[Appleman]

I have 20 CD's which contain a television serie, in MPEG format.

I wanted to burn these CD's on DVD, but the finder doesn't let me copy the file, giving me the following error:
" The Finder cannot complete the operation because some data in "AVSEQ01.MPG" could not be read or written. (Error code -36). "

When trying to open the file with QuickTime (I do have the MPEG-2 bought and installed as well), QuickTime comes with the following message"
" Couldn't open the file "AVSEQ01.MPG" becasue there was an input/output error"

Same goes for iMovie, Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere: cannot open it.

VLC can open the file, well actually more precisely VLC can open the disc, but VLC can not export files.

Now this television series is put on CD's with a peecee. I have the idea that the serie is one huge file on the pc and chopped into CD-format-size, maybe that's why the names of these files have SEQ, from "sequence"?

So, although I can view the series on CD, I cannot copy the files (hardcopy of CD to CD can).

Can someone please enlighten me where the problem lies, and if the problem can be dealt with?

Thank you!

[Nap]

Based on the AVSEQ name, it is likely that these are VCD disks. Earlier versions of OS X could not play them but you may be able to play them in the Classic player. However, since they are mpeg-1 files you cannot edit them even if you get QT Player to read them and QT Player will not edport the sound in such muxed mpeg files. You might be able to use EXPORT TO QT but I have never used it so I can't swear that it reads VCDs. The other program you may want to try is ffmpegX. It is also one I have not used but other people seem to like it.

[grovberg]

Here's some more info on the VCD format for general info.

http://www.videohelp.com/vcd

Basically the MPG file you have there is only useful to you as part of a VCD (don't think of it as an MPG file..it's kinda the same, but for your purposes it's not). VLC is a fine choice for playing a VCD. To do anything else with that file, you'll need to rip it to another format (or an actual MPG file). That website has some how-tos that can help, but most are PC based (I like TMPEnc on the PC). Anybody know some simple Mac apps for doing this? Mencoder works well for DVDs, but I'm not sure if it does VCDs.

There is a way to use the large storage capacity of a DVD to store many VCD files theoretically. I was trying to do the same thing myself a few years ago but I never had much luck with it and eventually dropped the idea. Any takers on this idea?
-Grover

[Appleman]

As promised, I would come back when and if I found a solution.
This was given to me by the man who helped porting the VCDgear to OS X,
Mattias Carlsson.

His email, which made it successful:

---------------------------------------------------
Hi there Joris!

Ok, since you seem to have Toast 6, and that's
easiest, we'll do it step by step.

1. Start Toast 6.
2. Insert Disc.
3. Go to Menu "Record" and select "Disc info".
4. Select the big track (number 2 most likely).
- A button labeled "Save as..." will light to your
bottom right.
5. Picka name for the file, then location and click
"Save".

If this doesn't work, there's probably something
shifty with 10.3.

And no, they're not named AVSEQ because it was made on
a pc. It's the standard name. On VCD's (mpeg1),
they're usually called AVSEQ01.DAT, and on SVCD's
they're usually called AVSEQ01.MPG or MPEGAV01.MPG...

Let me know if you run into more problems. I know
pretty much about tools for
joining/splitting/muxing/demuxing mpegfiles etc...

Cheers,
Mattias

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Hope it will help others with similar problems!