.dat for a certain dvd player

[majnarx]

Ok, I have some .dat files on disc, and I've heard you can watch .dat files on certain DVD players..... and even certain discs they're burned on... etc.

NOW.
I have a Panasonic RV-20 player, and I have the .dat files burned onto an HP brand cdr, 80 min disc.

I've heard things about putting the files onto discs from Circuit City, etc.
Every time I play the disc normally on my DVD player (p.s., it states it can play VCD and these .dat files on this disc can play on a comp's DVD player), it says "disc not found" or whatnot.

forgive me if this topic has been brought up MILLIONS of times but i really really want to watch some certain discs on this player.

should i transfer them from .dat to another format?
burn them on certain discs? what?

[dumwaldo]

first of all your player does not support CD-R so you MUST use CD-RW, also it seems that your player is picky about the brand. you can read the reports of others here... http://www.vcdhelp.com/dvdplayers.php?DVDnameid=238&Search=Search&list=0#comments

once you get the media you need to use straight then you will need to burn your file as a vcd. burning a dat file on a blank CD is not good enough. a VCD must have a specific file structure.

you can use this utility to copy the dat file back onto your hard drive and convert it to mpg at the same time... http://www.vcdhelp.com/vcdgeargui.htm

then you can use the guides here to burn it as a VCD... http://www.vcdhelp.com/burnmpg.htm
i would suggest using nero. it is very user friendly and extremley versetile as far as burning several differnt types of CD's from several different sources.