What are Laserdiscs?
A. A standard Laserdisc is a 12 inch (in diameter) double-sided optically read disc that stores high quality analog video. There are two kinds of twelve inch Laserdiscs, standard play (CAV) and extended play (CLV). CAV discs can only store 30 min of video on each side. However, any player can perform smooth multispeed searches and crystal clear still frames on these discs (unlike VHS which show still fields when paused. Fields have half the detail of frames. That is why pauses on VHS look worse than when the video is running). CLV discs can hold 60 minutes per side. However, still frames and smooth searches require more expensive players with digital memory. There are many variants of the standard 12 inch Laserdisc but most are rare and will not be discussed in depth in this FAQ.  Variants of the standard Laserdisc include an 8-inch version known as a Laserdisc Single. These are extremely rare in the U.S. There is also a 5-inch CD/LD hybrid known as CD video (CDV) that holds 5 min
