Hi,

I bought a movie on VCD 2.0. I can play it OK on my DVD player and a fried's PC (Windows98). Hoever I can't play it on my PC (Windows 98).

On my PC I can see the initial menu and the palyer window with controls, but nothing in the window (black). When I try to open the movie (.dat) file with Microsoft Media Player I get: "Cannot play back the file. The format is not supported." When I do the same on another PC (Windows 98) everything is OK.

Could anyone help me with that? I have installed the latest Microsoft Media Player, DirectX, Internet Explorer, video Codecs seem the same on both PCs.

Thanks in advance, Jacek

-- Jacek Zagrodzki (jaceks40@hotmail.com), November 06, 2001

Answers

Open the media player. Then drag the .dat file on the media player viewing screen. I don't know the reason but it worked for me. If it works for you, please let me know. I'm interested to know the reason.

-- Jamst (Jamst2000@yahoo.co.jp), November 06, 2001.

This one is easy to answer.

Some hardware DVD playing PC Cards, can't read VCD 2.0. Mainly the ATI range, which I guess you have as you haven't mentioned it. The reason the *.DAT files play okay on your mates PC is because he has assigned that particular file format to his Media Player, and I guess you haven't just yet, which you don't really need to do, cause you can use the likes of Morpheous (www.musiccity.com) to download PowerDVD (I would recommend getting version 3 (cause it works on WinXP too). This will play VCD 2.0 straight away, and any DVD's you might want to watch.

Hope this helps.

Oh, in the mean time, go to the *.DAT file, and do an "Open With" on it by right clicking on the file. When the options pop up, select the Media Player installed on your PC.

Regards,

The Boss www.cherrydvd.co.uk

-- The Boss (TheBoss@CherryDVD.co.uk), November 09, 2001.

I have a gang of commercial VCDs. A few, particularly the ones I directly mail order from Malaysia, seem not to like Windows Media Player on my machine. I do have an ATI Rage card. But they work just fine with any of my software DVD players...ATI, Power DVD 3.0, WinDVD.

-- ziggy (maugo99@hotmail.com), November 10, 2001.

VCD 2.o can be played very well with WINDVD Try it out

Ram

-- R (Ram_ravindran@yahoo.com), February 11, 2004.