Playback .DAT in Mono on TV

[gonwk]

Hi folks,

First of all ... HAPPY NEW YEAR ...

I was trying to simplify my life and put my VCD's of Chinese Karate movies on my hard drive and play it via USB on my Philips dvd player.

I successfully extracted the movie .dat file from the VCD and I am able to play it back using VLC just fine on my computer ... and VLC allows me to Choose my Device input for Volume so I can choose the "MONO" versus the "Stereo" track ... which is "Clear" voice.

However at home I can only choose one Audio Track via my dvd-player remote control ... so obviously I get the Stereo track and it is garbly ... I assume because they don't have the left and right channel sync'ed up correctly ... I just want to choose Mono ... but it will not toggle back and forth like in VLC.

QUESTION: How do I solve my problem to get only Mono from these .dat files that I now have? So I can get rid of the Rattley noise of Stereo sound!!!

Thanks,
G!

[ratboy]

I found your post, so I will try to gather some info. and post here.
At this time it is looking like a long process. 1st convert .dat back to MPG,(possible Q lost) with VCDGear. The only program that I have found that allows this change is " PC User DVD DoubleShrink 1.2 " which is also Freeware.
But like I said this is again re-encoding, Q lost, and just running some short test it will take some time in doing this project.

I am still reviewing some stuff, but you may want to unplug the Left or Right DVD output and see which one sound better.
Are you sure you do not have a option in your DVD player to set outputs?

Maybe someone else will come along with info.

One last thing have you thought about putting your VCD files into DVD format and building a DVD? This may give more options.

[gonwk]

Hi ratboy,

Thanks for the feedback ... you know I am trying to read the files from my 2.5' External FAT32 HD into my Philips DVP5960/37 ... and it works but it will not give me option for the Audio.

With Regular DVD ... I can go to Display (Menu) and choose Titles and Audio Output ... Soooo, your e-mail just jogged my Brain ... I will try puttin one of my XXX.DAT (actually renamed to XXX.mpg) on a cd and see if I played that in DVD player it might give me the same options as the DVD did ... then I am in business.

BTW, I have the Original VCD's ... so I can do the process from beginning ...

The reason I extracted the files from VCD's it was so I can put 5 or 6 VCD Karate movies on 1 dvd ... to save space and clutter. This is what I did ...

1) Extracted the "Main" movie .DAT file using ISOBuster and chose option "Extract but Filter only M2F2 MPEG Frames" (I found this in some guide).

2) Rename all files to XXX.mpg and then burn them using NERO as data DVD.

Here is my problem ... when extracting the files using ISOBuster ... it does not give me the option of choosing the AUDIO. I would much prefer to have my Audio in Mono since it is more Clear vs. the so-called Stereo (sounds rattly).

OR May be someone can tell me what other "Freeware" can I use to do what I am trying ...

Or I am back to using the VCD's.

Thanks,
G!

[ratboy]

Ok I think I have found it.

If you think you want to put a few VCD's on one dvd and change the audio to mono, I think I found something you can try.

I could not find any really good freeware to do this yet, but how about a 14 day trial. http://tmpgenc.pegasys-inc.com/en/do...a20.html#trial

I believe you said you have all the files on your HD, renamed XXX.mpg.

I am running a test right now. If you do want to go this route, Put 3 or 4 VCD's on one dvd in DVD format , with menus & chapters, in mono.
Let me know and I think I can write a short procedure to do this before you download the above.

I am just converting one of my old VCD's with an older ver. of the above. It still re-encodes, but TMPgenc is a good product.

I will let you know how it turns out. It does not look bad. Do your files play OK?

[gonwk]

Hi ratboy,

Thanks for your troubles ... you make me feel so bad ... sounds like I put you thru lot of hard work searching ... sorrry ...

ratboy, I actually think I have version 1.6 of this software either on my laptop (which has P3, 1GHZ, and not much RAM ... so pretty darn slow for encoding) ... the only thing with TMPGEnc DVD Author ... just like you said it Re-Encodes everything ... so that is why, I think I came up with the idea just Stripping the Data files from VCD and burning them as data ... "Faster" ... all I needed was "Mono" Audio and I would be in business.

