Floating box in MPEG1 video

vicmilt wrote on 2/27/2004, 8:05 AM

One of my clients has just reported a floating box (she isn't very clear on this) that floats around the screen in her (Vegas produced) MPEG1 - high quality - 720x480 - 29.97 video.
Anybody know what causes this?
How to avoid it?
How to cure it? (Like including some mysterioso codec or something?)

Comments

Former user wrote on 2/27/2004, 8:10 AM

Is the box related to the video, or is it like a Web Popup? Maybe something to do with the player she is using.

Dave T2

vicmilt wrote on 2/27/2004, 8:41 AM

It's definitely something to do with the player - video works fine in most machines, but hers is a little older and has this problem.

Chienworks wrote on 2/27/2004, 8:44 AM

When i first upgraded to WMP9 it would show a "tic-tac-toe" sort of looking little box in the corner whenever paying MPEG-2 files. The box consisted of a 3x3 grid of small rounded squares, one of which had a small circle inside it. I figured this was Microsoft's nod to the MPEG-2 consortium showing they had a license to use the codec and also to prevent perfect playback on a free player. It went away after the next update.

Perhaps your client has some sort of similar licensing 'bug' on her computer that is kicked off by the file you've sent her.

p@mast3rs wrote on 2/27/2004, 8:46 AM

I can answer this one. Its the Elecard decoder. When you get a floating box that means the demo has expired. When you use it as a demo, the box is in the upper right hand corner.

I found this out the hard way with my Windows Media Center PC.

just install another Mpeg-2 decoder and make sure it is the highest priority for decoding.

vicmilt wrote on 2/28/2004, 10:25 PM

Yo Acid -
can you recommend a site for a "freebee" MPEG2 player - maybe something I can include on the release CD -
the job I'm working on I decided to release in MPEG1 - strictly for universal(?) compatibily.
The MPEG1 at 720x480 highest resolution looks pretty good, although I definitely lose shadow detail and color - this job is more contextual than "pretty" so I'm satisfied - (except for that damn floating box).

Since it's MPEG1, do you think an upgrade to the latest MS Windows player would solve the issue?

p@mast3rs wrote on 2/29/2004, 11:03 AM

you can go to www.dvdrhelp.com and in the tools section, they do have free mpeg-2 decoders there.

Its not an issue at all with Win Media Player. Its the actual Elecard decoder that's Demo has expired is the problem.