The DVD forerunner is a term used to describe the technologies that preceded the invention of the DVD. These include the videocassette, which was a 13-letter magnetic tape format used for recording and playing back video and audio; the VCR, a 3-letter abbreviation for Video Cassette Recorder; VCRTAPE, a 7-letter format for recording and playing back video and audio on a VCR; Laserdisc, a 9-letter optical disc format used for storing digital data; and Laserdisk, another 9-letter optical disc format used for storing digital data.