Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Note
By scanning your own 35mm negatives with a high-performance flatbed or dedicated film
scanner,youcanachievemuchhigherresolutions(upto4,800dpioptical)thatsupportlarger
images sizes than what Picture CD offers. For example, a 3,200 dpi scan of a full-frame
35mm film negative has a resolution of about 2,570×4,450 pixels. By scanning negatives
yourself, you can also select the quality of JPEG images and save images in other formats,
such as TIFF. Some photo labs offer high-resolution film developing and scanning services
if you prefer not to scan your own film.
White Book—Video CD
The White Book standard was introduced in 1993 by Philips, JVC, Matsushita, and Sony.
It is based on the Green Book (CD-i) and CD-ROM XA standards and allows for stor-
ing up to 74 minutes of MPEG-1 video and ADPCM digital audio data on a single
disc. The latest version (2.0) was released in April 1995. Video CD (VCD) 2.0 supports
MPEG-1 compression with a 1.15Mbps bit rate. The screen resolution is 352×240 for
NTSC format and 352×288 for European PAL format. In addition, it supports Dolby Pro
Logic-compatible stereo sound.
You can think of VCDs as a sort of poor man's DVD format, although the picture and
sound quality can actually be quite good—certainly better than VHS or most other video-
tape formats. You can play VCDs on virtually any PC with an optical drive using the free
WMP. (Other media player applications can be used as well.) You can also play VCDs on
most DVD players. Although you can create VCDs with popular DVD production pro-
grams such as Roxio Creation 2011 or Adobe Premiere Elements, prerecorded VCD me-
dia is difficult to find today, thanks to the popularity of the higher-quality (and easier to
copy-protect) DVD and Blu-ray formats.
Super Video CD
The Super Video CD specification 1.0, published in May 1999, is an enhanced version of
the White Book VCD specification. It uses MPEG-2 compression, an NTSC screen resol-
ution of 480×480, and a PAL screen resolution of 480×576; it also supports MPEG-2 5.1
surround sound and multiple languages.
Most home DVD-creation programs can create VCDs or Super VCDs.
Blue Book—CD EXTRA
ManufacturersofCD-DAmediawerelookingforastandardmethodtocombinebothmu-
sic and data on a single CD. The intention was for a user to be able to play only the audio
tracksinastandardaudioCDplayerwhileremainingunawareofthedatatrack.However,
