Super Video CD (aka SVCD, Super VCD or Chaoji VCD) is an enhancement to Video CD that was developed by a Chinese government-backed committee of manufacturers and researchers, partly to sidestep DVD technology royalties and partly to create pressure for lower DVD player and disc prices in China. The final SVCD spec, set by the China National Committee of Recording Standards, was announced in September 1998, winning out over C-Cube's China Video Disc (CVD) and HQ-VCD (from the developers of the original Video CD).

As always, the background story is a bit more complicated than how it appears in brief summaries like the above. First of all, why was there such a big interest in creating a new CD-based video disc format for China, at the time when the rest of the world was already preparing to accept DVD as the "next generation" digital video delivery format?

It all comes down to the following three reasons:

• The prevailing success of the original (White Book) Video CD format. In 1995 there were less than 1 million hardware VCD players sold in China. In 1996 there were already 6.5 million. The 1997 estimates ballooned to 18...20 million units. It was quite clear that at this high adoption rate, people would also be willing to purchase the 2nd generation video disc players (with better image quality and more features), once they should come available. This would be a huge market opportunity for anyone who could deliver the goods first.
• The political objectives of the Chinese government. It was decided that DVD - while undoubtedly a good technical specification as such - is all too tightly controlled by DVD Consortium, a closed body of foreign companies. The Chinese government did not quite like the idea that the domestic home electronics industry would have to pay royalties to foreign companies in order to manufacture next generation video disc products for Chinese people. It was calculated that creating a royalty-free, full-fledged video disc format on their own would be a major long-term win for the domestic industry. Moreover, this was also considered an issue of national pride; an opportunity to flex some technical muscle, and to send a clear signal to the outside world that China has enough critical mass to be able to ignore foreign entertainment standards it does not want to conform to. (Chinese politicians and researchers are now keen to celebrate SVCD as the first international high-tech standard that has been developed in China.) Finally, it was also thought that a Chinese video disc standard would help in pressuring the DVD Consortium to keep the licensing fees down, at least for the Chinese market.
• The "luxury" status of DVD. In the western countries, DVD is still considered an expensive luxury format - mainly intended to part serious movie enthusiasts from their money. If you buy a DVD player, you're also supposed to invest inordinate amounts of money in so-called "home theatre" equipment. People have much more practical approach to video disc formats in China - after all, there White Book VCDs have long been an everyday format, not unlike VHS is here. It was quite obvious right from the beginning that the next generation Chinese video disc format just had to be based on the tested and proven Compact Disc media for it to be affordable enough.

There were originally three independent efforts of bringing the next-generation video disc standard to the Chinese market:

• China Video Disc (CVD), developed by C-Cube Microsystems and its Chinese OEM partners
• Super Video CD (SVCD), developed by China Recording Standards Committee under the requirements given by Chinese Ministry of Information Industry, with technical support from ESS Technology
• High-Quality Video CD (HQ-VCD), developed by the Video CD Consortium (consisting of Philips, Sony, Matsushita and JVC, the companies that created the original White Book Video CD specification)

C-Cube got a healthy head start, mostly because it was already an established subcontractor in the Chinese VCD player market. The company naturally wanted to retain its market leader position also with the 2nd generation video disc technology. Since most of the White Book VCD players were based on C-Cube's MPEG decoder chipset, the company was able to develop its own next-generation standard in close co-operation with major Chinese hardware manufacturers. The development of the CVD specification began in 1997 and the first CVD players were released on the market in June 1998, while SVCD and HQ-VCD specifications were still at a draft stage.

This move apparently created some panic in the SVCD and HQ-VCD camps, especially since creating a national 2nd generation video disc standard of its own was at a high priority in the government's interests.

The result was that the government - which had up until this moment mostly pursued its own efforts, and ignored the competition - changed its position and agreed to back the creators of the rivalling HQ-VCD specification. This agreement was made on the condition that the respective feature sets of HQ-VCD and SVCD would be unified into a single standard that would still go by the name 'SVCD', and that the government-backed committee had a final say on the details. The deal was actually a big win to the Video CD Consortium (i.e. Philips-Sony-Matsushita-JVC) since they were late players in this game to begin with.

