Super Video Compact Disc (SVCD) is a format used for storing video on standard compact discs or CD-Rs. Picture and audio quality is less than that of the DVD format, but higher than its predecessor Video CD (VCD). Video is the technology of processing electronic signals representing moving pictures. ... Image of a recordable compact disc (pencil included for scale) A compact disc (or CD) is an optical disc used to store digital data, originally developed for storing digital audio. ... A CD_R (Compact Disc_Recordable) is a thin (1. ... DVD is an optical disc storage media format that can be used for storing data, including movies with high video and sound quality. ... Video CD or VCD is a standard format for storing video on a Compact Disc. ...

Technical specifications

SVCDs store digital video in MPEG-2 format at a resolution of 480x480 pixels (for NTSC) or 480x576 pixels (for PAL). There is no standard for a SECAM-format SVCD. MPEG-2 (1994) is the designation for a group of audio and video coding standards agreed upon by MPEG (Moving Pictures Experts Group), and published as ISO standard 13818. ... The display resolution of a digital television or computer display is the number of pixels (or maximal image resolution) that can be displayed on the screen, usually given as a product of the number of columns (horizontal, X) is always stated first and the number or rows (vertical, Y) make... A pixel (a contraction of picture element) is one of the many tiny dots that make up the representation of a picture in a computers memory. ... NTSC is the analog television system in use in the United States and many other countries, including most of the Americas and some parts of East Asia. ... For other meanings of PAL see PAL (disambiguation). ... SÉCAM (Séquentiel couleur à mémoire, French for sequential colour with memory) is an analog color television system first used in France. ...

Video may be encoded at a variable bit rate, up to 2.6 megabits per second. Audio is stored in MPEG Audio Layer 2 format, with a bit rate varying from 128 to 384 kilobits per second. With ordinary recordable CD-R media, approximately 35 to 60 minutes of video and audio can be stored. In telecommunications and computing, bit rate (sometimes written bitrate) is the frequency at which bits are passing a given (physical or metaphorical) point. It is quantified using the bit per second (bit/s) unit. ... Mega (symbol M) is a SI prefix in the SI system of units denoting a factor of 106, i. ... In telecommunications and computing, bit rate (sometimes written bitrate) is the frequency at which bits are passing a given (physical or metaphorical) point. It is quantified using the bit per second (bit/s) unit. ... Kilo (symbol: k) is a prefix in the SI system denoting 103 or 1,000. ...

The SVCD format has a number of advantages over VCD in addition to increased picture quality. SVCD discs can theoretically have up to 8 channels of audio (in a 7.1 arrangement) via the MPEG Multichannel surround sound format. However, most discs have only standard MPEG stereo (2.0), bilingual (1+1) or mono (1.0) channel audio, probably because of the lack of MPEG Multichannel-compliant hardware (especially in NTSC countries) and the space-constraints of CD-ROM media.

(Note that Dolby Digital, DTS and other surround sound formats are not used or supported with SVCD - only MPEG Multichannel. This may be because MPEG Multichannel was developed by Philips, who also co-developed the SVCD format, and is a competitor of other digital audio formats.) Description Dolby Digital is the trademarked marketing name for Dolby Laboratories lossy AC-3 codec. ... Data Technology Services is a growing software company in the southeastern United States, specializing in banking software, most notably, Image Wizard. ... Company logo Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Royal Philips Electronics), usually known as Philips, is one of the largest consumer electronics producers in the world. ...

Additionally, it has support for overlay subtitles and karaoke lyric highlighting, hyperlinks, and still-image slide shows with resolution up to 704x480 (NTSC) or 704x576 (PAL), very similar to DVD. In printed material In printed material, a subtitle is an explanatory or alternate title. ... This article is in need of attention. ... A hyperlink, or simply a link, is a reference in a hypertext document to another document or other resource. ... DVD is an optical disc storage media format that can be used for storing data, including movies with high video and sound quality. ...

