Copying from VCD to Hard Drive?

[amputated limb]

i don't know what forum to post this in so i'm just gonna post it here.


ok, i have a lot of vcd's that i burned using nero. usually, whenever i want to copy the video files from vcd back to my hard drive, all i have to do is copy the .dat files from the vcd to my hd and rename the .dat files to .mpg. but for some of my vcd's, i can't do this and is unable to copy from vcd. when i try to copy the .dat files, windows give me an error saying "Cannot copy "filename.dat": Invalid MS-DOS function."

anyone familar with this?

is there anyway i could copy the mpg's from vcd back to my hard drive?

[oddbod77]

Rather than copying the .dat files themselves, I would strongly suggest you use a tool that will copy only the MPEG portion as you are currently wasting diskspace by copying what are known as RIFF headers along with your video's.

ISOBuster allows you to do this and reads the CD directly thereby avoiding any interference from Windows. Just start it up, pop in your VCD, then right click on each track in turn (except track 1) and choose "Extract Track XX -> Treat as video only..." a directory requester will pop up so choose where you want it to put your mpg's and click OK.

Try comparing the filesizes of the .dat files with the mpg files extracted by ISOBuster to see what I mean about the size difference, it is not huge, but it is significant.

[puertorican138]

You could also try VCDGear or Cdxa2mpeg in VCDEasy. I prefer ISOBuster also.

Hope That Helps!!! :P

[e-z-e]

vcdgear 3.5 --> DAT to MPG <fix errors> --> start (works everytime) 8)

[amputated limb]

isobuster works for some of the files but it gives some errors for each files. and some i weren't able to play in wmp after isobuster extracted it.

i couldn't get vcdgear to work at all
i clicked the vcdgear tab then
Fix MPEG Errors
loaded the .dat file from vcd
clicked started
it searches for a while then prompts "Invalid MPEG pack size"

think i'm gona stick with isobuster

thx

[KingJohn]

Try this

Load TMPGEnc, select File> Mpeg Tools > Merge&Cut

Now change the drop down to "MPEG 1 Video CD" and click add
Change the file select to *.* and select the .dat file from the VCD

Type the location and name of the file in the output box, and click start
(c:\yourmovie.mpg)

This will stream another copy and fix small problems, if the disk is faulty it wont work.

If you just want another copy of the VCD, why don't you just do a disk to disk copy, source and destination can be the same drive, you will be asked to put in a blank disk.

[rsuave5]

if i do this can i then add menus adn background music etc and the re author?

i have a vcd that just plays all the way through . id like to rip it add menus and re author can i do that if i follow the above advice and get this vcd back to my hd?

[oedin]

can i make vcd that "the dat" file can't copy to disk....like this topic about?
what tool can make it?

[KingJohn]

Normally you just copy the .dat file back to your hard drive and use it just like you would use any .mpg file. If it bothers you rename it to .mpg most programs will handle it just like any other .mpg file

I suggested TMPGEnc to stream the copy and make a new .mpeg file just in case there were small problems.

Once you have it, you can do what ever you want in authoring programs