Laserdisc player (1974): Flop

ces laserdisc

Even though the Laserdisc looks like modern technology, it never came close to surpassing the videocassette, and it was made obsolete by the DVD.

Laserdiscs are six times larger than DVDs, yet their capacity is much smaller. Unlike DVDs, which digitally compress video, Laserdiscs are actually etched similar to how a vinyl record is recorded. So they could only record an hour of video per side -- meaning you had to flip the disc to watch a two-hour movie.

First published January 8, 2015: 7:08 AM ET

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