The co-operation between Chinese Ministry of Information Industry and Video CD Consortium was announced in July 1998, and the final SVCD spec was released shortly thereafter. Thus, the current SVCD spec is actually a fusion of features taken from the government's original SVCD spec and the VCD Consortium's HQ-VCD spec.

However, most of the big VCD player manufacturers in China were backing C-Cube's CVD standard, and there were already approximately 300 000 to 600 000 CVD players in the distribution channels. It was considered necessary not to alienate C-Cube and the manufacturers who had already put so much effort in the CVD standard. To resolve this problem, the Department of Science and Technology of Ministry of Information Industry forced a compromise in incorporating CVD and SVCD under a single umbrella format called "Chaoji Video CD" in November 1998.

"Chaoji VCD" (which roughly translates to 'Super VCD') is not actually a new disc format, but more like a compatibility specification for players. A Chaoji VCD player must be able to play back at least SVCD, CVD, VCD 2.0, VCD 1.1 and CD-DA discs.

Today, all of the so-called 'SVCD' players in production are actually Chaoji VCD players. Despite the mandatory CVD support, it is conceivable that the actual CVD format will be (already is?) orphaned in favor of SVCD. As far as I know, there are no features in the CVD format that would not also exist in the SVCD specification.

SVCD is currently in the process of IEC standardisation (see IEC document title "IEC 62107"). This means that SVCD is about to become an internationally recognized CD standard (just like Video CD 2.0 or CD-DA already are), although it is uncertain whether it will actually find commercial applications outside China and nearby countries.

SVCD titles are currently commercially available at least in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and India (please mail me if you know more).

Philips (the inventor of the original audio CD) has added an SVCD logo to their collection of official Compact Disc logos Super Video CD specification 1.0 can be ordered from Philips System Standards & Licensing at $200.

Lately, relatively cheap stand-alone DVD / SVCD / VCD / MP3 players have been appearing all over the western world. They are selling like hotcakes.

In terms of video and audio quality, SVCD is in between VCD 2.0 and DVD, using a 2x CD drive to support variable bitrate (VBR) MPEG-2 video up to 2.6 Mbps, and either 1 or 2 MPEG-2 Layer II stereo audio streams (for soundtracks in two different languages). It is also possible to use MPEG-2 Multi-Channel 5.1 surround audio encoding.

SVCD can deliver more than 2 times sharper video images (480x576 for PAL material, 480x480 for NTSC - commonly referred to as a "2/3 D1" resolution) than the previous VCD standard . Because of the increased vertical resolution, the interlaced nature of video signal is now also preserved. This results in smoother-looking motion for any video footage that was originally shot with a field-based video camera (as opposed to frame-based film or a "progressive frame mode" video camera).

SVCD supports 16:9 (anamorphic wide screen) image aspect ratio. (Actually, it has always been possible to store 16:9 material in anamorphic format - even on a VCD 2.0 disc or VHS tape - but maybe some SVCD players can now also tell the TV set to automatically switch to the right mode by using wide screen signalling methods.)

SVCD has extensive support for subtitling and karaoke lyrics color highlighting, neither of which were possible in VCD 2.0. An SVCD video stream can contain up to four independent subtitling channels for different languages. The subtitles are overlaid on the top of the video image in real time, which allows turning them on and off at will. Since the subtitles are stored as bitmap graphics, they are not tied to any particular script or character set.

Additionally, SVCD standard supports HTML style hyperlinks, still images (480x576 or 704x576 for PAL, 480x480 or 704x480 for NTSC), playlists/slideshows, multi-level hierarchical menus and chapters (indexing).

To sum it all up: SVCD discs can be used to deliver karaoke or music videos, movies, home videos, still image slide shows, product catalogs and games much the same way as VCD 2.0 discs. However, SVCD standard is not a direct superset of VCD 2.0 standard. It is not possible to use VCD 2.0 frame sizes or MPEG-1 video if you want to create a standard SVCD disc.

The typical running time of an SVCD disc (with full resolution and quality) is about 35-45 minutes, although it can be extended to over 70 minutes by compromising image and sound quality.

Stand-alone SVCD/VCD players are widely available in Far East. In most cases they are able to play at least SVCD, Interactive VCD, VCD 2.0, VCD 1.1, CD-i and CD-DA formats. Some of them even support MP3 CD-ROMs.

