Win2K and no VCD .dat playback possible.

I have a VCD that plays fine everywhere BUT on a PC at work that has Win2K on it.

I open the MPEGAV folder, drag the .dat file to WMP (both 6.4 & 7.1), the CD light flickers for about a minute and then I get an error msg that states WMP cannot play the file - Invalid File Format.

So, as a work around I try to copy the .dat to the HD but I get an error stating that I performed an Invalid MS-DOS function.

This is the only PC at work that can handle a movie. The one I am at now is only a P5-166 Evergreen'd to 266, but the CD drive is old and stutters through the playback.

NOTE - Win2K shows the .dat file as a "Notepad" file, meaning that when I browse the MPEGAV folder the icon for the .dat is the Blue Notepad icon and the text description is "Text Document". I get the same type of file description on my home PC BUT it plays them with no problem. Is this a codec issue or just something with Win2K? 2K plays mpegs fine BTW.

Thanks for any and ALL responses

[Prospero424]

Read the bottom of this page -

http://www.vcdhelp.com/play#playproblem

This usually solves the problem

Prospero

[Cornucopia]

Pardon me for being finicky, but what's the deal with putting Win2k on a P5-166/266 anyway? Unless you've got tons of RAM, you're bound to have problems with that setup.

Nonetheless,
I use Win2k on my primary VCD/DVD authoring station at work--NO PROBLEMS. And .DAT files don't have to be associated with notepad. But even if it is, you should still be able to open up the file in Media Player.

Note: On Win2k, as also in NT, you have at least 2 Installed Media Players--MPLAY32.exe (could have misspelled--MPLAYER32.exe) and MPLAY2.exe (or is it MPLAYER2.exe ?). You might also have the new WMPLAYER.exe (aka v7 or above). Now the 1st one is based on VFW/MCI and the 2nd and 3rd ones are based on Directshow. Try to open the file in the 1st player. Do [START | RUN | MPLAYER32.exe]. If it doesn't work there, your really screwed! If it works there, try the 2nd player. Each time do [FILE | OPEN ....] from within the program. If it doesn't work in the 2nd player, you probably have a Directshow codec problem.

Hopefully, this can help narrow down your difficulty to something manageable.

Scott