of Jaws on December 15, 1978. The last title released in North America was Paramount's Bringing Out the Dead on October 3, 2000. Film titles continued to be released in Japan until September 21, 2001, with the last Japanese movie released being the Hong Kong film Tokyo Raiders from Golden Harvest. The last known LD title is Onta Station vol. 1018, a karaoke disc released on March 21, 2007. Production of LaserDisc players ended in July 2009, when Pioneer stopped making them. Pioneer continued to repair and service players until September 30, 2020, when the remaining parts inventory was exhausted.

It was estimated that in 1998, LaserDisc players were in approximately 2% of U.S. households (roughly two million). By comparison, in 1999, players were in 10% of Japanese households. A total of 16.8 million LaserDisc players were sold worldwide, of which 9.5 million were sold by Pioneer. By 2001, LaserDisc had been completely replaced by DVD in the North American retail marketplace, as media were no longer being produced. Players were still exported to North America from Japan until the end of 2001. , the format retains some popularity among "thousands" of American collectors, and to a greater degree in Japan, where the format was better supported and more prevalent during its lifespan. In Europe, LaserDisc always remained an obscure format. It was chosen by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for the BBC Domesday Project in the mid-1980s, a school-based project to commemorate the 900 years since the original Domesday Book in England. From 1991 until the late 1990s, the BBC also used LaserDisc technology (specifically Sony CRVdisc) to play out their channel idents.

Design

A standard home video LaserDisc is 12 in in diameter and made up of two single-sided aluminum discs layered in plastic. Although similar in appearance to compact discs or DVDs, early LaserDiscs used analog video stored in the composite domain (having a video bandwidth and resolution approximately equivalent to the 1 in Type C videotape format) with analog frequency modulation (FM) stereo sound and pulse-code modulation (PCM) digital audio. Later discs used D-2 instead of Type C videotape for mastering.

The LaserDisc at its most fundamental level was still recorded as a series of pits and lands much like CDs, DVDs, and even Blu-ray discs are today. In true digital media, the pits (or their edges) directly represent 1s and 0s of a binary digital information stream. On a LaserDisc, the information is encoded as analog frequency modulation and is contained in the lengths and spacing of the pits. A carrier frequency is modulated by the baseband video signal (and analog soundtracks). In a simplified view, positive parts of this variable frequency signal can produce lands and negative parts can be pits, which results in a projection of the FM signal along the track on the disc. When reading, the FM carrier can be reconstructed from the succession of pit edges, and demodulated to extract the original video signal (in practice, selection between pit and land parts uses intersection of the FM carrier with a horizontal line having an offset from the zero axis, for noise considerations). If PCM sound is present, its waveform, considered as an analog signal, can be added to the FM carrier, which modulates the width of the intersection with the horizontal threshold. As a result, space between pit centers essentially represent video (as frequency), and pit length code for PCM sound information. Early LaserDiscs featured in 1978 were entirely analog but the format evolved to incorporate digital stereo sound in CD format (sometimes with a TOSlink or coax output to feed an external digital-to-analog converter or DAC), and later multi-channel formats such as Dolby Digital and DTS.

Since digital encoding and compression schemes were either unavailable or impractical in 1978, three encoding formats based upon the rotation speed were used:

 * CAV: Constant angular velocity or Standard Play discs supported several unique features such as freeze frame, variable slow motion, and reverse. CAV discs were spun at a constant rotational speed (1800 rpm for 525 line and Hi-Vision, and 1500 rpm for 625 line discs) during playback, with one video frame read per revolution. In this mode, 54,000 individual frames (30 minutes of audio/video for NTSC and Hi-Vision, 36 minutes for PAL) could be stored on a single side of a CAV disc. Another unique attribute to CAV was to reduce the visibility of crosstalk from adjacent tracks, since on CAV discs any crosstalk at a specific point in a frame is simply from the same point in the next or previous frame. CAV was used less frequently than CLV, and reserved for special editions of feature films to highlight bonus material and special effects. One of the most intriguing advantages of this format was the ability to reference every frame of a film directly by number, a feature of particular interest to film buffs, students and others intrigued by the study of errors in staging, continuity and so on.
 * CLV: Constant linear velocity or Extended Play discs did not have the "trick play" features of CAV, offering only simple playback on all but the high-end LaserDisc players incorporating a digital frame store. These high-end LaserDisc players could add features not normally available to CLV discs, such as variable forward and reverse, and a VCR-like "pause". By gradually slowing down their rotational speed (1800–600 rpm for NTSC and 2470–935 rpm for Hi-Vision) CLV encoded discs could store 60 minutes of audio/video per side for NTSC and Hi-Vision (64 minutes for PAL), or two hours per disc. For films with a run-time less than 120 minutes, this meant they could fit on one disc, lowering the cost of the title and eliminating the distracting exercise of "getting up to change the disc", at least for those who owned a dual-sided player. The majority of titles were only available in CLV (a few titles were released partly CLV, partly CAV. For example, a 140-minute movie could fit on two CLV sides and one CAV side, thus allowing for the CAV-only features during the climax of the film).
 * CAA: In the early 1980s, due to problems with crosstalk distortion on CLV extended play LaserDiscs, Pioneer Video introduced constant angular acceleration (CAA) formatting for extended play discs. CAA is very similar to CLV, save for the fact that CAA varies the angular rotation of the disc in controlled steps instead of gradually slowing down in a steady linear pace as a CLV disc is read. With the exception of 3M/Imation, all LaserDisc manufacturers adopted the CAA encoding scheme, although the term was rarely (if ever) used on any consumer packaging. CAA encoding noticeably improved picture quality and greatly reduced crosstalk and other tracking problems while being fully compatible with existing players.

