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 |
Downloadable VCD and SVCD samples
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.
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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 kbps 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 |
HDDVD HDTV (WMVHD) |
AVI DivX XviD WMV |
MOV Quick- Time |
RM Real- Media |
AVI DV |
| Resolution NTSC/PAL |
352x240 352x288 |
480x480 480x576 |
720x480² 720x576² |
1920x1080² 1280x720² |
640x480² | 640x480² | 320x240² | 720x480 720x576 |
| Video Compression |
MPEG1 |
MPEG2 |
MPEG2,
MPEG1 |
MPEG2 (WMV- MPEG4) |
MPEG4 |
Sorenson,
Cinepak, MPEG4 ... |
RM |
DV |
| Video bitrate |
1150kbps |
~2000kbps |
~5000kbps |
~20Mbps (~8Mbps) |
~1000kbps |
~1000kbps |
~350kbps |
25Mbps |
| Audio Compression |
MP1 |
MP1 |
MP1, MP2, AC3, DTS, PCM | MP1, MP2, AC3, DTS, PCM | MP3, WMA, OGG, AAC, AC3 | QDesign Music, MP3 ... | RM | DV |
| Audio bitrate |
224kbps |
~224kbps |
~448kbps |
~448kbps |
~128kbps |
~128kbps |
~64kbps |
~1500kbps |
| Size/min |
10 MB/min |
10-20 MB/min |
30-70 MB/min |
~150MB/min (~60MB/min) |
4-10 MB/min |
4-20 MB/min |
2-5 MB/min |
216MB/min |
| Min/74min
CD |
74min |
35-60min |
10-20min | ~4min (~10min) |
60-180min | 30-180 min |
120-300 min |
3min |
| Hours/DVD |
N/A |
N/A |
1-2hrs (2-5hrsª) |
~30min (~1hrs) |
7-18hrs | 3-18hrs | 14-35hrs | 20min |
Hours/ DualLayerDVD |
N/A |
N/A |
2-4hrs (5-9hrsª) |
~55min (~2hrs) |
13-30hrs | 6-30hrs | 25-65hrs | 37min |
| DVD Player
Compatibility |
Great | Good | Excellent | None | Few | None | None | None |
| Computer
CPU Usage |
Low | High | Very High | Super high | Very High | High | Low | High |
| Quality |
Good | Great* | Excellent* | Superb* | Great* | Great* | Decent* | Excellent |
Mbps = million bits per second
² approximately resolution, it can be higher or lower
~ approximately bitrate, it can be higher or lower
ª DVD with lower video quality, similiar to VCD/SVCD video quality
* 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
| More Info |
DVD to VCD guide
How to capture to VCD guides
How to convert AVI/DivX/ASF/MOV/MPG to VCD