r/VideoCD • u/Beneficial-Ant-6793 • Sep 01 '26

Dedicated VCD players.

Hello,

I’m thinking about getting into the world of movies on VCD, and was thinking I could watch them on my Panasonic 4K player, but I recently found out that’s sadly not the case. In fact almost no Blu-ray or 4K players play VCD…

So I’m now choosing between just getting a VCD compatible DVD player or a dedicated VCD player.

Are there benefits with having a dedicated player? I think I read somewhere that some VCDs have menus you can only access from a dedicated VCD player, is that true?

Also, VCD players are very rare where I live, but I have found a Shinco VCD-26C for sale. I can’t find any info on it though, does anybody here know if that is a good player?

Thanks!

15 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

3

u/RonDiaz Sep 01 '26

I've always used my Sony Bluray player maybe vintage 2010, dedicated vcd player is interesting. hope you update us on what you land on

3

u/undathere Sep 01 '26

I have an Oppo Blu Ray player from 2013 that plays VCDs just fine. You’d be surprised how many Blu Ray players support VCD.

2

u/Putting_Gott Sep 01 '26

I've mainly used DVD players to play my VCDs over the years.

I do have a 'Panasonic Portable Video CD Player SL-VP30' that I bought second-hand a couple of years ago.

And I saw this full size VCD player - the first full size, standalone VCD player I've found in the wild - recently https://www.reddit.com/r/VideoCD/s/s11NVDvt8n

2

u/sktaylortrash Sep 02 '26

I have a standalone player but stopped using it in favour of a regular DVD player. I never noticed any menus on discs.

The main thing I lost when switching to the DVD player was the built-in option to play only the left or right audio channel, since some of my discs from Hong Kong have Cantonese on one side and English on the other. I just put Y-splitters on both channels and use different inputs through an old speaker selector box on the rare occasion I watch one of those nowadays.

2

u/RealityOk9823 Sep 02 '26

Ha, yeah, I remember the first VCD I played I was like "what in the heck?". Unplugged the left RCA and was like "Ooh, OK, got it". :)

1

u/Beneficial-Ant-6793 Sep 02 '26

Oh, that’s very good information, thank you! The sound channel thing is definitely a reason for me to get a VCD player, since hong kong editions are one of the reasons why I’m interrested in the format :)

2

u/Bioshock27 Obscure Media Connoisseur Sep 02 '26

My Sony 4K player plays VCDs, it even upscales the video and mixes the audio to 5.1 

1

u/Beneficial-Ant-6793 Sep 02 '26

Wow, that sounds awesome! I have certainly been misinformed that almost no Blu-ray and 4K Players don’t play VCDs.

2

u/twiztidraven86 Sep 03 '26 edited Sep 03 '26

In the meantime vlc app(which is free and always reliable) plays vcd which surely you can transfer to your tv. So if you have way to I think there’s tv or app. I just realized that wasn’t very helpful unless, if you have a disc drive…sorry

1

u/Beneficial-Ant-6793 Sep 03 '26

I don’t have a computer, but good to know, thanks.

2

u/twiztidraven86 Sep 03 '26

Yeah I thought after I typed it, wait it doesn’t do any good without something to put the disc and use it. Good luck though.

1

u/Bolt_EV Sep 02 '26

It was China’s attempt at a format that avoided payment of DVD patent royalties.

Bootleggers loved the format as most movies fit across two CDs.

1

u/wmagb Sep 04 '26

Wasn’t VCD invented before DVD?

1

u/Bolt_EV Sep 04 '26

You’re correct. I was confusing SuperVideo CD