My computer has a DVD player and has no problem playing ordinary DVDs, but doesn't recognise a vcd I recently got from Asia. I have tried playing it in PowerDVD, Windows Media Player and Quicktime, but nothing seems to work.

Are there any free downloads out there that could convert the files or something? I'm pretty clueless with computers, sorry :( Laura

-- Laura Owen (lauraeowenuk@yahoo.co.uk), February 15, 2004

Answers

Maybe it's not a valid VCD. PowerDVD should play it without any problems. Look at the contents and see if you have a MPEGAV directory on the VCD. If you do, there should be at least one file in the directory than ends in .DAT. If your disc has this directory and file, try loading the file directly in PowerDVD using the Play Media File option. Although I have not seen this, I have read some things in this forum that seem to indicate that some VCDs are now being copy protected so that they can't be played on PCs. This violates VCD standards, but VCD piracy seems to be a big problem, so I do understand why it might be done. If you have such a VCD, there's nothing you can do but try to play it on a standalone DVD player. You might want to see if you can play it on a friend's standalone DVD player. If it plays on a standalone DVD player and won't play at all on your PC, it's been copy protected to keep it from playing on PCs.

-- Root (root@yahoo.moc), February 16, 2004.

Thanks for your help. I have found that my VCD will play using an old version of Windows Media Player, and also using PowerDVD, by changing the type to media, as you suggested.

The quality, however, is poor.

Thanks again for replying Laura

-- Laura Owen (lauraeowenuk@yahoo.co.uk), February 16, 2004.

how to play vcd games on pc

-- javed shaikh (javed_jm@Hotmail.com), March 04, 2004.

hello laura,

im here to ask how my vcd disk will have to play on my old sony cdrom drive, is just conplaining that the disk is not seeing with the system. please get back to me please by mail .

-- kenneth ezeala (uzon_ken2000@yahoo.com), April 03, 2004.

Hey,

Ive created a VCD by burning a couple of home movies onto a disk using NERO, it plays fine on my DVD player. But the thing is it doesn't seem to autoplay on my PC. Isnt windows automaitcally supposed to play a VCD when entered into a CD Drive? I have 2 drives a DVD drive and a CD RW drive, Neither work! What is wrong. Now I can play by manually going to MPEGAV and choosing a file at random and it will play that specific movie but if I have a couple its Pick & Mix.

How can I sort this? I am using Windows XP. I am sure it is suppose to pick up that it is a VCD and play it starting at the menu screen. The CD is in CDFS format.

Any advise apreciated. Thanks

-- Lastrider (lastrider03@gmail.com), January 13, 2005.