how to view pictures burned with Nero Express

I'm new to burning pictures and videos and a little confused about .dat files. I'm using Nero Express that came with my lite-on burner. I want to free up some space by putting some pictures and videos on cd. I finally figured out that I can view my burned videos (the help in Nero Express offered zero help) using Windows Media Player (quality is not great), but I've tried all the programs I can think of(Quick Time, Windows Media Player, Power DVD, Real Player) but can't seem to be able to view burned pictures. Is it the .dat files i need to try to open? Or do I need to shell out for the full version of Nero? or what?

Thanks in advance for suggestions,

LPP (in frustration)

 

when you doubleclick the picture on the cd it wont open?

 

.dat files are Video CD files. When you burned with Nero Express, if you selected the Video/Picture option, what Nero does, is create a Video CD for viewing with a DVD player. WMP should play VCD's including the pictures, but as a slideshow.

If you haven't erased the original files, what you need to do is create a data cd, that way the files aren't modified into a different format and can be viewed with your normal graphics viewer.

 

Dat files can be anything. A lot of programs use dat files to store information and they can be graphic, text, binary etc.

If you are burning pictures (jpg, bmp, tiff etc), just burn them as data files and the format will be preserved.

 

all i get are 3 or 4 folders, none having pictures, only .dat files and such

 

OK, i'll try a data disk. a 700 meg disk should easily hold 100 maybe 200 or better pictures (2 or 3 megs each) eh?
LPP

 

Hey, thanks for the help. I did a data cd and it works good ,but I didn't realize I had to use my DVD player to view it. I tried to view the files, but it won't be read while in the CD drive (it says there is no disk). Does this mean I can't transfer the pictures back to the computer from the disk if I need to?

LPP

 

You might be able to, never have tried it.

Maybe someone else here has done this. I think some of the quality may be lost though. Picture files are resized, then changed to a type of .mpg file then joined into a larger .dat file so they can be read by a DVD player when you create a Picture VCD.

A VCD can be read in a computer CD player. WMP should catch them.

 

Your best option with Nero is to use the Wizard. Follow the prompts in the menus that open and specify Data CD. Then you will see your computers files on the right side and the CD you woant to burn onto on the left side. At the top left it will say NEW. You can change that to any thing you want using the file menu on the menu bar. On the Right side navigate to the files you want to burn onto your cd and just drag them across as jpg's bmp's mpeg's avi's or whatever. then click on the burn button on themenu bar and they will burn onto the CD. Allow the job to finish. Then the burnt files will open in whatever program that they were created in in the first place. Done this for years with Liteon/Nero. Using digital cameras etc etc.Never a problem. Just remember that Nero is a burner it does not open files. You have to use a program that will open the file. I use Irfan Viewer for pix and WMP for Vids.
Some DVD player will open jpg Pix some will not!
Cheers
Robert