What is Super Video-CD?
Super video CD, or SVCD, is a video format that can be used to create movies, slideshows or other video presentations on standard compact discs. Compact discs, or CDs, have the advantage of being inexpensive and readily available. Also, once burned, SVCDs will play in most computers and many standalone DVD players.SVCD vs. VCDThe SVCD format differs from its predecessor, the VCD, in that it offers higher quality video. This higher quality comes at a price though; super video CDs will hold 35 to 60 minutes of video on a standard 700 megabyte CD versus as many as 80 minutes for a VCD.FormatSVCDs employ a video codec called MPEG2 that allows for video quality that produces a 480 x 480 picture with a standard film-quality frame rate of 29fps. This produces a picture quality that falls between VHS tape and DVD.AudioFull Dolby 5.1 surround sound is available on SVCDs, as are separate stereo channels and mono sound.Menus and Extra FeaturesSVCDs may also be created with options common to DVDs.
for more information. 6.8 What is Super Video-CD Super Video-CD is an extension to the Video-CD specification, set up by the original Video-CD licensees (Philips, Sony, JVC and Matsushita) in 1999. Super Video-CD uses DVD-quality MPEG-2 video on a standard CD which runs at variable bit rates up to double speed (2.8 kbps). This allows for 35 to 70 minutes of high quality video on a regular CD. Super Video-CD allows for a cheap way of making discs that are playable on compatible DVD-Video players using a regular CD-Recorder. Since Super Video-CD uses MPEG-2 video compression instead of MPEG-1 that is used in CD-i, and because of the fact that the disc can be played up to double speed of which a CD-i player is not capable, a Super Video-CD cannot be played on a CD-i player. Therefore, the CD-i application that is mandatory for Video-CD is not available on a Super Video-CD. A very nice website with more information about Super Video-CD (among others) can be found at www.iki.fi/znark/video/
