What
is a video cd?
A
video cd is a movie, or any sequence of pictures and sound stored by
MPEG1 which is recorded onto a CD Rom. A video cd can store about 1
hour of a movie, so most video cd movies come on 2 disks some longer
films come on 3 disks.
What
about DVD?
Until
the cost of DVD's comes down I recommend buying video cd movies. Especially
if you have a quality computer system to play them on and particularly
since there are no region locks on video cd Movies. |
Who
make the movies?
The
movies are made by large movie companies in the first place and
then they are pressed onto video cd's and are distributed by companies
like Berjaya HVN, Movie Magic, wawansan videovan and Speed (Warner
Bros) under licence to the movie makers.
The
films are all the latest releases as seen at the cinemas and some
TV series such as friends and Ally Mc Beal are also included as
are pop videos. The videocds are only cut to conform with Malaysias
strict censorship laws which forbid unclothed scenes. Some films
are available in widescreen format although this is quite limited. |
How
do they get so much on to a CD?
I
would like to say it's down to fairy magic but technology provides
the answers. The movie pictures are cleverly compressed by a format
known as MPEG 1 encoding.
(DVD
movies use the latest Mpeg 2 encoding which is less compressed
but offers exceptional quality - look out for the new Super video-cd
as it offers near Mpeg 2 quality and is almost as compressed as
mpeg 1.) Basically instead of storing every single part of the
picture only the bits of a picture that are different to the previous
frame are stored. This drastically cuts down the size of the movie. |
Can
I Buy video cd's in the UK?
Unfortunately
there are very few original english movies available on video cd format.
(This is probably because CDi machines and video cd players never really
caught on.) Our index does contain links to a couple of stores
that sell english video cd movies.
Please
note that it is illegal to sell a movie in the UK which has not
been rated by the BBFC. This is why there are no shops in the
UK to my knowledge that legally sell video cd's or region 1 DVD's from
other countries. |
Is it illegal to import them into the UK?
It is not illegal to import a non BBFC rated movie into the UK
as long as it does not contain obscene footage and does not contain
banned material, providing that it is for personal use only. It
may be illegal to export a video cd from it's country of origin unless
this is done under licence.
The Best video cd Import stores.
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Where
can you buy a video cd movie to import into the UK?
The
most popular country of Origin is Malaysia. Most video cd's come from
Asia and most of the suppliers listed on this site come from Penang
in Malaysia.
There
are some suppliers from Hong Kong and Indonesia that also supply
video cd's but before ordering I strongly recommend that you verify
that the video cd's you buy are in English and not with english subtitles. |
What
about Pirate or Bootleg video cd's?
Pirate
and Bootleg video cd's are sold all over the Internet. Some shops sell
both Legal and Bootleg video cd's. Some pirate video cd's are sold from
the bedrooms of teenagers who have copied their favourite video
onto a CDR disk and try to flog it for a few quid to their mates!
Do not buy Bootlegs as the quality is usually very bad
- comparable to an over used ex rental video cassette. As recording
and printing equpment has become more sophisticated the bootleg
video cd's are not easy to spot. |
Spotting Pirate video cd's!
Things
to look out for.
- Spelling
mistakes on the title page or movie description along with blurred
or smudged pictures.
- Bootleg
video cd's have no Malaysian censorship and classification stickers
on the back. This sticker is separate from the video cd cover it
is never printed on the same page as the video cd movie Cover. The
certificate is called the b-certificate and some Malaysian suppliers
do not sell video cd movies with the B certificates on if they are
exporting to the USA or Europe. (Always ask for the B-Certificate
as a quality assurance and to prevent fraudulent use of them.)
- All
video cd's are censored and cut and bad language is completely cut
on a legal Malaysian video cd. Bootleg video cd's are usually made from
imported video cassettes or footage taken from a camera smuggled
into a movie theatre.
- Pirate
video cds are recorded on gold, blue or green CD's which do not always
play in DVD drives and on CD rom drives.
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How
to play video cd movies.
- DVD
Players - (Most players will play video cd's make sure they have
Videocd or video cd logo's on them - or check in the instructions.)
- video cd
Players - (There are specific video cd players and video cd/MP3 players
available on the market. This includes CDi machines and CDi
machines equipped with a digital video cartridge.)
- Playstations
- (Playstation 1 needs special plug in decoder hardware to play
video cd's. Playstation 2 can play DVD so it may also play video cd's
- please check this out first - I cannot get a PSX2 to try out.
- Sega
Saturn and Dreamcast -I don't know - I would have thought
that it was possible but I have seen no hardware or software
to enable video cd playback!
- PC's
and Apple Mac's All modern computers can play video cd's if they
have a compatible CD Rom or DVD Drive. (Mimimum spec Pentium
166 MMX for smooth playback with a decent graphics card and
6 or 8 speed drive.)
Due
to differing voltages and TV formats (PAL, NTSC etc) I recommend
buying hardware from your own country.
For
help getting video cd's to play click here: |
Running
video cd on a PC
Microsoft
Media player will happily run most video cd movies although some may
not work - particularly if scratched or those that have heacy
copy protection. You can use almost any type of DVD player software
to run them. I recommend Cyberlink Power DVD.
If your graphics card is fairly modern you will
probably find that it comes with a DVD or at least an MPEG player
which should give excellent results. Also many sound cards, dvd
drives, cd roms and even new computer systems come with an mpeg
decoder nowadays. It seems good advice to use anything that came
with your hardware as this will be optimised for the best results.
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I
also have an IBM 760XD laptop which comes with an exellent mpeg
player which is far superior to microsoft media player. (I also
upgraded media player and actually got worse playback (I assume
because of the extra features that take more processing power
than the Pentium 166 was able to give.) |
Where
can I get a video cd player from?
Here
are links to various video cd and Mpeg players for your computer -
some are free to download some are evaluation copies and some
must be purchased before they can be used - please see the details
on the sites you are directed to. |
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Buy
Legal video cd's from the following sources and you will not be disappointed.
I have used them all and have rankd them according to price and
service given. I continually monitor the service and actively
encourage feedback. I will also update this site to show the latest
offers and special promotions.
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