SVCD resolution is slightly lower than Laserdisc's horizontal resolution of approximately 550 lines, though Laserdisc uses an analog signal which is measured and behaves differently than digital video. Regardless, as a digital medium, SVCD is less prone to signal degredation and other weaknesses of ageing analog recordings. Most casual users cannot tell the difference between a good SVCD and a DVD, primarily due to the typical composite-signal television often used for playback being the quality bottleneck. Pioneers LaserDisc Logo The Laserdisc (LD) was the first commercial optical disc storage medium, and was used primarily for the presentation of movies. ... Composite video is the format of an analog television signal before it is modulated onto an RF carrier. ... An American family watching television in the 1950s. ... A bottleneck is literally the neck of a glass or pottery bottle. ...

Due its rather rare video resolution, SVCD movies can't be easily converted into DVD-Video format without re-encoding, although various ways are available that allow hacking the MPEG video headers in order to fool the DVD players to think that the video's resolution is one of DVD-Video standard's resolutions. Additional difficulties are posed by the fact that NTSC DVD-Video standard doesn't officially support MPEG Audio Layer 2 as its audio format. DVD is an optical disc storage media format that is used for playback of movies with high video and sound quality and for storing data. ...

History of development

Super Video CD was originally developed by the government-backed China Recording Standards Committee, under direction from the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry, as an enhancement to the Video CD format. One of the motivating factors in its development was the need for an alternative to the DVD format that would not be restricted by technology royalties. The Chinese government was concerned that the DVD format was too tightly controlled by foreign companies, and that a significant opportunity existed for the development of a domestic format that could deliver comparable quality without the restrictions of DVD. It was also hoped that SVCD's development would help to drive down the cost of consumer DVD players and DVD licensing fees in China. Royalty may refer to either: the royal family of a country with a monarchy royalties the payment made to the owner of a copyright, patent, or trademark, for the use thereof This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

SVCD started as one of three independent efforts to solve these problems. The other two were China Video Disc (CVD), developed by C-Cube Microsystems, and High-Quality Video CD (HQ-VCD), developed by the Video CD Consortium, consisting of Philips, Sony, Matsushita and JVC, that created the original Video CD specification. CVD was first out of the gate, and had completed its specification before the other two had even reached a draft stage. The Ministry of Information and Video CD Consortium agreed to join forces, incorporating the features of HQ-VCD under a unified SVCD format, but by the time their specification was ready in July 1998, CVD had already been adopted by major manufacturers of VCD players. In order to maintain compatibility, CVD was also brought under the unified SVCD format, resulting in the Chaoji Video CD specification in November 1998. Chaoji Video CD, or Chaoji VCD, is roughly synonymous with Super VCD. A Super VCD player must be able to play a variety of formats, including SVCD, CVD, VCD 2.0, VCD 1.1 and CD-DA discs. The China Video Disc (CVD), developed in the late 1990s, is a Chinese government-sponsored competitor to the SVCD standard. ... Company logo Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Royal Philips Electronics), usually known as Philips, is one of the largest consumer electronics producers in the world. ... Sony Corporation (Japanese katakana: ソニー) (NYSE: SNE) is a consumer electronics corporation based in Tokyo, Japan. ... Logo for the Panasonic brand Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. ... Victor Company of Japan, or (Japan Victor Company) JVC, is a large international corporation headquartered in Yokohama, Japan, which produces audio, video, and consumer electronics products. ... 1998 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ...

SVCD is under consideration for IEC standardization, so SVCD will likely become recognized internationally as a standard CD format, just as the Compact Disc and Video CD formats already are. Philips has already added an SVCD logo to its canon of official Compact Disc logos. SVCD titles are available commercially in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and several other Asian countries; whether the SVCD standard will enjoy commercial success outside of Asia remains to be seen, however. In the Western world, the format is more commonly used to store home videos or movies copied from DVD and Laserdisc. The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a standards organization dealing with electrical, electronic and related technologies. ...

External links

• Technical Explanation of SVCD (http://www.xp-media.com/svcd.pdf)
• AfterDawn's SVCD guides (http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/)
• VideoHelp (http://www.videohelp.com/)