Super Video CD

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 delivers video images twice as sharp(480x480 for NTSC) as the previous VCD standard . Because of the increased vertical resolution, the interlaced nature of video signal is now also preserved. SVCD supports 16:9 (anamorphic wide screen) image aspect ratio.

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). SVCD discs can be used to deliver karaoke or music videos, movies, home videos, still image slide shows, product catalogs and games. 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.