DVD is an optical disc storage format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions.

Pre-recorded DVDs are mass-produced using molding machines that physically stamp data onto the DVD. Such discs are known as DVD-ROM, because data can only be read and not written nor erased. Blank recordable DVD discs (DVD-R and DVD+R) can be recorded once using a DVD recorder and then function as a DVD-ROM. Rewritable DVDs (DVD-RW, DVD+RW, and DVD-RAM) can be recorded and erased multiple times.

DVDs are used in DVD-Video consumer digital video format and in DVD-Audio consumer digital audio format, as well as for authoring AVCHD discs. DVDs containing other types of information may be referred to as DVD data discs.

Before the advent of DVD, Video CD (VCD) became the first format for distributing digitally encoded films on standard 120 mm optical discs. (Its predecessor, CD Video, used analog video encoding.) VCD was on the market in 1993. In the same year, two new optical disc storage formats were being developed. One was the Multimedia Compact Disc (MMCD), backed by Philips and Sony, and the other was the Super Density (SD) disc, supported by Toshiba, Time Warner, Matsushita Electric, Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric, Pioneer, Thomson, and JVC.

Kevin Scott Nash (born July 9, 1959) is an American professional wrestler and actor. As of 2011, Nash is signed to a five year contract with WWE under their WWE Legends program. Nash has wrestled under several ring names, but is most notably known by his real name in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), and in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF)/World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE, where he has also been billed as Diesel.

Between WWE, WCW, and TNA, Nash has won a total of 21 championships. He is a six-time world champion: a five-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion, and one-time WWF Champion. He was the longest-reigning WWF Champion of the 1990s, having held the title for 358 days. He has achieved notable success in the tag team division as well, being a twelve-time world tag team champion: a nine-time WCW World Tag Team Champion, two-time WWF World Tag Team Champion and one-time TNA World Tag Team Champion. He is also a one-time WWF Intercontinental Champion and a two-time TNA Legends Champion. In addition to championships, he won the 1998 WCW World War 3. Nash was a member of The Kliq, a group which included Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Scott Hall and Sean Waltman. He is also one of the three founding members of the New World Order (nWo), along with Hulk Hogan and Scott Hall.

Marisa de Azevedo Monte (born July 1, 1967 in Rio de Janeiro) is a Brazilian popular singer. As of 2011, she has sold 10 million albums worldwide.

While classically trained in opera singing, she grew up surrounded by the sounds of the Portela samba school, and combines diverse influences into her music. After failing to break through into 1980s Brazilian Pop rock she went into semi-exile in Italy where she met the famous producer Nelson Motta. Thereafter she became a hybrid of MPB diva and Pop rock performer. While most of her music is in the style of modern MPB, she has also recorded traditional samba and folk tunes, as well and songs performed by Marvin Gaye, Lou Reed and George Harrison. Much of her work has been in collaboration with musicians/songwriters Carlinhos Brown, Arnaldo Antunes, and Nando Reis, and producer Arto Lindsay. She has also worked with foreign artists such as Laurie Anderson, David Byrne, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Julieta Venegas. She has performed live in the United States in such venues as The House of Blues. In 1996, she contributed a version of "Waters of March", in a duet with David Byrne, to the AIDS benefit compilation album Red Hot + Rio produced by the Red Hot Organization. She also collaborated with Bonga and Carlinhos Brown on the track "Mulemba Xangola" for the AIDS benefit compilation album Onda Sonora: Red Hot + Lisbon produced by the same organization. Again, in 2011, she contributed a collaboration with Devendra Banhart and Rodrigo Amarante "Nú Com A Minha Música" ("Naked with My Music") for the Red Hot Organization's most recent charitable album "Red Hot+Rio 2." The album is a follow-up to the 1996 "Red Hot+Rio." Proceeds from the sales will be donated to raise awareness and money to fight AIDS/HIV and related health and social issues.

Alexandre Pires do Nascimento (born January 8, 1976 in Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Brazil) is a Brazilian singer. Pires was previously the singer of group Só Pra Contrariar which he joined in the late 80s.

Pires began his career playing a new and more apelative style of samba that is known as Pagode and more romantic too that used to be known as Samba-canção and now is known as Samba Romântico. After his rhythm and melody started to become a little more romantic. He crossed the vertent known as "Pagode Romântico" and then he jumped to Samba-canção his favourite style. The Sambas-canção most famous are "Depois do Prazer" and "Tudo tem A ver" with a lot of influences of Brazilian Country Music ("Sertaneja"). The pagodes that are the most famous are "Quando é Amor", "A barata" and "Mineirinho" produced with the group Só Pra Contrariar. At that time, he received also a lot the influences of Cauby Peixoto, Ângela Maria and Agnaldo Rayol, mainly because his father was one of the best friends of Cauby Peixoto, according to a conversation with Pires at TV also edited at the internet. When he finished his last album with the group he produced also Romantic pop and Latin music.

Jorge Aragão (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈʒɔxʒi araˈɡɐ̃w], (b. March 1, 1949 in Rio de Janeiro), birth name Jorge Aragão da Cruz) is a Brazilian musician, singer/songwriter, working in the genres of samba and pagode. He is a multi-instrumentalist, and plays the guitar, surdo, cavaco and banjo, among other instruments. In performance, he usually plays the cavaquinho most of the show, and sometimes the banjo.

Aragão started his career in the '70s as a sambista at balls and in nightclubs. His songwriting career took off in 1977, when Elza Soares recorded his composition "Malandro" (with Jotabê). He was a founding member of Grupo Fundo de Quintal (nucleus of the pagode genre) and one of its main composers and lyricists, abandoning the band some time later to dedicate himself to a solo career. Almost every great samba interpreter (Beth Carvalho, Alcione, Zeca Pagodinho, Martinho da Vila) has Jorge Aragão compositions in their repertoire.

The first solo album, Jorge Aragão, came in 1982, from Ariola. Conversant in the carnaval carioca, he was a commentator for the samba school parades on the TV networks Globo and Manchete. With 12 records to his credit, he has toured the United States and performs in various cities in Brazil. Among his greatest hits are "Amigos... Amantes", "Do Fundo do Nosso Quintal", "Enredo do Meu Samba", "Ontem", and "Coisinha do Pai" (with Almir Guineto and Luiz Carlos da Vila), immortalized in the recording by Beth Carvalho, which was inserted in the Mars Pathfinder probe in the late '90s. A lot of songs considered samba classics and very well known by the singing public of the rodas de samba were written by Jorge.