Question: What is the difference between DVD and Video CD?
The Video CD format (or VCD for short) has been around longer than DVD, but has not enjoyed the same popularity as the DVD format. To explore the differences between Video CDs and DVDs, I've written the following FAQ: What is the difference between DVD and Video CD?
Answer: Both DVDs and Video CDs are capable of storing digital video. The quality and length of the digital video that they store is the major difference between the two.
Video CD (VCD) digital video is compressed using the MPEG-1 codec. MPEG-1 video compression is comparable to VHS quality video and can be played back in any DVD player or DVD playback software capable of decompressing MPEG-1 video. VCDs can be said to be about the quality of a VHS videotape, and can hold approximately one hour of digital video.
DVD digital video is compressed using the MPEG-2 codec. MPEG-2 video compression is comparable to DVD quality video and can be played back in all DVD players or DVD playback software. DVDs can hold two hours of digital video (or more, see the article, DVD Sizes, What is DVD-5, DVD-10, DVD-9, DVD-18 and Double Layer DVDs? for more info). Without getting too technical, MPEG-2 compression is higher quality compression than MPEG-1 and results in a much higher picture quality for DVDs than Video CDs.
The bottom line on DVDs vs. VCDs is that DVDs can hold at least double the amount of digital video as VCDs, and is a higher quality recording. VCDs are great when you want to make lots of copies of a particular video to share, and quality is not an issue. Overall, you'll want to stick with DVDs for most of your video recordings.