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My mate got some VCDs from Thailand the other day quoting how cheap they were, about £2.50 per disc. So I borrowed them to see what they played like and they are nowhere near as good as the standard DVDs available here or elsewhere in the world.
From my experience these are some of the problems I encountered with VCDs:
Very poor picture quality in comparison to DVDs nowadays. These ones looked like they were copied from a video even though they had official packaging and had “digitally enhanced” labels on the front.
Cannot not store the whole film on one disc and so had to insert disc two after about an hour. This seemed to be the norm with these discs only capable of storing one hour’s data. A frustrating problem of older DVDs such as Armageddon.
Useless cases that are more like little plastic wallets that tear very easily.
Very little details about the films.
No menu to help you select where to start in the film.
Worst of all were the English subtitles on an English speaking film. No matter how hard I tried to get them off the screen it was not possible and you subconsciously end up reading the film and then realise you have missed large parts of what was on screen. It’s not so bad with a foreign language as subtitles because you don’t understand it and don’t get drawn to them at the bottom of the screen.
The words were not in sync with the movements of the actor’s lips, which is another annoying feature.
On the whole not a very good viewing experience – however they are a lot cheaper than DVDs in the UK but it is so much better to pay the extra to get the enhanced viewing experience. I would imagine that these were some sort of copy but if proper VCDs carry some of the above problems such as changing the disc then they will still not be as good as DVDs. My advice is to stay away. It would be interesting to hear if other people have suffered the same problems or whether I was just unlucky, at the moment I am definitely sticking with DVD as it does not take much longer to get the films released on DVD these days.
From my experience these are some of the problems I encountered with VCDs:
Very poor picture quality in comparison to DVDs nowadays. These ones looked like they were copied from a video even though they had official packaging and had “digitally enhanced” labels on the front.
Cannot not store the whole film on one disc and so had to insert disc two after about an hour. This seemed to be the norm with these discs only capable of storing one hour’s data. A frustrating problem of older DVDs such as Armageddon.
Useless cases that are more like little plastic wallets that tear very easily.
Very little details about the films.
No menu to help you select where to start in the film.
Worst of all were the English subtitles on an English speaking film. No matter how hard I tried to get them off the screen it was not possible and you subconsciously end up reading the film and then realise you have missed large parts of what was on screen. It’s not so bad with a foreign language as subtitles because you don’t understand it and don’t get drawn to them at the bottom of the screen.
The words were not in sync with the movements of the actor’s lips, which is another annoying feature.
On the whole not a very good viewing experience – however they are a lot cheaper than DVDs in the UK but it is so much better to pay the extra to get the enhanced viewing experience. I would imagine that these were some sort of copy but if proper VCDs carry some of the above problems such as changing the disc then they will still not be as good as DVDs. My advice is to stay away. It would be interesting to hear if other people have suffered the same problems or whether I was just unlucky, at the moment I am definitely sticking with DVD as it does not take much longer to get the films released on DVD these days.
I haven't got one good thing to say about VCDs either! They are completely useless! I've got three of the cheap and nasty little things, one of them is Gladiator.
Tragically, the first time I ever watched Gladiator was on VCD, I fell in love with the movie straight away but watching it on VCD was a complete let down. The worst thing is that the movie cut off just before the end, just as Russell Crowe fell to the floor. This left me totally stumped, wandering whether or not he was dead. I was devistated to say the least!
Watching this movie on VCD ruined a truly excellent film for me and I have since bought it on DVD, which I must say is a 100% improvement (and I've seen the 'whole' film now!).
Yes VCDs are very cheap, but if you ask me, I think they're still a total rip-off!
Tragically, the first time I ever watched Gladiator was on VCD, I fell in love with the movie straight away but watching it on VCD was a complete let down. The worst thing is that the movie cut off just before the end, just as Russell Crowe fell to the floor. This left me totally stumped, wandering whether or not he was dead. I was devistated to say the least!
Watching this movie on VCD ruined a truly excellent film for me and I have since bought it on DVD, which I must say is a 100% improvement (and I've seen the 'whole' film now!).
Yes VCDs are very cheap, but if you ask me, I think they're still a total rip-off!
I completely agree with your comments. As of late, my old man as took it upon himself to purchase some VCD's and one of them being Castaway. This is the first VCD I have seen and the last! The words were out of sync with the movements which is so annoying you wouldn't believe. Also the quality is very poor to say the least. I was annoyed at all this but what took the biscuit was the fact that it just stops half way through waiting for you to insert disk 2. Now, I know i sound like an old misery guts here but this is also annoying. You are nestled nicely into your chair, very comfortable but then you have to get up and change the disk. If anyone was thinking of getting some VCD's, my advice is DONT! DVD's are about a million times better and are certainly worth the extra money.
My mate got some VCDs from Thailand the other day quoting how cheap they were, about £2.50 per disc. So I borrowed them to see what they played like and they are nowhere near as good as the standard DVDs available here or elsewhere in the world.
From my experience these are some of the problems I encountered with VCDs:
Very poor picture quality in comparison to DVDs nowadays. These ones looked like they were copied from a video even though they had official packaging and had “digitally enhanced” labels on the front.
Cannot not store the whole film on one disc and so had to insert disc two after about an hour. This seemed to be the norm with these discs only capable of storing one hour’s data. A frustrating problem of older DVDs such as Armageddon.
Useless cases that are more like little plastic wallets that tear very easily.
Very little details about the films.
No menu to help you select where to start in the film.
Worst of all were the English subtitles on an English speaking film. No matter how hard I tried to get them off the screen it was not possible and you subconsciously end up reading the film and then realise you have missed large parts of what was on screen. It’s not so bad with a foreign language as subtitles because you don’t understand it and don’t get drawn to them at the bottom of the screen.
The words were not in sync with the movements of the actor’s lips, which is another annoying feature.
On the whole not a very good viewing experience – however they are a lot cheaper than DVDs in the UK but it is so much better to pay the extra to get the enhanced viewing experience. I would imagine that these were some sort of copy but if proper VCDs carry some of the above problems such as changing the disc then they will still not be as good as DVDs. My advice is to stay away. It would be interesting to hear if other people have suffered the same problems or whether I was just unlucky, at the moment I am definitely sticking with DVD as it does not take much longer to get the films released on DVD these days.
From my experience these are some of the problems I encountered with VCDs:
Very poor picture quality in comparison to DVDs nowadays. These ones looked like they were copied from a video even though they had official packaging and had “digitally enhanced” labels on the front.
Cannot not store the whole film on one disc and so had to insert disc two after about an hour. This seemed to be the norm with these discs only capable of storing one hour’s data. A frustrating problem of older DVDs such as Armageddon.
Useless cases that are more like little plastic wallets that tear very easily.
Very little details about the films.
No menu to help you select where to start in the film.
Worst of all were the English subtitles on an English speaking film. No matter how hard I tried to get them off the screen it was not possible and you subconsciously end up reading the film and then realise you have missed large parts of what was on screen. It’s not so bad with a foreign language as subtitles because you don’t understand it and don’t get drawn to them at the bottom of the screen.
The words were not in sync with the movements of the actor’s lips, which is another annoying feature.
On the whole not a very good viewing experience – however they are a lot cheaper than DVDs in the UK but it is so much better to pay the extra to get the enhanced viewing experience. I would imagine that these were some sort of copy but if proper VCDs carry some of the above problems such as changing the disc then they will still not be as good as DVDs. My advice is to stay away. It would be interesting to hear if other people have suffered the same problems or whether I was just unlucky, at the moment I am definitely sticking with DVD as it does not take much longer to get the films released on DVD these days.