Can you Play or Copy a Video CD on a Mac?

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Level 7

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Can you Play or Copy a Video CD on a Mac?

I have posted this in other forums and received no reply so I am coming to the experts on DVD etc. How's that for a bit of flannel!

Yesterday a friend gave me a "DVD" of home movies to copy and also re-edit in FCE.

Of course the "DVD" turned out to be a Video CD (lousy quality!) and I just couldn't get my eMac to even play it - let alone do anything else.

Eventually I copied it onto a DVD by using a stand-alone DVD player and a DVD recorder but it took an hour (real time).

So can the Mac play or copy VCDs?

(My eMac has an 8x Superdrive and I have got Toast 7 installed).

Any help appreciated.

Ian.

eMac 1.25 Superdrive(768MB RAM) + iMac G3 600, Mac OS X (10.3.9), 160GB LaCie FW HD FCE HD+Premiere 6.5 - Premiere works fine on G3 OS9 or OSX

Posted on Jan 22, 2006 10:34 AM

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Answer 1

Jan 22, 2006 12:34 PM in response to Ian R. Brown

It should do

Quicktime player will play mpeg1 which is video CD

MPEGstreamclip can convert them so they can be edited in iMovie or FCE

free download from:
squared5/mpegstreamclip.html

G

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Answer 2

Ian R. Brown Author

Level 7

24,242 points

Jan 22, 2006 1:32 PM in response to Gary Scotland

Thanks Gary,

You were right - but you could have made it easier for me!

I tried dragging the files down to the QT icon but they just bounced back.

Then I opened QT and chose Open File. There were 5 folders and eventually I found the right one - MPEGAV and the file inside called AVSEQ01.DAT.

That one opened beautifully and played the VCD but it seems a bit fiddly compared with popping in a CD or a DVD.

Anyway, I learned a bit whilst ferreting around.

Thanks again.

Ian.

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