Please help. I just bought a copy of my wedding video on Video CD - under the assumption that I could play it any DVD player. I've tried it on 2 and on my laptop but have had no joy.

Can anyone help - the videographer was most unhelpful.

Thanks in advance.

Veronica

-- Veronica McMullan (veronica@scotland.net), August 14, 2001

Answers

Open Windows media Player. Open the directory of the VCD called "Mpegav". You find either Avseq*.dat or Music*.dat file. Open the file through Windows Media Player.

-- Sam (samara@slpa.lk), August 14, 2001.

Hi Veronica, I helped a guy from the UK over a week ago with the same problem. Basically, you were lied to. The problem is that many DVD players, while they certainly do understand VCD format, don't support CD-R media, which is no doubt what your wedding video was made on. You should go to www.vcdhelp.com and look at the DVD player compatibility list to see if your DVD player supports CD-R media or not. How do you know if your VCD is CD-R media? Look at the back of it. If it has a blue or green tint to it, it's CD-R. Assuming you have CD-R, what can you do? 1) Get someone to burn the video to CD-RW for you or use a CD copying program to do this. Some, but not all, DVD players support CD-RW media even if they don't support CD-R media. CD-RW reflects back at a wavelength close to commercial silver CD-R discs, so that's why it sometimes works. This worked for the guy I mentioned earlier. 2) Pay someone to burn your wedding video onto a commercial silver disc, NOT CD-R. This will definitely work, but it may cost you 70 UK pounds or more to do this. You could probably do a web search to find someone in the UK who offers this service. I assume that since your e-mail address is scotland.net that you are actually in the UK.cd Take any audio CD you purchased in a store and look at the back of the label side - the side which contains the music. Notice how it looks silver like a mirror? This is a type of commercial disc that will work in your player if you can find someone that can burn your wedding video onto it. Blue/green CD-R discs reflect back at a different wavelength from the commercial silver discs, so DVD players that support CD-R have a 2nd laser designed just for that media. Many major manufacturers are too cheap to put a 2nd laser in their players, so that's no doubt why your VCD isn't working in your player. To play it on a computer, start up Windows Media Player and go to the MPEGAV directory on the VCD. Look for a file ending in .DAT or .MPG and play that. All computer CD-ROM and DVD drives support CD-R media, so you definitely should be able to play it on a PC.

-- Jason (Jason.Shumate@equant.com), August 14, 2001.