What Is Video Compact Disc (VCD)?

Do you know what's better than watching a movie? Watching that very same movie on a video compact disc from the comfort of your home couch and a bucket of popcorn on your lap! A video compact disc, or VCD, is a digital video format used for storing video on standard compact discs. It's just like a regular CD, but with more of the things you love about videos, the ability to see them in high resolution and without any commercials! VCDs have been around since the late 80s when they were first introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show by Philips and JVC. They quickly became popular because they were easy to use and easy to access (you could play them on your VCR!), and they were less expensive than other formats like Laserdisc or DVD. Unfortunately, their popularity was short-lived, by the mid-'90s, they had become outdated due to technological improvements and competition from other formats like DVD. Yet there are still plenty of VCD players if you want one! If you're a music fan, you've probably heard of the "MP3 crisis" that befell the recording industry in the late 90s. The advent of digital music meant that people could buy and play their favorite songs without paying for them, which caused many artists to lose out on royalties. Similarly, video compact discs (VCDs) were invented to distribute movies digitally, but they didn't catch on because they were easy to copy and distribute illegally. This made VCDs less popular than DVDs and other formats, with better security measures against unauthorized copying. However, VCDs had one advantage over CDs: they could store up to 120 minutes of digital video content (double the amount of content that could fit on VHS tapes) at a higher quality than what was possible on VHS tapes.