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66 Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About DVD<br />
before encoding to shift the pitch back to normal. This also happens with<br />
PAL DVDs (see “Is DVD-Video a Worldwide Standard? Does It Work with<br />
NTSC, PAL, and SECAM?” in <strong>Chapter</strong> 1).<br />
All DVD-ROM computers can play Video CDs (with the right software).<br />
Standard Video CD players can’t play DVDs.<br />
NOTE: Many Asian Video CDs achieve two soundtracks by putting<br />
one language on the left channel and another on the right. The two<br />
channels are mixed together into overlapping sound on a stereo system<br />
unless you adjust the balance or disconnect one input to get only<br />
one channel.<br />
For more on Video CD, see Glenn Sanderse’s Video CD FAQ at CDPage,<br />
or Russil Wvong’s Video CD FAQ.<br />
Are Super Video CDs Compatible with DVD Players?<br />
Not generally. Super Video CD (SVCD) is an enhancement to Video CD that<br />
was developed by a Chinese government-backed committee of manufacturers<br />
and researchers, partly to sidestep DVD technology royalties and<br />
partly to create pressure for low DVD player and disc prices in China. The<br />
final SVCD spec was announced in September of 1998, winning out over<br />
C-Cube’s China Video CD (CVD) and HQ-VCD (from the developers of the<br />
original Video CD).<br />
In terms of video and audio quality, SVCD falls between Video CD and<br />
DVD, using a 2x CD drive to support 2.2 Mbps VBR MPEG-2 video (at<br />
480�480 NSTC or 480�576 PAL resolution) and two-channel MPEG-2<br />
Layer II audio. As with DVD, it can overlay graphics for subtitles. It’s technically<br />
easy to make a DVD-Video player compatible with SVCD, but it’s being<br />
done mostly on Asian DVD player models. The Philips DVD170 player can<br />
be upgraded (using a special disc) to play SVCD discs. SVCD players can’t<br />
play DVDs, however, because the players are based on CD drives. See<br />
Jukka Aho’s Super Video CD Overview (www.iki.fi/znark/video/svcd/<br />
overview) and Super Video CD FAQ (www.iki.fi/znark/video/svcd/faq) for<br />
more info.<br />
Are Picture CDs or Photo CDs Compatible with DVD Players?<br />
Sometimes. Because Picture CDs and Photo CDs are usually on CD-R<br />
media, they suffer from the CD-R problem (refer to “Is CD-R Compatible<br />
with DVD?”). That aside, some DVD players can play Picture CDs. Only a<br />
few can play Photo CDs.
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