Best way to get non-MJPEG AVIS from G400?

[holee]

Hi, I'm wondering if I could get recommendations from you folks on what method or tools I should use to get the best non-MJPEG encoded AVIs.

The reason being is that I want to create AVIs to use as intros on demo CDs I'm making. But since MJPEG requires that the right codec be installed, it won't work for my needs as most of the users who'd be looking at these CD's won't have the codec and probably won't know how to install it. I can convert them to MPEGs just fine, but most of the tools I'm using are designed to use AVIs for intro videos, not MPEGs.

So I'm thinking that the best bet at this point is to convert the MJPEG-recorded AVIs into another AVI format, using a third party tool. I tried using Avid Cinema, but the videos I end up getting tend to be very poor quality. Partly due to my inexperience, I'm sure.

I'm wondering if I can try to use something like Adobe Premier or some other video editing tool to try and re-encode the AVI into a different codec.

Ideally, whatever tool I end up using would let me take low-compression MJPEG AVIS and re-size/re-encode them to smaller AVI files that can be viewed universally.

Any help on on this would be greatly appreciated.

[DrMordrid]

No doubt the best program for transcoding between .avi filetypes is VirtualDUB. This program is free at:

http://www.concentric.net/~psilon/programs.html

As for the codec, that is a point for debate. Ideally you want one that is going to be installed on all your customers machines. This really limits the choices to the ones MicroCrap provides.

Of that subset I'd say Indeo 5.x is a good choice. It may or may not provide smaller files but they will play on most systems.

Dr. Mordrid

[mikiem]

For what it's worth, re: codecs & such...

Most of the codecs I've seen vary significantly in how they work, how they decide what parts of the picture to compress the most and all. Because of this, in your situation it's usually best (& not uncommon) to try at least a few and see which achieves the best compromise between quality and size for the particular video file you're working with.

Stuff like background complexity, amount of motion, speed of motion, all play in here...

As to the most common format: If you want MAC compatibility, then your pretty much going to use quicktime, though you still have to struggle with the *which codec* decision -- sorenson seems pretty safe in terms of both quality and installed base.

With Windows machines, the good Dr. is right, and the intel codec is a fair choice. On the other hand, not all machines have this codec installed; it has to be installed separately , at least with win95 as far as I know, and it gives you problems compressing just like anything else.

The most common installed codec on windows machines by far in Cinepak, folowed in my opinion by Realvideo & then Microsoft's mpeg formats, included with media player etc...

Using the latter two codecs, quicktime, or the intel codec, it's fairly easy to include the necessary installation programs on your CDs just to be safe -- getting permission doesn't seem too bad & this is common practice so whomever's recieving the CDs should be used to it if nothing else. And you've got the option to include more complicated setup routines, checking for installed software & giving the option to install whatever in your autorun program.

re: the MS mpeg codecs: if possible you might want to stay with avi versus asf file formats for more compatibility. re: both the MS & Real formats: a lot of folks automatically associate them with miniature, low quality video, but if you play with the data rate settings, you can actually get very nice results -- one caveate though is to check playback on slower machines, since the higher compression they achieve requires a bit more horsepower to decode and display, again somewhat dependant on your data rate settings.

Best luck

[holee]

Thanks guys. This helps a lot.

I didn't know that VirtualDub could encode avis to other avis. I just thought it was used mostly to splice/split files. Does it automatically encode using the non-G400 codec?

As for the codec ideas, I'll try the Indeo one and see how the video looks in it.