Video CD (aka VCD, View CD, Compact Disc digital video) is a standard digital format for storing video on a Compact Disc. VCDs are playable in dedicated VCD players, most modern DVD-Video players, personal computers, and some video game consoles.

The VCD standard was created in 1993 by Sony, Philips, Matsushita, and JVC and is referred to as the White Book standard.

Technical specifications

Video

Codec: MPEG-1

Resolution:

NTSC: 352x240

PAL/SECAM: 352x288

Aspect Ratio:

NTSC: 107:80 (0.3% difference from 4:3)

PAL/SECAM: 4:3

Framerate:

NTSC: 29.97 or 23.976 frames per second

PAL/SECAM: 25 frames per second

Bitrate: 1,150 kilobits per second

Rate Control: constant bitrate

Overall picture quality is intended to be comparable to VHS video. Poorly compressed VCD video can sometimes be lower quality than VHS video, but VCD exhibits block artifacts instead of analog noise, and does not deteriorate further with each use, which may be preferable.

352x240 (or SIF) resolution was chosen because it is half the vertical, and half the horizontal resolution of NTSC video. 352x288 (added shortly later) is similarly one quarter PAL/SECAM resolution. This approximates the (overall) resolution of an analog VHS tape, which, although it has double the number of (vertical) scan lines, has a much lower horizontal resolution.

VCD video is mostly compatible with the DVD-Video standard, except for any video encoded at 23.976 frames per second. The DVD-Video standard requires video to be encoded at either 25 or 29.97 frames per second.

Audio

Codec: MPEG-1 Audio Layer II

Frequency: 44,100 hertz (44.1 kHz)

Output: Dual channel or stereo

Bitrate: 224 kilobits per second

Rate Control: Constant bitrate

As with most CD-based formats, VCD audio is incompatible with the DVD-Video standard due to a difference in frequency; DVDs require 48 kHz, whereas VCDs use 44.1 kHz.

Other information

Video CDs are authored (or "burned") using the Mode 2/XA format, allowing roughly 800 megabytes of VCD data to be stored on one 80 minute CD (versus 700 megabytes when using Mode 1). This, combined with the net bitrate of VCD video and audio, means that almost exactly 80 minutes of VCD content can be stored on an 80 minute CD, 74 minutes of VCD content on a 74 minute CD, and so on. This was done in part to ensure compatibility with existing CD drive technology, specifically the earliest "1 x speed" CD drives.

Similar formats

XVCD

XVCD (eXtended Video CD) is the name typically given to just about any format that stores MPEG-1 video on a compact disc in Mode 2/XA, at VCD resolution, but does not strictly follow the VCD standard.

A normal VCD is encoded to MPEG-1 at a constant bit rate (CBR), so all scenes are required to use exactly the same data rate, regardless of the complexity of the video scene. However, video on an XVCD is typically encoded at a variable bit rate (VBR), so complex scenes can use a much higher data rate for a short time, while simpler scenes will use lower data rates.

To further reduce the data rate without significantly reducing quality, the size of the GOP (Group Of Pictures) can be increased, a different MPEG-1 quantization matrix can be used, and the bit rate of the MP2 audio can be reduced. These changes can be advantageous for those who want to either maximize video quality, or use fewer discs.

KVCD

There are further variants of XVCD (such as KVCD) that use larger resolutions than 352 x 288, but are essentially only playable by a very small number of DVD players, and computers with CD-ROM drives.

DVCD

DVCD or Double VCD is a process to accommodate longer videos on a CD. A non-standard CD is overburned to include up to 100 minutes of video. However, some CD-ROM drives and players have problems reading these CDs, mostly because the groove spacing is outside specifications and the player's laser servo is unable to track it.

Adoption

While never gaining a foothold in the United States commercial VCDs are common in Europe, and extremely popular throughout Asia (except Japan), with 8 million VCD players sold in China in 1997 alone, and more than half of all Chinese households owning at least one VCD player by 2005.

This popularity is, in part, because most households did not already own VHS players when VCDs were introduced, the low price of the players, their tolerance of high humidity (a notable problem for VCRs), and the lower-cost media. Ease of duplication and the negligible cost of the media gave rise to widespread unauthorized copying in these areas.

The advent of recordable CDs, inexpensive recorders, and compatible DVD players spurred VCD acceptance in the US in the late 1990s and early 2000s. However, DVD burners and DVD-Video recorders were available by that time, and equipment and media costs for making DVD-Video fell rapidly. DVD-Video, with its longer run time and much higher quality, quickly overshadowed VCD. In addition many DVD players made before 2003-2004 could not read recordable (CD-R) media, and this limited the compatibility of VCD. Almost every modern stand-alone DVD-Video player can play VideoCDs burned on recordable media.

Many commercial Video CDs of blockbuster Hollywood, Bollywood, Manilawood and other Asian movies and television series are not widely available in the Western countries; however, they are available in certain ethnic communities and several commercial web sites (although quality and authenticity may sometimes be questionable). These VCDs are often produced and sold in Asian countries such as Pakistan, Hong Kong, India, Mainland China, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. In many Asian countries, major Hollywood studios (and Asian home video distributors) have licensed companies to officially produce and distribute the VCDs, such as MCA Home Video in Pakistan, ERA of Hong Kong or Sunny Video in Malaysia, Vision in Indonesia, Excel Home Videos in India, Berjaya-HVN and InnoForm Media in both Malaysia and Singapore, as well as VIVA Video, Magnavision, and The Video to C in the Philippines. Legal Video CDs can often be found in established video stores and major book outlets in most Asian countries.

Around 2003–2006, VCDs were given away by Greek newspapers to boost declining sales . Because of this, documentaries, films and even soft porn VCDs became very common in Greece .

VCDs became popular in Latin America around 2002-2004, as they were cheaper and easier to copy than DVDs, although they're now slowly being replaced as DVDs prices drop.

Due to comparatively small storage capacity, feature-length films sold on VCD are typically divided into two or three discs and television series may come in a boxed set package with multiple discs. In both cases, most films run at roughly 60 minutes per VCD, before viewers are prompted to change discs. However, there are also VCD players that have built-in CD changers which provide a queue of several discs. Subtitles are found on many Asian VCDs, and unlike DVDs, can't be removed.

In most areas, VCD is declining, as it is being supplanted by DVD, which offers most of the same advantages, as well as a much better quality picture (higher resolution with less digital compression artifacts) due to its larger storage capacity and 6-speaker surround sound (often in Dolby Digital and/or DTS). However, VCD has simultaneously seen significant new growth in developing economies like India and Brazil, as a low-cost alternative to DVD.

VCD does have a few advantages over DVD-Video:

Like VHS, the VCD format has no region coding. Many VCD players can compensate for the differing frame rate and pixel count between NTSC and PAL/SECAM TV systems, so discs can be played on any compatible machine worldwide.

Some titles available on VCD may not be available on DVD and/or VHS in the prospective buyer's region.

VCD is also a very popular format for karaoke in East Asia, where picture quality is not a paramount concern.