Extract text from CD catalog databases (ZDC)
To convert ZDC databases to another format, you need CD Catalog Expert or other Database software.
To convert other file formats to the "Media Catalog File" file type, you need software like CD Catalog Expert or a similar tool.
The .ZDC file is a proprietary database format created by Zero2000 specifically for their CD Catalog Expert software. Users historically relied on this format to store metadata, track listings, file properties, and catalog information for physical media collections like CDs and DVDs.
The primary disadvantage of the .ZDC format is its closed, legacy nature. It requires specialized, outdated software to read. The format is heavily proprietary, meaning these files cannot be natively opened by web browsers, text editors, or modern database tools. Users are often locked out of their own cataloging work when upgrading to newer operating systems because the original application lacks modern support.
To future-proof media catalogs, the best target formats are CSV, TXT, or XML. Converting to a standard spreadsheet format like CSV allows users to open their catalog in Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. However, migrating to a flat text format usually results in the loss of hierarchical folder structures, thumbnail images, and custom interface settings originally saved within the binary database.
Because .ZDC is a closed, undocumented binary format, it is extremely difficult to open or convert. Standard online converters fail to process it because they lack the proprietary parsing logic used by Zero2000's database architecture. Often, only the original CD Catalog Expert software can properly read or export the structured data. If our analysis detects readable embedded metadata like album names or file paths, partial text recovery or conversion may still be possible.
Convert.Guru analyzes your ZDC file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted XML, HEIC and JPG files.
If you want to convert ZDC file to CSV, JSON, XML, YAML, YML, TOML, INI, CFG, CONF, DAT, DB or SQL, you can use CD Catalog Expert or similar software from the "Media Catalog Database" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert DBF, XML, SQLITE, XLSX, SQL, TSV, ACCDB, YAML, MDB, CSV, ODS or JSON files to ZDC, try CD Catalog Expert or another comparable tool in the "Media Catalog Database" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our ZDC converter.