I seem to be getting a collection of various files and am not sure what i can do with them. I created a VCD a while back when i got my Sony DV camcorder (dont think the Sony Pixela SW would do DVDs back then). Would that be a .DAT file ? Is there a practical way to extract it from the VCD in order to author it back onto a DVD (i may still have the original on the camcorder tape but not sure) ? Will i lose much (quality) for viewing on TV ? TIA for your replies. Yrnehbad
If you create a VCD, the movie can be found as a .DAT file on the disk (see http://www.digitalvideoclub.com/techinfo/vcd.php ). You can simply copy the .DAT file back to your hard drive and rename the extension to mpg. It can simply be played. If you want to create a DVD from it, the issue is that it is mpeg-1 and for DVD you need mpeg-2. This means that you have to transcode from mpeg-1 to mppeg-2. Most encoders can do that without any problems. However, the mpeg-1 has lower quality and you will not get quality back when transcoding to mpeg-2. if you still have the original tape, it would be preferable to use that for your DVD.
Oops, just after posting the above i read the "Burning a VCD" thread and went to the link posted by TPFKS. Looks like a very useful site. Thanks. Also, sorry for the additional post but I'm hopeless at editing on this site. Yrnehbad
Thank you TPFKS. I really appreciate and enjoy your replies so much so that i now look to read them in other threads. You sure must have a lot of patience to put up with me. Yrnehbad
