A VCD can contain a maximum of 70 minutes of video per disc. The MPEG compression is fixed-rate, like most MP3 audio files. The result is lossy, artifacted video. Still, with a good transfer, a VCD can have better resolution than a standard VHS tape. The audio compression is (I believe) somewhere around 212k/bit (read: compressed but sounds very good). A unit such as a Dazzle USB video capture unit can create proper VCD MPEG files from video source input that can easily be burned to CD-R (playable on PCs and CD-R capable DVD units).
If you live in a city with a Chinatown, look around - you'll eventually find a shop with hundreds of VCD titles on sale for usually five to ten dollars. Surprise yourself and pick up a few. I bought a copy of John Woo's "Bullet to the Head" for eight bucks and haven't regretted it.