VCD opinions

[Werdna007]

Sorry if this is not the correct forum, but after following various threads here about movies being given the new "special treatment" (ex: Star Wars Trilogy) or movies not being released yet (ex: Back to the Future triology, etc..) I was wondering if anybody has any experience with Video CDs. (Picture quality etc...)

I ask this because on the web site www.allvcd.com they have these film versions on this format. Is it worth buying my favourite movies on VCD to replace my worn out videos before they maybe get the "butchering" under DVD that people fear.

Any opinion appreciated.

[Michael Brooke]

Basically, VCDs are roughly VHS quality, with the advantage of easier access to scenes but the disadvantage that they're invariably split across two or more discs.

The only time I did a side-by-side comparison of legitimate VHS and VCD releases of the same title on the same label, I concluded that the VCD picture was slightly sharper but had digital artefacting that the VHS picture didn't - swings and roundabouts, in other words.

The sound is plain stereo - again, we're essentially talking VHS hi-fi quality.

[Lenny Nero]

Don't you go for that "VCDs are roughly VHS quality" crap, I did and bought some VCDs, primarily and more related to the topic, the BttF trilogy, and the quality is TERRIBLE terrible WORSE than VHS in so many times. When there is any fast moving action all you get are squary pixelated blocks so horrible you think you're stuck playing Mario on x486 or something. Also, the water almost cannot be displayed correctly, it's totally blockish in Part II when MJ Fox is in that little lake after falling off his flying scooter.
VHS is much sharper and consistent, but I'd go for laserdiscs, just bought the trilogy and the quality is excellent, like those first MGM DVDs with grain, but thats a huge compliment, and they are widescreen. Got a nice 9LD 18sides SW Trilogy with loads of behind the scenes docs too.:D

[Michael Brooke]

I'm talking about the <U>potential</U> quality of the VCD format - obviously, the quality of individual discs depends on how well they've been encoded, in much the same way that a direct-to-digital film DVD transfer like <I>Shrek</I> is several orders of magnitude better than a crap transfer off an appalling print (like just about anything on the Madacy label).

But I can certainly attest to the fact that when I did a side-by-side comparison of the same title (<I>Haxan</I>) on the same label on both VHS and VCD, on a 28" set connected via RGB, the subjective picture quality was roughly comparable.

[DCH]

And while VHS quality is very expensive to improve in any significant way there are a number of good PC acceleration cards that will improve your VCD playback appreciably - if you use a PC to watch them that is.

[kcxdev]

has anyone seen CTHD on vcd (official release of course), i thought it was close to dvd quality! almost.

The problem is that many people flame vcd's cos they associate them with pirate copies where the quality is er... pants, cinema jobbies etc. Official releases are close if not better than vhs IMO.

I've never bought anything on vhs ever, I buy vcd's if there's a film I want to watch and cannot afford the dvd (or not released on dvd), everything else i buy the dvd.

[Lenny Nero]

Maybe the "POTENTIAL" quality of a still image is comparable to a VHS one, but take any scene with lots of movements and MPEG fails miserably in reproducing that. It fits so much into such a little space because it only stores a given frame completely and then for the next one only the changes that happened since, therefore when there are lots of changes happening all over and fast, it gets all blurry and blocky, on ANY VCD, official or not. And the BttF trilogy I have is an official release. All VCDs are crap. SVCDs with a higher resolution and higher bitrate with about 15-20 mins on a disc might be like VHS or better, but not the regular 1mb=1min, 320x280 encoding. Though audio is not that bad at about 224kbps stereo.

[Clipper-]

Originally posted by Lenny Nero
Maybe the "POTENTIAL" quality of a still image is comparable to a VHS one, but take any scene with lots of movements and MPEG fails miserably in reproducing that. It fits so much into such a little space because it only stores a given frame completely and then for the next one only the changes that happened since, therefore when there are lots of changes happening all over and fast, it gets all blurry and blocky, on ANY VCD, official or not.


Ummm this is exactly how MPEG2 for DVD is stored as well it stores changes between frames rather than the whole frame it just uses a higher bit rate which is variable.



BttF trilogy I have is an official release. All VCDs are crap.

All VCD's are crap? How many VCD's have you seen? 5, 10 , 20 ? I have seen many VCD's and I would disagree strongly the quality of encoding is paramount and there are crap ones with lots of blockiness on fast moving action and I've seen very good ones where the blockiness is minimal and it is easily better than VHS.

Check out some of the amateur encoding jobs on episodes of Buffy and Enterprise... These have been excellent and the quality is good enough for me to keep them til the DVD release! And remember Buffy has alot of dark misty scenes that normally cause trouble with DVD and VCD encoding jobs.


BTW if I just watched R1 Highlander on DVD as my first ever disc I could easily say that DVD's are crap and not as good as VHS and dismiss the all DVD's as crap....

[wong fei hong]

Among the handful of vcds - Hong Kong, natch, I have the veritable good, bad and ugly. Some are perfectly servicable (God of Cookery, In the Mood for Love), some are awful (We're Going to Eat You is so bad I feel I could justifiably sue) and some are great - my Iron Fisted Monk cost about 60 pence and is an absolute gem. Uncut too, so another reason not to buy the new HKL edition.

It's more of a pot-luck format than dvd, but there are a handful of vhs movies on my shelves that I would never replace for the sake of better picture and sound alone. My advice is to stick with what you have until something spectacular turns up.

[Fat Man Hackett]

Regarding the BTTF Trilogy, these are possibly the worst VCD's I've ever seen. Don't watch these and think "VCD's are crap". I too have seen some fantastic VCD's (including Phantom Menace), it it won't put me off paying peanuts to watch a film that may not be avaliable on DVD.