What is
VideoCD (aka VCD)?
VideoCD is - by far
- the most popular home video medium in Asia. Image and audio data are
digitally encoded on a compact disc (CD-ROM) with MPEG-1 compression. VideoCD
allows for up to 74 minutes of video on one disc, so most movies will come
as a two-disc set. The video quality is roughly the same as VHS tape, though
the actual quality may vary: some are inferior to VHS, while others come
close to laser disc quality (Hong Kong LD quality, that is!). The sound
of MPEG audio compression (when stereo) is in a class with CD audio. The
vast majority of movie VideoCDs are PAL. There are two standards: 1.1 and
2.0, the latter of which offers a menu option.
How can
I watch movies on VideoCD?
You can watch movie
VideoCDs on special VCD players, CD-ROM drives on your computer (using
a software MPEG player like Xing!) and most DVD players (excluding some
Toshibas, sorry!). Note that only multi-norm DVD players offer full VideoCD
compatibility. If you’re using an NTSC DVD player, approx. 40 lines of
PAL discs image will be cut off either at the upper (Panasonic) or the
lower edge of your TV screen. This doesn’t matter much with letterboxed
movies (aspect ratio: 1.85:1 to 2.35:1). If you're playing an NTSC disc
on a PAL player, the opposite effect will occur: small black bars appear
at the upper and lower edge of your screen, resulting in an artificial
"letterboxing" effect (1.66:1). Otherwise, you can play NTSC discs on a
PAL player and PAL-TV set and vice versa. Modern VCD players, CD-ROM drives
and DVD players will play both the 1.1 and the 2.0 standard. Generally
speaking, DVD players, because of their advanced technology, offer the
best quality of VideoCD playback.
What is
special about Hong Kong VideoCDs?
Most VideoCDs from Hong
Kong have two language tracks: one in Cantonese and one in Mandarin. Thus,
only monaural audio reproduction is possible. Most music VideoCDs are used
for Karaoke and contain music on one, the voice on the other channel.
