What is VCD?

VCD stands for 'Video Compact Disc', which usually contains moving pictures and sounds. It looks like the regular audio/music CDs. A VCD has the capacity to hold full-motion videos and stereo sound lasting 74/80 minutes on 650MB/700MB CDs respectively.
Adopting MPEG1 compression standard to store A/V data, a VCD can be played on almost any standalone DVD Player including computers with a DVD-ROM or CD-ROM drive with the help of software based decoder / player. Menus, chapter selection as well as simple photo album/slide shows with background audio are all available on a VCD, similar to DVDs. Some good VCDs can have the same A/V effect as a VHS tape based movie, though ordinary VCDs are usually a little blurry. If you want better quality, please see also SVCD, CVD or DVD.

What Player should I use to play VCD?

- Standalone VCD Players (very common in ASiA),
- Most standalone DVD Players,
- Play stations with VCD-add-on (Play station 2 does NOT support VCDs,)

- Sega Saturn with VCD-addon
- Dreamcast with VCD-addon
- Computers with CD - ROMs/DVD-ROMs with software VCD/MPG Player.

What is SVCD?

SVCD stands for "Super Video Compact Disk". Similar to a VCD, a SVCD has the capacity to hold full-motion video, 2 stereo audio tracks and 4 selectable subtitles with very good qualities lasting 35-60 minutes on 74/80 min CDs respectively. A SVCD can be played on most standalone DVD Players as well as computers with a DVD-ROM or CD-ROM drive with the help of a software based decoder / player. Menus, chapter selection as well as simple photo album/slide shows with background audio are all available on a SVCD. Because of the higher resolution, the quality of a SVCD is much better than a VCD. But the quality depends on the length of a CD; fewer data generally means higher quality.

What Player should I use to play SVCD?

- Most standalone DVD Players. Check here for compatibility list
- Any CD-ROMs/DVD-ROMs with software
- DVD/SVCD Players

What is the difference between VCD and SVCD?

The list shows some different parameter between VCD and SVCD.