As already discussed, video on VCD (file extension DAT) is MPEG-1 by nature, stored as DAT files. A host of software is available for ripping video CDs. VCDGear is one package that lets you convert your DAT tracks on the VCD to MPEG directly. Just load the DAT file and select the appropriate extraction/conversion option. It also lets you convert the other way round, that is, MPEG to DAT. Alternatively you can use VirtualDub, which does a lot of things apart from just ripping CDs. You can use this to rip the video track off the CD and save it as an uncompressed AVI. This AVI can then be encoded into MPEG as already explained. Please keep in mind that a VCD holds around 600 MB of compressed video that’ll balloon up to a large size when converted to AVI. So you’d better have plenty of free hard
disk space.

Video tape to VCD

This is a big time business even for small time professionals. Video tapes are the primary storage for video from live events, parties and marriages and since video tapes are a hassle to maintain or use, users want to convert their videos to the easier to use VCDs. You need a video capture card for this purpose and of course a compression/encoding software. The quality and frame rates of the final video depend on the kind of capture card you use. High-end cards allow higher frame rates during capture, but they’re very expensive. The accompanying software for capturing usually allows you to specify the capture size, resolution, and colors. They normally save the video as uncompressed AVI. You can use any of the earlier discussed schemes to convert this video to VCD-compliant MPEG-1 and burn it on to VCDs. For details read the story ‘Working with Video’, page 80, in the January 2000 issue. You can also check out our Website—www.pcquest.com—if you don’t have a copy of the issue.

VCD to DivX

DivX is making waves in video similar to what MP3 did in audio. What’s the advantage? DivX is a format that achieves a high level of compression, even more than conventional MPEG files. You’ll find many movies in DivX format on the Internet for download. The advantage is that DivX gives you good picture quality despite the compression. It’s sometimes confused with MPEG-4, but the two are actually different formats and use different codecs. If you have a VCD and want to put up a movie server in the near future (when the bandwidth situations improve), you can readily convert your VCD movies to DivX for download. To do this, VirtualDub is an easy-to-use software. It rips the video data track (along with the sound) from the VCD, and its data stream can then be processed to give you a DivX movie. The beauty of the software is the amount of experimentation you can do it. You can select the video codec to be used for compression; the audio codec can be specified separately and could be DivX audio or even MP3.