Well, I did it. Watched all of RoboCop 2 on VCD—on a CRT—outdoors, in my backyard.

Why? Not because it’s the “best” way to watch RoboCop 2. That would be a projector in a dark room. But I still own a Sony Trinitron and a Toshiba DVD player that’s backwards-compatible with VCDs. So when I found a copy in a thrift shop, I jumped at the chance to cosplay as a Tokyo salaryman in 1998.

VCD has always fascinated me. I remember seeing it demoed on a Philips CD-i—back when that was supposed to be the future. But I was a teenager, and there was no way I could convince my parents to spend $600 on something that looked like a toaster and played Burn:Cycle.

Probably for the best. The CD-i flopped in North America, and VCD barely made a dent. But in Asia? Massive success. So successful, you can still import brand-new titles. In 2025. For real.

Now let me be clear: on modern TVs, VCD looks awful. Low-res MPEG-1 video smeared across a 1080p screen is pain. But on a CRT? It works. You get sharper colour separation, no tape degradation, no tracking issues, and discs are far more heat- and humidity-resistant than tape ever was. I totally get why this format won out in hot climates.

That said, it has real flaws. Most movies come on two discs. You can see pixels—even on a CRT. And occasionally, compression artifacts float across the screen like ghosting shadows. VHS was blurrier, yes—but it was also more forgiving.

Still, let’s be honest: rewinding tapes was always a chore. VCD boots instantly. No hiss. No jammed reels. No chewed-up tape. Just press play.

So how was RoboCop 2 on VCD? Surprisingly great. The movie itself feels built for this exact experience: digital source, analog display. Grainy, loud, kind of ugly—but in a good way. Total time capsule energy.

Should you collect VCDs in 2025? Only if you’re like me and romanticize obsolete tech. If you hate pixels, compression artifacts, and pre-DVD formats, then no—run away. But if the idea of watching cyberpunk trash on a 4:3 CRT in your backyard sounds fun? Then yeah. Absolutely.

  • UKFilmNerd@feddit.uk
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    4 days ago

    This is very cool. When I was a bigger Star Wars fan back in the day, I had the official releases of The Phantom Menace and the original Star Wars trilogy in the VCD format. The picture quality is questionable but it was fun to copy the files onto my PC and play around with video editing.

    I remember editing The Phantom Menace Darth Maul lightsabre battle so it was one singular video. Problem was, when watched like that, it doesn’t make sense because there are moments of the fight missing when it cuts away to the space battles.