I am still trying to find the easy and FAST way out.

Thanks Again ... and we'll be in touch,
G!

[ratboy]

NP, I have not worked with VCD's in quite awhile.
I stated doing VCR's to computer, then to VCD/SVCD.
Burning with a 4x cd burner, the kind you would sw you could smell it burning the disk.
Then I went wild, and bought a DVD-Rom, DVD to Vcd.

I was always trying to convert to AC3, or stereo.

I am afraid, that the only way to change your files is to re-encode them.
Which if you look at it the audio is a part of the files, so it would require it to be removed then replaced.

Anyway, it was fun trying to recall all the things I used in doing some of those projects.

Good Luck.

[gonwk]

Hi ratboy,

THANKS ... I'm afraid you might be right!

BTW, Great avatar ... I gotta find a cute one for me.

G!

[anonymez]

How do I solve my problem to get only Mono from these .dat files that I now have?

demux the audio/video streams with something like projectX, and mux (or author with something like ifoedit) again, this time only the video and mono audio stream.

[gonwk]

Hi Anonymez,

You are my "HERO" ... always coming to the Rescue just at the right time.

BTW, Anaonymez, what do you think about "DGMPGDec" for demuxing vs. ProjectX. Because I have used DGMPGDec and it seems to be pretty straight-forward and it works everytime "Correctly" ... whereas in ProjectX comments in VH site ... I saw some comments that there migth be problems with ProjectX!?!??!

THANKS,

G!

[anonymez]

i guess you mean DGIndex, it should work well too.

whereas in ProjectX comments in VH site ... I saw some comments that there migth be problems with ProjectX!?!??!

most gripes users seem to have are with the interface. the app works wonders with corrupt dvb mpeg ps/ts streams

[gonwk]

Hi Anonymez,

Yes ... you are right I meant DGIndex ...

And thansk for the heads up on ProjectX capabilities ... will play around with so I can get comfortable.

THANKS!

G!

[gonwk]

Hi folks,

Light bulb came on ... after awhile ... I solved my problem and with this procedure I have "No Sync" problem or anything else ...

NOTE1: Since my Karate movies come on VCDs (usually 2 vcd's for each movie) ... DO NOT combine the 2 vcd's before you do the following steps ... I have found that if I do that step first ... it will introduce "small" amount of Audio/Vidoe Sync problem.

NOTE2: Programs that I mention ... they are just my preference ... use whatever you like and does the same task ...

1) Extract .DAT files using ISOBuster and Save it as ***.mpg (or mpeg).
These are MPEG1 files.

2) Demultiplex .mpeg file using DGIndex .... you get .m1v (Video) and .mpa (Audio).
- I like using DGIndex because it gives me any associated "Time Delays".
You can also use the "Freeware" version of TMPGEnc ... freeware version let's you to do MPEG1 only.
You use the "MPEG TOOLS" and do a "Simple Demultiplex".

3) Using "Audacity" convert .mpa from "Stereo" to "Mono" audio and export as .wav.
Reason I convert from Stereo to Mono ... it is because this gives me the garbley/rattley noise when I play back extracted .DAT directly on TV.

4) Use "Belight 0.2.2.0 Beta9 to convert above "corrected" .wav file into .mp2 (MPEG Audio).
Leave everything as is ...

5) Use TMPGEnc to multiplex .mp2 audio and .m1v video back to mpg (mpeg same thing).
Use "MPEG TOOLS" and choose Simple Multiplex and Automatic VCD.

6) NOW you can use a "Merge" program to merge the 2 corrected .mpg files into one ... but you can leave the as is and name them xxxx_D1.mpg & xxxx_D2.mpg and it will play just fine. I like combining them.
For freeware you can use TMPGEnc to Merge them. Under "Merge/Cut" ... you do this ... only make syre you add disc1 first and then disc2 ... tokeep the order.

Now I have a MPG (MPEG) file that does not rattle when I play it back ...

Thanks for everyone's Suggestion and Help!

G!