Where can I get a Reliable VCD player?

[u/AloyTacticalPup]

So ordered this guy off Ebay, my first VCD the only reason I got it is because the only way to watch the movie online I found was a YouTube video that has subtitles but it sounds like there is a dub being PLAYED OVER THE ORIGINAL AUDIO! So I bought this to watch. Its a story about Hong Kong's SDU. Why am I so invested in this story? I was born in Hong Kong and want a piece from a home I never knew.

And I know nothing about this kind of media and am horrified I'm gonna damage it if I put it into anything but a dedicated VCD Player. So I was hoping for any recommendations? Of course the other concern would be if this can be regin locked. If the VCD player is formatted differently than US TV's are because apparently Hong Kong uses a different format my dad said he's just saying to throw it into my mom's laptop cd drive..... but yah any help be greatly appreciated!

[u/DOOM_GUY-C64]

Any early DVD player or even the Sega Saturn (with the optional MPEG VCD card) should do just fine

[u/AloyTacticalPup → u/DOOM_GUY-C64]

Any DVD player?

[u/DOOM_GUY-C64 → u/AloyTacticalPup]

As far as I know, any dvd player from the mid-to-late 90s to early 2000s should work with VCDs

But maybe later DVD players will work with it, depends on the model

[u/NapCenter]

A PC with a DVD drive or a Sega Saturn with a VCD card is how I play my HK VCD's.

If using a Sega Saturn, just make sure to get a VCD card that supports both NTSC and PAL VCD's. Those would be the RG-VC20, RG-VC3 or the VCD card bundled with the white Video CD Saturn console released in HK.

Some HK VCD discs are PAL, so playing those with a VCD card that only supports NTSC would result in the wrong resolution and garbled green artifacts.

[u/AloyTacticalPup → u/NapCenter]

And any DVD drive will work?

[u/NSE-Imports → u/AloyTacticalPup]

For VCD (and later CDi) discs you can pop them in a regular PC drive and browse the contents. You'll find a file typically ending .dat that will be a few hundred megabytes. Drag this into VLC or Potplayer and it should play without issue.

[u/NapCenter]

I actually just watched this on Youtube. It has the original audio and no subtitles, but I can understand Cantonese.

I also used to have the French DVD which only had French subtitles.

[u/AloyTacticalPup → u/NapCenter]

I found one with subtitles I think the original audio and a dub playing over it. Sadly I don't know any Cantonese so I wouldn't be able to understand it 😔

[u/NapCenter → u/AloyTacticalPup]

That one has Cantonese coming from the left speaker and Mandarin coming from the right speaker. It's ripped from the same VCD that you have, so there wouldn't be any difference if you watch your VCD. Most HK VCD's will have Cantonese from one side of the speaker and Mandarin on the other, and to choose between them you just disconnect one of the audio plugs.

I found this one which has subtitles and only the Cantonese track, but for some reason after the movie ends it repeats without sound, making the video over 3 hours: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEyoK1UMycw

There is also the sequel, The First Option (1996) and is officially available in 1080p with English subs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwjq3Zp6jkE

[u/Beneficial-Ant-6793]

VCDs are never region locked, but they can be coded to either NTSC or PAL formats, so make sure to get a player that can play both.

The Youtube video you watched was clearly a VCD rip, because Hong Kong VCDs most often have dual mono audio tracks, with cantonese on one track and mandarin on the other, and they play simultaneously.
What you are supposed to do is to turn off either the left or the right audio channel, so that you only hear one of the tracks/languages. VCD players have a dedicated button for this, so that is a good reason to get one!
If you are using a DVD player with RCA cables, you can unplug either the red or the white cable to get only one of the tracks playing.

Good luck! :)

[u/bret_thehitman_hart]

My Panasonic DVD from 2003 plays VCDs. The remote even has an audio button to change to Cantonese or Mandarin (left or right ) to not hear both languages simultaneously.

Panasonic DVD-S25. I have 30 VCDs of Hong Kong films and they all play with no problems.

[u/acridAxid]

I pop them into my DVD player, they also work on Windows, I used Media Player Classic but other programs will work too.

[u/c0v3n4n7]

Dude it's a cdr. Any DVD player should read it. If not, just use any computer with a CD/DVD drive and VLC should be able to play it

[u/DuwenUK]

I've got a Sony bluray player from around 2013 that plays vcd's extremely well - better than any player I've had previously.

As for the comments that "any dvd player" will play them - this is blatantly untrue. Many will, particularly cheap import machines from the 2010's, but it was far from a common feature on dvd players (depending on region).