Short answers, pulled from the story.
DVD-Video first became available in Japan on the 19th of October, 1996, with major releases beginning on the 20th of December, 1996. The format reached the United States on the 24th of March, 1997.
DVD-Video supports H.262/MPEG-2 Part 2 video at up to 9.8 Mbit/s and MPEG-1 Part 2 video at up to 1.856 Mbit/s. MPEG-2 handles both interlaced and progressive-scan content; MPEG-1 supports only progressive video.
DVD-Video allows Dolby Digital (AC-3), DTS, uncompressed PCM, and MPEG-1 Audio Layer II (MP2). Dolby Digital is the most common format because DTS was added after the initial standard and many early players cannot decode it. A single disc can carry up to eight simultaneous audio tracks.
CSS, or Content Scramble System, is an encryption scheme built into DVD-Video to prevent unauthorized copying. The release of DeCSS, a reverse-engineered decryption tool, triggered legal action under the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act, including the arrest of individuals involved in creating or distributing the software.
Each DVD-Video disc carries a region code restricting playback to a specific area of the world; a compliant player should only read discs matching its own region. In practice, a large share of players outside North America were modified or sold pre-modified to ignore region codes, and in some countries the practice was legal and encouraged.
In February 2008, Toshiba ended HD DVD production, citing low consumer demand, faster growth of Blu-ray, and the inclusion of a Blu-ray drive in Sony's PlayStation 3. HD DVD movie releases concluded by June 2008, leaving Blu-ray as the dominant high-definition optical disc format.