As Pioneer introduced digital audio to LaserDisc in 1985, it further refined the CAA format. CAA55 was introduced in 1985 with a total playback capacity per side of 55 minutes 5 seconds, reducing the video capacity to resolve bandwidth issues with the inclusion of digital audio. Several titles released between 1985 and 1987 were analog audio only due to the length of the title and the desire to keep the film on one disc (e.g., Back to the Future). By 1987, Pioneer had overcome the technical challenges and was able to once again encode in CAA60, allowing a total of 60 minutes 5 seconds. Pioneer further refined CAA, offering CAA45, encoding 45 minutes of material, but filling the entire playback surface of the side. Used on only a handful of titles, CAA65 offered 65 minutes 5 seconds of playback time per side. There were a handful of titles pressed by Technidisc that used CAA50. The final variant of CAA was CAA70, which could accommodate 70 minutes of playback time per side. There are no known uses of this format on the consumer market.

Audio
Sound could be stored in either analog or digital format and in a variety of surround sound formats; NTSC discs could carry a stereo analog audio track, plus a stereo CD-quality uncompressed PCM digital audio track, which were (EFM, CIRC, 16-bit and 44.1 kHz sample rate). PAL discs could carry one pair of audio tracks, either analog or digital and the digital tracks on a PAL disc were 16-bit, 44.1 kHz as on a CD; in the UK, the term "LaserVision" is used to refer to discs with analog sound, while "LaserDisc" is used for those with digital audio. The digital sound signal in both formats is EFM-encoded, as in CD.

Dolby Digital (also called AC-3) and DTS, which are now common on DVD releases, first became available on LaserDisc, and Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999) which was released on LaserDisc in Japan, was among the first home video releases ever to include 6.1 channel Dolby Digital EX Surround (along with a few other late-life releases from 1999 to 2001). Unlike DVDs, which carry Dolby Digital audio in digital form, LaserDiscs stored Dolby Digital in a frequency modulated form within a track normally used for analog audio. Extracting Dolby Digital from a LaserDisc required a player equipped with a special "AC-3 RF" output and an external demodulator in addition to an AC-3 decoder. The demodulator was necessary to convert the 2.88 MHz modulated AC-3 information on the disc into a 384 kbit/s signal that the decoder could handle.

In the mid to late 1990s, many higher-end AV receivers included the demodulator circuit specifically for the LaserDisc player's RF-modulated Dolby Digital AC-3 signal. By the late 1990s, with LaserDisc players and disc sales declining due to DVD's growing popularity, the AV receiver manufacturers removed the demodulator circuit. Although DVD players were capable of playing Dolby Digital tracks, the signals out of DVD players were not in a modulated form and were not compatible with the inputs designed for LaserDisc AC-3. Outboard demodulators were available for a period that converted the AC-3 signal to the standard Dolby Digital signal that was compatible with the standard Dolby Digital/PCM inputs on capable AV receivers. Another type marketed by Onkyo and Marantz converted the RF AC-3 signal to 6-channel analog audio.

The two FM audio channels occupied the disc spectrum at 2.3 and 2.8 MHz on NTSC formatted discs and each channel had a 100 kHz FM deviation. The FM audio carrier frequencies were chosen to minimize their visibility in the video image, so that even with a poorly mastered disc, audio carrier beats in the video would be at least ‑35 dB down, and thus, invisible. Due to the frequencies chosen, the 2.8 MHz audio carrier (Right Channel) and the lower edge of the chroma signal were very close together, and if filters were not carefully set during mastering, there could be interference between the two. In addition, high audio levels combined with high chroma levels could cause mutual interference, leading to beats becoming visible in highly saturated areas of the image. To help deal with this, Pioneer decided to implement the CX Noise Reduction System on the analog tracks. By reducing the dynamic range and peak levels of the audio signals stored on the disc, filtering requirements were relaxed and visible beats greatly reduced or eliminated. The CX system gives a total NR effect of 20 dB, but in the interest of better compatibility for non-decoded playback, Pioneer reduced this to only 14 dB of noise reduction (the RCA CED system used the "original" 20 dB CX system). This also relaxed calibration tolerances in players and helped reduce audible pumping if the CX decoder was not calibrated correctly.

At least where the digital audio tracks were concerned, the sound quality was unsurpassed at the time compared to consumer videotape. However, the quality of the analog soundtracks could vary greatly depending upon the disc and, sometimes, the player. Many early and lower-end LaserDisc players had poor analog audio components, and in turn, many early discs had poorly mastered analog audio tracks, making digital soundtracks in any form more desirable to serious enthusiasts. Early DiscoVision and LaserDisc titles lacked the digital audio option, but many of those movies received digital sound in later re-issues by Universal, and the quality of analog audio tracks generally improved greatly as time went on. Many discs that had originally carried old analog stereo tracks received new Dolby Stereo and Dolby Surround tracks instead often in addition to digital tracks, which helped boost sound quality. Later analog discs also applied CX noise reduction, which improved the signal-to-noise ratio of the audio.

DTS audio, when available on a disc, replaced the digital audio tracks; hearing DTS-encoded audio required only an S/PDIF compliant digital connection to a DTS decoder.

On a DTS disc, digital PCM audio was not available, so if a DTS decoder was also not available, the only option was to fall back to the analog Dolby Surround or stereo audio tracks. In some cases, the analog audio tracks were further made unavailable through replacement with supplementary audio such as isolated scores or audio commentary. This effectively reduced playback of a DTS disc on a non-DTS equipped system to mono audio, or in a handful of cases, no film soundtrack at all.

Only one 5.1 surround sound option existed on a given LaserDisc (either Dolby Digital or DTS), so if surround sound was desired, the disc must be matched to the capabilities of the playback equipment (LaserDisc player and receiver/decoder) by the purchaser. A fully capable LaserDisc playback system included a newer LaserDisc player that was capable of playing digital tracks; had a digital optical output for digital PCM and DTS encoded audio; was aware of AC-3 audio tracks; and had an AC-3 coaxial output, an external or internal AC-3 RF demodulator and AC-3 decoder, and a DTS decoder. Many 1990s A/V receivers combined the AC-3 decoder and DTS decoder logic, but an integrated AC-3 demodulator was rare both in LaserDisc players and in later A/V receivers.

