Daniel, the quality is not necessarily VHS level or lower. It's mostly VHS level because they are usually copied from a VHS 'master'. I've seen them in Hong Kong where they use DVD ('Blade') master, and the quality (and sound) is very good...above VHS.

But having said that, I am not sure if VCD actually has a higher resolution specs than VHS.

They are generally poor picture quality, even for those 'genuine' copies. And yes, the double CD makes it annoying when watching movies, and while it can give two soundtracks, they are mono, because they use the left and right tracks for a different language...or in the case of Karaoke, one track for music, the other for vocal.

DVD is many many many times better than VCDs.