Convert .bin to .mp4?

[siliconglen]

A few years ago I had some home videos converted by a shop from tape to DVD. I then used imageburn to save a copy of these DVDs onto my computer and I have two files, the logical volume identifier.bin (approx 4GB) and the logical volume identifier. 

 

I'm wanting to play these. How do I do this? I was able to play them a year or two ago on Windows 7 but following a clean upgrade to Windows 10 they no longer play. What do I need to play the .bin file?

 

I'm also wanting to convert the bin file into a more standard format such as .mp4. How do I do this? 

 

Does imgburn support either of the above? If not, what do I need? If I can play the files I could capture the screen with Replay Video Capture but perhaps there is a better and less time consuming way

 

many thanks

 

Craig

 

 

[dbminter]

The oddest thing is that you have a .BIN file to begin with.  .BIN is reserved for audio CD formats, with a .CUE format file.  A DVD shouldn't be saved as a .BIN file.

 

 

What extension is the volume identifier you mentioned?

 

 

You can't convert a .BIN to any container format like .MP4.  Your best bet is to convert the file into some kind of standardized DVD file format.  You could try the Tools in ImgBurn and choose to create a DVD file, selecting the .BIN file for input.  See if that works.  Then, you can install something like Virtual CloneDrive to mount the .DVD as a virtual drive.  Then, any Windows software you use to play DVD's should play this.

 

 

Another thing you could do is use ImgBurn to burn the .DVD to a rewritable DVD.  Then, copy the VIDEO_TS folder from that disc to your hard drive.  You could then use software like Media Player Classic to load the VIDEO_TS.IFO from the folder to play the DVD.  Or just burn the .DVD to a write once DVD disc and load the VIDEO_TS file from that disc.  I recommend using a rewritable DVD because I'm not sure creating a .DVD file from a .BIN for a DVD-Video job would work, so you won't waste a write once disc doing this.

 

 

When you say this tape was copied to DVD, you do mean the DVD is playable in a DVD player, right?  It's not a data DVD that you insert in your PC and it has like an AVI or MP4 on it that you play in something like Windows Media Player?

[dbminter]

Actually, I got to thinking.  If you have a DVD-Video disc where you just pop it in a DVD player and it plays, you may be better off forgetting about the .BIN file altogether.  Use ImgBurn's Read mode to read the disc to a new image file that will support a proper extension like .ISO or .MDS/.DVD.  Because I think some player software actually loads .ISO files into them and plays them.  .ISO can also mount in Virtual CloneDrive, if you're inclined to install it afterwards.

[siliconglen]

The oddest thing is that you have a .BIN file to begin with.  .BIN is reserved for audio CD formats, with a .CUE format file.  A DVD shouldn't be saved as a .BIN file.

 

 

What extension is the volume identifier you mentioned?

 

 

You can't convert a .BIN to any container format like .MP4.  Your best bet is to convert the file into some kind of standardized DVD file format.  You could try the Tools in ImgBurn and choose to create a DVD file, selecting the .BIN file for input.  See if that works.  Then, you can install something like Virtual CloneDrive to mount the .DVD as a virtual drive.  Then, any Windows software you use to play DVD's should play this.

 

 

Another thing you could do is use ImgBurn to burn the .DVD to a rewritable DVD.  Then, copy the VIDEO_TS folder from that disc to your hard drive.  You could then use software like Media Player Classic to load the VIDEO_TS.IFO from the folder to play the DVD.  Or just burn the .DVD to a write once DVD disc and load the VIDEO_TS file from that disc.  I recommend using a rewritable DVD because I'm not sure creating a .DVD file from a .BIN for a DVD-Video job would work, so you won't waste a write once disc doing this.

 

 

When you say this tape was copied to DVD, you do mean the DVD is playable in a DVD player, right?  It's not a data DVD that you insert in your PC and it has like an AVI or MP4 on it that you play in something like Windows Media Player?

 

The files I have are .bin and .mds. I think these were created by image burn when I ripped the original DVDs. They were in DVD playable (non data) format. I've found that if I rename the .bin to .iso I can open the iso and see the video_ts directory and in that are .bup, .ifo, .vob files. I can open the .vob files in any video player. However I'm thinking I could convert these to .mp4 using Replay Video Capture and simply video grab the content as it's being played so that I can make an .mp4 from that. Surprising there isn't a converter. 

[dbminter]

There is software that can convert .IFO streams into containers.  Freemake's Video Convertor does, but if your video is longer than 5 minutes, if you use the free version, the software appends its logo at the end of the stream.

 

 

While you could play/convert the individual .VOB files and there are many software choices that would do this, there are reasons not to do this.  According to the DVD standard, a .VOB file can only be 1 GB in size maximum.  So, if your video stream is larger than 1 GB, it is split up into multiple .VOB files.  You'd need software that can read in the .IFO file to form a complete stream.  Otherwise, you'd only be playing a part of the stream.  Of course, you could have multiple .VOB's that are each their own stream, if they're less than 1 GB.  And that depends on how long your converted tapes were in terms of running time and what method of compression was used to make the MPEG-2 video.

 

 

Ah, I think you created these .BIN/,MDS files with a version of ImgBurn from many years ago?  ImgBurn uses .ISO now but it can also create .MDS and .DVD files to go along with it.  I believe older versions created .BIN with .MDS combinations.  It can also split images into file size parts you set and uses .DVD and/or .MDS files to put them together.

[siliconglen]

Is there a simple way to convert the legacy .bin and .mds files into an ISO file or MP4 now?

 

I am able to view the .bin files by renaming them to ISO and then opening the 4 video files manually although would prefer a simpler solution.

 

thanks

[LIGHTNING UK!]

BIN and ISO (disc images) are like boxes you put things in.

 

You need to take the things out of the 'box' before thinking about any conversion that may or may not to take place.

 

If you mount your disc images in a virtual drive program (like Virtual CloneDrive or DAEMON Tools), you can then access their contents properly.

[dbminter]

Yeah, about the only conversion you could do to ISO is to, as LUK said, mount the BIN/MDS in a virtual drive application and use ImgBurn to read the virtual drive to ISO format. 

 

 

You can't convert BIN to MP4 because MP4 is a video file format.  You could convert the video files/contents in the BIN to MP4 with various applications.

[siliconglen]

Some years later, back again and wanting to convert these to get them into a better format. They were on DVD, I used an older version of imgburn probably around 2009 to 2011 to rip from DVD to PC and at that time the program seems to have generated BIN/MDS. Based on the notes above is the route to use imgburn to convert to ISO, mount them then use a program to convert to MP4 - does imgburn do this?

I'm on Windows 10.

[dbminter]

ImgBurn should have created ISO to begin with.  But, maybe back in 2009, it saved as BIN.  BIN is generally associated with CUE (And for CD's, actually.), and not with MDS.

 

What I would do is try to get these in ISO format first.  I am guessing these BIN and MDS combinations are single layer DVD's?  If they're double layer, this won't work, but first I'd attempt to write the BIN/MDS to rewritable DVD first.  So, some DVD-RW or DVD+RW.  Then, once those discs are written, copy the MP4 files from the DVD+/-RW to some temporary location.

 

As to what can convert the MP4, there are free options, but I've never tried them out.  From what I've heard, they're slow and very iffy on properly making DVD playable output.  I use a piece of paid software called ConvertXToDVD, which offers a free trial with which you can test it out and see if it fits yours needs.

 

Or as we said 6 years ago you could try installing some virtual drive software like CloneDrive and see if the BIN/MDS combo will mount in that.  Then, you can skip the burning step with ImgBurn above and just copy the files from the mounted images.