SVCD/VCD players cannot play DVDs, since they are not based on DVD drives. However, some models can be 'upgraded' to become a DVD player by swapping the CD drive with a DVD drive. This is due to the fact that most SVCD players use basically the same MPEG-2 engine and processor as their DVD counterparts.

As commercially produced SVCD titles will probably only be available in Far East, it is not very likely that stand-alone SVCD/VCD players would be released outside of China and nearby countries.

From technical viewpoint, it is relatively easy to make any DVD video player compatible with the SVCD standard. Most players would only require a firmware update from the manufacturer.

Asian manufacturers have indeed been shipping SVCD-compatible DVD players for their local markets quite a long time now. However, in Europe - and especially in the US - the situation has been quite different. People have occasionally had a very hard time even finding a VCD 2.0 compatible player, let alone one that would play back such an 'exotic' and relatively unknown format as SVCD is.

Now the tides are changing. OEM manufacturers from Far East have lately been bombarding both Europe and North America with a surge of relatively cheap "no-name" DVD players, based on standard PC components. These technological marvels are selling like hotcakes right now, mostly due their low price and the alluring MP3 CD-ROM playback capability. However, there is yet another good reason for buying them: they also support SVCDs!

It is still uncertain whether SVCD compatibility - or MP3 playback capability, for that matter - will become a widely-supported feature in mainstream European/American DVD players. Nonetheless, now that so many people already have the necessary SVCD equipment, they are surely going to experiment a lot more with creating their own SVCDs.

If you are interested in purchasing a DVD player, you should ask your local retailer first if they have any SVCD-compatible models available, or if they can order one for you.

Note: If you are planning on creating your own SVCDs and viewing them on an SVCD-compatible DVD player, ensure that the player can read CD-R media (i.e. has two lasers), or at least CD-RW media. Some DVD players can only read factory-made (aluminum, "silver") CD media.

There are some DVD players that support SVCD even if it does not say so anywhere in the manual. Usually the salespersons do not know anything about this kind hidden capability, and they are also very likely to be totally unaware and ignorant about that such a compact disc standard exists. In order not to miss these players, take an SVCD test disc with you when you go shopping. (VCD 2.0 and MP3 test discs could also come handy.)

SVCDs can be read in any CD-XA compatible CD-ROM drive that runs with at least 2x speed (i.e. any modern CD-ROM drive will do). A Pentium-II 350 MHz level multimedia PC (or equivalent) can possibly decode SVCDs in real time with mere software. Slower machines may require an additional MPEG-2 decoder card.

Note:Creating SVCDs is not voodoo or black magic anymore. After you have read this introductory stuff, read the tutorial.

I'm still interested in any comments and hints from those of you that have experimented with making your own SVCDs.

SVCD is based on regular CD media. Thus, it is technically possible to burn SVCDs all by yourself with a standard CD-R writer.

Some obvious applications for home-burnt SVCDs include

• archiving an analogue video library on CDs before the old tapes start to degrade (e.g. movies, cult tv show episodes, home videos, any old material stored on obsoleted formats such as Betamax, Laserdisc, U-matic, Super8, Video8 etc.).
• creating multimedia product catalogs, educational titles and presentations with near S-VHS picture quality and some level of interactivity (SVCD supports hierarchical menus, still image playlists etc.)
• backing up DVDs in a lower resolution format
• sending video letters and home videos to friends and relatives all over the world in a more flexible, more durable, lighter and more standards-independent format than VHS is

In order to create SVCDs, you need:

• Some source material (video, movie, animation, still images)
• Video capture card, frame grabber, IEEE-1394 interface or some other mean of transferring your source material into your computer (supposing it is not there already)
• MPEG-2 encoder. These come either in software or hardware form. Those that fall in the latter category usually function as video capturing cards on their own. One should be careful when choosing an encoder, since not all of them necessarily support SVCD resolutions or SVCD MPEG-2 system stream multiplexing format. (However, you usually can do the multiplexing in a authoring application.)
• SVCD authoring package (see below for more information)
• CD-R burner

Note:Some people have been experimenting with non-standard deviations of both VCD 2.0 and DVD formats, often respectively called XVCD and MiniDVD. Despite very convincing-sounding names, these are not standards at all - not even coherent technical specifications - but just some very loosely coined general terms for discs that have specifically been altered not to follow the standards.

