Short answers, pulled from the story.
The LaserDisc format was commercially introduced on the 11th of December 1978 in Atlanta, Georgia. The first title released in North America was the MCA DiscoVision edition of Jaws on the 15th of December 1978. This launch occurred two years after the debut of VHS and four years before the introduction of the CD.
David Paul Gregg and James Russell filed a patent for the technology in 1970, while Philips developed reflective technology independently by 1969. The format was developed through a collaboration between Philips, Pioneer, and the movie studio MCA, with Philips producing players and MCA manufacturing discs.
Constant angular velocity discs store 30 minutes of video for NTSC and 36 minutes for PAL per side. Constant linear velocity discs allow up to 60 minutes of video per side for NTSC and Hi-Vision formats, or up to two hours per disc.
The format failed to achieve mass-market success because players were prohibitively expensive and discs could not be recorded upon. The heavy 12-inch size, high cost, and inability to record made it less convenient than competing VHS tapes.
Pioneer ceased production of LaserDisc players in July 2009 and ended maintenance services on the 30th of September 2020 when parts inventory was exhausted. The last known LaserDisc release was Onta Station vol. 1018, issued on the 21st of March 2007.
A total of 16.8 million LaserDisc players were sold worldwide, including 9.5 million units sold by Pioneer. By 1999, market penetration reached approximately 10% of households in Japan and about 2% of households in the United States.