Cannot play VCD on PC, plays on VCD player

[dilipbalsaraf]

Just bought a VCD. Directory listing shows NO FILES on disk. Hence (probably) most VCD software players cannot recognise the disc.

However VCD plays perfectly if inserted in a VCD or a DVD player. I do not have a VCD or DVD player as of now.

How do I see this VCD on a PC? Any software which can do this trick?

[gd_nimrod]

Well, its rather wierd that your cd-drive won't notice any files on the disk, but i guess the best thing to do would be to (yes) go ahead and install a software dvd/vcd player such as powerdvd.

Then try selecting the specific disc - it should play just fine.

[dilipbalsaraf]

PowerDVD, WinDVD absolutely nothing works! I had forgotton to write this point! sorry!

[Thingy]

you could check the disc in cdrwin, maybe they have done some weird things with multiple sessions, ie copy-protection.

if so you might be able to extract the correct track to a bin and open it with some bin-mounter

[gd_nimrod]

You can try getting VCDGear, that program will extract the .mpg file from the vcd so maybe you can watch it then. If, that is, it will read the disc with vcdgear.

[dilipbalsaraf]

Let me try cdrwin and vcdgear and reply to this post soon.!!

[dilipbalsaraf]

I think a VCD has 2 tracks, 1 track which only a VCD/DVD player will recognise. The other track is meant for PCs in which files etc are present.

I think the other track has been not added to avoid piracy!

what say?

[WildmanJoe]

Try using IsoBuster to explore the CD contents. Look for a folder called MPEGAV, there should be one huge Music/AVESEQ.dat file there. That's your VCD file. If still no luck using IsoBuster then perhaps they have some SafeRom-like protection on the VCD or perhaps your CD-Rom cannot read the disc.