Do not confuse XVCD or MiniDVD with SVCD. SVCD is an industry-backed standard. Properly made SVCD discs are guaranteed to work in any SVCD-compatible player. The aforementioned deviations do not come with such guarantees. It is up to you: if you really want to trust your precious video on a non-standard format that may or may not be readable in the future on a different player, go ahead. I would rather not.

SVCDs are not like your regular CD-ROMs. You cannot just burn some MPEG-2 files on a blank CD-R and expect the end result to pass as an SVCD disc. The SVCD specification requires using a specific CD-XA sector format and a strictly defined directory hierachy, complete with MPEG tracks and some special control files.

It would be extremely difficult (if not outright impossible) to hand-craft a proper SVCD disc in a regular CD-ROM authoring application. If one failed to follow even a slighest detail in the specification, the disc would not play properly on a standard SVCD player, and could not be considered an SVCD disc at all. This is why SVCD discs are always created using specialized SVCD authoring software.

A proper SVCD authoring package contains all the necessary tools and editors for managing the video clips and defining multi-level menus, subtitles, still images, slide shows, playlists and other navigational elements needed for accessing all the content that has been prepared for the disc. In the end of the day, the authoring package is used to create the necessary binary image file which one can then burn on a blank CD-R disc.

Up until these days, the most irritating problem with the SVCD format has been the lack of consumer-level authoring tools. There have not been many available in the first place, and almost invariably they have been aimed at professional users only. As you might have guessed, this kind of software often tends to bear a "professional" price tag as well.

Fortunately, the situation is now starting to look better from the consumer viewpoint: The forerunner in this sense has been Ahead Software which has recently released an SVCD-capable version of their Nero - Burning Rom CD authoring software.

As for the technical issues, SVCD is basically nothing more than just an extended VCD 2.0 specification. Although it is not a direct superset, it is still close enough to be considered as a cousin format. As the technical similarities are obvious, it is conceivable that the currently available VCD 2.0 authoring tools will evolve into SVCD-capable authoring tools over the time. Hopefully this will happen sooner rather than later so that we can get some real competition on the field.

The Super Video CD FAQcontains complementary information, and goes hand in hand with this overview. I would suggest following the discussions in the rec.video.desktop, comp.ivideodisc, comp.publish.cdrom.multimedia, comp.publish.cdrom and alt.cd-rom newsgroups.

• CDR-Info site has put an introductory Super VCD article online.
• I-Planet has put together some general SVCD information (in French, use SysTran to translate)
• Philips has made the following SVCD-related items available for download:
  • a collection of technical SVCD documents as PDF files (See especially the PDF document titled Super Video CD, A Technical Explanation.)
  • a beta version of their SVCD authoring toolset (needs a registration key - and yes, you must pay to get it),
  • information about SVCD test discs and
  • the official SVCD logo.
• Shinco Super VCD FAQ
• Shinco Super VCD Specification (in Chinese)
• TapeDisc Business Magazine gives some insight into the origins of the Super Video CD standard.
• Ralf Tossenberger's SVCD Infoseite (in German, use SysTran to translate)

• Codecbox's Codec page
• Creation de vos films Super VCD (in French, use SysTran to translate)
• Johannes Kratz's SVCD authoring tutorial for Ligos LSX-MPEG Encoder Adobe Premiere plug-in and Enreach I-Author
• Sven K�lsch's How to make a multichannel MPEG-2 Audiostream tutorial
• Making SVCDs The Foolproof Way is a simple tutorial that guides you step by step through the process of creating your first SVCD title (with a menu!) in Enreach I-Author SVCD authoring program.
• Making SVCDs The Hard Way - Using Philips SVCD Designer tries to shed some light on how to actually use the beast. It is certainly not as polished, practical and streamlined as the I-Author tutorial, and it also does not contain any screenshots (yet), but maybe it will nonetheless be of some help.
• SuperVCD Unveiled: Millennium Bug's SVCD Creation Guide

