Qu'est-ce (qui) est Video CDs - définition

Video CD (abbreviated as VCD, and also known as Compact Disc Digital Video) is a home video format and the first format for distributing films on standard 120 mm (4.7 in) optical discs. The format was widely adopted in Southeast Asia, South Asia, China, Hong Kong, Central Asia and the Middle East, superseding the VHS and Betamax systems in the regions until DVD-Video finally became affordable in the first decade of the 21st century.

The format is a standard digital data format for storing video on a compact disc. VCDs are playable in dedicated VCD players and widely playable in most DVD players, personal computers and some video game consoles. However, they are less playable in most Blu-ray Disc players, vehicle audio with DVD/Blu-ray support and video game consoles such as the Sony PlayStation and Xbox due to lack of backward compatibility for the older MPEG-1 format, inability to read MPEG-1 in .dat files alongside MPEG-1 in standard MPEG-1, AVI, and Matroska files, or inability to read CD-ROM XA discs. Some Laserdisc players that were released in the late 90s support VCD as well.

The Video CD standard was created in 1993 by Sony, Philips, Matsushita and JVC; it is referred to as the White Book standard. The MPEG-1 format was also released that same year.

Although they have been superseded by other media, as of 2022, VCDs continue to be retailed as a low-cost video format in developing territories, such as Africa and parts of Asia and South America.