I have a movie(VCD format) in 3 vcds and I want to burn these into one VCD. Each CD has a .dat file which is around 550MB. I tried using the VCDGear to convert .dat to MPEG file but it didnot compress the file. Correct me if I am wrong. How do I do compress all these .DAT file to make them fit into One VCD?

-- Sony (bsowmu@yahoo.com), May 01, 2003

Answers

uhm you can't........ simply enough....... the MAXIMUM aloud in a VCD disc, a "large capacity" cd disc is 80 MINUTES........ thats it, plus to even compress files around 550, nonetheless 3 of them to be able to fit into one cd, would be the crappiest thing on earth.

.......... fin

-- Chris Madson (Sackavelli@aol.com), May 01, 2003.

Chris, There are some movies which are around 2 hours long that fit into one VCD. How is this possible? Are these files .dat files too? Thanks, Sony

-- Sony (bsowmu@yahoo.com), May 01, 2003.

The .dat file in your VCD is already compressed to the maximum, that is still playable in a VCD machine. Further compression will render it not VCD compliant and will not be playable.

In the near future, it could be made possible to use blank DVD media that can store more than seven times that of a blank CD media and that the VCD file is playable in a DVD machine.

-- the saint (good luck@lucky.com), May 01, 2003.

sorry sonny, to my knowledge, 80 minutes is the tops.....

but think about it, IF you could theoretically put 7 VCD movies onto ONE DVD disc, i doubt it will be playable...... The laser has to be in a different "mode" (what have you) to even be able to read a dvd disc, which i would guess rules out the classic open eyed lens that can be used for reading VCD........ different compression what not formats and other jabberwocky

I am most likely wrong on this, this is just my theory/opinion

-- Chris Madson (Sackavelli@aol.com), May 02, 2003.

Sony, I suggest you go to http://www.vcdhelp.com and look at some of the beginner docs as they might help you. Any discs you see which have 2 hours of movie on a single CD-R are definitely not VCD! What you are seeing is DivX, which is a completely different format. It is theoretically possible to put 2 hours worth of MPEG-1 video on a single CD-R, but as was stated in an earlier message, what you get won't be very watchable. Simply put, VCD format supports one minute of video per minute on the CD-R. You can get 80 minutes of movie on an 80 minute CD-R. The only way to get more is to use another format (ie. DivX) or use a lower video bit rate and sacrifice quality.

-- Root (root@yahoo.moc), May 02, 2003.

Thank you. I shall not waste my time anymore on doing this :). Thanks for making it clear.

-- Sony (bsowmu@yahoo.com), May 02, 2003.

Sonny and the others:

You haven't been wasting your time. You're right. It's true there are many VCD (.dat file) that have a length more than 80 minutes (I'm not sure what is the the top, but I saw around 130 minutes in 1 one VCD) and with good quality, I purchase many of these, but I don't how to make it, I'm looking the way to compress too. If you know something please tell me.

Thanks

PECV

-- pecv (pcristob@sedapal.com.pe), May 09, 2003.

here is your answer

http://www.dvdrhelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=84759

-- 7 (Triple7Special@yahoo.com), August 04, 2003.

It is not hard to compress 2hours+ movie a single CDR but it only playable in a DVD player or computer . If you use a VCD player to play it the screen and sound will crash.

From Steven

-- Steven Lee (steven@rh9.no-ip.com), December 19, 2003.

Well...i use the tmpgencoder changing one .dat file to mpeg I and changed its size,and can be played on a simple phillips dvd!!!. How i did it?....i load the movie and unlock the bitrates of sound and video, i did edit and cuted the end titles and some announcements from beginning and i took down the sound rates to 128 from 224 (that gives you a pretty sound, and can be take it to 96, less will give you an am frecuency radio sound) and the video bitrates from 1150 to 1000 so the file will fit in a 80 min cd. try it out....bye

-- Michel Gaslonde (gaslondeprats@hotmail.com), February 05, 2004.

It can be done. Use Tmpgencoder 2.25 or higher, like a previous comment here. Unlock the bitrates and tweak the dat file using the same application (filters). Of course, the encoding time will vary depending on your settings and video size. I encoded a 2 hour movie (roughly 1.2 gb) into a 80 min video on one CD in about 1.5 hours. And unless you are looking at the TV screen with a microscope, the drop in quality is pretty insignificant. go to www.videohelp.com for more on this.

-- ram (in_sri73@yahoo.co.in), January 04, 2005.