Anybody ever bought a VCD?
 

Since all our players can play them I was wondering why I never see them here. Is the quality any good?

The quality is good and perhaps a tad better than VHS.
I almost bought the Back to the Future VCD set before the DVD set was annnounced.

And of course the Original Star Wars Trilogy is available as a VCD set.

I'm pretty sure it's the SEs only, and they're pan and scan, so be warned.

I got a couple in a trade. I was underwhelmed. I would not say the quality was better than VHS, about the same.

The one I received were freebies, and I didn't realise they were VCDs when I popped them in. I was shocked at how bad the picture was. I won't be getting any more.

-Videophile

I don't have them but have seen them at some mall chain in Danbury. I'm waiting for their eventual arrival on DVD.

I have purchased VCD set's of certain cartoons (Batman: The Animated series & Spiderman). The quality varies, some is better than VHS and some is worse, so be warned.

With that said - I'll rebuy and am in the process of rebuying those series on DVD. Namely the Batman:TAS DVD's.

I have a lot of vcd's which I bough in San Francisco Chinatown and there's a lot of them there. Usually you can get them @ 3 for $10, mostly asian movies.

Quality wise, they fare no better than a quality vhs tape. Especially during fast action scenes, the images tend to blur together.

I would stay far away from them unless these movies are not on DVD and you don't want that hulking vhs tape.

This isn't VCD Talk, girls and boys! This is DVD Talk!! So death to VCD and VHS! And, um, Laserdisc too! Or something. ;)

I have never even seen a VCD, though I have heard of 'em. It's still kinda cool that my DVD player can play them. The damn thing can't even play burned CDs. Time for new one... soon enough...

K

I've gotten a few Asian VCDs of some music videos that are unattainable in Region 1 DVDs. For me, they're a tad better than VHS, if only for their durability. Fast motion pictures tend to blur (not too important in a concert video), and there is quite noticeable pixellization in certain darker shades. I find the overall picture a tad sharper than VHS is capable of, and as I said, there's no wear and tear. The pan-and-scan nature of movies would be a turn-off for me, no matter what the title.

Still, give me a DVD anyday!

Harry

I have Paul McCartney Unplugged on VCD. The quality is crap and I would gladly replace it if the DVD was ever released.

I have the Dexter's Laboratory movie Ego Trip on vcd since Warner Brother didn't see fit to release this on DVD, I wonder about them sometimes. The quality is like a vhs tape and I'm still hoping to see a DVD release. It boggles the mind that a studio that produces such great cartoons, just sits on them and not put out dvd sets.

SVCD's can be very, very comparable if authored right. It just depends on what type of master you're using to make a video cd, super video cd's are better though, they can hold up to two audio tracks. and if you are wanting to copy a dvd and dont want to bother with a dvd burner, you can encode it to svcd, and get just about the same quality. If i were to do a prestine close up of a dvd, and an svcd copy, i think that you might only loose about 10 percent quality. It also depends on what type of encoder you use to make the mpeg-2 file. Like i said, it all depends on who's making it.

I have quite a few VCDs. As others have said, the quality is on par and perhaps slightly better than VHS. The nice thing about VCDs is that they can play on standalone DVD players and any Windows-based PC with a simple CD-ROM drive.

Not to mention that they can be played numerous times and never wear out.

I bought one VCD on an anime title. It wouldn't run on my DVD player even though my DVD player claim to be able to run VCD discs. So I never buy any VCD after that.

I bought the Star Wars trilogy, special edition on them. Accidentally got Pan and scan though, and haven't watched but 15 minutes of episode 4. I guess I didn't wanna see them again as much as I thought hehe.

Do any actual stores carry VCDs?

i've had lion king and aladdin on vcd for a few years now. not very impressive. pixelriffic bordering on unwatchable when something is moving onscreen. plus they are pan and scan and they sound awful.

I have 4 vcds & the quality is as good a VHS. They are easier to store than a VHS tape & like DVDs will never wear out.
these are the ones I have
Baywatch: 2 TV Movies (Bouncey Bouncey :D )
Bambi (it's on 1 VCD)
Jaws 5: Cruel Jaws (the WORST transfer i've ever seen & the audio doesn't sync-up the lips)

The only ones I have are ones that were included as 'bonus disks' with CDs. Quality was pretty dire to say the least - but then I can't even tolerate VHS anymore.

AVCDs are pretty cool though :)

Here in NYC, there are several stores in Chinatown that have a large selection of VCDs at very cheap prices -as low as $2-3 each for some of them.

As mentioned, quality varies. Some are downright bad, others are amazingly good. You mainly find VCD's in asian countries. VHS didn't catch on there as it did in the US, instead they've had VCD's for years.

Some of you may remember something called Philips CDi from about 8 years ago. There were lots of infomercials on it, and it was being heralded as the entertainment of the future. That was basically a VCD player.

If you haven't seen more than a small handful of *professionaly created* VCD's, don't knock them. A good VCD can be pretty good.

I've never bought one, but last year I watched a friends VCD of Battle Royale. The quality was better than I expected. Not great, but watchable. At least I was able to enjoy the movie enough to get the DVD, so that's one advantage of VCDs.

