Hi,

I'm still eagerly awaiting the arrival of my latest acquisition: A Pioneer DVL-909.

From what i understand, the DVL LD players are essentially just early DVD technology mounted into a LD player chassis; kind of like how the CLD players are basically an LD and a CD deck mashed into one package.

I have a couple of VCDs in my possession.. Video CDs, not CD Video.

From what i've read, early DVD players support MPEG1 compression, which is what VCD is. Has anybody tested to see if a DVL player could play VCD? or specifically a DVL-909?

Not gonna lie, when i made the purchase, it's the first thing that popped into my head. Curious..

Pretty much most if not all first generation (and probably current generation) DVD players can play the Video CD format.

LaserDiscArchive appears to confirm that....

http://www.laserdiscarchive.co.uk/DVL-909.htm

I think many Blu-Ray players may not support VCD anymore since it was really a very minor format and really has no place in the HD world @ this point.

I disagree. Many many DVD players don’t play VCDs from my experience.

The only LD players I know that do are karaoke models and even then it’s really rare, DVLs may also.

Btw, there is a manual archive here somewhere. I’ve never used it but Pioneer manuals tell you every single format supported on one of the pages.

I have seen this manual before, in my research. It is of course just suspicion, still. -- I was hoping someone has actually tested, so i suppose i'll be the one to post the results.

The website is very reputable though and is a wonderful source of information, so i believe it'll be compatible. Probably shouldn't get my hopes up fully, but i think it will.

I have never come across a DVD player in America that can play VCD. I usually just end up using VLC media player on my computer or my Playstation 1 with this Chinese expansion called 'gamars movie card' to play VCDs. If my LD player could do it, that would be great. I'm not super into VCD, but i would really love to have this feature.

Both my Sony DVD players (DVP-S7700 and DVP-NS900V) will play VCD's.

These are older players so maybe it's true that newer players have now omitted the VCD feature. Also, I think I do vaguely recall that Toshiba and maybe Panasonic DVD players of any generation may not have supported VCD but I am not sure.

According to my research, all of the Pioneer DVL series players will play VCD EXCEPT the DVL-700 and the DVL-90. The DVL-9 in Japan supports VCD but only NTSC titles. All others support both NTSC and PAL.

DVD players it's an extremely mixed bag. I would say the majority do not, but it's not hard to find a DVD player that does play VCDs. I had to look into this in depth many years ago for my mom to get some things on VCD even if they were boots because they weren't available on DVD and she had worn out the tapes she had of said movies.

My DVP-7700 has played a CD once and refuses to recognise any more, including VCD : (

The last time I went into my collection from the '90s when DVDs were too expensive I used my Saturn with video card to watch. Damn VCDs sucked. Then again I got to see some amazing asian stuff I never would have without it.

There is so much wacky Asian stuff I need to watch yet.

It wasn't so much the wacky stuff for me, it was the good stuff.

It might be the same films or close to it. I view many of the action oriented films as wacky.

they are wacky in a good way. I need to get more VCDs since I've got a stand alone player and the Saturn VCD card

The only reason i have my Toy Story VCDs is because i heard a rumor that the Phillips CDI plays VCD, which mine does. I also have this 3rd party addon for my PS1 called a "gamars movie card" which plugs into early PS1s that have the parallel port on the back. It doubles as a VCD player and a cheat device.

But yes, i don't know if i have stated in this thread or not, but my DVL-909 does indeed play VCDs. When i got the unit, i found a sticker in the back that lays "Plays LD/CD/VCD/CDV" with orange text. I liked the sticker, so i moved it to the front of the unit.

I can't seem to "fast forward" or "rewind" on VCDs.. this just causes them to completely restart. But then again, i can't do that on VLC media player either.

I think it might be some of the discs that can't do those functions. VLC should be able to do everything. Have you tried another Media Player?

I have tried Window media player, on Windows XP and Windows ME with the unofficial VCD drivers package. On my two discs, i cannot FF/RW.

Maybe it's the discs. I know there are many versions of VCD; My discs might not be 2.0.

hey I love Kung Fu, gang, cop and gambling movies with scripts that go out the window by the end of the film too but I'm talking completely non wacky, good movies, Tokyo Eyes, Bounce Ko-Gals, Kitano directed stuff, Fruit Chan movies, I had a lot of this type of relatively underground stuff on VCD in the '90s, stuff even SBS TV didn't show.. I had Jpop concerts and idol videos too that I would have had no access to otherwise. Stuff that was popular at the time Amuro Namie, Speed, Aikawa Nanase, Rie Tomosaka. I was a poor student and minidisc, VCD and SBS TV saved me in the '90s, without them I wouldn't have had any access to this stuff that I would read about in Asian Cult Cinema or the back of Pulp Magazine or Animerica.

Now I'm a poor adult but now LDs are cheap!

Most things John Woo or films that feature Chow Yun Fat, Stephen Chow, Jet Li or Jade Leung are the "gold mine" for me. It's kind of easy to get their films on LD if you have the wallet for it... a little cheaper but more rare for VCD variants.

I >> REALLY << want to see "A Better Tomorrow", but the Laserdiscs are so damn rare. The only common ones are the Japanese variants and they don't offer English subs so it's no use to me.

I refuse to get them on DVD/Amazon Prime stream... i want to own them. Those i am trying to get on VCD.

Recently ordered a brand new copy of "Satin Steel" on LD with Jade Leung.

I WISH i could get ABT 1, 2 and 3 on LD though. I believe they were released in HK with ENG subs but too damn rare for me to find currently. -- Currently, i can only find the first film on VCD.. waiting until i can get all 3 at once to binge watch. However, i cannot confirm the VCD versions have ENG sub, so also i'm waiting........ ugh...

Really VCD is the worst choice for any hyper kinetic John Woo movie. If you think macro blocking on DVD is bad then VCD is just your worst nightmare.

For ABT, get the Fortune Star DVDs, II and III are hard to find but there is a set with all 3. Seriously I have the first movie from them and it's a really high quality transfer with redone clear English subs. Another point for it is it's actually in the original Cantonese, a lot of DVD releases of these films are just the Mandarin dub which is just so wrong. NOt only did the actors originally speak it but the Cantonese language has a super cool tough guy ring to it that is inherently part of these movies for me.

I don't really have much of an issue with VCDs except for the fact that having subtitles is a hit or miss. Most definitely don't, which is terrible.

Definitely link me to that set; i might budge. I would like Eng subtitle with the movies uncut and in original Cantonese.

I have seen "Hard Boiled" and "Once a thief" on VCD and it was very decent. My toy story ones are decent quality as well and i really love the Chinese version of "you got a friend in me"; The singer has a lovely voice, for a man.

The set doesn't seem to be easily available currently. I never bought it because I prefer single editions. This is the DVD I have of the first film:

https://www.yesasia.com/global/a-better-tomorrow-1986-dvd-remastered-edition-hong-kong-version/1050644249-0-0-0-en/info.html