In the early1990s, two high-capacity optical disc standards were under study. One is Multimedia Disc (MMCD), which is supported by Philips and Sony. The other is ultra-high density optical disc, supported by Toshiba, time warner Inc., Panasonic, Hitachi, mitsubishi electric, Pioneer, Thomson and Japanese Victory Company. IBM wants to merge the two standards to avoid the standard war between VHS and BETAMAX in11980s. Later, because the computer industry (including Microsoft, Intel and other manufacturers) insisted on supporting only one unified specification, the two camps merged the standards into a DVD and launched it at 1995.

DVD was originally the abbreviation of digital video disc. When it was first introduced, most manufacturers only promoted and introduced products for images. At that time, the computer industry did not have much demand for large-capacity storage media. Later, due to the change of positioning, when the specification of 1995 was formally established, it was redefined as Digital Versatile Disc, but the old digital video disc was still used. Now it's usually just called DVD.