How do I open and convert old Microsoft-generated video files "AVSEQ01.DAT"?

[MEsk]

I’ve inherited a dozen 20-year-old family video files saved in a format that refuses to be converted, copied, opened, read, renamed or moved from the CDs on which they were originally stored. Troubleshooting and tapping into almost a dozen converter programs has left me nowhere and close to tossing the disks untapped. I’d much prefer to save the files for posterity in a viewable format. Any tips?

Here’s the summary:
-- 20-year-old Memorex CDs, operated perfectly on a Windows system back in the day and stored in a cool, dark, basement in their cases until now. The CDs open perfectly to show folders (EXT, MPEGAV, SEGMENT, and VCD).
-- Each video appears in the MPEGAV folder as “AVSEQ01.DAT” and averages about 125MB in size.
-- I’m operating on an iMac11,3 running 10.13.6, but I have easy access to Windows.
-- Attempts to copy the file to a Mac desktop gets the error: “Finder can’t complete the operation because some data in AVSEQ01.DAT can’t be read or written.” Still, Mac file “permissions” don’t appear to be the issue.
-- The following converters were tried, but each failed: Any Video Converter, iSquint, HitPaw, Movavi, MPEG StreamClip, Prism, VideoProc, VLC, Wondershare UniConverter, and several free online converters.

Any insight would be appreciated.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

That sounds like the old Video CD format (VCD). Because of their age, they could be suffering from disc rot, which may be why you are getting the “Finder can’t complete the operation because some data in AVSEQ01.DAT can’t be read or written.” error.

Do the discs play at all on your Mac, PC, or a standard DVD player?

C