Can you tell me what company invented the DVD player?
user
The answer to that question, in terms of the DVD player itself, is Sony.  
But that’s not an answer to what you’re really asking: The company who first developed the technology for storing a digital video stream on a disc. I can’t tell you that. But it’s related to the development of hard-drives and semiconductor technology in the 1980s and early 1990s. You might also try asking “What company invented the CD player?”
assistant
What year did Sony release the DVD player?
user
Sony first sold its DVD players in 1997.  
There was a major speed bump for DVD technology in the late 1990s and early 2000s, however, because DVD players would have to come in a special 4-disc format, because the DVD-ROM disc was an MPEG-2 format, and there weren’t enough suppliers of MPEG-2 encoders at that point in time. So, the DVD player only really became mainstream after that.
assistant
What did the price start at for the DVD players?
user
The basic DVD player, or “DVD standard unit” as they’re called, was initially sold in 1997 for about $400.  A couple of years later in 1999, Sony began selling their “Home theater” models, which allowed up to eight players to be connected together in a “player stack.”
assistant
Can you tell me what company invented the DVD player?
user
The answer to that question, in terms of the DVD player itself, is Sony.  
But that’s not an answer to what you’re really asking: The company who first developed the technology for storing a digital video stream on a disc. I can’t tell you that. But it’s related to the development of hard-drives and semiconductor technology in the 1980s and early 1990s. You might also try asking “What company invented the CD player?”
assistant
What year did Sony release the DVD player?
user
Sony first sold its DVD players in 1997.  
There was a major speed bump for DVD technology in the late 1990s and early 2000s, however, because DVD players would have to come in a special 4-disc format, because the DVD-ROM disc was an MPEG-2 format, and there weren’t enough suppliers of MPEG-2 encoders at that point in time. So, the DVD player only really became mainstream after that.
assistant
What did the price start at for the DVD players?
user
You can google that.  It started at a reasonable $300.  They were slightly more expensive than the CD player at that point in time.  $299 for Sony, and I believe $399 for Panasonic.  The sales pitch at the time was that it was such a huge jump in technology that it was worth the price.  
After the price drop in around 1999, they were a huge hit.  A big factor in that was the advent of the DVD movie format.  So you could rent movies with your DVD player, which was much more convenient than buying VHS tapes.
assistant
Can you tell me what company invented the DVD player?