As one of the most popular video player applications in the world, VLC is loved by millions of users because of its powerful video processing ability and great extendibility. Most of the time, VLC can play your video without any problem. However, there are still some situations that VLC cannot easily handle, including the DAT file playback failure. If you have ever played a DAT file with VLC player, you might have encountered the VLC fails to play problem like many other VLC users had. So can VLC play DAT files? And, how to solve the DAT file not playing problem?

Part 1: Can VLC Play DAT File

Created in 1993 by Sony, JVC, Philips, and Matsushita, DAT is a file format widely used to save VCD video files. Files in the DAT file usually can hold up to 800 MB which equals approximately 80 minutes of video, and the videos saved in the DAT format are commonly encoded in the MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 format. Therefore, technically speaking, VLC should be able to play a DAT file because MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 can totally be handled with the player.

However, being supported by the player is one thing, being able to play is another. Although the MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 format are supported by VLC, the DAT container format is not included in the VLC supported format list, which means VLC may not be able to recognize the DAT file format and play it. Actually, the reason for not being able to play a DAT file with VLC could be various, so there are different ways for you to solve the problem. Now in the following, we will show you some of the most efficient ways to solve the DAT video file not playing problem and get your DAT file played in VLC immediately.

Part 2: Install DAT Codec

Sometimes when you can’t play a certain format on your computer, it’s most likely due to the lack of the corresponding codec. A codec is a program enabling you to play a certain format or a certain set of formats on your system. When you don’t have the right codec installed on your computer, you might not be able to play the video saved in that format. So when you encounter the DAT file not playing in VLC problem, installing the DAT codec might be able to help.

Installing a codec is actually easier than it looks. There are a lot of codec packs that you can find on the internet with the DAT support included. Usually, installing these codec packs would not only enable you to play DAT files, but also give your computer the ability to open many more formats that it couldn’t open before. Simply download one of these codec packs, install it on your system, and then you should be able to play the DAT video file with VLC easily. Now I will take Media Player Codec Pack as an example, to show you how to enable your VLC player to play a DAT video file by installing a codec pack on your computer.

Step 1: Download the latest version of Media Player Codec Pack to your computer.

Step 2: Double click the installer to open it, and then follow the guide until it’s successfully installed on your computer. It’s suggested that you keep all of the options as default because that way you can make sure you have the DAT file support included when installing the codec pack.

Step 3: You might need to reboot your computer to make the codec active. After installing the codec, you should be able to directly open a DAT file with VLC Player.

Part 3: Convert DAT to VLC Format

If you don’t want to go through all of the trouble s and install extra codecs on your computer, there is another way for you to play the DAT file. You can convert the DAT file to another format with a video converter application and then play it easily in VLC Player. The advantage of this approach is that after you convert the video format, you can not only play the video on the current computer but also play it on other devices or platforms without installing codecs on those devices as well.

In order to get your DAT file converted, you need a video converting application to help. If you don’t already have one on your PC, then I’d like to recommend Leawo Video Converter for you to try. As a professional video converter application, Leawo Video Converter is capable of converting 180+ kinds of video to each other with a 6X higher speed, and keeps the 1: 1 original quality in the converting process. In addition, with Leawo Video Converter, you can also have various customization options, including choosing subtitles and audio tracks, trimming video, adding watermark to video, cropping video, adding effects to video, converting 2D video to 3D and removing video noise.

   

With the user-friendly interface, Leawo Video Converter provides an easy way for you to convert any video file. In order to get your DAT video converted to another format with the application, the following steps are what you need to do.

Step 1: Run Leawo Video Converter, and import your DAT video by just dragging the file and dropping it to the center of the main interface. Another way to import the video is by clicking the “Add Video” button. If you have more than one videos imported, you can click the “Merge” button at the upper right corner to merge them into one.

Step 2: In Leawo Video Converter, you have various choice for the output video format. To choose an output video format, just click on the “MP4 Video” area, then choose “Change” and select a format you would like to have.

Step 3: In addition, you can click the “edit” button on the video some further editing. After clicking the “edit” button you will be brought to the video editing window, where you can see all of the editing options. After editing, click the “OK” button at the lower right.

Step 4: When everything is set, click the green “Convert” button, call out the output settings panel and start the DAT video converting task.

Part 4: Free DAT Alternative Player

Besides converting DAT to another format with a better compatibility, there is another way in which you can play the DAT video without installing codec packs, and that is by using an alternative player with the DAT support built in. If you have an all-inclusive media player installed on your computer, you can play all of the supported video formats without installing any additional programs or supports. There are not many alternative player applications that are as powerful as VLC, but among the few, Leawo Blu-ray Player is definitely one of the most recommendable choices.

As one of the best VLC Player alternatives, Leawo Blu-ray Player can play almost any digital video formats without installing any extra codec pack. The player is 100% free and works on both Windows and Mac. In fact, Leawo Blu-ray Player is a perfect replacement when you are having a video compatibility problem with your other video players, and it can also play Blu-ray across region and all kinds of DVD materials in form of disc, ISO image or folder. What’s more, the player also comes with multiple thoughtful designs like Virtual remote controller, Useful power manager, Custom skin / language / background and Snap screenshots, making the video experience even more enjoyable. In the premium version of Leawo Blu-ray Player, you can even convert your Blu-ray or DVD to a lossless digital MKV video, making your discs more portable than ever. With Leawo Blu-ray Player installed on your computer, you would not need to worry about the DAT video playback problem anymore.

Part 5: Conclusion

Besides converting DAT to another format with better compatibility, there is another way in which you can play the DAT video without installing codec packs, and that is by using an alternative player with the DAT support built-in. If you have an all-inclusive media player installed on your computer, you can play all of the supported video formats without installing any additional programs or supports. There are not many alternative player applications that are as powerful as VLC, but among the few, Leawo Blu-ray Player is definitely one of the most recommendable choices.

As one of the best VLC Player alternatives, Leawo Blu-ray Player can play almost any digital video formats without installing any extra codec pack. The player is 100% free and works on both Windows and Mac. In fact, Leawo Blu-ray Player is a perfect replacement when you are having a video compatibility problem with your other video players, and it can also play Blu-ray across the region and all kinds of DVD materials in form of a disc, ISO image or folder. What’s more, the player also comes with multiple thoughtful designs like Virtual remote controller, Useful power manager, Custom skin/language/background and Snap screenshots, making the video experience even more enjoyable. In the premium version of Leawo Blu-ray Player, you can even convert your Blu-ray or DVD to a lossless digital MKV video, making your discs more portable than ever. With Leawo Blu-ray Player installed on your computer, you would not need to worry about the DAT video playback problem anymore.