Video disk
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| Media type | Optical disc |
|---|---|
| Encoding | MPEG-1 video + audio |
| Capacity | Up to 800 MB/80 minutes of Video |
| Read mechanism | 780 nm wavelength semiconductor laser |
| Standard | White Book |
| Developed by | Philips, Sony, Panasonic, JVC |
| Usage | audio and video storage |
| Extended to | SVCD |
Video CD (abbreviated as VCD, and also known as Compact Disc digital video) is a home video format and the first format for distributing films on standard 120 mm (4.7 in) optical discs. The format was widely adopted in Southeast Asia instead of VHS and Betamax systems.
The format is a standard digital format for storing video on a compact disc. VCDs are playable in dedicated VCD players, most DVD and Blu-ray Disc players, personal computers, and some video game consoles.
The Video CD standard was created in 1993 by Sony, Philips, Matsushita, and JVC and is referred to as the White Book standard.
Although they have been superseded by other media, VCDs continue to be retailed as a low-cost video format.
In 1979, Philips introduced the optical LaserDisc, which was about 30 cm (12 in) in diameter. This disc could hold an hour of analog video along with digital audio on each side. The Laserdisc provided picture quality nearly double that of VHS tape and audio quality far superior to VHS.
Philips later teamed up with Sony to develop a new type of disc, the compact disc or CD. Introduced in 1982 in Japan (1983 in the U.S.), the CD is about 120 mm (4.7 in) in diameter, and is single-sided. The format was initially designed to store digitized sound and proved to be a success in the music industry.
A few years later, Philips decided to give CDs the ability to produce video, just like its Laserdisc counterpart. This led to the creation of CD Video (CD-V) in 1987. However, the disc's small size significantly impeded the ability to store analog video; thus only 5 minutes of picture information could fit on the disc's surface (despite the fact that the audio was digital). Therefore, CD-V distribution was limited to featuring music videos.
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