• Ahead Software has added SVCD support in their Nero - Burning Rom CD-ROM authoring software.
• CeQuadrat has added SVCD support in VideoPack 5.0, which has been demoed at CeBIT 2000 fair, but apparently not released yet.
• Compact Data Inc. sells Query's Super VCDMaker software for the Macintosh platform.
• EnReach Technology sells SVCD authoring software called EnReach I-Author for SuperVCD.
  • Obviously, I-Author puts the MPEG-2 sequence items inside a directory called MPEGAV, whereas the Philips software uses MPEG2 (which I believe is more appropriate since Philips was one of the companies involved with creating the original SVCD standard). This disrepancy can cause some problems, at least on software players. If you are going to purchase (or already using) an Enreach product, you might want to ask them about it.
• Philips has made a beta version of their SVCD authoring toolset available for download. There are three tools available: SVCD Designer, SVCD Toolset and SVCD Verification. Using them requires Windows NT / Windows 2000 and a valid registration code. (Yes, this is a commercial software package and you must pay Philips in order to get the code.)

• Johannes Kratz has made available an NTSC SVCD disc image in Easy CD Creator's CIF format. Note that it apparently suffers from I-Author's MPEGAV folder issue. (The sequence items should be stored in a folder called MPEG2, not MPEGAV.)

• Teco has benchmarked a bunch of MPEG-2 encoders. Check out the results. They also have their test AVI file available for download.
• Brent Beyeler has programmed a freely distributable, open-sourced MPEG-2 encoder called bbMPEG. It can be used either in stand-alone mode or as a plug-in for Adobe Premiere, and it readily supports SVCD multiplexing.
  • bbMPEG has some problems with reporting its bitrate correctly - it may sometimes peak over 2.6 Mbit/s. You should use Teco's free Bitrate viewer (see below for links) to check that you really have created a proper MPEG-2 file for SVCD authoring.
  • bbMPEG apparently creates the "User Data" blocks correctly, while many other encoders don't
  • A tip from Kevin Cribbs: You can decrease motion artifacts and blockiness by going to Advanced Video Settings / Additional Settings / Motion Estimation / Pel Movement and tweaking the Horizontal and Vertical values from 3 to 9. Or at least 6. (Note: nothing is free. This slows down the encoding.)
  • Another good tip from Kevin Cribbs: When encoding interlaced material, be sure to set the the field dominance correctly (at Advanced Video Settings / Additional Settings / General / Top Field First). If the incorrect field is specified as being first, even large motion search settings would not correctly encode scenes. Users should perform motion scene encoding experiments using both first field settings if they are not sure of the field order.
• Digigami sells an MPEG-2 encoder called MegaPEG. According to their tech support, it can encode SVCD-compatible streams. Besides the stand-alone version, they also have an Adobe Premiere plug-in available.
• Ligos develops an MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 encoding product called LSX-MPEG Encoder.
  • Warning: The stand-alone version of the LSX-MPEG Encoder does not currently support encoding interlaced MPEG-2 streams, nor does it support multiple source AVI files, or even the OpenDML AVI standard. However, Ligos has released an Adobe Premiere plug-in version of the encoder, which does not have these restrictions.
  • Also see Dave Wolf's unofficial SVCD Profiles for Ligos encoders and Johannes Kratz's modifications to them.
  • If you have problems with importing an LSX-MPEG stream into SVCD authoring program, try first demultiplexing it with Brent Beyeler's bbTOOLS (see the links below) and then multiplexing it again with bbMPEG.
• Mainconcept sells an NLE application called MainActor, which can produce SVCD compliant MPEG-2 streams. The incorporated MPEG-2 encoder is based on bbMPEG codebase, but it has been revised and optimized further.
• Hiroyuki Hon's Tsunami MPEG Encoder (page in Japanese) is a little known freeware program, but many already feel it is the best of the bunch. Some sources say it is "2x faster than bbMPEG" and "produces better quality in moving shots". It also works for interlaced video and has various VBR encoding modes (even a 2-pass one). Or as some say, "This is the first encoder ever that can deal really well with those jumpy, interlaced camcorder videos, without deinterlacing, filters, whatsoever."
  • Some English documentation is available here
  • There is also an English language patch file.
  • The encoder does not come with SVCD profiles. However, there are some profiles available for download on Codecbox's site (go to the SVCD subpage).
  • You can get 480x576 output by selecting the "full screen" from "Video+" tab. You should also set the input format to 4:3 manually. However, it would probably be better to do the resampling/preprocessing job in VirtualDub.
  • Some feel that the best encoding mode would be CQ-VBR, but try it for yourself.
  • The maximum bitrate setting does not work correctly. A setting of about 1300 Kbit/s produces streams near 2600 Kbit/s. Apparently, the value is exactly half of the bitrate that will actually be produced.
• Ulead Mediastudio Pro 6 and Video Studio 4 come complete with Ligos GoMotion MPEG-2 codec. It is yet unknown whether this codec can produce SVCD compliant streams. Apparently it does not support VBR or field-based encoding. Mail me if you have already tried using it for SVCD authoring.