VCDs were very big in Hong Kong (and I believe mainland China) before DVD, although the format never really caught on here. I remember visiting Hong Kong at the beginning of 1997, just before DVDs were introduced, and seeing prerecorded VCDs everywhere. Major chains like HMV or Tower had tons of them, including Hollywood films. You could also buy standalone players, (if you didn't want to play them on a computer) that I saw for the equivalent of around $150-200 US. The quality of the VCDs really varied, depending on how well they were mastered. I've seen some look anywhere from near unwatchable to slightly better than VHS. At any rate , they sold very well in HK, they were the cheapest format, cheaper than VHS and much cheaper than laserdisc (a format that was popular in HK but unlike the US market, was aimed at the rental market with higher prices for the most part). Bootleg VCDs were, of course, common back then as well.

YMMV, but in my experience, they work good for cartoon type stuff, and are VHS quality type for all else...

(SVCD is a whole different story)

Star Wars 1, 3, 4 and 5 (maybe #2 now too) were actually licensed for release on VCD in Malaysia and Singapore, I suppose to try & cut down on bootleg sales. I bought them all at the time, and I was grossly disappointed.

I also bought all 3 Indiana Jones movies on VCD somewhere a long time ago, don't even remember where.

I have to say that, in my humble opinion, the quality is not even as good as VHS - pixellation abounds!!

I personally will NEVER buy another VCD, heck, I probably wouldn't take one if they were giving them away, unless it was some excellent free porn!

I have a handful of VCD's and the quality is actually pretty good. Someone bought me Buffy's "Once More With Feeling" which I'll happily part with in July when S6 is released. I also have VCD's of the Original Star Wars trilogy (not the SE & in the OAR) which I will also part with if Lucas ever decides to release them on DVD.

Since I lived in Asia, VCD is more popular than DVD. Before I buy DVD-ROM, I always watch VCD. Got tens of them. Including the original Star Wars Trilogy VCD. Needless to say, it's pan & scan.

People who are reporting poor video quality of professionally authored VCDs probably have DVD players that are not "tuned" for VCD playback. Cheapo APEX DVD Players advertised VCD playback, but the circuitry and firmware were not tuned for it.

When I was shopping for a DVD player, I wanted one that would offer high-quality VCD playback. My Pioneer DV-434 has dual laser pickups and tuned for VCD, SVCD, and DVD playback.

A side-by-side comparison between the Pioneer and Apex was quite telling. The Apex exhibited compression artifacts which degraded into a pixelated mosaic during high-motion scenes, whereas the Pioneer didn't display any artifacts at all.

I have lots of VCDs, mostly of Asian movies that I picked up in Chinatown. The quality varies widely, from practically unwatchable to to near DVD quality. Basically, what you're going to end up, quality wise, is a roll of the dice. On the plus side, they're a cheap and easy way to check out potential blind buys. By the way, most of the VCDs I own are letterboxed. It seems to be mostly just the western films that get the full frame treatment.

I have burned VCDs from tv shows I've recorded on my ReplayTV and my PC. It's very handy when a friend missed a show to be able to toss it on a cheap cd-r and know they most likely can watch it on their DVD player. I would never buy one

I'd agree with that. I picked up 5 a few weeks ago. Two were films not even available on VHS. The other three were of WS films not on DVD yet. Unfortunately the VCDs turned out to be P&S. I tossed them in the garbage.

I have a Terapin home VCD recorder and put many tv shows on VCD also-no worry about fast forwarding or rewinding a tape.

Re: Anybody ever bought a VCD?
 

I confess I didn't buy any singularly, but they came with my Sony DVD changers (except 875P) to change the jacket pictures.

I have 150+ VCDs, compared to 6 DVDs.

What the hell was I thinking when buying those famously known as low-quality things? Because in here, compared to DVDs, VCDs are a lot cheaper, easier to find with more variety of collections. And I've been buying VCDs since far before the local stores and rentals put DVDs on their stock list.

VCDs are still very popular in my country. People are looking for the movie and its story alone, at the minimum cost. But true, some of the people I know have decided not to touch anymore VCDs once they got hooked by DVDs. Censorship and the sound/picture clarity are the most critical issue for them (Pan & Scan doesn't really matter).

For me, as long as it is original, for the meantime I still in favour for VCDs. It's not that bad for me cause I'm already used to it and I enjoy watching it. Though all the quality and bonus of DVDs will be an advantage, I'd still be very selective in spending my limited account on it.






I'm in DVDTalk Forum .. what am I doing here? :o

Back in 1999, i bought 12 Monkeys VCD when i was in the Philippines. I played it on my PC and i initially wasn't very impressed - at the start of the movie there's a quote in small print which is difficult to make out with the mpeg compression. Once the movie got going it was nice and clear, the biggest difference from VHS is the crystal clear sound.

I have only a few VCDs that I purchased because the movies were not on DVD (Star Wars, Crying Freeman). I now have Crying Freeman on DVD and am still waiting for Star Wars. I have several MovieCDs which used to be sold in CompUSA and they were very close to VCDs.

I have a few of them. they are not bad,better then vhs is,and wont wear out. I use them as alternative if a film or music videos is not available on dvd, in which i wont buy on vhs, because after so many viewings it starts to degrade.

There's Star Wars VCDs in OAR?? Are these the ones with burnt in Asian subs?

Erm...VHS can have great stereo sound.

Yes. Although VHS has a great HiFi stereo track (in the helical scan area of the tape) the VCD audio spec is superior. Whether or not the actual material takes advantage of it is another issue.