I've found 2 different VCD formats which are .DAT and mpeg 1. First I used the vcd burning option in Nero and I burned the "shrek 2.Dat" on a 700mb cd-rw (this was a successful burn).
Then I converted the .DAT into mpeg 1 (another VCD format) and used Nero to burn a vcd on another 700mb cd-rw. Unfortunately Nero detected that the media was larger than 700mb but I though Nero would encode it to .DAT or something....
Is there a way to actually convert a media file into .DAT (to me.. it seems that .Dat is the smallest VCD format u can get)
No, .DAT is a mpeg with header, a 'riff file', and exactly it is 101.24% bigger than the original MPG. Therefore .DAT is NOT a 'small' movie: the original mpegs were surely small and a little smaller than the DATs you have (check it by re-converting them to mpegs with VCDGear). You can re-convert a DA inyo mpeg by choosing dat --> mpeg in VCDGear. You turn the MPG into a DAT automatically, when you make a VCD image with VCDGear, MPG -> DAT ('mount' that image and extract it, to check what happens).
In more understandable terms, the DAT is like a VOB. It contains the MPEG1 stream, but is in the format that can be read by players, with the added information for I'm guessing button functions. A VCD can't have an MPEG1 file on it, it wraps the MPEG1 in a DAT which is what is actually burned to the CD.
yes, select "mpeg output" in TMPGEnc and lower the audio and video bitrates. to find out what to lower them to, get a bitrate calculator. I recommend the one included in DV Tool.
if you are using the wizard, then after you select the media you will convert it to, down in the lower right corner is a button that should read "MPEG Output." click it, and then you should be able to change the bitrate settings. DV Tool is a freeware tool that I beleive is available here on afterdawn.
