What is VCD?

Download VCD Sample
Technical Info
VCD File/Folder structure
Video file comparison
More info

VCD stands for 'Video Compact Disc' and basically it is a CD that contains moving pictures and sound. If you're familiar with regular audio/music CDs, then you will know what a VCD looks like. A VCD has the capacity to hold up to 74/80 minutes on 650MB/700MB CDs respectively of full-motion video along with quality stereo sound. VCDs use a compression standard called MPEG to store the video and audio. A VCD can be played on almost all standalone DVD Players and of course on all computers with a DVD-ROM or CD-ROM drive with the help of a software based decoder / player. It is also possible to use menus and chapters, similiar to DVDs, on a VCD and also simple photo album/slide shows with background audio. The quality of a very good VCD is about the same as a VHS tape based movie but VCD is usually a bit more blurry. If you want better quality checkout SVCD,CVD or DVD. A VCD can be played on

- Standalone VCD Players(very common in ASiA), check here for a compatibility list.
- Almost all standalone DVD Players, check here for compability list
- Playstations with VCD-addon (Playstation 2 does NOT support VCDs, read our DVD Players list for more info)
- Sega Saturn with VCD-addon
- Dreamcast with VCD-addon
- And of course on all computers with a CD-ROMs/DVD-ROMs with a software VCD/MPG Player.

What is XVCD then?
Read here on the XVCD Page.

VCD Sample

Download VCD Samples from Lab DV here

Technical Info for VCD

This describes VCD 2.0 that all DVD Players with VCD support should support and most VCD authoring/burning application makes VCD 2.0 today. But what about VCD 1.1? Read below here.

PAL

Video:
1150 kbit/sec MPEG-1
352 x 288 pixels
25 frames/second

Audio:
44100 Hz
224 kbit/sec MPEG-1 Layer2

Extra:
Menus and chapters
Still pictures in 704x576,352x288

(real size sample)

NTSC/NTSC Film

Video:
1150 kbit/sec MPEG-1
352 x 240 pixels
29,97 frames/second
23,976 frames/second NTSC Film

Audio:
44100 Hz
224 kbit/sec MPEG-1 Layer2

Extra:
Menus and chapters
Still pictures in 704x480,352x240

(real size sample)

and even more technical details about VCD 1.1 and VCD 2.0:

Video CD 1.1
This is the most basic Video CD specification dating back to 1993 4 , which has the followingcharacteristics:
' One mode 2 mixed form ISO-9660 track containing file pointers to the information areas.
' Up to 98 multiplex-ed mpeg-1 audio/video streams or cd-da audio tracks.
' Up to 500 mpeg sequence entry points used as chapter divisions.
The Video CD specification requires the multiplex-ed mpeg-1 stream to have a cbr of less than 174300 bytes (1394400 bits) per second 5 in order to accommodate single speed cd-rom drives. The specification allows for the following two resolutions 6 :
' 352 x 240 @ 29.97 Hz (ntsc sif).
' 352 x 240 @ 23.976 Hz (film sif).
The cbr mpeg-1, layer II audio stream is fixed at 224 Kbit/s with 1 stereo or 2 mono channels.It is recommended to keep the video bit-rate under 1151929.1 bps 7.

Video CD 2.0
About two years after the Video CD 1.1 specification came out, an improved Video CD 2.0 standard was published in 1995. This one added the following items to the features already available in the Video CD 1.1 specification:
' Support for mpeg segment play items (SPI ), consisting of still pictures, motion pictures and/or audio (only) streams was added. See Section 1.6.2 [Segment Items], page 9.
' Support for interactive playback control (PBC) was added.
' Support for playing related access by providing a scan point index file was added.('/EXT/SCANDATA.DAT&')
' Support for closed captions.
' Support for mixing ntsc and pal content.
By adding PAL support to the Video CD 1.1 specification, the following resolutions became
available:
' 352 x 240 @ 29.97 Hz (ntsc sif).
' 352 x 240 @ 23.976 Hz (film sif).
' 352 x 288 @ 25 Hz (pal sif).
For segment play items the following audio encodings became available:
' Joint stereo, stereo or dual channel audio streams at 128, 192, 224 or 384 kbit/sec bit-rate.
' Mono audio streams at 64, 96 or 192 kbit/sec bit-rate.

info from vcdimager manual that you can download here.

