Thanks to forum maintainer. I want to know to know the difference between .dat and .mpeg and .avi format. Is there any utility to convert from one form to another.I have around 20 vcds All of them have only .dat and .vcd files(by the way what is this vcd file).Can a VCD have .mpeg and .avi format files .

-- Senthil Kumaran (sskumaran@hotmail.com), January 25, 1999

Answers

A *.dat file contains the porion of the film caputred to disc. It is a universal extension that allows any player to open it. DVD, Video CD, and Software Players look for this extension. An .mpeg format or *.mpg is just a compressed video capture. Software players can read this but DVD and Video CD hardware can not. The VCD file is just a file that tells the player what this disc is. Many of the VCDs have *.dat files not *.mpg files as those (*.mpg) can only be read by software. XING Encoder does *.mpg by default but high end encoders create *.dat. Hope this helps.

-- Rutger Stevens (rutger_s@hotmail.com), January 26, 1999.

There are different video format available namely avi,mpg,dat. These files are playable only with software execept dat can be played by vcd.To create vcd file generated by a camera as mpg, u need to convet to the format acceptable by the software which gereartes the dat file.

-- BALASUBRAMANIAN (ragg@vsnl.net), January 22, 2003.