importing VCD

[Dennis R. Cohen]

On 6/10/04 at 8:26 PM, "L. Cornelio" <ramito at san.rr.com> transmitted the
following electronic message:

>On Mon, 31 May 2004 05:32:24 -0700MacDV at lists.themacintoshguy.com wrote
>something like:
>
>>>I've just received a VCD which I put in my Superdrive but it won't 
>>>play. There doesn't appear to be an application that can open it. 
>>>So, I have two questions.
>>>1. How do I get to view the contents of the VCD?
>>>2. Can I import the contents of the VCD into iMovie 4?
>>>Thanks again ! (I'd be lost without you guys !)
>
>You can use Toast to extract the file to mpeg1. But that is still not
>compatible with iMovie, which would require a few other tricky steps -
>which may not be worth it. If the VCD plays, whats the problem? ;-)
>Because redoing it from that file to a DVD wont improve the quality....
>
>-ramito

First, he said that it would NOT play :)

Second, Toast won't extract the file from a VideoCD to MPEG-1. For that,
you'll need a tool such as VCD CopyX (see Version Tracker). That'll get
the file down as a DAT file. You can use VCDGearX to convert DAT2MPG and
have the MPEG-1 file without the DAT header block.

To play a VCD disc under OS X, you need an application that understands
Mode2 Form2 disc formatting to get the sector reads right. You can use
vlc (VideoLAN Client) or MacVCD to play such a disc.

If you have extracted the MPEG, as described above, you can use Toast to
"Export" the movie to DV Stream. Assuming that the result is not greater
than 2GB in size (about nine-and-a-half minutes), you can import that
directly into iMovie. If longer, then you'll have to fine a tool to
split it into manageable chunks (QT Pro can do this, with some manual
interaction on your part).

-- 
Dennis R. Cohen
FileMkaer Pro 7 Bible (Sept 2004)
Teach Yourself Visually iLife '04
Mac Digital Photography (and other titles)