VCDEasy

VCDEasy allows you to play/watch your videos (from DV camcorder, DivX, DVD,...), your pictures (from digital camera, scanner,...) and your audio files (music, audio comments,...) directly on most of the home DVD players, without having to buy a DVD Writer and DVD discs. How ? VCDEasy allows you to build easily VideoCDs (VCD/SVCD)!

VCD stands for "Video Compact Disc". If you're familiar with regular audio/music CDs, then you will understand what a VCD is!
A VCD is a CD (CD-R or CD-RW, so cheap) that can contain up to 80 minutes video, up to 1980 pictures, up to 6 hours of audio (CD sound quality), or a mix of them. On a VCD, it is also possible to have menus and chapters, similiar to DVDs. You can also have simple photo album/slide shows. The same way most of the home DVD player and computers can play Audio CDs, a VCD can be played on almost all standalone DVD players (only a few persons know that!) and of course on all computers with a DVD-ROM or CD-ROM drive with the help of a software player.

Invented by Philips, the VCD is born before the DVD. It did not have a big commercial success around the world because 2 CDs were needed to store one 1H30 film. But now, VCD is very popular because it is a cheap way to make at home DVD like discs. As opposed to a DivX CD, a VCD can be played on almost all home DVD players, i.e watched on a TV. No need to have a computer, no need to configure it to play DivX films... Watching a VideoCD is as simple as watching a DVD! The VideoCD, for example, is a really great solution to share videos and pictures with familly and friends, they only need a DVD Player and a TV!

All you need to do is to provide VCDEasy with MPEG files compliant with the VideoCD specifications (A MPEG pictures encoder is already included into VCDEasy, a MPEG audio only files encoder will be soon available, and use for example the excellent TMPGEnc encode to MPEG your videos). 'Novice' users can simply select (VideoCD ready) MPEG files and click the 'go' button, while 'advanced' users can configure/use almost all aspects of the VideoCD specifications (PlayBack Control based interactivity, Chapters, Menus support, CD-i support...).

VCD stands for "Video Compact Disc". It is a CD (same media as an Audio CD) that can contain up to 80 minutes video (PAL or NTSC, with Audio CD sound quality), or 1980 pictures, or audio files only, or a mix of video, audio only and pictures. It is also possible to use menus and chapters, similiar to DVDs, on a VCD and also simple photo album/slide shows. VCDs use a compression standard called MPEG1 to store the video and audio. The quality of a VCD is about the same as VHS tape based movies.

A VCD can be played on:

Almost all standalone DVD Players
Standalone VCD Players (very common in ASIA)
Playstations with VCD-addon (Playstation 2 does NOT support VCDs)
Sega Saturn with VCD-addon
Dreamcast with VCD-addon
And of course on all computers with a CD-ROM or DVD-ROMs drive, and with a software VCD/MPEG player.

Hystorically, the VCD is born before the DVD and has been mainly only a success in ASIA. The VCD now comes back strongly because it is an easy and affordable way to make DVD like discs at home! (Thanks to the fact that most standalone DVD players can play VCDs).