VCD

Real world article

(written from a production point of view)

VCD (Video CD also referred to as View CD or Compact Disc Digital Video) is an optical home media format and the first format which distributed motion pictures on the standard 120mm optical discs and was the hoped-for replacement for the VHS magnetic videotape. Introduced at the start of the 1990s by Philips, it was a further development of the music Compact Disc (CD), also developed by Philips, whose compression technology served as the basis for the new format. Compared to later 120mm optical storage formats like the DVD and Blu-ray Disc, storage capacity was limited, resulting in features that were typically spread over two discs with picture quality comparable to the contemporary LaserDisc format competitor.

Early releases were on the VCD variant, the CD-i disc, which was only playable on Philips' own CD-i player, before a industry standard was agreed upon in 1993. Philips had made a grave error in marketing their players in that a cartridge had to be separately purchased before a CD-i movie was playable, which became a major contributing factor to the commercial failure of the product. It was not the first time Phillips exhibited very poor judgement in their marketing strategies, and the company had actually to set something straight; previously, believing that their technologically far superior Video 2000 videotape would sell itself, it was in effect the very first one to fall early on in the magnetic videotape format war, ultimately decided in the favor of the poorest in quality one, the VHS.

The commercial failure of the CD-i player meant that the VCD format did not gain any traction in North America, Europe and Australia, though there were several additional reasons as well, aside from the one already mentioned, chief amongst them the advent of the qualitative superior DVD format (ironically co-developed by Philips), introduced hard on the heels of the VCD. Ultimately, Philips released around 125 titles, including seven Star Trek titles, in the aforementioned markets, before they threw in their lot with DVD in the latter half of the 1990s.

VCD however, was a commercial success in regions where average per capita income was substantially lower than in the developed western world, such as Russia, Turkey, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, the Indian subcontinent, mainland China, as well as Central and South East Asia (published under Deltamac), due to the relatively low cost of both players and discs. It turned out that the format became successful in the more affluent Asian territories as well, to wit Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, South Korea and even Japan to a certain extent – which however, became also the first of those regions to fully transition to the DVD. It explained why the majority of the older DVD players, the Japanese and Korean brands in particular, were still capable of playing the format long after the format had disappeared from the western markets. In recent years however, VCD started as of 2011 to rapidly lose market share to DVD in these areas due to the fall of DVD prices, they themselves losing market share to the Blu-ray Disc and, more recently and more importantly, to the rapidly increasing worldwide popularity of the digital video-on-demand streaming services by such companies as, most conspicuously, Netflix. This is emphasized by the fact that most of the newer generations of DVD/Blu-ray players no longer support the format. Whether or not by design or by coincidence, this has also helped to thwart the circumstance that the VCD had in the intervening years become the medium of choice for the dissemination of pirated copies, especially in Africa and eastern Asia where the problem of piracy was particularly pervasive.

Star Trek release chronology

One of the studios Philips obtained licenses from was Paramount Pictures and, starting in 1993, began to release the Star Trek films in the new format in Europe and North America. The first release was Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, concurrently one of the very first titles released in the new format, which for the US, UK, France, and Germany was pressed on the CD-i disc variant, whereas the rest of Europe received the proper VCD variant. In the end, before the format was abandoned seven titles were released in America and Europe. While no longer a viable format in these markets, Star Trek titles continued to be released on VCD well into the 2010s in those regions where the format was still in use.

Date	Country	Product released
1993
October	US	Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
1994
Unknown	US	Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
Unknown	Europe	Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
1995
Unknown	US	Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
18 July	US	Star Trek Generations
Unknown	Europe	Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Star Trek Generations
1996
Unknown	Italy Sweden	Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Star Trek Generations
2001
21 April	Hong Kong	Star Trek: Insurrection
17 May	Hong Kong	Star Trek: First Contact
30 July	Hong Kong	Star Trek Generations
10 August	Hong Kong	Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
22 August	Hong Kong	Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
27 November	Hong Kong	Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
27 December	Hong Kong	Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Unknown	Indonesia	Star Trek: First Contact
Unknown	Malaysia	The Star Trek Collection
2002
24 May	Hong Kong	Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Unknown	Indonesia	Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Unknown	Malaysia	Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Star Trek Generations, Star Trek: First Contact
Unknown	Turkey	Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
2003
May	India	Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek Generations
Unknown	India	Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Unknown	Malaysia	Star Trek: Insurrection, Star Trek Nemesis, Trekkies
Unknown	Taiwan	Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Star Trek Nemesis; Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country re-released
Unknown	Turkey	Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Star Trek Generations
2004
26 April	Hong Kong	Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
5 May	Hong Kong	Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Star Trek Generations, Star Trek: First Contact re-released
3 June	Hong Kong	Star Trek Nemesis
Unknown	India	Trekkies
2005
18 July	China	Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
2009
May	India	Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home re-released
28 October	India	Star Trek
29 October	Hong Kong Thailand	Star Trek
30 October	Malaysia Philippines Turkey	Star Trek
2013
12 September	Thailand	Star Trek Into Darkness
29 September	India	Star Trek Into Darkness
4 October	Hong Kong	Star Trek Into Darkness
Unknown	Malaysia	Star Trek Into Darkness
Unknown
Unknown	China	Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Star Trek Generations, Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: Insurrection, Star Trek Nemesis
Unknown	Indonesia	Star Trek Generations, Star Trek: Insurrection, Star Trek Nemesis
Unknown	Philippines	Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Star Trek Generations
Unknown	Taiwan	Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Star Trek Generations, Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: Insurrection
Unknown	Thailand	Star Trek: Insurrection, Star Trek Nemesis
Unknown	Turkey	Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: Insurrection, Star Trek Nemesis

External links

• Video CD at Wikipedia
• An overview of released VCD titles in the US and UK