Long-term video storage in VCD?

[pizzamandk]

I have some family footage which I want to store for at least 10 years from now. After reading reading and more reading I see now 2 solutions: VCD (cheap) or DVD (expensive). Could someone enlighten me regarding the future of VCD? I know it's within the DVD standards, so it's future should be secured, or...? My priority is budget over quality, btw.

Thanks.

[Fifou]

the cheapest trick is to do some VCDs or SVCDs

*you don't need to buy a DVD recorder
*you don't need to buy (for the moment) expensive DVDr

VCD are well compatible with lots of Standalone DVD players
SVCD are best quality but less compatible (but works great on every PC)
DVD-R are for the moment as much compatible as SVCD on standalone DVD players
And don't listen to the manufacturers ! Do your own tests in stores with your own CDR (and DVDR if you choose so) and take a look at the DVD players compatibility list...

[BKL]

How long are the videos you want to keep? Depending on the length, you might want to consider mini-DVD using DVD quality on a CD. Not always compatible, but provides max image quality at lowest media/burner cost. Being digital, you can always make copies every few years which should protect against media degradation while providing max image quality should you ever decide to upgrade to DVD format.

[sterno]

VCD does have a limited future, especially since recordable DVD is gradually becoming cheaper. But you can probably expect VCD to be supported for quite a while yet. As I recall VCD format is also very close to one of the valid DVD formats (you need to change the audio, but the video can be used as-is), so it's not a huge deal to eventually transfer to DVD.

If you decide to use VCD for long-term video archiving you'll probably want to buy the expensive CD-Rs, like Verbatim Datalife Plus, Mitsui Gold, or Kodak Ultima. The cheaper discs may play fine, but they're much more likely to fail over time from the dye breaking down or the reflective layer corroding.

[Betamax]

As long you store your burned (s)vcd's like it should to (dust-, water-, scratch-free) you can keep them even for more than 10-years.
And even if the disk for some accidental cause comes "bad", you still can ripp them and burn a new (s)vcd of it (rippers : lkVCDxRip, VCDxRip, VCDgear).
I don't know about the US, though I'm for sure in Europe and Asia the format of (S)VCD will last for a very long time.
If you want to play them at your tv, just buy a dvd-player that supports CD-R/W, that should be it.