1979 in home video

Industry milestones

February

• The DiscoVision format is introduced in Seattle, Washington, United States.

  October

• Judge Warren J. Ferguson of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California rules that home videotaping of free television for personal use is legal under U.S. copyright laws denying a claim brought by Universal Studios and The Walt Disney Company against Sony to halt the manufacture and sale of Betamax videocassette recorders. The ruling was overturned in part by the Ninth Circuit Court but later upheld in 1984 by the Supreme Court of the United States in Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc..

  November

• The Columbia Pictures studio forms a home entertainment division known as "Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment".

  Date unknown

• 20th Century Fox purchases Magnetic Video, which in 1977 had become the first company to release pre-recorded films on videotape for consumer use.
• Distribution of Video 2000 products begins.

  Film releases

• Samson and Delilah
• Midnight Express
• Charlotte's Web
• Saturday Night Fever
• The Anderson Tapes
• Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown
• Shamus
• 100 Rifles
• Halloween