Isnt VCD obsolete?

[omega_weapon]

No offense, but, is there still people that makes VCDs? why dont turn into DVD, nowadays its just as cheap as it was vcd on its time.

[classfour]

India, mostly.

I still have some - don't play them much, portable won't play them.

[Video Head]

https://forum.videohelp.com/topic345713.html

[Cole]

I used to make VCD-DVDs up until recently where I could get a whole TV series (recorded off-air) on one/two DVDs. This was to have until the TV series came out on DVD; back in the day it was about a year before a TV release came out in the UK.

However, I got burned on one series (Sea Of Souls series 3) where I put the series on a DVD in VCD size BUT the DVD release never appeared. Thus, I have had to keep it.

I haven't made any VCD-DVDs for about two years now because of that.

[Noahtuck]

Isnt VCD obsolete

As far as i'm concerned, it was obsolete the day dvd burners became available at retail, and definately became obsolete years ago....

No offense, but, is there still people that makes VCDs? why dont turn into DVD, nowadays its just as cheap as it was vcd on its time.

There are still people here in the U.S. that seem to want to still make VCD's instead of spending a whole $30.00 for an excellent DVD Burner & quality dvdr media is availible on a regular basis for .25 cents a disc... beats me why, i never could figure that out....

[jman98]

If you wait a long time, eventually some store like Office Max will put Verbatim media on sale. Otherwise you will easily pay 45 cents a disc or much more. I can easily get Verbatim CD-Rs for about 22 cents a disc. Sometimes I have made VCDs from short, low quality sources. I've made a few from crap on YouTube that is 320x240 and very low resolution stuff. Yes, I guess I could put 30 minutes on a 45 cent DVD blank and use very high bit rates to have an excellent copy of a crappy source or I could just put it in VCD where the discs are 22 cents each and it still looks like crap but I don't waste a DVD disc on it.

VCD always has its haters. The format has flaws for sure and it's not better than DVD, but if you don't understand why someone might want to use it, then nothing I could say would make any sense to you.

[JohnnyMalaria]

Not if you still use it.

[pijetro]

Hats off to all the people who layed down the foundation of freeware and development...
Especially the authouring stuff...

I got into VCD's before DVD burners became affordable.
I'm looking forward to the next generation of trailblazers who get us past the DVD software, and into the serious BD freeware...Good luck..

[Video Head]

Not if you still use it.

Too true...VCR's are obsolete, but in reading posts here some are still looking for good ones...

[edDV]

I still find VCD MPeg1 is the most basic and convertible recording format if all you want is to cap talking heads with adequate audio without maxing your hard drive.

I often cap TV to VCD (MPeg1) for talk shows so I can hear what they say and play back without recode. Edit is easy if I want to keep it. Video quality is a lesser concern.

VCD still does have a place for capture but if I want to save it, I compress to WMV or divx.

[yoda313]

Not if you still use it.

Too true...VCR's are obsolete, but in reading posts here some are still looking for good ones...

Exactly. Just because it isn't mainstream doesn't mean it doesn't have its uses. Somebody in another post was saying they record to vcd so they can transfer to their portable video player.

[SatStorm]

VCDs no, rarelly, but mpeg 1 encoded on VCD specifics I do more now that before!

I convert various stuff on mpeg 1 and burn them on DVD-Rs with simply authoring. Those ones plays everywhere and I can have with me 16 hours of video/audio on just 2 discs! Very handy if you think of. Quality wise, not so bad if you watch them on 14-25" CRT screens.

I also do occasionally VCDs with music videos.

[lordsmurf]

VCD was always obsolete.
DVD and/or MPEG-4 do everything, but better (compression, size, quality, etc)

[classfour]

I know for certain that I won't take the time to reencode DVD quality video down to VCD specs. I did make the attempt a few years back just to see the results: The Green Mile, fit on 3 VCDs, quality was actually very good considering the bitrate. Took about 8 or 9 hours on a 2.4 GHZ machine. I haven't done another.

If I did have to do one: I'd capture it as an Mpeg1.

[SmokieStover]

I have a relative who on occassion will request copies of home movies that can be played both on a set-top DVD player and on an old 95 upgraded to 98SE PC (Pentium 133 mhz with almost no ram). I encode or re-encode to VCD. Makes her happy and they are good enough to watch.

I also make VCD's using the extras found when converting VHS movies to DVD via a PVR 250. Capping directly to VCD yields poor results, so I cap the whole in mpg2 and re-encode the extras to VCD. Not much quality lost when working with VHS nor much re-encoding time required for their extras.

Still using VHS EP as my preferred method of time and place shifting.

[thecoalman]

Too true...VCR's are obsolete, but in reading posts here some are still looking for good ones...

Yea but it's more like looking for good gun to shoot the horse so you know it gets done right. These people aren't looking for good VCR's to watch VHS, they are looking for them to kill it.

[Video Head]

Too true...VCR's are obsolete, but in reading posts here some are still looking for good ones...

Yea but it's more like looking for good gun to shoot the horse so you know it gets done right. These people aren't looking for good VCR's to watch VHS, they are looking for them to kill it.

Yes, the people looking for these units do have a focused agenda.

I guess it would be more likened to 1967 Mustangs. They are obsolete. But some, like myself, still use them.

[tomlee59]

They are definitely still useful. As edDV mentioned, they work across many different platforms. For many educational purposes, you don't need high-def, and VCDs fit the bill well. And if you happen to have a large extended family spread all over the globe (like I do), with many still using less than state-of-the-art gear, movies on VCD are often the only viable option.

