A vcd is mpeg1 which is a .dat file also. If you want more compressive, then you would probably have to switch to divx, .wmv or something like that. But no matter what you do, you will have a loss in ...
can't you just use finder to physically drag the .dat file from the mpegav folder on the VCD? I've done it before in Linux and Windows without a problem, though I've never tried on OS X.