WHY GOD?!!!! WHY!!!!???

[Aeon Flux]

Okay, here's the deal. On ebay, I bought the entire Batman the Animated Series on VCD. Now I can't play any of the files!!!! They are all in DAT format, and they just won't play on anything!!!

I've downloaded and installed the following converters/players but none work:
1) CD/DVD SpeedTools™ 6.0 Demo w/ CD/DVD SpeedTools™ Demo Extras
2) FreeVCD
3) iView MediaPro
4) VCDGear
5) Windows Media Player 7
6) Quicktime Player 6

Here's the deal. When I launch any of these applications and then try to open the MPEGAV folder on my Video CD through the applications' file menus, the computer will let me select the MPEGAV folder, but WILL NOT let me select or open any of the DAT files in this folder.

The problem is not on the CD. My PC friend could play any of the DAT files on her computer with Windows Media Player. So why can't my mac play them!!!???

PLEASE HELP!

[kjmacke]

Try renameing the file with mpg on the end instead of dat.

[Aeon Flux]

It won't let me rename the file.... Oh poopy.

MORE HELP PLEASE?

[donzo44]

Windows Media player has played .DAT files for me. I just quickly tried one so....

Insert VCD
Start Explorer
Look for AVSEQ01.DAT in MPEGAV folder on VCD. Syould be called this or similar.
Start Windows Media player.
Go to File Open and select directory where AVISEQ01.DAT is.
In the 'files of type' drop down box you need to select 'all files *.*' (the last one).
Now you should see AVISEQ01.DAT.
Double click and play.

Never failed for me (yet). Sure there must be others such as WinDVD that will play .DAT files. You SHOULD NOT have to convert them. If they don't play I can only assume they might be corrupted.

Best of luck.

Bryan

Finish night shift in 10 mins. so must fly.....

[Cornucopia]

donzo44-
you realize, of course, that this is the MAC forum?

[SCB]

What OS are you running, AEON? If you're in OS X, use VLC or MacVCD X to play your VCDs.

[Aeon Flux]

Here is what I did.

Inserted VCD
Started Netscape Navigator
Looked and found AVSEQ01.DAT in MPEGAV folder on VCD.
Started Windows Media player.
Went to File Open and selected Video CD.
Opened Video CD.
Selected MPEGAV folder.
Tried to open MPEGAV folder but the file opener simply went back to the desktop folder where the Video CD is located.

So in other words, it won't let me into the folder MPEGAV!

I really appreciate the attention... Please, can I have some more?
I'm going crazy here!

[Thank_god_its_friday]

Have you tried to drag/drop the file from explorer in an already opened media player?

[donzo44]

Oops

Sorry guys eysesight problem at end of night shift.

Now home and eyesight now realises it's a MAC forum.

Regards

[squeed]

Download VLC. It will play your files.

www.videolan.org

-Squeed

[Macnewbie]

It won't let me rename the file.... Oh poopy.

MORE HELP PLEASE?

We'll, since it's on CD you will have to copy it to your hard drive first. If the file is locked you can always unlock it.

[Aeon Flux]

thanks, all of you. I'm trying each and everyone of your suggestions tonight, and I hope one of them will work. I'll let you know.



- Aeon Flux

[Digifreak]

Whoa... its not that complicated, no need to copy files to PC. PowerDVD 4.0 will now autoplay VCD & SVCD when the disc is inserted just like DVDs.

[snowmoon]

THIS IS AN APPLE MAC PROBLEM...... NOT A WINDOWS BOX

[AntnyMD]

This isn't a "problem!" It sounds as if (although not specifically stated) this person is trying to play VCDs in OS X. If in OS X, please use VLC (VideoLan) or MacVCDx to play your discs.

If you're in OS 9, just use your current version of Quicktime to play your VCD by starting up Quicktime, and opening one of the .dat files in the CD's MPEGAV folder.

[Ross]

VCD Copy X http://www.cs.ucla.edu/~nathanst/software/vcdcopyx/index.html
This will copy the DAT file(s) off the mode2 disk (which OS X will mount, but not read the data). Change extension to mpg as needed.

[Aeon Flux]

I only have Mac OS 9.0.4! No Mac OS X....

How can I play these VCDs on Mac OS 9??

Oh god, does anyone know how.....?

[gll99]

I don't have a mac so maybe I should keep my nose out but didn't user AntnyMD answer the question.

If you're in OS 9, just use your current version of Quicktime to play your VCD by starting up Quicktime, and opening one of the .dat files in the CD's MPEGAV folder.

Maybe I was dreaming.

[Aeon Flux]

If you're in OS 9, just use your current version of Quicktime to play your VCD by starting up Quicktime, and opening one of the .dat files in the CD's MPEGAV folder.

I tried this. My computer didn't let me open the files (of course) and came up with this notice:

Couldn't open the file AVSEQ01.DAT because there was an input/output error.


Man, this sucks..... Please, more suggestions.... Please?
At least you're tying. Maybe some mac genius will come out of nowhere and find out what's wrong....

[gll99]

Windows PC user here but......

Back to what was suggested earlier by someone else. Try to copy the dat file to your hd to see if you can at least pull it off the disk. IO errors could be your drive or the disk itself or that the mac is expecting a different file format. At least you will eliminate that as a cause. Then try to play the dat from your hd.

You say the files play on your friends windows PC so the disks must be good.

Someone familiar with PC and Macs should be able to confirm whether the Mac OS 9 uses a different file structure.

If someone here can't answer why not call a Mac reseller in your area to see if Pressed VCDs are OS specific.

[Cornucopia]

I was laying low, hoping someone else would help you what I thought would be an easy fix. What you said in your last post made me think it isn't so easy.

All Macs made since ~1994-95 have been CDROMXA, Multisession compliant, so unless your drive is actually defective-which you should be able to tell-it's not the hardware.

Next up the ladder to check is drivers. (All references here are Pre-OSX Mac only). If you can correctly play AudioCD's, and can see files on an ISO9660 CDROM (as in Windows Program discs), then you've got the "CDROM", the "Foreign File Access", the "AudioCD" and the "High Sierra" or "ISO9660" extensions in the :MacHD:System:Extensions folder. If something with one of those standard discs is faulty, then you may want to either replace the drivers or do a system re-install. (Of course, if you've got the time, a clean install and migration of preferences etc probably wouldn't hurt). If all goes well up til now, we'll check on Applications.

Quicktime must be installed correctly, along with the QT MPEG extension. It's also easy to save prefs and custom extensions and do a re-install or upgrade install of QT, just in case.

Now you should be able to play a VCD using previously mentioned methods. If you can't, it might be a GHOST!

Something else to try would be to do a reboot, using a bootable CDROM that had all the aforementioned stuff.

HTH. Sorry we couldn't help you any further.

Scott

[RussBlack]

I will make a bet that your 'puter is not running at least a G3!!!

I went into my daughters room and used her 7500 to run some tests with know good VCD's and I couldn't make them run on it.....

If this is the case, you might think about getting a DVD player that will play VCD's. I bought a brand new one for $75. This is a heck of alot cheaper than upgrading you 'puter.

I don't know where you live but I can/am willing to transfer it tape for you.

[SCB]

VCDs will play on non-G3 machines. I have a 7500 upgraded with a 180mhz 604e processor and it plays VCDs just fine.