What is VCDHD?

Now, you may have heard of VCD but  have you heard of VCDHD?

Chances are you may not have. This could be because this VCD format may not be or may not have been popular in your country.

VCDHD stands for Versatile Compact Disc High Density.

VCDHD was first announced in March 2006 by Sprout CD of Ukraine, Russia-based Antrop-Studio, and the Dutch firm, VDL ODMS, possibly as a rival to DVD.



During its heyday, VCDHD was  popular in such countries as Japan, Poland and Netherlands.

In some instances VCDHD was  marketed as DVHD, to avoid the perception that anything with VCD attached to it is equivalent to  inferior quality.

Incidentally, in Polski it's called Płyta DVHD.

VCDHD has a storage capacity of 4.7 GB. This is about the storage capacity of a DVD, single-layer, that is.

Also, a VCDHD could be played back in any DVD player.

So, why opt for VCDHD when DVD is so freely available?

Here are some of VCDHD's standout advantages:

• It offers better resistance when it comes to scratches compared to DVD.
• VCDHD's thickness is only 0,6mm. DVD has a thickness of 1,2mm.
• It has a high degree of elasticity and handles extreme bending well. In other words, it has good bending strength.

• Lower manufacturing costs. It took about 2 seconds to manufacture a VCDHD. DVD takes about 6 seconds.
• The defect percentage of VCDHD is only about 1%.
• Manufacturing of VCDHD doesn't need a DVD licence.
• It works on almost all DVD drives.

 VCDHD used to be popular in such countries as Poland, Russia and Ukraine.