Whats is SVCD? Can i play SVCD on a VCD player?

The following are definitions for VCD & SVCD:

VCD stands for 'Video Compact Disc' and basically it is a CD that contains moving pictures and sound. A VCD has the capacity to hold up to 74/80 minutes on 650MB/700MB CDs respectively of full-motion video along with quality stereo sound. VCDs use an encoding standard called MPEG-1 to store the video and audio. A VCD can be played on almost all standalone DVD Players and of course on all computers with a DVD-ROM or CD-ROM drive with the help of a software based decoder/player.

SVCD stands for 'Super Video Compact Disc'. A SVCD is very similiar to a VCD, it has the capacity to hold about 35-60 minutes on 650MB/700MB CDs of very good quality full-motion MPEG-2 video along with up to 2 stereo audio tracks and also 4 selectable subtitles. A SVCD can be played on many but not all standalone DVD Players and of course on all computers with a DVD-ROM or CD-ROM drive with the help of a software based decoder/player.

The video quality is much better with SVCD.

To see if your DVD player supports SVCD, go to the following "DVD Player Compatibility List" link I have included below. Be sure to check the "SVCD box" before running the search.

http://www.dvdrhelp.com/dvdplayers

In my previous reply I forgot to mention that a VCD is as good in quality as a first time played VHS tape. Of course the video quality degrades a little every time the analog VHS tape is played whereas the VCD will not.

You can't play SVCD's on most VCD players because SVCD is encoded in MPEG-2 format, and most VCD players don't have MPEG-2 decoder to recognize and read the SVCD discs.

On the other hand, DVD players have builtin MPEG-2 decoder in order to play MPEG-2 encoded DVD's. As SVCD's are also MPEG-2 encoded, many manufacturers can easily throw in an extra feature that allows their DVD players to play SVCD's as well without extra cost.

I agree with what was said about SVCD displaying very good quality for field-based video, but I have found compatibility to be a big issue. I tried distributing a dozen copies of a home video SVCD to friends who had DVD players or DVD-capable PCs and was surprised to find that none of them was able to view it, although it played perfectly on all my systems.

The problem is that SVCD is a Chinese standard that hasn't quite achieved international acceptance yet. If you want to read all the gory details, see this SVCD overview . A few major manufacturers like Phillips have adopted the standard for their newer DVD models, but it seems to be hit or miss with others. Until more of my friends get SVCD-compatible players, I'll have to distribute my video on DVD. That isn't all bad, since the quality is slightly better, but it is kind of $$.