Default Windows Media Player in Win 2K can't play .DAT files?

[Biggs]

It's version 6.4.09.1109

 

[Zenmervolt]

Windows considers *.DAT files to be program data files. *.DAT files are not considered media files. If you search your computer for *.DAT you will find that those files reside mainly in the C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32 directory. Basically, .DAT is not an extension for media files, rather for system data files.

Zenmervolt

 

[Biggs]

So is there a way for WMP to read .DAT files or do I need to download a third party player?

 

[Zenmervolt]

To be honest, I had no idea that there was a media format that used the .DAT extension (I'm guessing Digital Audio Tape?). I would assume that a third-party player would be necessary. Can someone else help this guy out with more specifics?

Zenmervolt

 

[Biggs]

The .DAT files I was referring to are the ones found on Movie VCDs.

 

[Rankor]

Hmm...that's strange. The Media Player in Win 98SE plays VCDs out of the box. I have to designate (MP) to play *.dat files, but that's about it.

I heard that DVD software progs can play VCDs (though I've never tried it). I've always used WMP b/c it was there and it was a cheap (more like free) and dirty, no frills player. I use 6.4 b/c I've heard that 7 was trash.

You could also try Xing Mpeg Player.

 

[Floyd]

It's simply a matter of file associations. DAT files aren't generally associated with Media Player, but all you have to do is Shift + right click the file and select "Open with...". Then choose mplayer2.exe and check the box "Always open with this program...". DAT files on a VCD are simply an MPEG stream, which means you could also rename the file to *.mpg and Media Player would recognize it since that's a default file extension.

Best regards,
Floyd

 

[Budman]

Biggs,

Get yourself VCDGEAR Here and convert the DAT to MPG . it's a nice program it will even convert a vcd from Bin & Cue to mpg plus many others.