VHS to VCD or SVCD

[Ann Billups]

I have been doing a lot of VCD's and I am about to embark on a project 
of converting about 13 hours of VHS material to digital. In the past I 
have used both my EyeTV to import the video and I have also used my 
digital video camera to record from the VHS tape and then imported it 
into iMovie. I have burned both DVD's and VCD's and because of the 
source material, the results were comparable, with the VCD's being a 
lot easier and quicker to make.

I followed the discussion about video quality, but I am still confused 
about SVCD's. What exactly are they? Are they recorded to CD media or 
DVD media? I assumed that the S just meant a "super" quality VCD. Am I 
correct? I tried burning a SVCD just for a test, but never got past the 
encoding. I don't know whether I didn't wait long enough or the machine 
froze. I know that encoding a DVD for burning takes forever in iDVD on 
my 12" PowerBook. What is the advantage of SVCD over VCD?

Also, in the discussions of burning on a mac verses a pc, why would the 
quality of VCD's or SVCD's be better when burned on a pc, if they are 
the same thing and will play on a regular DVD player? If macs are 
supposed to be the premier video machines, then why would the quality 
differ? The software?

I am sure these questions sound inane, but I am very confused by these 
issues and would like to understand them.

Ann Billups
abillups at earthlink.net