best format and size to convert a vcd dat file to for archiving?

[perfection]

I discovered an ancient video in vcd format which is still relevant today and would like to extract it a format for archiving an use. Which format is best for this?

i understand that the actual video is in the mpgav folder and has an extension of dat which is actually a mpg 1videl file with error correction

I have also found that the original size of the video is quite small so how come it was supposed to show full screen on a TV in those good ol days?

Can you brief me on lossles (minimum loss) resizing as i would require the video upsized too

Thanks

[Cornucopia]

Don't convert it to anything else if your intention is purely archiving. Just extract it with ISOBuster, removing the CDXA Mode2Form2 sector padding. What you'll have then is a straight Mpg1 file. Good for archiving as is.

Scott

[Selur]

I agree, for archiving I would not reencode, but instead of isobuster I would use vcdgear.

I have also found that the original size of the video is quite small so how come it was supposed to show full screen on a TV in those good ol days?

- old crt TV resolution was 640x480, so 352x240 was like watching 960x540 on your FullHD Display
- old crt TV always has some sort of 'afterglow' (not sure what the right term is) due to the way they work, which also blurs the whole thing a bit

Can you brief me on lossles (minimum loss) resizing as i would require the video upsized too

If you have the time you can read up about Avisynth and filtering to resize&filter your content and later save it to h.264 + aac lc inside a mp4 container. (Hybrid + avisynth extensions, and other tools like StaxRip, MeGui, RipBot, also offer some basic to advanced Filtering through Avisynth, so it might be worth checking these tools,... + all current NLE tools should come with some basic filtering support)

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=154141 might be an interesting read,..

Cu Selur

[perfection]

Thanks a lot