What do I do with this VCD '.DAT' File?

[uguud]

I downloaded what is supposedly a VCD from a newsgroup, but there are no .mpg files. Here's what I have - 6 folders titled EXT, SEGMENT, MPEGAV, VCD, CDDA, CDI. Inside the VCD folder are two files labeled 'ENTRIES.VCD' & 'INFO.VCD'. A large file (138 MB) titled 'MUSIC01.DAT' is in the MPEGAV folder.

Help! What do I do with this stuff?

[radical]

Hi,
that is a correct VCD with the correct folders.
If u dont want to write as a VCD then rename the DAT file to MPG and forget the others.

[OH]

The 'MUSIC01.DAT'file is the .mpg file.
You can burn is as a VCD with Nero.

OH

[kurtchen]

hi,the .dat-file in the mpegav-folder is the real thing.if you want to play it on your pc , you can do it with a software dvd-player (cool performance with powerdvd 4.0). you can also change the extension .dat in .mpg (make first a copy of the .dat-file).then you can play the .mpg-file in more players (try it)

[uguud]

Thanks for the tips everyone - and such a quick response!

I can play it now and that's great, but how do I burn it to VCD using Toast Titanium? Would I have to use the original .DAT file and the other two (listed above) or just drop the renamed .mpg onto Toast?

[Freshman]

I wouldn't recommend simply renaming the .dat file. Even though it is essentially an mpeg-1 file, its structure is different - renaming it to mpeg simply makes this file "visible" for Media Player but doesn't transfer it
, and you can achieve the same thing by right-clicking the file and selecting "open with">"Media Player" and checking the box that says something like "Always open this type of file with this application" (I've got a German Windows version, so I can only guess the exact phrase.)

If you really want to change the .dat-file into an mpeg, you'd better use vcdgear (www.vcdgear.com), which will do a proper dat-to-mpeg conversion.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Freshman on 2001-11-20 09:04:29 ]</font>

[uguud]

OK, I just hit a snag.

After renaming the 'MUSIC01.DAT' file to MUSIC01.mpg, it won't play on my Macintosh. Since QuickTime handles mpeg-1, there must be some other reason. I opened the file in HexEdit and it shows a format of CDXA. What's going on? I tried dropping the .DAT on Toast's CDXA Multitrack window but it balks, saying it's the wrong sector size.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: uguud on 2001-11-20 09:22:14 ]</font>

[Freshman]

I don't know if this helps, but vcdgear also has an option "Enable Toast output" - whatever that means.

Also, burning the files as a regular CD-Rom won't work. Doesn't Toast have an option to burn a VCD? If so, use vcdgear to convert the dat-file to an mpeg-file (possibly using the above mentioned option), and then add this mpeg-file to the VCD-Layout in Toast. The VCD-file structure with the different folders should be created automatically.

[Thargok]

I think I have the solution. Start up in classic (no OS X support), then drop the .dat from the MPEGAV folder into Quicktime...Viola!