Missing audio when converting from VCD to 3GP/MP4

[tigrr]

I have several VCDs which I'm trying to convert to .3GP or .MP4 as that's what my mobile phone can use. So far I've successfully been able to transfer and convert the video, but audio is missing. Let me explain what 've done:

1) Using "VCD copy X" (http://www.ns-software.com/VCDCopyX/) I transfer the movie from the VCD over to the Mac hard drive. I end up with several .DAT files which are actually MPEG-1 files. Renaming them to .MPG will let me double-click them and be opened by Quicktime player (they play perfectly in Quicktime, with audio).

2) Using the "Window"-"Show movie info" menu I am told that the video file is:

Format: MPEG1 Muxed, 320 x 240
FPS : 29.97

3) Since the videos play nicely on the Mac it's time to convert them to .3GP or .MP4 so I can transfer them over to the cellphone and play them there.
I have Quicktime Pro 7.1.3., so I choose the "Export" function where I can choose either format.

4) At this stage I press the "option" button which gives me a lot of extra settings I can adjust. At the bottom of the window I also get some information about the video.
What puzzles me is that it says:

Audio: No audio track in source movie

How can that be? I just played the video file WITH audio AND video on the Mac using Quicktime player!
So now what do I do?

I also have to mention that the audio is in stereo with 2 languages (Chinese/English), where Chinese is on the left side while English is heard on the right hand side.
What I want to end up with is the audio from the right hand side (English) made into mono, so it comes out on both left and right hand side.

Please advise what to do. thanks.

[Case]

What puzzles me is that it says:
Audio: No audio track in source movie

Apple's QuickTime MPEG-1 decoder is somewhat broken, in that it will play audio, but won't export audio from muxed MPEG files.

I also have to mention that the audio is in stereo with 2 languages (Chinese/English), where Chinese is on the left side while English is heard on the right hand side.
What I want to end up with is the audio from the right hand side (English) made into mono, so it comes out on both left and right hand side.

1/ Demux the MPEG file (e.g. with MPEG StreamClip) to a video file and an audio file. In MPEG StreamClip, Demux to M2V and AIFF. (The video file will be MPEG-1, despite the suffix.)
2/ Edit the audio file to split the stereo channels in single language mono files. Open the AIFF in e.g. Amadeus II and Export Dual Mono.
3/ Put video and audio back together again. Open the demuxed video file in QuickTime Player. Open the correct language mono file in QuickTime Player, select all (Cmd-A), copy (Cmd-C). Bring the video window to front, make sure the position slider is at the beginning, add the clipboard audio to the video (Edit>Add to movie). Save as self-contained movie (.mov).
4/ Convert your movie with a very helpful tool: MoviesForMyPod/PSP/Phone. It uses QuickTime, has targeted presets, handy compatibility comments for setting tweakers and it's free.

[tigrr]

Aha!
So Quicktime is buggy?

OK, I downloaded and installed MPEG streamclip but for some reason it won't open my MPEG clips! I keep getting the following error message:

File open error: unrecognized file type

Any idea why? Quicktime Pro tells me that the files are indeed MPEG-1 files, so what am I doing wrong?

[AeroQ]

Hi, tigrr

Why don't you try SimpleMovieX ? Open the file, then do export, select iPod, that's it.
I will transcode audio perfectly.

http://www.aeroquartet.com/SimpleMovieX

(Note that I'm the developer of this app).

Regards, BJ

[AeroQ]

Link from message above is incorrect.

Correct link:
http://www.aeroquartet.com/SimpleMovieX/

[Case]

So Quicktime is buggy?

Well, it has been like this for many years. I don't think they want to implement this feature, for whatever reason.

OK, I downloaded and installed MPEG streamclip but for some reason it won't open my MPEG clips! I keep getting the following error message:
File open error: unrecognized file type

I guess MPEG Streamclip doesn't like the file header of the .DAT file that VCD Copy X generates. I tried a different tool, bbDEMUX, on a VCD Copy .DAT file (renamed to .MPG), and bbDEMUX could succesfully demux the video and audio stream, although I had to use File>Open, as drag-and-drop didn't work for me.

Any idea why? Quicktime Pro tells me that the files are indeed MPEG-1 files, so what am I doing wrong?

The file header of this VCD .DAT file is a little different from a regular program stream MPEG file, as it is preceded by 68 kB of #00 characters (on my test file). Because of this, some strict tools may not recognise the file as a valid .MPG.