Converting your VCD to .rm (real media) file

Gotta VCD movie which you want to share online with other friends? Well you can do that by converting your VCD to .rm file and then stream it online. Read how here!





2005-09-02

Things to do Before you start

In order to convert your VCD to real media file, that is .rm format, you first have to rip or copy your VCD to your hard drive. After ripping your VCD to your hard drive it is in .dat format which you need to convert to AVI and finally the AVI clip to .rm format. The process seems to be quite long but in fact it is pretty straight forward and you don't have to be an expert to do that.

So first of all you should download and install the following free tools:

Virtualdub v1.6.10 (Doesn't need installation. You just click on its icon to start it after downloading)
Real producer Basic

Now you are all set up to get going!


Step 1 - Ripping your vcd

To do this step you just have to read my article Ripping VCD. Go ahead and read it and then when you have ripped your VCD to your hard drive, come back and continue with Step 2.

You can also copy your VCD by just dragging it to any place on your hard drive. The folder which says MPEGAV is where the VCD track (or tracks) is located. See the image below:

Step 2  - Converting to AVI

Now your VCD is in .dat format which can't be encoded to .rm format directly. So first we have to convert it to AVI format and to do this you can use the powerful and FREE tool VirtualDub. i assume that you have by now downloaded it so go ahead and start it by clicking on its icon.

Now choose File - Open Video File and browse to the .dat file you want to convert to AVI (and then to .rm using realproducer). See the image below:

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Now when the .dat file is loaded all you have to do is to choose File - Save as AVI. Virtualdub will now start converting your .dat file to AVI. Depending on your processor, it will take different amount of time for the conversion to complete but it should take no more than some minutes. So relax and wait until your .dat file is in a nice AVI format.

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