MPEG-4 V3 Playback - Problem, Still!

[Grepman]

I STILL cannot play MPEG-4 V3 encoded AVI files using any AVI player (Including Windows media player).. I have tried to reinstall WMP V6.3... but that did not work. I get an error "Unknown error occured" when I try to play this type of file. Someone posted that it was a known problem with the latest codec for MPEG-4 V3... Can anyone suggest another way around this?? I can play all other types of mpg and avi files (including Mpeg-4 V2).. Except Mpeg-4 V3..
TIA

[fluggo99]

Mine refuses to make them. What program are you using to encode these files?

[Grepman]

I am not encoding them myself. These are downloaded AVI files from the 'net.

[fluggo99]

I don't see why anyone would encode an .avi file with the MPEG-4 codec... seems to me that you wouldn't use a toolkit completely designed and labeled for making Windows Media files to go off and try making .avi files. Whoever's getting the MS MPEG-4 codec to work on an .avi file must have something screwy.

I guess I can keep trying to find a way get this thing to encode/decode, but really guys, I think half of avoiding trouble with a product is in using it the way it was meant to be used....

[This message has been edited by fluggo99 (edited 22 December 1999).]

[fluggo99]

You wouldn't happen to have the error code, would you? When the error pops up, hit Advanced >> to see the specific error. I want the code starting with 0x. (As long as it's not 0x80004005...)

[Grepman]

The error code is indeed 80004005

[Grepman]

Flug... Thanks for you help.. I will simply convert any Mpeg-4 V3 AVI's I get into ASF files... no big deal

[fluggo99]

That's the most worthless error code in the history of Windows. It translates as "Something went wrong." Grrr...

[Phil Pugh]

fluggo99..

I create V3 (and V2) MPEG4 AVIs using MSP 5.2 and the Microsoft Windows media tool kit (free download from MS site). This installs the relevant CODECS onto my W98 system.

MediaPlayer then plays them back just fine. I'm suprised that people are using them for WWW video as the data rates are quite a bit higher than conventional .mpg (MPEG-1) files and the file sizes are accordingly larger.

[Grepman]

I have MSP 5.2 , windows media tools 4.1 and mediaplayer 6.4 installed. The CODECS are installed but something is preventing me from playing the Mpeg-4 V3 AVI files.. "Unknown Error" occurs. The only workaround I have is to convert them to asf files.. this works fine...

[fluggo99]

Phil: Tell me your procedure for making AVI's with the V3 codec; also, I'd like the version of the codec. (I don't suppose I'll have you explain why you make AVI's when you have the faster, more convenient Windows Media encoder at your disposal...)

Surprised? Go check out the video showcase...most of the ASF's in there use the V2 codec, but Return Fire and Meet Me at the Flagpole use the V3 codec.
(Compare Return Fire to the larger, shorter MPEG1 above it!)

If you'd like to see them, I have two sample ASF's I just produced - a large one and a trimmed version - both running 352x240 @ 30fps @ 150 KB/s. I don't have a good MPEG1 coder to produce comparison files, but at least the ASF's don't suffer from the same severe blockiness as MPEG1 during high-motion scenes! If you want them, I'll load them at click2send.com for you.

[Walrus]

As I said before, the latest build of mpg4ds32.ax in one's winnt\system32 or windows\system directory (the mpeg-4 playback activex file) seems to be intentionally altered to prevent playback of MPEGv3 .avi files. The version that will work is exactly 245,728 bytes in size. The latest build of mpg4c32.dll in one's winnt\system32 or windows\system directory (the mpeg-4 compressor) seems to be intentionally altered to prevent compression of MPEG-4v3 .avis. The version that will work is exactly 416,304 bytes in size. As for data rates, MPEG-4 seems to be able to generate files that look good at lower data rates than MPEG-1, (I find that often a 625kbit/sec stream can look most of the way as good as a VCD stream) however the compatibility issues (such as this one) make it worthless to encode for. I originally started making these files to fit 2+ hours of material on a single cd, but now that I got a 25/50 gig SCSI tape drive that allows playback of files right off of the tape, I've moved back to the more compatible MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 formats.

[Phil Pugh]

fluggo99

The MS MPEG-4 CODEC produces .AVI files. As I said in a previous reply to this topic I was suprised to see that it was being used for WWW use. I use MPEG4 for good quality 1/4frame (352*288) video on CD. It produces largish files though - I recall 300Mb for 10 minutes as compared to 80Mb of MPEG1 for the same 10 min clip.

[fluggo99]

I had guessed it was such. But I still see no reason for making AVI's with that codec other than the ability to use a different audio codec than the ones possible with ASF files. (!!?!) Somebody, tell me what I'm missing here!

[Walrus]

fluggo99: The advantages of AVI over ASF are as follows (as far as I can tell): One can more easily edit .avis (better support in video editors), the file size is a bit smaller (I've converted a lot of .asfs I have downloaded to .avis with no recompression and still made files that were 20% smaller), and one can seek to a position much faster with .avis.