Problem converting .dat

[tay666]

I just got some VCDs. I want to do a little editing to the material.
Went to extract the .dat files with vcdgear. First disc has 4 files. First 2 go fine, just like usual. 3rd file makes vcdgear hang. 4th file works fine.
So I tried the 3rd file again. This time, it crashed the system.
Reboot. Decide to try and copy the .dat file to the harddrive and try from there. After half an hour, the file still no where near done copying (it is only 200,000 kb.)
Try the next disc. 2 files. First file goes fine. 2nd file has same problem as the 3rd file on disc 1.
This time when the system hung, I ejected the cd, and everything went back to normal. Almost seams like the file is locking up the drive and causing everything else to freeze.
Is this some sort of copy protection? These are not official VCD. Just CD-R that I traded from someone else.
Any other way around the problem?
Thought about trying to burn a copy, but I am low on discs, and don't want to scrap one. Besides, even if it does copy, it would probably copy whatever the problem is as well.

[KingJohn]

You don't need to convert the .dat file with VcdGear its is already an mpeg 1 with VCD headers, so any authoring program will accept .dat and any editing program will also except them.

Just load it into TMPGEnc (*.*) to see what I mean. Vdub will also load it, but it will only save as AVI

You need to copy the .dat files to your hard drive if you want to work on them, if they wont copy, then the disk has become damage/corrupt

[tay666]

You need to copy the .dat files to your hard drive if you want to work on them, if they wont copy, then the disk has become damage/corrupt

That is what I am saying. The files won't move. On all six discs I received, at least one .dat file on each disc won't do anything other than play. Each disc has a bunch of extra crap that I don't want. I was going to grab the files I do want off each disc. Merge and chapter them and reburn onto 3 discs instead of the six I have now.
Just tried to do a disc copy on one of them with no luck. Didn't even get to 5% complete before erroring out.
Here is part of the log text from Nero

11:20:08 PM #14 Phase 36 File dlgbrnst.cpp, Line 1560
Burn process started at 4x (600 KB/s)

11:20:08 PM #15 Text 0 File ThreadedTransferInterface.cpp, Line 1967
Verifying CD position of item 0 (relocatable, no CD pos, no patch infos, orig at #0): write at #0

11:20:08 PM #16 Text 0 File ThreadedTransferInterface.cpp, Line 1967
Verifying CD position of item 1 (relocatable, no CD pos, patch infos, orig at #1016): write at #1016

11:20:08 PM #17 Text 0 File ThreadedTransferInterface.cpp, Line 1967
Verifying CD position of item 2 (relocatable, no CD pos, patch infos, orig at #14972): write at #14972

11:20:08 PM #18 Text 0 File ThreadedTransferInterface.cpp, Line 1967
Verifying CD position of item 3 (relocatable, no CD pos, patch infos, orig at #112548): write at #112548

11:20:08 PM #19 Text 0 File ThreadedTransferInterface.cpp, Line 1967
Verifying CD position of item 4 (relocatable, no CD pos, patch infos, orig at #210142): write at #210142

11:20:08 PM #20 Text 0 File Mmc.cpp, Line 11793
StartDAO : CD-Text - Off

11:20:08 PM #21 Text 0 File Mmc.cpp, Line 16205
Set BUFE: Seamless Link -> ON

11:21:47 PM #22 SCSI -1047 File Cdrdrv.cpp, Line 1202
SCSI Exec, HA 0, TA 0, LUN 0, buffer 0x028C3000
Status: 0x04 (0x01, SCSI_ERR)
HA-Status 0x00 (0x00, OK)
TA-Status 0x02 (0x01, SCSI_TASTATUS_CHKCOND)
Sense Key: 0x05 (KEY_ILLEGAL_REQUEST)
Sense Code: 0x64
Sense Qual: 0x00
CDB Data: 0xBE 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x3B 0xB4 0x00 0x00 0x1A 0xF8 0x00 0x00
Sense Data: 0x70 0x00 0x05 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x0A
0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x64 0x00

11:21:47 PM #23 CDR -1047 File TrackPFile.cpp, Line 184
Illegal mode for this track

11:21:47 PM #24 TRANSFER -25 File Reader.cpp, Line 349
Error reading Data

11:22:34 PM #25 Text 0 File ThreadedTransfer.cpp, Line 222
all writers idle, stopping conversion

11:22:45 PM #26 Phase 38 File dlgbrnst.cpp, Line 1560
Burn process failed at 4x (600 KB/s)

11:22:45 PM #27 Text 0 File Scsicmd.cpp, Line 383
SCSI not using temporary buffers
20 out of 20 temporary buffers allocated

I find it hard to belive that all six discs happen to hava an error, but still play. I think it is some type of copy guard. Any clues in the log file as to what the culprit is?

[EddyH]

Stupid question, you may slap me if you like - you have made sure the discs are clean, right? No scratches?

On the other hand, some copying util like BlindRead might help you here, to get the file onto HD without worrying about supposedly 'unreadable' sectors, a common copy protection thing..

[tay666]

Not a stupid question. A very valid one.
I did check for marks and scratches. I also should have mentioned that in my initial post.
I'll have to check out that program you mentioned.
Thanks.

[KingJohn]

What are you using Nero for ?

Here is part of the log text from Nero
11:20:08 PM #14 Phase 36 File dlgbrnst.cpp, Line 1560
Burn process started at 4x (600 KB/s)
11:20:08 PM #15 Text 0 File ThreadedTransferInterface.cpp, Line 1967
Verifying CD position of item 0 (relocatable, no CD pos, no patch infos, orig at #0): write at #0

You should be copying them with explorer, not reading them with Nero

Also if you are using a CD/DVD drive, put the disk in the writer instead

[tay666]

Actually the log is from attempting to do just a straight up disc-to-disc copy with Nero.
Also tried copying disc-to-disc with CDClone with no luck as well.
Tried your idea of putting the disc in my CD writer then copying the file to my harddrive. Copy started, but after about 30 seconds got an error message saying could not read from source location.

[KingJohn]

Then its best to use this

[dbaker6165]

THIS IS THE ANSWER! UNLESS THE DISC IS DAMAGED...

Use this program called "ISOBUSTER"

it allows you to save the vcd files on your computer as mpeg files... its really easy and fast!

I use it all the time!

[KingJohn]

do you use it all the time with files that wont copy to hard disk ?

[dbaker6165]

naw... just for my vcds i make with my terrapin.

[tay666]

Tried the isobuster.
Files freeze that too.
Looks like I am going to have live with what I have.
Oh well.

Thanks for all the input everyone.