Specifications
CD-i FAQ 2000 Edition Revised February 21, 2001
Latest version and more CD-i info: http://www.icdia.org
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6. Video-CD on CD-i
6.1 What's the difference between a Video-CD and a Digital Video on CD-i disc?
In conjuction with the introduction of the Digital Video cartridge for CD-i players in 1993, Philips
published some movies on CD that can be played on a CD-i player equiped with such a cartridge.
Although the Video-CD specification already existed at that time, for some marketing-political
reasons the movies were released in CD-i format instead of Video-CD. This means that the discs
can only be played on CD-i players and not on Video-CD compliant players like Video-CD
players, game consoles and most DVD-Video players.
Although the discs looked very similar to 'normal' Video-CDs, Philips used two techniques to
make them distinguish from Video-CDs: the physical sector locations of the video-files differs
from Video-CD and the used file system is CD-i's propietary format instead of ISO-9660 which is
required for CD-i Bridge format discs like Video-CD. As a result, both playback devices that look
for the MPEG-files to play them (such as PCs) and playback devices that are based on simple
microcontroller circuits that start playback of video at a defined sector location (like Video-CD
players and DVD-Video players) cannot play the discs.
To identify the format in which a movie is published, look at the text in the lower left corner at the
front of the disc's inlay. When it says Digital Video on CD-i, it is in CD-i format. When it says
Video-CD, it is in Video-CD format. Please beware not to look at the text printed on the plastic of
the case itself. Some true Video-CDs contained the text 'CD-i' on the case. The correct format
however is always clearly indicated on the inlay. Some 20 or so movies were published in the
Digital Video on CD-i format, of which most were re-released in Video-CD format some time later.
Some Asian Video-CD players were able to run some of the Digital Video on CD-i discs as if they
were Video-CDs. Please note that these players only play some of the titles indicated as Digital
Video on CD-i, but not regular CD-i discs (nor the MPEG video sequences contained on it) which
are usually indicated as CD-i Digital Video.
To bypass the file format problem on Windows 95/98 based PCs, a solution was made available
in late 1999 with the release of the CD-i Filesystem Driver. When this driver is installed, you can
access a CD-i disc in a similar way as a CD-ROM, and you will be able to play MPEG sequences
that are stored on it. The CD-i Filesystem Driver is available for free download at the PC
downloads for CD-i development page at www.icdia.org. For more information about using the
driver, please refer to section 9 of this FAQ: CD-i on other platforms.
6.2 What are the differences between the various Video-CD versions?
Several versions of the Video-CD specification (described in the White Book) exist. All of the
versions are interchangable as far as the video sequences are concerned (e.g. the video on any
Video-CD can be played on any Video-CD player regardless of its version), but some discs may
contain features that are described in a higher version which are only accessible on a player that
supports this higher version of the standard. The following versions of Video-CD exist today:
• Karaoke-CD 1.0
The first version of Video-CD was still called Karaoke-CD. It was set up by Philips and JVC in
1992 to be used mainly in Japanese karaoke-applications. Only the basic video features (like the
division of various songs into tracks) were specified in this version.
• Video-CD 1.1
The system was renamed into Video-CD in 1993 to show the broader range of applications in
which it could be used. The system is now defined by Sony and Matsushita as well. Some
features were added, like the sub-division of a track (an MPEG video sequence) into chapters.