- and there's really no reason why you should own a VCD player, haha. Now that you can play VCD's (i.e. video-cd's) on most new DVD players it kinda renders the VCD player void. There's no reason to own one, at least not in the West. In some territories in Asia and Turkey it may still be an option for low income people. Films on VCD are definitely much cheaper but the picture quality is also equally crappy (unfortunately, a lot of HK films are only released on VCD, not DVD).
So why did I buy one? Because of the novelty of it! I've bought VCD's for years on end but I've never actually seen a real video-cd player before. I was a VCD virgin! And so when I found this player second-hand at an indoor market I knew I had to have it - if the price was right. I offered the man the equivalent of 8 bucks US and he went for it.
The player seems to be in working order (it turns on and I've tested it with a CD but I haven't had it collected to a TV set yet). The brand name is Sunny and I'm told it's a Turkish brand. There are many Turks in the area where I bought it and I would assume it probably came from an immigrant family. They still use the VCD format in Turkey.
A couple of days earlier I also bought two second-hand Panasonic Superdrive VCR's but they're certainly not just for the novelty but for BACK-UP! LOL. They were also $8 each and both have perfect playback.
