The Next Best Thing

I was wondering what to write about next in this blog (what with "American Idol" being over), when there it was, sitting in the used rack in the little independent music store I frequent, as if it were waiting for me to find it ... a particular type of digital disc that's rarely seen and virtually unknown in the U.S. and Europe: the Video CD, or VCD. What exactly is a Video CD, you ask? The easiest way to describe it is as a simplified DVD, except that it's written on conventional CD media (as its name implies).

Popular mostly in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Island countries for over a decade (although I imagine by now that DVD has begun to push them aside in popularity), Video CDs have some advantages, and some disadvantages, compared to DVDs. One nice thing about them is that they're not subject to region encoding, which means they can be viewed with any VCD-capable player anywhere in the world -- including most (but not all) American-marketed DVD players ... and with the right software, your computer, even if the only optical drive you have is a CD. Also -- though I definitely don't endorse illegal copying of discs -- they almost never have the copy-protection defenses that DVDs have.

However, as you can imagine, there's a downside to putting movies on the less-capacitous media of CDs. The picture clarity isn't a whole lot better than VHS (a high-quality VHS that would never degrade, but VHS nonetheless), and there's no 5.1 surround sound -- two-channel stereo is as good as you'll get. And you might as well forget about alternate language or commentary tracks, or optional subtitles; if you get a VCD that has subtitles, they're on the screen whether you want them or not, in whatever language they were written in. And then there's the matter of run time: a Video CD can hold about 80 minutes of content at best, so basically any theatrical film will be split over two or more discs.

But when we're talking the the shorter-length content, like concert films or music video collections, where none of those extra bells and whistles really matter, Video CDs fit the bill nicely. Indeed, if you like import pop like I do, VCD may prove to be your only option in certain cases -- a DVD may be unwatchable due to foreign region encoding, and with a little luck, the artist is popular enough in the right country that they've warranted a VCD release. Oh, and if you're techno-savvy enough, you can even copy out any of the disc's "chapters" and use them with other applications, since each chapter is in its own individual file on the disc, essentially in MPEG-1 format ... none of that shady DVD stripping-and-ripping software needed! (Again, I don't endorse the practice ... I'm just sayin'.)

I've accumulated a few Video CDs over the years: a companion volume to Five's "Greatest Hits" (even with a matching cover) that includes all their music videos ... a concert film by The Moffatts during their "Chapter I" days ... an A1 disc featuring interviews with the boyband as well as a handful of their videos ... and my newest addition, a 1998 assemblage of Duran Duran's music videos, released in conjunction with their "Greatest" hits compilation. Oh, and I can't forget the disc of videos that piggy-backs Gil's "Best of" audio CD ... and there are probably one or two that accompany various-artist compilations I have, too.

Sure, Video CDs aren't as pretty to watch or as graceful to navigate as DVDs (heck, some of them don't even have a menu to speak of), but their novelty makes them fun to experience, and their scarcity can make them enjoyable to collect. Not to mention, since they're housed in ordinary CD jewel cases, they fit nicely in amongst your CD collection. Go ahead, search eBay for "vcd" (or visit retail sites VCDCD.com and VCDGallery.com, though please note I haven't shopped at either of these sites so I can't personally vouch for their service -- caveat emptor) and see what you might find ... but check the compatibility of your DVD player or computer first to make sure you'll be able to watch what you buy!