wertsie said:
I was thinking about getting one...but the thing is it's a semi-rare movie and the only kind of VCD I've seen for it is from some other country (don't know what country, but the whole website was in a different language...). Any good sites that sell lots of VCDs out there?
Yes... I know about VCD's. I've even made some.
First, make sure you have a DVD system/player that will play the VCD. Almost all DVD-ROM drives on computers will play VCD's and many DVD players will as well, but not all.
I have never come across a VCD that shows extra footage (common on DVD's). so don't expect more than just the movie. Most VCD's and are usually broken into two parts. That is, the first hour of the movie is on one VCD, the second hour is on another VCD. So be prepared to change disks during the film.
The quality is about as good as a VHS. Of course, many VCD's are made by coverting the analog VHS tape to a digitized format and then burning that to VCD. Therefore, chances are you will just have a disk version of a VHS tape. If the tape was good, the VCD's should be good as well.
If someone downloaded a movie and converted that to VCD, then it's a tough call as to how good the quality will be. These days, one can download freshly released films and burn them to VCD or DVD. However, these films are not copies of a VHS tape, but rather of a projected image in an actual theater. So you have audience noise, sometimes wobbly camera work and even people getting up in front of the camera. Plus, recording a big screen usually does not result in a great image. Once in a while, the sound is off from the image (this can happen during the taping or in the transcoding of the recorded image to a VCD format). These VCD's are great if you want to watch a great new movie in your house without having to shell out $10 again and again to see it in the theater. But ultimately, they are no comparison to the VHS or DVD release.
However, from what you wrote, it sounds like you want a VCD of an older film. Therefore, I recommend you take a chance. Just don't spend too much for it. Try to keep it under $25 (usually WELL under). If you've searched for this film for years, perhaps splurging ($25) is fine. Otherwise, you shouldn't pay much more than $10 for the VCD's.
To find places that sell VCD's, just do a search. They are everywhere.