[pepegot1]

Just convert VCDs to DVDs. I did that with TDA and VCDgear. Now all is DVD

[soflawill]

That reminds me-got three shelves filled with vcds'. Haven't looked at them in ages. What is a boy to do?

[usually_quiet]

I never used VCD’s, but I considered getting a Terrapin VCD recorder four years ago, before I bought a DVD recorder. If I had bought one, and it still worked, I suppose I would still be using it. I kept my VCR and continue to use it when there are two shows on at the same time that I want to record.

I am certain that a fair number of people would prefer to use a VCR for everything. My parents, for example, who are not stupid or eccentric, merely elderly. If they could still rent videotapes, they would never have bought a new TV with an integrated DVD player. Recently, I donated some gently used Disney videotapes to my local library, and they were thrilled to get them, so there is still some demand for VCR's and tapes.

Learning how to use any new device is difficult for some people. When I tried to teach my parents how to use their new TV/DVD player, the manual was too complicated, and they could not remember what to do after I showed them. I ended up typing simplified instructions for using it, with arrows pointing to the correct buttons on a drawing of the their remote control at every step. I am pretty sure they will be referring to it for a long time. If their current VCR dies, you can bet they will buy another one, if they can, rather than a DVD recorder or a DVR.

[mrcoolekin]

Nope, a lot of Asian countries still use them. As for creating them, I still do just cause I think it's fun. Plus it's low cost still.

[edDV]

VCD is most universal and playable but far from highest quality.

[tomlee59]

VCD is most universal and playable but far from highest quality.

Indeed -- no one would choose VCD for its quality. It would be for some other reason, like the universal playability you cite, or its low cost, or its ability to be played on old computers that don't have the horsepower to handle DVDs. Or the ability to cram >6.5 hours of material on a single DVD (perfect for long flights).

Definitely not HD, but it has its place.

[UltraVCDDVD]

There are RARE things that can only be found on VCD. They are STILL in use in China. They're not obsolete yet.

[RabidDog]

Dont forget Tajikistan either...

[SatStorm]

Mpeg 1 also has a new "life" on chinapods/ mp3 players with video playback, card readers with TV Out, cell phones, HDD with TV out, etc. And if I remember correct, mpeg1 has no royalties, so it is an "open" format that mpeg2 must be backward compatible. So, I think that mpeg 1 gonna stick with us for a long - long time.

I found a great new use of mpeg1 the last months: Fast and dirty batch convert of grabbed music videos to mpeg 1 through Super, then store them on a USB memory Stick and use it on my cheapo "china"pod. A 3.30 video, converts to mpeg1 on less than 20 sec on my C2D. I watch those videos on the move, on the Gym, while I'm waiting on meetings, etc.

VCD is another issue: Between 1999-2004, VCD was the basic alternative to convert analogue to digital. Million of home users converted their analogue archives (mostly VHS tapes) to VCD. The won't convert them again, most of them don't kept the original material. Even today, on some countries, VCD remains the only affordable choice to do this thing. But overall, after 2004, I believe all switched to DVD one way or other.
But the old archives remained. So the format.

[wcb4]

VCD is most universal and playable but far from highest quality.

Indeed -- no one would choose VCD for its quality

I will admit that a DVD is still better, and some of the VCDs that I purchased back in the day (yes, I bought some, like the original Star Wars trilogy before they were release on DVD) are truly craptacular, however..........

I have also encoded a few myself, back when DVD writers will still over $100 and blank discs were will $2+ that I would say were truly remarkable. I no longer use the VCDs per se, but the mpg files themselves still reside on one of my hard drives, and is still accessible on my television vi my Hauppage Media MVP. My encodes of the Toy Story movies, the original Ice Age, and the first few Harry Potter Movies are top notch. When they are on my 42' television, very few people have ever noticed that they are not the DVDs playing.

Say what you want about VCD mpg files, but they scale up better than anything else. I can play 352x240 divx files on my television as well, and even at the same bitrate, when scaled up to actually show on the TV,they do not look as good (this is not to say higher bitrate, higher res files don't look better, the DiVX files I generally DL do not look as good on television as my personally encoded VCD mpg files. Because I can get good results, I have made DVDs that contain all three of the original Indian Jones Movies, the Back to the Future movies, the Matrix Movies, etc for my Dad. All I do is encode the audio at 48000/384 (the dvd standard instead of the VCD spec) and I'm gold. You pop in one DVD and can watch a whole trilogy beginning to end without interruption I'm not going to get rid of my DVDs, or my DVD recorder (iLoDVDR04... I love it) and I will not likely go back to VCDs, but I download those files from the internet archive and transfer then right to DVDs all the time. The format itself is extremely widely supported, and as long as it is, it will still have its uses.

[MOVIEGEEK]

VCD became obsolete in the US when DVD writers dropped below $100US.
When I bought my first capturecard I converted my VHS collection to VCD and it looked ok on my 27" CRT.When I bought my HDTV I recaptured my VHS collection to full D1 specs and authored DVD's,it was painstaking but worth it.Moral of the story:VCD's are fine for small screens.

[tomlee59]

The format itself is extremely widely supported, and as long as it is, it will still have its uses.

I quite agree. Those in industrialized nations often have a narrow, parochial view of the world, and forget that not everyone has the latest hardware. I have many friends from China and India, where VCDs are still prevalent. Certainly VCDs are on the decline, but they have by no means disappeared. I have a large collection of VCDs, some with content that has never been released on DVD, or others that aren't worth paying again for to get the DVD version. So, for me, VCDs are not completely obsolete. And as you point out, with proper care in encoding, VCDs can look surprisingly good (certainly much better than some of the embarrassingly poor product found on the street). I also like the fact that I can play VCDs on very old PCs and Macs.