Help Joining VCD *.DAT Files

[CyberGuy]

I’m trying to join VCD *.DAT files renamed to *.MPG, but the dozen or so joiners that I have tried have not worked. Most of them say they don’t recognize the format or lockup. I can play the renamed files in PowerDVD just fine. I don’t care what container they are in once they are joined. Does anybody know of a joiner that will work?

Edit: I found the solution at http://www.videohelp.com/edit

FYI: Only DVTool worked correctly in all instances.

[Leo 69]

What about this one ?

http://www.zealotsoft.net/index.htm

There's a video joiner there.

[CyberGuy]

What about this one ?

http://www.zealotsoft.net/index.htm

There's a video joiner there.
I've already tried it, and no, it does not work for what I want. The joiner is actually a converter, so it encodes the parts and therefore you loose quality. I'm looking for something that joins *.DAT files without loss. Even the tools listed on the site above, http://www.videohelp.com/edit, didn't work for 1/4th of the videos. The ones that didn’t work either had out of sync audio at the point where it joined, or the movie stopped at the joined point and you couldn’t play anything after that point. So, I still haven’t found one that works 100% for every S/VCD.

[unskinnyboy]

First off, DON'T rename *.dat to *.mpg. dat is (mpeg+error protection headers needed for standalone playback). Outside of a standalone, those headers are useless.

Use VCDGear to convert dat->mpg, enable the 'Fix MPEG Errors' option and then do whatever you are trying to do.

[CyberGuy]

First off, DON'T rename *.dat to *.mpg. dat is (mpeg+error protection headers needed for standalone playback). Outside of a standalone, those headers are useless.

Use VCDGear to convert dat->mpg, enable the 'Fix MPEG Errors' option and then do whatever you are trying to do.
That was the right tool for the job, thank you. :)