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Anyone have VCDs?

B

borisvodofsky

Diamond Member
I was just forced to watch an asian (- ,-) drama. It was the DVD version.

At the 28th episode, I realized I've seen this entire series before. When I go home, I checked and found the box of VCDs..

Popped in the disks, WOW the quality is SO bad,, I must've imagined most of the scenes with my mindd.:awe:
 
Yep, just a really low bit rate .mpg file renamed to a .dat file inside a folder. No encryption so very easy to copy.
 
I played around with these when I first got a CD burner but I never got them to play properly. It's just like watching an iPod resolution video on a TV.
 
Popular for the 3rd world and low budget foreign film distribution. My parents have bunch of South Indian ones in cheap packaging.

Only time I've used VCDs myself was back before DVD burners were cheap, and I wanted to watch a bunch of (downloaded) movies at a friend's house. Lol, I remember later on downloading a SVCD rip of Shrek and absolutely being amazed at the quality. SVCD is higher resolution I think, though.
 
SVCD uses MPEG2 at 2600kbps and has a resolution of 480x480.
VCD uses MPEG1 at 1440kbps and has a resolution of 352x240

Both offer similar quality and res as an iPod or PSP video.

Another but lesser known format to SVCD was mini-DVD. I used these too at one point. It's basically a CD authored with a DVD file structure. It offers the same quality as DVD. It can hold roughly 15 to 20 minutes of video at 720x480.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SVCD
 
NutBucket said:
Its just a VHS on CD...basically. Really big in China since they are so easy to copy.
Click to expand...

yup no standards for piracy.
svcd was over compressed garbage as well. its claimed resolution was 480x480 or whatever, but considering the macroblock hell the reality was far lower.

luckily it didn't catch on here.
 
mmntech said:
SVCD uses MPEG2 at 2600kbps and has a resolution of 480x480.
VCD uses MPEG1 at 1440kbps and has a resolution of 352x240

Both offer similar quality and res as an iPod or PSP video.

Another but lesser known format to SVCD was mini-DVD. I used these too at one point. It's basically a CD authored with a DVD file structure. It offers the same quality as DVD. It can hold roughly 15 to 20 minutes of video at 720x480.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SVCD
Click to expand...
LOL so you have to change discs ever 15-20 minutes? I think I'd rather live with the crappy quaility if a CD was my only option.
 
simonizor said:
LOL so you have to change discs ever 15-20 minutes? I think I'd rather live with the crappy quaility if a CD was my only option.
Click to expand...

Oh it gets better. For another obscure video format, check out LaserDisc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laserdisc

Basically, they were the granddaddy of DVD. They had a slightly lower resolution that DVD. 560x480, but this was still almost double that of VHS. It used analogue video and digital audio. Some of the first to incorporate Dolby Digital and DTS for home use. The discs themselves were massive, about the size of a long playing vinyl record, about 12'' in diameter. Depending on the recording/playback technology used, they could store 30-60 minutes of video per side. You would have to keep flipping and swapping these giant discs to watch a movie.

My junior high school actually had one of these. A few educational videos were released for it.
 
ah lazerdiscs. Quite a few educational films were released on it. if i remember right it was a format war type thing between VHS and betamax (if i remember right)

As for VCD's back in the day they werent bad, predvd and all. but now a days they arent worth it IMO
 
hah omg
792px-CRVDisc.jpg
 
I've got a couple more obscure formats for you guys. Anyone ever heard of CED? Capacitance Electronic Disc. Basically, video stored on vinyl records, played back with a needled. It rides in the grove but instead of vibrating like a gramophone record, it picks up an electric charge via capacitance. RCA originally developed the concept trying to increase playback times for music. That never came about so they eventually adapted the format for video after nearly two decades of development.

CED was released in 1981 as a cheap alternative to VHS, Beta, and LaserDisc. It went under the names SelectraVision and Video Disc.

CEDs were the same size as a LaserDisc, 12'', and had the same playback time of 60min. They were vary sensitive. Error correction for the format was impossible. Any fingerprint on the disc would severely degrade the playback quality at that spot. Therefore, the discs were kept in huge protective caddies much like early CD-ROMs and LaserDiscs were.

Video quality was comparable to VHS and Beta. CED has some advantages over these formats though. Namely, it was one of the first formats to include chapters. It could seek much faster (since there was no tape to spool), and didn't need to be rewound.

However, CED has numerous disadvantages that killed the format. The big problem was shelf life. The discs wear out quickly because the stylus makes physical contact with the disc. RCA estimated that the format was limited to 500 plays under optimum conditions before it wore out. Video quality would degrade significantly before then. Discs would occasionally skip as they wore just like a damaged LP. Compare this to LaserDisc, which didn't wear out barring laser rot, or VHS which wore much more slowly. CEDs also needed to be turned over, and required multiple discs for long movies. VHS can store up to 3.5hr on a single tape.

CED players were discontinued in 1984 and videos in 1986.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitance_Electronic_Disc

Here's a little video of a CED player in action.
http://www.cinemassacre.com/2010/02/27/ced-player/
 
Next obscure format... D-VHS. The precursor to Blu-ray and HD-DVD. It was one of the first digital high definition formats available for home users.

The format was originally targeted for broadcast and for home recording of HDTV shows. The format itself is comparable to Blu-Ray. It ran at the same bit rate and supported resolutions up to 1920x1080i. Like Blu-ray, the tapes could store up to 50gb of data. This translated to a maximum runtime of 4h for HD content and 24h for SD content. Audio was DVD quality in either Dolby Digital or DTS. The format was introduced in 1998. Besides offering the same quality as Blu-ray, it was still subject to the same limitations as other tape based media. No chapters, no fast seek, and real-time dubbing.

A line of movies under the D-Theater brand was released. The format was supported by FOX, Artisan, DreamWorks, and Universal. Commercial movies were produced up to 2004, with iRobot being the last movie available.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-VHS

The granddaddy of D-VHS and high def was W-VHS, an analogue HD format. It recorded video at 1035i or 480i. The formate is rare. AFAIK, no commercial films were released for it. W-VHS was launched in 1994 and was only available in Japan.
 
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