PAL LaserDiscs have a slightly longer playing time than NTSC discs, but have fewer audio options. PAL discs only have two audio tracks, consisting of either two analog-only tracks on older PAL LaserDiscs, or two digital-only tracks on newer discs. In comparison, later NTSC LaserDiscs are capable of carrying four tracks (two analog and two digital). On certain releases, one of the analog tracks is used to carry a modulated AC-3 signal for 5.1 channel audio (for decoding and playback by newer LaserDisc players with an "AC-3 RF" output). Older NTSC LaserDiscs made before 1984 (such as the original DiscoVision discs) only have two analog audio tracks.

LaserDisc players

The earliest players employed gas helium–neon laser tubes to read discs and had a red-orange light with a wavelength of 632.8 nm, while later solid-state players used infrared semiconductor laser diodes with a wavelength of 780 nm.

In March 1984, Pioneer introduced the first consumer player with a solid-state laser, the LD-700. It was also the first LaserDisc player to load from the front and not the top. One year earlier, Hitachi introduced an expensive industrial player with a laser diode, but the player had poor picture quality (due to an inadequate dropout compensator), and was made only in limited quantities. After Pioneer released the LD-700, gas lasers were no longer used in consumer players, despite their advantages, although Philips continued to use gas lasers in their industrial units until 1985.

Most LaserDisc players required the user to manually turn the disc over to play the other side. A number of players (all diode laser based) were made that were capable of playing both sides of the disc automatically, using a mechanism to physically flip a single laser pickup.

Pioneer produced some multi-disc models which held more than 50 LaserDiscs. For a short time in 1984, one company offered a "LaserStack" unit that added multi-disc capability to existing players: the Pioneer LD-600, LD-1100, or the Sylvania/Magnavox clones. It required the user to physically remove the player lid for installation, where it then attached to the top of the player. LaserStack held up to 10 discs and could automatically load or remove them from the player or change sides in around 15 seconds.

The first mass-produced industrial LaserDisc player was the MCA DiscoVision PR-7820, later rebranded the Pioneer PR7820. In North America, this unit was used in many General Motors dealerships as a source of training videos and presentation of GM's new line of cars and trucks in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Most players made after the mid-1980s were capable of also playing Compact Discs. These players included a 4.7 in indentation in the loading tray, where the CD was placed for playback. At least two Pioneer models (the CLD-M301 and the CLD-M90) also operated as a CD changer, with several 4.7 in indentations around the circumference of the main tray.

The Pioneer DVL-9, introduced in 1996, was both Pioneer's first consumer DVD player and the first combination DVD/LD player.

The first high-definition video player was the Pioneer HLD-X0. A later model, the HLD-X9, featured a superior comb filter, and laser diodes on both sides of the disc.

Notable players

 * Pioneer PR7820, first industrial LaserDisc player, capable of being controlled by an external computer, was used in the first US LaserDisc arcade game Dragon's Lair.
 * Pioneer CLD-900, first combination player capable of reading Compact Discs. Released in 1985.
 * Pioneer CLD-1010, first player capable of playing 5 in CD-Video discs. Released in 1987.
 * Pioneer LaserActive players: The Pioneer CLD-A100 and NEC PCE-LD1 provided the ability to play Sega Genesis (Mega Drive) and TurboGrafx16 (PC Engine) video games when used in conjunction with additional components.
 * Pioneer DVL series, capable of playing both LaserDiscs and DVDs

Branding

During its development, MCA (which co-owned the technology), referred to it as the Optical Videodisc System, "Reflective Optical Videodisc" or "Laser Optical Videodisc", depending on the document. They changed the name once in 1969 to Disco-Vision and then again in 1978 to DiscoVision (without the hyphen), which became the official spelling. Technical documents and brochures produced by MCA Disco-Vision during the early and mid-'70s also used the term "Disco-Vision Records" to refer to the pressed discs. MCA owned the rights to the largest catalog of films in the world during this time, and they manufactured and distributed the DiscoVision releases of those films under the "MCA DiscoVision" software and manufacturing label; consumer sale of those titles began on December 11, 1978, with the aforementioned Jaws.

Philips' preferred name for the format was "VLP", after the Dutch words Video Langspeel-Plaat ("Video long-play disc"), which in English-speaking countries stood for Video Long-Play. The first consumer player, the Magnavox VH-8000 even had the VLP logo on the player. For a while in the early and mid-1970s, Philips also discussed a compatible audio-only format they called "ALP", but that was soon dropped as the Compact Disc system became a non-compatible project in the Philips corporation. Until early 1980, the format had no "official" name. The LaserVision Association, made up of MCA, Universal-Pioneer, IBM, and Philips/Magnavox, was formed to standardize the technical specifications of the format (which had been causing problems for the consumer market) and finally named the system officially as "LaserVision".

After its introduction in Japan in 1981, the format was introduced in Europe in 1983 with the LaserVision name, although Philips used "VLP" in model designations, such as VLP-600. Following lackluster sales there (around 12–15,000 units Europe-wide), Philips tried relaunching the entire format as "CD-Video" in 1987, with the name appearing not just on the new hybrid 12 cm discs, but also on standard 20 and 30 cm LaserDiscs with digital audio. While this name and logo appeared on players and labels for years, the "official" name of the format remained LaserVision. In the early 1990s, the format's name was changed again to LaserDisc.

