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Useful Information
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Useful Info
Info from Jem
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PAL Video: |
 (real size sample) |
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NTSC/NTSC Film Video: |
 (real size sample) |
and even more technical details about VCD 1.1 and VCD 2.0:
Video CD 1.1
This is the most basic Video CD specification dating back to 1993 4 , which has
the followingcharacteristics:
One mode 2 mixed form ISO-9660 track containing file pointers to the
information areas.
Up to 98 multiplex-ed mpeg-1 audio/video streams or cd-da audio tracks.
Up to 500 mpeg sequence entry points used as chapter divisions.
The Video CD specification requires the multiplex-ed mpeg-1 stream to have a cbr
of less than 174300 bytes (1394400 bits) per second 5 in order to accommodate
single speed cd-rom drives. The specification allows for the following two
resolutions 6 :
352 x 240 @ 29.97 Hz (ntsc sif).
352 x 240 @ 23.976 Hz (film sif).
The cbr mpeg-1, layer II audio stream is fixed at 224 kbps with 1 stereo or 2
mono channels.It is recommended to keep the video bit-rate under 1151929.1 bps
7.
Video CD 2.0
About two years after the Video CD 1.1 specification came out, an improved Video
CD 2.0 standard was published in 1995. This one added the following items to the
features already available in the Video CD 1.1 specification:
Support for mpeg segment play items (SPI ), consisting of still pictures,
motion pictures and/or audio (only) streams was added. See Section 1.6.2
[Segment Items], page 9.
Support for interactive playback control (PBC) was added.
Support for playing related access by providing a scan point index file was
added.(/EXT/SCANDATA.DAT)
Support for closed captions.
Support for mixing ntsc and pal content.
By adding PAL support to the Video CD 1.1 specification, the following
resolutions became
available:
352 x 240 @ 29.97 Hz (ntsc sif).
352 x 240 @ 23.976 Hz (film sif).
352 x 288 @ 25 Hz (pal sif).
For segment play items the following audio encodings became available:
Joint stereo, stereo or dual channel audio streams at 128, 192, 224 or 384
kbit/sec bit-rate.
Mono audio streams at 64, 96 or 192 kbit/sec bit-rate.
CDR Dye Types
The individual burner reviews on both CDRLabs and
CDR-Info show results with various CDR brands:
http://www.cdrlabs.com/index.php and
http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Hardware/All.asp
There are three basic dye types:
Cyanine easy to record to but the shortest shelf life.
Phthalocyanine long lasting and harder to record to. Usually on expensive gold
CDRs
AZO special deep blue long lasting found only on Verbatim CDRs.
Most crappy CDRs are cyanine, but there are excellent cyanine CDs as well. Taiyo
Yuden holds the patent and makes excellent CDs. Fuji and Sony CDRs are all made
by either Fuji, Sony or TY and all are good. Stick with those and you cant go
wrong.
Mitsui Gold CDs are the best current phthalocyanine based CDs available for long
term storage but are pricey. I got a couple hundred Kodak Ultras before Kodak
ran out, but they are hard to find now since Kodak stopped making CDRs.
Verbatim CDs are all made by their parent company and have a long lasting AZO
dye layer. If your burner writes to them they are the best bet for archive at a
reasonable price. The quality is consistently good.