I have an original Philips CD-i Video CD containing a 500Mb DAT file. Which I used CD-i Filesystem driver to view the files. This is playable via any PC. I wish to make a VCD of it so I can play it on my DVD player. I tried both WinonCD and Nero using this DAT file. Both failed. I tried VCDgear dat>mpeg (wrong signature).TMPG tells me 49days to convert! aah! I was thinking of converting this to an AVI and using avi2vcd in an attempt to overcome any incompatibility. If there is anyone who has successfully done this please help. If it's just a settings problem please put me out of my misery! Help

-- DaveH (tag4000@hotmail.com), August 28, 2001

Answers

I might sound dumb...but a DVD player which is fully VCD compatible should also be compatible with a CD-i VCD ? Why bother with conversions etc. ?

-- Chetan Umarje (elegance@giaspn01.vsnl.net.in), August 28, 2001.

That's probably because he doesn't have a VCD at all, but a Philips CD-i, period. Such a CD will normally only be playable on a CD-i player, never a VCD or DVD player.

-- Mehmet Tekdemir (turk690@yahoo.com), August 28, 2001.

Check the DVD FAQ at www.dvddemystified.com. Only early versions of CD-i were incompatible with VCD. Later versions of CD-i are compatible with VCD and will play on any DVD player that supports VCD. It all depends on how old the CD-i is as to whether or not it will play. If Dave has an old CD-i that not's compatible with VCD, I have no idea how to convert it to VCD.

-- Jason (Jason.Shumate@equant.com), August 29, 2001.

If you want to convert it into an AVI, you could try using FlaskMPEG 6 as it accepts MPEG1 and 2 streams and since the DAT file on a CD-i is just another MPEG, it should work. You might even just re-encode it straight into a VCD compliant stream.

-- AS (bosss7@telstra.com), November 25, 2001.