Pioneer

Pioneer Electronics also entered the optical disc market in 1977 as a 50/50 joint venture with MCA called Universal-Pioneer and manufacturing MCA-designed industrial players under the MCA DiscoVision name (the PR-7800 and PR-7820). For the 1980 launch of the first Universal-Pioneer player, the VP-1000 was noted as a "laser disc player", although the "LaserDisc" logo was displayed clearly on the device. In 1981, "LaserDisc" was used exclusively for the medium itself, although the official name was "LaserVision" (as seen at the beginning of many LaserDisc releases, just before the start of the film). Pioneer reminded numerous video magazines and stores in 1984 that LaserDisc was a trademarked word, standing only for LaserVision products manufactured for sale by Pioneer Video or Pioneer Electronics. A 1984 Ray Charles ad for the LD-700 player bore the term "Pioneer LaserDisc brand videodisc player". From 1981 until the early 1990s, all properly licensed discs carried the LaserVision name and logo, even Pioneer Artists titles.

On single-sided LaserDiscs mastered by Pioneer, playing the wrong side would cause a still screen to appear with a happy, upside-down turtle that has a LaserDisc for a belly (nicknamed the "LaserDisc Turtle"). The words "Program material is recorded on the other side of this disc" are below the turtle.

MCA
During the early years, MCA also manufactured discs for other companies including Paramount, Disney and Warner Bros. Some of them added their own names to the disc jacket to signify that the movie was not owned by MCA. After DiscoVision Associates shut down in early 1982, Universal Studio's videodisc software label (called MCA Videodisc until 1984), began reissuing many DiscoVision titles. Unfortunately, quite a few, such as Battlestar Galactica and Jaws, were time-compressed versions of their CAV or CLV DiscoVision originals. The time-compressed CLV re-issue of Jaws no longer had the original soundtrack, having had incidental background music replaced for the videodisc version due to high licensing costs (the original music would not be available until the THX LaserDisc box set was released in 1995). One Universal/Columbia co-production issued by MCA Disco Vision in both CAV and CLV versions, The Electric Horseman, is still not available in any other home video format with its original score intact; even the most recent DVD release has had substantial music replacement of both instrumental score and Willie Nelson's songs. An MCA release of Universal's Howard the Duck shows only the start credits shown in widescreen before changing to 4:3 for the rest of the film. For many years, this was the only disc-based release of the film, until widescreen DVD formats were released with extras. Also, the 1989 and 1996 LaserDisc releases of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial are the only formats to include the cut scene of Harrison Ford, in the role of the school principal, telling off Elliott for letting the frogs free in the biology class.

VHS
LaserDisc had several advantages over VHS. It featured a far sharper picture with a horizontal resolution of 425 television lines (TVL) for NTSC and 440 TVL for PAL discs, while VHS featured only 240 TVL with NTSC. Super VHS, released in 1987, reduced the quality gap, having horizontal luma resolution comparable to LaserDisc. But horizontal chroma resolution of Super VHS remained as low as that of standard VHS, about 40 TVL, while LaserDisc offered about 70 TVL of chroma resolution.

LaserDisc could handle analog and digital audio where VHS was mostly analog only (VHS could have PCM audio in professional applications but it was uncommon), and the NTSC discs could store multiple audio tracks. This allowed for extras such as director's commentary tracks and other features to be added onto a film, creating "Special Edition" releases that would not have been possible with VHS. Disc access was random and chapter-based, like the DVD format, meaning that one could jump to any point on a given disc very quickly. By comparison, VHS would require tedious rewinding and fast-forwarding to get to specific points.

Initially, LaserDiscs were cheaper than videocassettes to manufacture, because they lacked the moving parts and plastic outer shell which were necessary for VHS tapes to work, and the duplication process was much simpler. A VHS cassette had at least 14 parts (including the actual tape) while LaserDisc had one part with five or six layers. A disc could be stamped out in a matter of seconds, whereas duplicating videotape required a complex bulk tape duplication mechanism and was a time-consuming process. By the end of the 1980s, average disc-pressing prices were over $5.00 per two-sided disc, due to the large amount of plastic material and the costly glass-mastering process needed to make the metal stamper mechanisms. Due to the larger volume of demand, videocassettes quickly became much cheaper to duplicate, costing as little as $1.00 by the beginning of the 1990s.

LaserDiscs potentially had a much longer lifespan than videocassettes. Because the discs were read optically instead of magnetically, no physical contact needed to be made between the player and the disc, except for the player's clamp that holds the disc at its center as it is spun and read. As a result, playback would not wear the information-bearing part of the discs, and properly manufactured LaserDiscs could theoretically last beyond a lifetime. By contrast, a VHS tape held all of its picture and sound information on the tape in a magnetic coating which was in contact with the spinning heads on the head drum, causing progressive wear with each use (though later in VHS's lifespan, engineering improvements allowed tapes to be made and played back without contact). The tape was also thin and delicate, and it was easy for a player mechanism, especially on a low quality or malfunctioning model, to mishandle the tape and damage it by creasing it, frilling (stretching) its edges, or even breaking it.

DVD
By the advent of DVD, LaserDisc had declined considerably in popularity, so the two formats never directly competed with each other. LaserDisc was a composite video format: the luminance (black and white) and chrominance (color) information were transmitted in one signal, separated by the receiver. While good comb filters could separate the signals adequately, the two signals could not be completely separated. On DVD-Video, images are stored in the YCbCr format, with the chroma information being entirely discrete, which results in far higher fidelity, particularly at strong color borders or regions of high detail (especially if there is moderate movement in the picture) and low-contrast details such as skin tones, where comb filters almost inevitably smudge some detail.

In contrast to the entirely digital DVD, LaserDiscs used only analog video. As the LaserDisc format was not digitally encoded and did not make use of compression techniques, it was immune to video macroblocking (most visible as blockiness during high motion sequences) or contrast banding (subtle visible lines in gradient areas, such as out-of-focus backgrounds, skies, or light casts from spotlights) which could be caused by the MPEG-2 encoding process as video is prepared for DVD. Early DVD releases held the potential to surpass their LaserDisc counterparts, but often managed only to match them for image quality, and in some cases, the LaserDisc version was preferred. Proprietary human-assisted encoders manually operated by specialists could vastly reduce the incidence of artifacts, depending on playing time and image complexity. By the end of LaserDisc's run, DVDs were living up to their potential as a superior format.

