still want to find the perfect way (encoding programs + DVD player model ) to get the best possible video quality out of this mpeg-1 based format.

Latest Pioneer DVD players allowed the playback of bitrates from 1.150kbps to 2.150kpbs as perfectly compliant with a complete PCB playback control ; It impressed me , a vcd disc like that looks really good if properly done.

Any experience using 4K movies as a master source?

I haven’t watched a VCD for two decades but I remember the ones I made myself from DVDs looked significantly better than the store bought VCD of the same movie. There is going to be some diminishing returns. Try 4K and 2K discs as your master and see where they gets you. I don’t think newer Blu-ray players play VCDs. Is there any use for VCDs nowadays?

Sadly new BD players cant play old vcd releases.
The use..well sometimes i just put new remastered BD editions of classic anime to VHS or VCD to look "classic" again on my crt tvs
With live action movies at 2mbps you are free of pixelation
and packs of 100 - 200 cd-r cost nothing today (internet)
If you hate "movie files" is a super fast way encoding/burning your own editions on self playing discs

Do new DVD players play them anymore???
I had about 3 VCDs in the past year and only have 1 now, all my players play them, even my cheapo bluray player.

While I like substance has posted in a past topic, I seem to stream all my stuff now, once in a while I'll binge and run some LDs and DVDs but not as much as
I used to.
Really get into it when I just want to enjoy some old stuff that I like and don't want to be bothered with ads as I don't pay for my streaming, just free stuff.


Yes I did buy one to try but its cheap and I use it for the DVDs. Won't bother upgrading the films I enjoy that's the main issue.

VCD sucks.

I feel the same. If certain content doesn’t exist on at least Laserdiscs then I don’t watch it. I can understand the experimental and fun reason the OP has. I once bought these dual sided DVD blanks to make my own mini LDs, I even tracked down a Sony DVD changer which auto flips.

Yes they do suck, but from what I remember on earlier DVD players they do look much better now than on those player.
VCD is a very low quality format but it was great as we all know for the Asian markets, cheap and lots of TV shows on
many discs that you can't get from OTA TV.

I only have 1 in my collection now but could give or take it, wish there were more reasons to keep the format
but its so hard to find them for reasonable prices.

Plenty of DVD players don't have support for them, or don't list it. Maybe it's possible some players support it even if it isn't labeled as such since it's not exactly important. I have 1 or 2 players that didn't play a VCD I have. Been awhile since I tested that.

From my experience few if any of the DVD players I’ve owned played VCD. I think Japanese brands were less likely to support it since the format is %99.9999 pirate releases. All my Blu-ray players are Sony and Sony would cut their own heads off to stop a pirate. I have a lot of retro crap and I’m not sure if I have anything that will play VCDs except for computers.

Oppo DVD and Blu-ray players play both VCDs and SVCDs but they are not listed in their manual. Most DVD players 2000 and onwards and almost all Blu-ray players won’t play VCDs.

There were also DIVx discs, not to be confused with the Circuit City format. Those were also printed on CD-R blanks but offered far better picture. As always they were all pirate discs.

OK that makes sense, my DVD players are all region free and are more likely from other countries or other markets or changed chips etc.
The 2 out of 3 that I tested played the VCD and that must be the reason why it worked.

I think that "mpeg-2" is a "mpeg-1 superset" ,all DVD players should play VCD/SVCD unless the brand restricts the software consciously to not recognize the carpet structure of the vcd disc.

Yes but "DivX discs" even properly burned as "DivX discs" with automatic menú lists dont offer "full PCB playback control" with you know chapters, perfect rewind and ffw, a-b selection, sound channels...

DVD players definitely have self-imposed software restrictions on what they will play (region codes for example, which aren't physical or technical hurdles at all).

I have a VCD 2.0 player also a handful of discs ( i don't think I have anything but gen 1 discs no super or whatever). All I care about now is any Evangelion discs for my collection though I want them more legit as there are some but those take a while to find. I at one time had 2 VCD players but it broke so i got rid of that one. I was going to collect more but its useless for the odd title and for laughs. I have the Net on VCD comes on 2 discs. I could probably create my own but I am not interested in doing that on the computer.

xtempo.....so you want to record "on the go"...then a standalone DVD recorder or S-VHS vcr.

I had an HK import of Star Wars Trilogy SE in the late-90s, prior to the DVD release, and that was enough to dissuade me from giving VCD much of a look since then. It was neat to see the films on a DVDish form factor and play them back on a laptop DVD drive... but the low resolution and compression artifacts were too much to stomach, even on a 12" 4:3 laptop screen. These days I'm way too much or an Aspect Ratio snob to even consider P&S, and the resolution is just too low for letterboxing to leave enough usable image.

Haven't trying making a new VCD in a while. Only started doing so in the early 00s when downloading fansubbed anime was starting up and I wanted to bring some over to a friend's house to watch on a TV (so everyone wasn't gathering around a 15" computer monitor.) So I would burn a few episodes to VCD and bring my Sega Saturn with the PhotoCD/VCD card over so we all could watch.

It's amazing how much video compression has advanced since then. If you encode a video at the same bitrate and resolution as MPEG-1 VCD was set to at the whitebook standard (1150kbps, 352x240) with a newer compression codec like h.264, the difference would be dramatic to say the least.

Funny aside though, a month ago I went to a shop called "Barracks Trading Post" down where I used to live in Southern NJ which specializes in used electronics. They actually had a standalone VCD player there. Can't remember the brand, but I found that amusing seeing that sitting next to some DVD and blu-ray players.

Might go back there again soon as they had a Betamax VCR that I'm thinking of picking up.

Oh yeah, and I just now recall of a site that I was looking through when I was looking up region free DVD players back in the early 00s selling standalone VCD recorders. These ones to be exact . . .

Terrapin TX0002 VCD Recorder

. . . retail price on those was $599!! I can't imagine they sold all that well.

The last time I was authoring my own VCDs was around 1998-2000 using an MPEG1 encoder developed by Panasonic. The quality was quite good for
a Video CD.

The best looking VCDs I have in my collection are those made for the CD-i format at the beginning of the 90s. Those look really OK on a small TV and they
sound good, too.

There is an impressive catalogue of titles released in Hong Kong during the 90s and 2000s. I believe they have some value and I would watch them again if
I find something interesting.

Whenever I find any retail European retail VCDs from that period I buy them because I find them to be quite interesting releases. There are some interesting
music titles, too.

I'm really not bothered to make VCD's anymore - even with right codecs you could make pretty darn good looking VCD's or better, SVCD's. Just not worth the hassle in 2021. But back "then" it was fun. I have piles of VCD/SVCD's i made still in storage.

I think the days for using discs for archiving is over. You can get a 18TB HDD in the $300s. That’s 30,000 discs in VCD quality, a lot more flexible with codecs and certainly much more convenience.

I believe the OP has some time to kill and exploring this as a fun hobby. We have all been there and spent silly time on none sense projects. I sympathize with his cause and wish him speedy recovery from this itch.