Hi,

I recently had some videos converted to VCDs (on CD-R) in India. However, my DVD player (which does play VCDs) does not recognize these discs. If I put them in a PC CD-ROM drive, I find that the actual video and audio segments are in multiple .DAT files in a folder named MPEGAV. Windows Media Player will play these .DAT files correctly. My question is this:

1) Why does my DVD player (Sony DVP-550D) not like these discs? 2) Is there any way for me to use the .DAT files to recreate the VCDs (on new CD-Rs) in a format that my DVD player would prefer?

Please help!

Thanks, Vasuki.

-- Vasuki Seshadri (vasuki@bigfoot.com), January 26, 2000

Answers

Vasuki,

The Sony DVP-550D only has a single laser pick-up. It will not be able to recognise CD-Rs. It WILL read CD-RWs however. Maybe you should just make an exact copy with duplicating software onto a CD- RW. That should work.

-- Gene Williams (genewill@earthlink.net), January 26, 2000.

Gene

How do you know if a laser is dual or single. Is a dual, one which can focus at two different levels. Or do they mean two separate lasers?

Sorry I forgot to check for a previous answer.

-- Ross McL (rmclennan@esc.net.au), January 27, 2000.

It has been my experience, through making Video CD's at home and taking them to the store and trying them in the DVD players is that the Pioneers are the only ones to play them flawlessly. The Philips also played them but I have noticed that the video momentarily freezes up at various point. Some say this is do to the brand of disks I am using so I am trying different ones now. The Memorex platinum I am using did not solve the problem There is a low end Pioneer at Best Buy for around $250 that works great with home made Video Cd's. The salesman I talked to yesterday says Sony doesn't want there players to play them because they are afraid of pirating. He also said it's the way the authoring software puts the cd info at the end of the disks rather than at the front.

-- Al McCraw (amccraw@ix.netcom.com), January 27, 2000.

Ross,

When someone refers to a 'dual-laser pick-up' they are talking about two separate lasers, one for reading CDs and the other for DVDs. Each is set at a different wavelength so the right laser reads the right media. A single-laser DVD player can usually read CD-RWs because they are more reflective than CD-Rs.

Sony have announced though, that they have developed a new system which is effectively a 'dual-wavelength' laser. One laser which can focus at different wavelengths. This laser could read CD-R, CD-RWs & DVDs. They'll first incorporate it into the Playstation 2 and then into their following DVD players.

Hope that answers your question.

-- Gene Williams (genewill@earthlink.net), January 27, 2000.

Thanks Gene.

I wondered because my Philips 725 spec gives two focuses but does not actually say two lasers, it tends to infer a single unit with two focus points and I wondered.

Al

there is lot written here on what people found when taking their home brews to a shop to try before buying; to summarise mine, I used 6 different makes of media and the Philips 725 I chose was the only one to play all six, then I finally settled for none of the ones I initially tried (althought I still have some Mitsui Golds that look just like the Kodak silvers I use now). Everybody talked about using double silvers and Kodak silvers were finally easier for me to get hold of in Adelaide.

-- Ross McL (rmclennan@esc.net.au), January 27, 2000.

Are you guys sure Sony has never made a dvd player that can read cdr disc? Soemone i know who owns a Sony dvd player says it can read so far any cdr he throws at it

-- Doug (mazinz@aol.com), January 27, 2000.

Yes Doug as reported here by a number of people, including myself, when I first checked the DVD players in Adelaide the Sony was on the top of my list as Pioneer gave me choppy sound. When I finally went to buy I was lucky I checked because the same model number in the same shop this time would not even look at the SAME disks I had previously used. It seems the earlier versions did and they changed that, Sony is always going to be Sony, a law unto themselves! Like someone has said they are probably worried about pirates.........

-- Ross McL (rmclennan@esc.net.au), January 27, 2000.

Thank you all for your wonderful responses. Gene's original suggestion of using CD-RWs solved the problem! Apparently my Sony DVP-550D will read CD-RWs but not CD-Rs... Something to keep in mind for future reference...:)

Vasuki.

-- Vasuki Seshadri (vasuki@bigfoot.com), January 27, 2000.