DVDs use compressed audio formats such as Dolby Digital and DTS for multichannel sound. Most LaserDiscs were encoded with stereo (often Dolby Surround) CD quality audio 16bit/44.1 kHz tracks as well as analog audio tracks.

DTS-encoded LaserDiscs have DTS soundtracks of 1,235 kbit/s instead of the reduced bitrate of 768 kbit/s commonly employed on DVDs with optional DTS audio.

Advantages
LaserDisc players could provide a greater degree of control over the playback process. Unlike many DVD players, the transport mechanism always obeyed commands from the user: pause, fast-forward, and fast-reverse commands were always accepted (barring malfunctions). There were no "User Prohibited Options" where content protection code instructed the player to refuse commands to skip a specific part (such as fast forwarding through copyright warnings). (Some DVD players, particularly higher-end units, do have the ability to ignore the blocking code and play the video without restrictions, but this feature is not common in the usual consumer market.)

With CAV LaserDiscs, the user could jump directly to any individual frame of a video simply by entering the frame number on the remote keypad, a feature not common among DVD players. Some DVD players have a cache feature, which stores a certain amount of the video in RAM, which allows the player to index a DVD as quickly as an LD, even down to the frame in some players.

Damaged spots on a LaserDisc could be played through or skipped over, while a DVD will often become unplayable past the damage. Some newer DVD players feature a repair+skip algorithm, which alleviates this problem by continuing to play the disc, filling in unreadable areas of the picture with blank space or a frozen frame of the last readable image and sound. The success of this feature depends upon the amount of damage. LaserDisc players, when working in full analog, recover from such errors faster than DVD players.

Similar to the CD versus LP sound quality debates common in the audiophile community, some videophiles argue that LaserDisc maintains a "smoother", more "film-like", natural image while DVD still looks slightly more artificial. Early DVD demo discs often had compression or encoding problems, lending additional support to such claims at the time. The video signal-to-noise ratio and bandwidth of LaserDisc are substantially less than those of DVDs, making DVDs appear sharper and clearer to most viewers.

Another advantage, at least to some consumers, was the fact that any sort of anti-piracy technology was purely optional. It was claimed that Macrovision's Copyguard protection could not be applied to LaserDisc, due to the format's design. The vertical blanking interval, where the Macrovision signal would be implemented, was used for timecode and frame coding as well as player control codes on LaserDisc players. Due to its relatively small market share, there was never a push to redesign the format despite the obvious potential for piracy. The industry simply decided to engineer it into the DVD specification.

LaserDisc's support for multiple audio tracks allowed for vast supplemental materials to be included on-disc and made it the first available format for "Special Edition" releases; the 1984 Criterion Collection edition of Citizen Kane is generally credited as being the first "Special Edition" release to home video (King Kong being the first release to have an audio commentary track included), and for setting the standard by which future "Special Edition" discs were measured. The disc provided interviews, commentary tracks, documentaries, still photographs, and other features for historians and collectors.

Disadvantages
Despite the advantages over competing technology at the time (namely VHS and Betamax), the discs were heavy—weighing about 250 g each—and cumbersome, were more prone than a VHS tape to damage if mishandled, and manufacturers did not market LaserDisc units with recording capabilities to consumers. Also, because of their size, greater mechanical effort was required to spin the discs at the proper speed, resulting in much more noise generated than other media.

The space-consuming analog video signal of a LaserDisc limited playback duration to 30/36 minutes (CAV NTSC/PAL) or 60/64 minutes (CLV NTSC/PAL) per side, because of the hardware manufacturer's refusal to reduce line count and bandwidth for increased playtime, (as was done in VHS; VHS tapes had a 3 MHz video bandwidth, while LaserDisc preserves the full 6 MHz bandwidth and resolution used in NTSC broadcasts). After one side finished playing, a disc had to be flipped over to continue watching a movie, and some titles filled two or more discs, depending on the film's runtime and whether or not special features are included. Many players, especially units built after the mid-1980s, could "flip" discs automatically (by rotating the optical pickup to the other side of the disc), but this was accompanied by a pause in the movie during the side change.

In the event the movie was longer than what could be stored on two sides of a single disc, manually swapping to a second disc was required at some point during the film (one exception to this rule was the Pioneer LD-W1, which featured the ability to load two discs and to play each side of one disc and then to switch to playing each side of the other disc). In addition, perfect still frames and random access to individual still frames was limited only to the more expensive CAV discs, which only had a playing time of approximately 30 minutes per side. In later years, Pioneer and other manufacturers overcame this limitation by incorporating a digital memory buffer, which "grabbed" a single field or frame from a CLV disc.

The analog information encoded onto LaserDiscs also did not include any form of built-in checksum or error correction. Because of this, slight dust and scratches on the disc surface could result in read errors which caused various video quality problems: glitches, streaks, bursts of static, or momentary picture interruptions. In contrast, the digital MPEG-2 format information used on DVDs has built-in error correction which ensures that the signal from a damaged disc will remain identical to that from a perfect disc right up until the damage to the disc surface prevents the laser from being able to identify usable data.

In addition, LaserDisc videos sometimes exhibited a problem known as "crosstalk". The issue could arise when the laser optical pickup assembly within the player was out of alignment or because the disc was damaged or excessively warped. But it could also occur even with a properly functioning player and a factory-new disc, depending on electrical and mechanical alignment problems. In these instances, the issue arose due to the fact that CLV discs required subtle changes in rotating speed at various points during playback. During a change in speed, the optical pickup inside the player might read video information from a track adjacent to the intended one, causing data from the two tracks to "cross"; the extra video information picked up from that second track shows up as distortion in the picture which looks reminiscent of swirling "barber poles" or rolling lines of static.

