My mother-in-law just brought over two Russian VCDs for my wife (who is Russian). I've never heard of VCDs before, but after reading info on this site, thought that Quicktime 4.0 would allow me to watch these VCDs. However, everything on the VCDs are in Windows formats. And, I'm unfamiliar with the extensions on the files on the VCDs (being a MAc user). I've found a folder called MPEGAV and one called VCD. Inside of these folders are .dat files and .vcd files. Are these the actual compressed movies? When I attempt to open them from within Quicktime, the computer seems to lock up. It appears that normally a Windows user would install the .app file and then go into the movie from there. How can I just double click on a file to make it play.

Thanks for comments -

Troy Dunn

-- Troy Dunn (gatsby44@aol.com), December 11, 1999

Answers

The playable files on a VCD are in the mpegav and segment folders only and they all have the extension *.dat. The files in the mpegav directory are complete white book compliant mpeg-1 files that are named avseqxx.dat or musicxx.dat. The files in the segment directory, if there are, are named itemxxx.dat and are variations of the mpeg-1 format still within white book standards. To play these files you should have a multisession-capable CD-ROM drive and an application that is an MPEG driver basically. In Windows98, media player is able to play such files without much fuss. Another popular app is Xing. Quicktime will not play these files. I am not a Mac user, and though I'm sure there will be MPEG player apps for the Mac, I'm not aware of what they are. To make these files play by double-clicking in Windows the needed MPEG player app should have been installed beforehand and associated as the default app for opening and playing such files.

-- EMartinez (epmartinez@hotmail.com), December 12, 1999.

I have a Power PC Mac and Quicktime 4. I can play VCD just by double clicking. The previous respinder is probably right - you do not have a multi-session CD ROm. What Mac do you have ?.

-- Kiam Oey (kiam.t.oey@boeing.com), December 14, 1999.

I too have a UMAX ( J700 ). The CD drive that comes with it is Matsushita ( Panasonic ). The Umax site specifically mentioned that this drive does not play VCD. I have the same problem as you do. I also have a Yamaha CD-RW connected to the Umax. This Yamaha plays VCD just fine in QT4. When I use the built-in CD Rom, I get a message that the format is unknown. Hope this help in explaining why the Umax can't play VCD. I reponded to a similar Umax question from a lady in Australia.

Kiam

-- Kiam Oey (kiam.t.oey@boeing.com), December 16, 1999.