Free software to convert *.dat to *.avi or *.mkv

I have a lot of old school CDs with *.dat formats. I want to rip those two *.dat into one single format like avi or mkv etc?
Suggestions?

 

Handbrake, best there is out there. Free, but better than any paid.

 

yeah, I used it, seems nice. Though sadly dat files are limited to ?#@*&%!^$~ed up format.

 

*DAT files are low quality to begin with. Handbrake is the best option.

 

I used mencoder, and yes these files are ?#@*&%!^$~ing low quality, I might have to ditch all the files and download all my movies in new format.

 

That would be best, also I think you might find it is faster than re-encoding.

 

That would be about 200+ movies.

 

I have 1000+ movies and 300+ shows, which is nothing compared to guys on XBMC.

 

I think I might have to use demonoid.

 

Demonoid is just about dead. IPT is good. Is the movie collection Hindi? English? Or other languages?

 

This would be ideal.

 

no hindi, mostly hollywood and about 20% world cinema.

 

Can someone give me links to these softwares?

Need to trim down some over the top MKV files

 

HandBrake: Open Source Video Transcoder <--- Absolute best there is for encoding MKVs. There are also lots of guides online that can be found for whatever you want to do with it.

Also, if you are looking to downsize stuff, look into 10bit encoding as well

 

i think if you search handbrake nothing else will pop up.