Assuming the player's optical pickup was in proper working order, crosstalk distortion normally did not occur during playback of CAV-format LaserDiscs, as the rotational speed never varied. If the player calibration was out of order, or if the CAV disc was faulty or damaged, other problems affecting tracking accuracy could occur. One such problem was "laser lock", where the player read the same two fields for a given frame over and over, causing the picture to look frozen as if the movie were paused.

Another significant issue unique to LaserDisc involved the inconsistency of playback quality between different makers and models of player. On the majority of televisions, a given DVD player will produce a picture that is visually indistinguishable from other units; differences in image quality between players only becomes easily apparent on larger televisions, and substantial leaps in image quality are generally only obtained with expensive, high-end players that allow for post-processing of the MPEG-2 stream during playback.

In contrast, LaserDisc playback quality was highly dependent on hardware quality, and major variances in picture quality appeared between different makers and models of LaserDisc players, even when tested on low- to mid-range televisions. The obvious benefits of using high-quality equipment helped keep demand for some players high, while also keeping pricing for those units comparably high: in the 1990s, notable players sold for anywhere from US$200 to well over $1,000, while older and less desirable players could be purchased in working condition for as little as $25.

Laser rot
Many early LaserDiscs were not manufactured properly. The adhesive that was used contained impurities which were able to penetrate the lacquer seal layer and chemically attack the metalized reflective aluminum layer, altering its reflective characteristics. This, in turn, deteriorated the recorded signal. This was a problem that was termed "laser rot" among LaserDisc enthusiasts (also called "color flash" internally by LaserDisc pressing plants). Some forms of laser rot could appear as black spots that looked like mold or burned plastic which caused the disc to skip and the video to exhibit excessive speckling noise. But, for the most part, rotted discs could actually appear perfectly fine to the naked eye.

Later optical standards have also been known to suffer similar problems, including a notorious batch of defective CDs manufactured by Philips-DuPont Optical at their Blackburn, Lancashire facility in England during the late 1980s/early 1990s.

Impact and decline
LaserDisc did not have high market penetration in North America due to the high cost of the players and discs (which were far more expensive than VHS players and tapes), and due to marketplace confusion with the technologically inferior CED, which also went by the name Videodisc. While the format was not widely adopted by North American consumers, it was received well among videophiles due to the superior audio and video quality compared to VHS and Betamax tapes, thus finding a place in nearly one million American homes by the end of 1990. The format was more popular in Japan than in North America because prices were kept low to ensure adoption, resulting in minimal price differences between VHS tapes and the higher quality LaserDiscs, which helped ensure that it quickly became the dominant consumer video format in Japan. Anime collectors in every country in which the LaserDisc format was released (which included both North America and Japan) also quickly became familiar with this format, and sought the higher video and sound quality of LaserDisc and the availability of numerous titles not available on VHS. (They were also encouraged by Pioneer's in-house production of anime which made titles specifically with the format in mind.) LaserDiscs were also popular alternatives to videocassettes among movie enthusiasts in the more affluent regions of South East Asia, such as Singapore, due to their high integration with the Japanese export market and the disc-based media's superior longevity compared to videocassette, especially in the humid conditions endemic to that area of the world.

The format also became quite popular in Hong Kong during the 1990s before the introduction of VCDs and DVD. While people rarely bought the discs (because each LaserDisc was priced around US$100), high rental activity helped the video rental business in the city grow larger than it had ever been previously. Due to integration with the Japanese export market, NTSC LaserDiscs were used in the Hong Kong market, in contrast to the PAL standard used for broadcast (this anomaly also exists for DVD). This created a market for multi-system TVs and multi-system VCRs which could display or play both PAL and NTSC materials in addition to SECAM materials (which were never popular in Hong Kong). Some LaserDisc players could convert NTSC signals to PAL during playback so that TVs used in Hong Kong could display the LaserDisc materials.

Despite the relative popularity, manufacturers refused to market recordable LaserDisc devices on the consumer market, even though the competing VCR devices could record onto cassette. This had a negative impact on sales worldwide. The inconvenient disc size, the high cost of both the players and the media and the inability to record onto the discs combined to take a serious toll on sales, and contributed to the format's poor adoption figures.

Although the LaserDisc format was supplanted by DVD by the late 1990s, many LaserDisc titles are still highly coveted by movie enthusiasts (for example, Disney's Song of the South which is unavailable in the US in any format, but was issued in Japan on LaserDisc.) This is largely because there are many films that are still only available on LaserDisc and many other LaserDisc releases contain supplementary material not available on subsequent DVD versions of those films. Until the end of 2001, many titles were released on VHS, LaserDisc, and DVD in Japan.

Computer control
In the early 1980s, Philips produced a LaserDisc player model adapted for a computer interface, dubbed "professional." In 1985, Jasmine Multimedia created LaserDisc jukeboxes featuring music videos from Michael Jackson, Duran Duran, and Cyndi Lauper. When connected to a PC this combination could be used to display images or information for educational or archival purposes, for example, thousands of scanned medieval manuscripts. This strange device could be considered a very early equivalent of a CD-ROM.

In the mid-1980s Lucasfilm pioneered the EditDroid non-linear editing system for film and television based on computer-controlled LaserDisc players. Instead of printing dailies out on film, processed negatives from the day's shoot would be sent to a mastering plant to be assembled from their 10-minute camera elements into 20-minute film segments. These were then mastered onto single-sided blank LaserDiscs, just as a DVD would be burnt at home today, allowing for much easier selection and preparation of an edit decision list (EDL). In the days before video assist was available in cinematography, this was the only other way a film crew could see their work. The EDL went to the negative cutter who then cut the camera negative accordingly and assembled the finished film. Only 24 EditDroid systems were ever built, even though the ideas and technology are still in use today. Later EditDroid experiments borrowed from hard-drive technology of having multiple discs on the same spindle and added numerous playback heads and numerous electronics to the basic jukebox design so that any point on each of the discs would be accessible within seconds. This eliminated the need for racks and racks of industrial LaserDisc players since EditDroid discs were only single-sided.

