The videodisc system was first demonstrated 10 years ago but it was only in mid-1982 that the first commercially available system was launched in the UK. One advantage of the videodisc is that the video image is much better than with videotape players. Another is that the optical videodisc never wears out. In addition it is possible randomly to allocate, in a short space of time, any of 54,000 frames of information. The disadvantages are that the videodisc cannot be used to record video information, there is not much software available, and the disc master and copies have to be made by a commercial production house. Specific applications will be described in part 2.