VCD File/Folder Structure

Folder	Files	Explanation
VCD	INFO.VCD	Album and disc identification
	ENTRIES.VCD	Entry point list for up to 500 entries
	PSD.VCD	Optional Play Sequence Descriptor
	LOT.VCD	Optional List ID Offset file
MPEGAV	AVSEQnn.DAT	MPEG files, max 99 tracks, the main movie, trailers, extras, menus...
CDDA	AUDIOnn.DAT	Optional CD Audio files
SEGMENT	ITEMnnn.DAT	Segment play items, max 999 segments, still pictures or still menus
KARAOKE	KARINFO.xxx	Optional Karaoke information files
EXT	PSD_X.VCD	Optional extended version of PSD,VCD
	LOT_X.VCD	Optional extended version of LOT.VCD
	SCANDATA.DAT	Optional list of I-frame addresses
	CAPTnn.DAT	Optional Closed Caption data
CDI	(undefined)	CD-i program and data files

Video File Comparison

Format	VCD	SVCD	DVD	Blu-ray	MKV HD MP4 HD H264 HD WMV HD	AVI DivX XviD WMV	MOV QuickTime	FLV MP4	AVI DV
Resolution NTSC/PAL	352x240 352x288	480x480 480x576	720x480² 720x576²	1920x1080 1280x720	1920x1080² 1280x720²	640x480²	640x480²	640x480²	720x480 720x576
Video Compression	MPEG1	MPEG2	MPEG2, MPEG1	H264 VC1 MPEG2	H264 VC1	DivX, Xvid, MPEG4 ASP, WMV	H264	H264, FLV, VP6, VP7, VP8	DV
Video bitrate	1150 Kbit/s	~2000 Kbit/s	~7000 Kbit/s	~30Mbit/s	~10Mbit/s	~1000 Kbit/s	~1000 Kbit/s	~700 Kbit/s	25Mbit/s
Audio Compression	MP1	MP1	MP1, MP2, AC3, DTS, PCM	DTS-HD, EAC3, TrueHD, AC3, DTS, PCM	AAC, AC3, DTS, WMA	MP3, WMA, OGG, AAC, AC3	MP3, AAC	MP3, AAC	DV
Audio bitrate	224 Kbit/s	~224 Kbit/s	~448 Kbit/s	~448 Kbit/s	~448 Kbit/s	~128 Kbit/s	~128 Kbit/s	~64 Kbit/s	~1500 Kbit/s
Size/min	10 MB/min	10-20 MB/min	30-70 MB/min	50-150MB/min	50MB/min	4-10 MB/min	4-10 MB/min	4-10 MB/min	216MB/min
Min/74min CD	74min	35-60min	10-20min	4min-10min	10min	60-180min	60-180min	60-180min	3min
Hours/DVD	N/A	N/A	1-2hrs	30min-1hrs	1hrs	7-18hrs	7-18hrs	7-18hrs	20min
Hours/ DualLayerDVD	N/A	N/A	2-4hrs	60min-2hrs	2hrs	13-30hrs	13-30hrs	13-30hrs	37min
Hours/ Blu-ray 25GB	N/A	N/A	8-16hrs	2-4hours	6hours	40-100hrs	40-100hrs	40-100hrs	110min
DVD Player Compatibility	Great	Good	Excellent	None	None	Good	None	None	None
Computer CPU Usage	Low	Low	Low	Very high	Very high	Low	Low	Low	Low
Quality	Bad	Good*	Great*	Superb*	Excellent*	Great*	Great*	Great*	Good

Kbit/s = thousand bits per second
Mbit/s = million bits per second
² approximately resolution, it can be higher or lower
~ approximately bitrate, it can be higher or lower
* the video quality depends on the bitrate and the video resolution, higher bitrate and higher resolution generally means better video quality but bigger file size