To view on a DVD player which kind of CD do I burn - a VCD or SVCD?

Question

Video compact disk (VCD) or Super Video compact disk(SVCD). I cant burn DVD's as I dont have a DVD writer and my DVD player does not play DVDs for some reason.

Answer 1

i would go with the vcd the difference is mainly in the menus i believe. but if your dvd don't play dvds it might not play vcds either

Answer 2

1) SVCD is MPEG-2 based format, so if your video came from camcorder with interlaced structure, it will be better to use this format

2) SVCD have more pixels - 480x480 for NTSC and 480x576 for PAL instead of VCD NTSC 352x240 and VCD PAL 352x288, so for SVCD we have more lines - more visual quality, but it will require more video bitrate. At the same bitrate (equal as for VCD) - SVCD could give worst results.

3) VCD video bitrate is about 1150 kbit and it is fixed, on this bitrate SVCD will look poor - it is recommended to use higher bitrates for SVCD, about 2000 kbits, but this increasing will decrease final playback time. For VCD it is about 80 minutes for 700 MB CD-R, so for SVCD at 2000 kbits will be possible to record about 35-40 minutes.