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Many folks in the United States may never have heard of VCDs.
A Brief History of VCDs
VCDs have quite an interesting history.
However, as DVD technology improved and became more affordable, fewer people saw the appeal of VCDs.
Hannah Stryker / How-To Geek
By the early 2000s, VCDs started fading and eventually becoming obsolete.
Today, they are mostly a forgotten technology.
Although, it’s possible for you to still buy them in some parts of the world!
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Each disc could hold about 74 minutes of video.
With later discs reaching 80 minutes as CD capacity grew to 800MB.
VCDs are cheap to produce, and players were likewise affordable.
The discs were cheap, compact, and didn’t degrade with use.
VHS players were expensive, complex, and prone to failure.
VCD players were comparatively simple and much more reliable and affordable.
It’s also likely that the rise of pirate CD duplication helped make VCDs popular.
But what about the actual video quality?
Overall, VCDs offered about the same visual quality as VHS tapes.
VHS tapes had objectively better audio since VCDs compressed audio by reducing high and low frequencies.
Since home video involves pausing the movie at your convenience, a mid-movie break isn’t the worst compromise.
Related:What Ever Happened to Plasma TVs?
At the same time, DVDs include all the advantages VCDs have over VHS.
Especially in parts of the world that embraced the VCD as a cheap and convenient way to access entertainment.
