Recent Chinese Karaoke VCD rom .dat files, especially made in 1999, will not play under Xing 3.30. These .dat files cannot even be copied to harddisk drive under Windows 98 Explorer. Anyone can explain???

-- Tomo (ong@worksafe.wa.gov.au), June 02, 1999

Answers

The new Chinese VCDs made in Hong Kong and China over the past year have had a format change. They now use SVCD, a better higher quality format. Unfortunately, Xing nor Cyberlink have players for these files. This is because of a format war between SVCD and DVCD, both do the same thing but have varying features. This is similar to the DVD/DivX problem in the US. You will have to find a stand alone player to view these discs...make sure the player is from China and is newest model.

-- The Lone Ranger (rutger_s@hotmail.com), June 02, 1999.

Thank you "Lone Ranger" for the lead. After surfing the net for SVCD, I am now alot wiser on this subject. The SVCD format has explained most of the problems faced by our Karaoke Groups, i.e. a) Older VCD/LD players and those made in Japan and Korea have varying degrees of hic-ups playing latest Chinese Karaoke discs, with missing picture frames, blockly pictures and some giving up half way through a song. b) Latest VCD player has a "MENU" button on the remote control and works 100 % compatible with latest vcd discs. Older player could not get the "MENU" up onto the TV screen at all.

One more puzzling question - What is the significance of a vcd player designated as "VCD 3.5"?

-- Tomo (ong@worksafe.wa.gov.au), June 04, 1999.

Video CD 3.5 is just a way of stating that the player is either SVCD or DVCD compatable. The machine will play VCD 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 3.0(some do exist), and SVCD or DVCD(depends on maker and manual).

-- The Lone Ranger (rutger_S@hotmail.com), June 04, 1999.