In 1986, a SCSI-equipped LaserDisc player attached to a BBC Master computer was used for the BBC Domesday Project. The player was referred as an LV-ROM (LaserVision Read Only Memory) as the discs contained the driving software as well as the video frames. The discs used the CAV format, and encoded data as a binary signal represented by the analog audio recording. These discs could contain in each CAV frame video/audio or video/binary data, but not both. "Data" frames would appear blank when played as video. It was typical for each disc to start with the disc catalog (a few blank frames) then the video introduction before the rest of the data. Because the format (based on the ADFS hard disc format) used a starting sector for each file, the data layout effectively skipped over any video frames. If all 54,000 frames are used for data storage an LV-ROM disc can contain 324 MB of data per side. The Domesday Project systems also included a genlock, allowing video frames, clips and audio to be mixed with graphics originated from the BBC Master; this was used to great effect for displaying high-resolution photographs and maps, which could then be zoomed into.

During the 1980s in the United States, Digital Equipment Corporation developed the standalone PC control IVIS (Interactive VideoDisc Information System) for training and education. One of the most influential programs developed at DEC was Decision Point, a management gaming simulation, which won the Nebraska Video Disc Award for Best of Show in 1985.

Apple's HyperCard scripting language provided Macintosh computer users with a means to design databases of slides, animation, video and sounds from LaserDiscs and then to create interfaces for users to play specific content from the disc through software called LaserStacks. User-created "stacks" were shared and were especially popular in education where teacher-generated stacks were used to access discs ranging from art collections to basic biological processes. Commercially available stacks were also popular with the Voyager company being possibly the most successful distributor.

Commodore International's 1992 multimedia presentation system for the Amiga, AmigaVision, included device drivers for controlling a number of LaserDisc players through a serial port. Coupled with the Amiga's ability to use a Genlock, this allowed for the LaserDisc video to be overlaid with computer graphics and integrated into presentations and multimedia displays, years before such practice was commonplace.

Pioneer also made computer-controlled units such as the LD-V2000. It had a back-panel RS-232 serial connection through a five-pin DIN connector, and no front-panel controls except Open/Close. (The disc would be played automatically upon insertion.)

Under contract from the U.S. military, Matrox produced a combination computer/LaserDisc player for instructional purposes. The computer was a 286, the LaserDisc player only capable of reading the analog audio tracks. Together they weighed 43 lb and sturdy handles were provided in case two people were required to lift the unit. The computer controlled the player via a 25-pin serial port at the back of the player and a ribbon cable connected to a proprietary port on the motherboard. Many of these were sold as surplus by the military during the 1990s, often without the controller software. Nevertheless, it is possible to control the unit by removing the ribbon cable and connecting a serial cable directly from the computer's serial port to the port on the LaserDisc player.

Video games
The format's instant-access capability made it possible for a new breed of LaserDisc-based video arcade games and several companies saw potential in using LaserDiscs for video games in the 1980s and 1990s, beginning in 1983 with Sega's Astron Belt. Cinematronics and American Laser Games produced elaborate arcade games that used the random-access features to create interactive movies such as Dragon's Lair and Space Ace. Similarly, the Pioneer Laseractive and Halcyon were introduced as home video game consoles that used LaserDisc media for their software.

MUSE LD
In 1991, several manufacturers announced specifications for what would become known as MUSE LaserDisc, representing a span of almost 15 years until the feats of this HD analog optical disc system would finally be duplicated digitally by HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc. Encoded using NHK's MUSE "Hi-Vision" analog HDTV system, MUSE discs would operate like standard LaserDiscs but would contain high-definition 1,125-line (1,035 visible lines; Sony HDVS) video with a 16:9 aspect ratio. The MUSE players were also capable of playing standard NTSC format discs and are superior in performance to non-MUSE players even with these NTSC discs. The MUSE-capable players had several noteworthy advantages over standard LaserDisc players, including a red laser with a much narrower wavelength than the lasers found in standard players. The red laser was capable of reading through disc defects such as scratches and even mild disc rot that would cause most other players to stop, stutter or drop-out. Crosstalk was not an issue with MUSE discs, and the narrow wavelength of the laser allowed for the virtual elimination of crosstalk with normal discs.

To view MUSE-encoded discs, it was necessary to have a MUSE decoder in addition to a compatible player. There are televisions with MUSE decoding built-in and set-top tuners with decoders that can provide the proper MUSE input. Equipment prices were high, especially for early HDTVs which generally eclipsed US$10,000, and even in Japan the market for MUSE was tiny. Players and discs were never officially sold in North America, although several distributors imported MUSE discs along with other import titles. Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Lawrence of Arabia, A League of Their Own, Bugsy, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Bram Stoker's Dracula and Chaplin were among the theatrical releases available on MUSE LDs. Several documentaries, including one about Formula One at Japan's Suzuka Circuit were also released.

LaserDisc players and LaserDiscs that worked with the competing European HD-MAC HDTV standard were also made.

Picture discs
Picture discs have artistic etching on one side of the disc to make the disc more visually attractive than the standard shiny silver surface. This etching might look like a movie character, logo, or other promotional material. Sometimes that side of the LD would be made with colored plastic, rather than the clear material used for the data side. Picture disc LDs only had video material on one side as the "picture" side could not contain any data. Picture discs are rare in North America.

