LaserVision was one of the early names for the laserdisc system, with the discs themselves originally known as LaserVision discs - hence the name for the discs produced for use with the Master AIV system, LV-ROM. In fact, LV-ROM discs are extremely scarce, with only a handful of titles ever released, and you can learn about them here.

This section is all about the normal types of LaserVision disc which could be played in standard domestic laserdisc players, as well as in the Domesday LV-ROM player and other industrial models.

Many different types of laserdisc were released over the years with contrasting formats or features being available, such as the CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) or CLV (Constant Linear Velocity) recording formats, PAL or NTSC television standard, stereo or mono or even dual-track (sometimes called "bilingual") soundtrack, analogue or digital sound, chaptered or unchaptered, minutes only or minutes and seconds time-coding, susceptible to LaserRot or not susceptible to LaserRot.

Early UK releases prior to the 1984 Video Recordings Act did not require a certificate to be granted by the BBFC before release. These "pre-cert" titles are highly collectible and some are very rare.

BBC Video was launched in 1981 to take advantage of the new home video market, and titles were available in all the formats of the day: laserdisc, VHS, Betamax and in some cases V2000. Anyone hoping to pop down to the local video shop to buy a copy of a favourite BBC programme would be presented with a range of rather esoteric documentary-type material instead of popular shows, with titles such as "Mr Smith's Indoor Garden" or "The Story of English Furniture". This was because the BBC did not initially have any agreement with Equity to release archive entertainment material to the general public, and so had instead to rely on factual material, some of which was specially produced for BBC Video.

CD-Video was a later development of LaserVision, originally designed to allow digital audio tracks in a format playable in a CD player to be combined on the same disc with analogue video playable in a laserdisc player. Eventually CD Video became available in three different physical sizes, although the "CD-audio" type digital soundtrack was confined to CD-sized discs.

LaserVision was always something of a minority interest in the UK, principally due to the high cost of players and discs, and the absence of a home recording format. It was much more popular in North America as well as Japan, where laserdisc was apparently the home video medium of choice in the 1980s and 1990s. One of the reasons is said to be the durability of laserdiscs compared to videotapes, which tended to deteriorate very quickly in the atmospheric conditions of the Far East. There was even a range of singalong discs issued under the brand name of LaserKaraoke.

I have a collection of over 100 laserdiscs, representing all of the main formats and variations. I have a range of material from factual to entertainment, but mainly TV programmes and feature films. I am an avid collector of pre-cert UK titles and well as BBC Video releases, many of which are "pre-cert" themselves. In the fullness of time, this section will be full of pictures and information about my LaserVision collection.

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