DAT file same as MPEG?

[Amit]

Is the DAT file on a VCD same as a MPEG file? I mean when I author a VCD my MPEG1 file is stored as AVSEQ01.DAT. Is this just a change in name and extention or is it a totally different file format?

Thanks
-Amit

[adam]

Well no they are not just different file extentions. The dat file contains an additional header. There might be other differences as well. You should not treat them as synonomous file formats, though in most cases it probably won't cause problems. Basically if you want to reauthor a vcd using an existing dat file it would be best to convert it to mpg first using vcdgear.