LD-G
Pioneer Electronics—one of the format's largest supporters/investors—was also deeply involved in the karaoke business in Japan, and used LaserDiscs as the storage medium for music and additional content such as graphics. This format was generally called LD-G. While several other karaoke labels manufactured LaserDiscs, there was nothing like the breadth of competition in that industry that exists now, as almost all manufacturers have transitioned to CD+G discs.

Anamorphic LaserDiscs
With the release of 16:9 televisions in the early 1990s, Pioneer and Toshiba decided that it was time to take advantage of this aspect ratio. Squeeze LDs were enhanced 16:9-ratio widescreen LaserDiscs. During the video transfer stage, the movie was stored in an anamorphic "squeezed" format. The widescreen movie image was stretched to fill the entire video frame with less or none of the video resolution wasted to create letterbox bars. The advantage was a 33% greater vertical resolution compared to letterboxed widescreen LaserDisc. This same procedure was used for anamorphic DVDs, but unlike all DVD players, very few LD players had the ability to unsqueeze the image for 4:3 sets, If the discs were played on a standard 4:3 television the image would be distorted. Some 4:3 sets (such as the Sony WEGA series) could be set to unsqueeze the image. Since very few people outside of Japan owned 16:9 displays, the marketability of these special discs was very limited.

There were no anamorphic LaserDisc titles available in the US except for promotional purposes. Upon purchase of a Toshiba 16:9 television viewers had the option of selecting a number of Warner Bros. 16:9 films. Titles include Unforgiven, Grumpy Old Men, The Fugitive, and Free Willy. The Japanese lineup of titles was different. A series of releases under the banner "Squeeze LD" from Pioneer of mostly Carolco titles included Basic Instinct, Stargate, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Showgirls, Cutthroat Island, and Cliffhanger. Terminator 2 was released twice in Squeeze LD, the second release being THX certified and a notable improvement over the first.

Recordable formats
Another type of video media, CRVdisc, or "Component Recordable Video Disc" were available for a short time, mostly to professionals. Developed by Sony, CRVdiscs resemble early PC CD-ROM caddies with a disc inside resembling a full-sized LD. CRVdiscs were blank, write-once, read-many media that can be recorded once on each side. CRVdiscs were used largely for backup storage in professional and commercial applications.

Another form of recordable LaserDisc that is completely playback-compatible with the LaserDisc format (unlike CRVdisc with its caddy enclosure) is the RLV, or Recordable Laser Videodisc. It was developed and first marketed by the Optical Disc Corporation (ODC, now ODC Nimbus) in 1984. RLV discs, like CRVdisc, are also a WORM technology, and function exactly like a CD-R disc. RLV discs look almost exactly like standard LaserDiscs, and can play in any standard LaserDisc player after they have been recorded.

The only cosmetic difference between an RLV disc and a regular factory-pressed LaserDiscs is their reflective Red (showing up in photos as a purple-violet or blue with some RLV discs) color resulting from the dye embedded in the reflective layer of the disc to make it recordable, as opposed to the silver mirror appearance of regular LDs. The reddish color of RLVs is very similar to DVD-R and DVD+R discs. RLVs were popular for making short-run quantities of LaserDiscs for specialized applications such as interactive kiosks and flight simulators. Another, single-sided form of RLV exists with the silver side being covered in small bumps. Blank RLV discs show a standard Test Card when played in a Laserdisc player.

Pioneer also produced a rewritable LaserDisc system, the VDR-V1000 "LaserRecorder" for which the discs had a claimed erase/record potential of 1,000,000 cycles.

These recordable LD systems were never marketed toward the general public, and are so unknown as to create the misconception that home recording for LaserDiscs was impossible and thus a perceived "weakness" of the LaserDisc format.

30 cm (Full-size)
The most common size of LaserDisc was 30 cm, approximately the size of 12 in LP vinyl records. These discs allowed for 30/36 minutes per side (CAV NTSC/PAL) or 60/64 minutes per side (CLV NTSC/PAL). The vast majority of programming for the LaserDisc format was produced on these discs.

20 cm ("EP"-size)

A number of 20 cm LaserDiscs were also published. These smaller "EP"-sized LDs allowed for 20 minutes per side (CLV). They are much rarer than the full-size LDs, especially in North America, and roughly approximate the size of 45rpm (7 in) vinyl singles. These discs were often used for music video compilations (e.g. Bon Jovi's "Breakout", Bananarama's "Video Singles" or T'Pau's "View from a Bridge"), as well as Japanese karaoke machines.

12 cm (CD Video and Video Single Disc)
There were also 12 cm (CD size) "single"-style discs produced that were playable on LaserDisc players. These were referred to as CD Video (CD-V) discs, and Video Single Discs (VSD).

CD-V was a hybrid format launched in the late 1980s, and carried up to five minutes of analog LaserDisc-type video content with a digital soundtrack (usually a music video), plus up to 20 minutes of digital audio CD tracks. The original 1989 release of David Bowie's retrospective Sound + Vision CD box set prominently featured a CD-V video of "Ashes to Ashes", and standalone promo CD-Vs featured the video, plus three audio tracks: "John, I'm Only Dancing", "Changes", and "The Supermen".

Despite the similar name, CD Video is entirely incompatible with the later all-digital Video CD (VCD) format, and can only be played back on LaserDisc players with CD-V capability or one of the players dedicated to the smaller discs. CD-Vs were somewhat popular for a brief time worldwide but soon faded from view.

In Europe, Philips also used the "CD Video" name as part of a short-lived attempt in the late 1980s to relaunch and rebrand the entire LaserDisc system. Some 20 and 30 cm discs were also branded "CD Video", but unlike the 12 cm discs, these were essentially just standard LaserDiscs with digital soundtracks and no audio-only CD content.

The VSD format was announced in 1990, and was essentially the same as the 12 cm CD-V, but without the audio CD tracks, and intended to sell at a lower price. VSDs were popular only in Japan and other parts of Asia and were never fully introduced to the rest of the world.

title: LaserDisc