Re: LoGH VCD collections
Chi Ming Hung (cmhung@insti.physics.sunysb.edu)
Mon, 29 Jun 1998 20:58:53 -0400
On Jun 29, 4:57pm, 'Vejita' S. Cousin wrote:
> Subject: Re: LoGH VCD collections
> What's the quality of a VCD disc anyway? I've never seen one? Do they
> play on LD players or regular computer CD-ROMS? Sorry to have to ask such
> a basic question.
VCDs are mainly an Asian phenomenon, that's why you don't see much
of them in the west. Basically a VCD is just an ordinary CD (NOT DVD)
with a huge (up to 680MB) MPEG-1 system stream on it. Due to the
limited storage capacity, the bit rate of the MPEG stream is not too
high, and thus MPEG compression artifacts are easily visible. This
is especially serious for shows with a lot of action and scene changes,
but somehow for LoGH it's not much of a problem, because often times
there's not much movement on the screen =) So I'd say quality-wise
VCDs are about the same as VHS for LoGH.
I believe some models of Japanese LD players also play VCDs, and you
can also play them in some DVD players. If you have a fast enough PC,
you can also use a software player, but then you probably won't get
the full framerate of 30fps at full screen, unless you have an MPEG
decoder card.
In general VCDs (and LDs) should be considered obsolete with the advent
of DVD, but since I don't think LoGH will be on DVD any time soon, if
ever, and since I don't have an LD player (plus there's no English or
Chinese subtitled LoGH LDs), VCDs are the only choice for me now.
Ming.