Video CD
Video CD (abbreviated as VCD, and also known as Compact Disc Digital Video) is a home video format and the first format for distributing films on standard 120 mm (4.7 in) optical discs. The format was widely adopted in Southeast Asia, South Asia, Greater China, Central Asia and West Asia, superseding the VHS and Betamax systems in the regions until DVD-Video finally became affordable in the first decade of the 21st century.
| Media type | Optical disc |
|---|---|
| Encoding | MPEG-1 video + audio |
| Capacity | Up to 800 MB/80 minutes of Video |
| Read mechanism | 780 nm wavelength semiconductor laser |
| Standard | IEC 62107 |
| Developed by | Philips, Sony, Panasonic, JVC |
| Usage | audio and video storage |
| Extended from | CD Video / Video Single Disc |
| Extended to | SVCD |
| Released | 1993 |
| Optical discs |
|---|
The format is a standard digital data format for storing video on a compact disc. VCDs are playable in dedicated VCD players and widely playable in most DVD players, personal computers and some video game consoles. However, they are less playable in most Blu-ray Disc players, vehicle audio with DVD/Blu-ray support and video game consoles such as the Sony PlayStation and Xbox due to lack of backward compatibility for the older MPEG-1 format, inability to read MPEG-1 in .dat files alongside MPEG-1 in standard MPEG-1, AVI, and Matroska files, or inability to read CD-ROM XA discs. Some Laserdisc players that were released in the late 90s support VCD as well.
The Video CD standard was created in 1993 by Sony, Philips, Matsushita and JVC; it is referred to as the White Book standard. The MPEG-1 format was also released that same year.