VideoCDs are the ancestors of the DVD. The quality is approximately comparable to a video tape and the MPEG compression is partially clearly noticeable. VideoCDs did not become accepted on the German market, but it is possible to order current movies on VideoCD from the USA. The price is clearly below the price of a DVD. However, it has to be considered that there also disadvantages compared to a DVD. Due to limited disk space, the movies are divided into two CDs and there is only one language track availbale.

VideoCDs are read by most DVD players nowadays or by special devices such as the outdated Philips CD-I player or the AmigaCD32 console. The Windows Media-Player is also able to play ".dat" in the "mpegav" directory of VideoCD.


If you have short video clips on the hard disk, the option to save these on a VideoCD and to watch them via the DVD player on television is at least interesting. Current CD writing software like Nero or WinOnCD support the VideoCD format. (Attention! There is a difference between VCD and Super-VCD! Not every DVD player is able to play Super-VCDs as well!). In order to burn a CD, the movies need to have a resolution of 351x288 pixel (PAL VideoCD) and be available in the AVI or MPG format. WinOnCD is able to convert AVI movies automatically, but we suggest e.g. the Xing Mpeg Encoder for this purpose. If the movie is too long, it has to be separated into two parts.






Video CD im deutschen Lexikon
Video CD in het nederlandse encyclopedie