• Essential Video Resources (my own video information bookmark page)
• Avery Lee has programmed a GPL'd, freely distributable video capture and processing utility called VirtualDub. It can filter your video in many ways (crop, resample to different size, add borders, sharpen, soften, correct colors etc.) and also doubles as a linear digital video editor. Also see his Video Capture and Processing info page.
• Brent Beyeler has programmed a freely distributable, open-sourced MPEG-2 demultiplexer and analyzer toolset called called bbTOOLS.
• Donald Graft has programmed some useful filters for VirtualDub, such as Antiflicker Filter, Smart Deinterlacer, Unsharp Mask and Hue/Saturation/Intensity Filter. While deinterlacing is not actually needed (nor even wanted) on SVCD discs, Smart Deinterlacer can now also swap the field phase, which might sometimes come very useful and handy.
• Jim Casaburi has made some useful filters as well: 2D Cleaner and Temporal Cleaner.
• Teco offers a free version of their MPEG Bitrate Viewer for download. It displays a graph of the bitrate and Q factor (quality). You can use it to check out that your video streams do not exceed 2600000 bit/s.

• Herosoft (page in Chinese) develops a free product called SthDVD, which is an SVCD-compatible software DVD player.
• InterVideo Inc. develops a product called WinDVD, which is an SVCD-compatible software DVD player.

• C-Cube manufactures complete SVCD decoder chips and also provides some general information about the format.
• ESS Technology manufactures SVCD-compatible MPEG-2 decoder chips as well.
• Stream Machine provides MPEG-2 encoding chips and a reference design for an SVCD recorder/player.

• Amoisonic VDR2000 is a stand-alone player that is also able to "record SVCD & VCD quality video and CD quality audio, using CD-R and CD-R/W discs" - in real time! Beat this.

• Amoisonic makes stand-alone SVCD players, SVCD-compatible DVD players and even SVCD recorders!
• Apex - see VDDV Corp
• AVPhile - see Raite
• DVD-Forge
• Great America Technologies
• Guangdong Nintaus (Jin Zheng) Electronics Co Ltd (also see this page)
• Hitachi makes at least one DVD player with hidden SVCD support: DV-P250E (UK and German versions have been confirmed to work).
• Hoyo - see Raite
• InTechZone
• JVC Asia
• KISS - see Raite
• Labway USA
• MFC Enterprises
• Monyka - see Raite
• Philips
• Pioneer makes DVD players with hidden SVCD support: at least the models DV-525, DV-C302D and DV-K301CD can play SVCDs, although it does not necessarily say so in the manual.
• Raite is a Taiwanese OEM company whose DVD / SVCD / VCD / MP3 / CD-DA players are available under many different brand names, including (but not necessarily limited to) AVPhile, Yamakawa, KISS, Hoyo, Tokai and Monyka. The most interesting models are 715 and 713. (Note that the the KISS brand uses different model numbers for the same players.) Also see the following links:
  • Bj�rn Wes�n's mini-review of Raite AV715
  • Yamakawa, My Best Friend
  • Das Yamakawa 715/713 Forum
  • Jensemann's Yamakawa 715/713 Page
  • Raite AVPhile 713/715 User's Guide
• Sampo Corp.
• Samsung manufactures DVD players with hidden SVCD support: at least the model 709 can play SVCDs, although it does not necessarily say so in the manual.
• Shinco International AV Co., LTD
• SMC Multi-media
• Tokai - see Raite
• VDDV Corp. is an OEM company whose DVD / SVCD / VCD / MP3 / CD-DA players are available under many different brand names, including Apex. The models 560, 580, 600A and 830 are SVCD compatible.
• Yamakawa - see Raite

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�RangaShyam, 2003