Editing Vitaphone (section)

{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2023}}
{{short description|Sound system for film}}
{{other uses}}
{{more citations needed|date=May 2011}}
{{Infobox company
| logo = Warner Bros. Vitaphone Talking Pictures - The Film Daily, Jan-Jun 1929 (page 109 crop).jpg
| logo_size = 
| logo_alt = 
| logo_caption = Warner Bros. Vitaphone logo
| logo_padding = 
| image = 
| image_size = 
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| type = Subsidiary of [[Warner Bros.]]
| founded = {{Start date and age|1925}}
| defunct = {{End date and age|1959}}
| Founding = 
| location_country = [[United States]]
| location_city = [[Los Angeles]], [[California]]
| key_people = 
| area_served = 
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| parent = [[Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.]]
| products = [[Motion pictures]]
| divisions = 
| Operating profit = 
}}

'''Vitaphone''' was a [[sound film]] system used for [[feature film]]s and nearly 1,000 [[short subject]]s made by [[Warner Bros.]] and its sister studio [[First National Pictures|First National]] from 1926 to 1931.<!-- 1930 widely stated as abandonment date, but dig deep and you will find that WB was still doing at least some mastering to disc in early 1931. Neither date takes into account the fact that discs were still being made and supplied to theaters that needed them for a few more years. --> Vitaphone is the last major analog [[sound-on-disc]] system and the only one that was widely used and commercially successful. The soundtrack is not printed on the film, but issued separately on [[Gramophone record|phonograph records]]. The discs, recorded at {{frac|33|1|3}}&nbsp;[[Revolutions per minute|rpm]] (a speed first used for this system) and typically {{convert|16|in|cm}} in diameter, are played on a turntable physically coupled to the projector motor while the film is projected. Its [[frequency response]] is 4300&nbsp;Hz.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.aes.org/aeshc/docs/recording.technology.history/motionpicture1.html|title=AES Historical Committee|website=www.aes.org|access-date=March 31, 2018}}</ref> Many early [[sound film|talkies]], such as ''[[The Jazz Singer]]'' (1927), used the Vitaphone system. The name "Vitaphone" derived from the Latin and Greek words, respectively, for "living" and "sound".

The "Vitaphone" trademark was later associated with cartoons and other short subjects that had [[sound-on-film|optical soundtracks]] and did not use discs.