What is DVCD? What's the capacity?

-- Hong Tan (hongtan@rmi.net), June 30, 1999

Answers

Basically a DoubleVideoCompactDisc with a higher capacity compression. So far it can hold up to 90 minutes on a single disc but some films like Rush Hour can be made to fit DVCD. So far, I am neither convinced or inclined to buy into DVCD or SVCD. I am sticking to VCD 2.0 and soon DVD.

-- The Lone Ranger (soldier0081@hotmail.com), June 30, 1999.

Strange thing LR, if you own a device to play VCDs (PC or VCD Player) there is no reason why you should avoid DVCDs, as they are compatible, unless your reasons are to avoid pirate software, as there are no known legit or official copies of DVCDs in the market.

BTW, I have not seen DVCDs with 90 minutes play time, only about 78 mins, also, DVCD stands for Digital Video Compact Disc (note the crappy pirate term, "Digital", they are not actually lying because VCDs are digital and there is really no such thing as DVCD, just a term made up by the crafty pirates when DVDs were coming into the market, so as to associate (and confuse) their product with the high quality of DVDs). Just wait till you see the logo used for denoting DVCDs, the US market would just ROTFL.

Sethsolo

-- sethsolo (sethsolo@hotmail.com), June 30, 1999.

I do not buy pirates, the last few I got from my aunt in Thailand convinced me to get original movies. By the way DVCD does exist, I got a cr*ppy copy of the Mummy on a DVCD(friend from Singapore shipped it to me as proof). It sort of fits on one disc. Thanks to the high compression about 90 minutes of the film was on there(the credits got cut off). It is okay if you want to own a film without disk swapping but as my friend told me, Matrix still needs two discs and Titanic only needs two(down from the three the ORIGINAL copy uses). I asked my friend to see if they can add a higher compression to get 100 minutes out of it. I am avoiding these as I am aware that original copies use VCD 2.0 and I just do not want to hassle with finding a movie on DVCD. I mean it has taken me three months to find Beyond Silence on VCD(I am still looking for it), but I can order the DVD from a reputable dealer right now. Think how crazy I will be trying to get movies on SVCD or DVCD. Like I said before, I am only sticking to VCD 1.0,1.1,2.0 and by October of this year DVD. BTW I live in the United States, hence my reasoning behind DVD and VCD 2.0 cause the internet is so huge and well DVCD/SVCD is a needle in a haystack for me.

-- The Lone Ranger (rutger_s@hotmail.com), June 30, 1999.

Me, too. I've just found a CD/MP3/VCD/DVCD capable discman under 50USD and I want to know, whether I can burn DVCD-s or not. What siftver and burner should I have? (Currently using a Toshiba DVD burner). Can anybody help us with these information? (I'm from Hungary)

-- Zoltan Gogolak (zgogolak@netscape.net), October 20, 2003.