Main Concept watermark - weirdness & registration

Spirit wrote on 3/16/2003, 7:35 AM

I've been using VV3 for about a year now and usually output to wmv. But just today I really needed a high-quality avi. I have two MainConcept codecs listed:

dmb1_MainConcept V3.00b
MJPG_MainConcept Video V3.00b

If I use either of these I get a green and pink scrolling watermark - but the quality is far better than any of the other codec options.

Now I know that I installed the free playback (but not record) codec by Mainconcept to allow mvi.avi from my Canon digital camera to play. I also can't recall ever registering a MainConcept codec (my main machine used to be offline).

My question is: does the MainConcept codec come free with VV3. And if so which one do I register ? I see several choices here: Mpeg1, mpeg1&2 and mpeg1&2 pro.

thanks

Comments

TheHappyFriar wrote on 3/16/2003, 7:55 AM

Mainconcecpt offers a free DV codec and free MotionJPEG codec, but they both have watermarks. You must buy/register them to elimnate the watermark.

Spirit wrote on 3/16/2003, 8:01 AM

Umm... so is that buy or register ? Do VV3 users get any sort of deal ? I thought MC codecs came free ? And excuse my ignorance but what's the difference between a DV codec and a normal (?) one ?

JohnnyRoy wrote on 3/16/2003, 8:31 AM

Spirit,

> Umm... so is that buy or register ?

I call it Buy, since you have to pay money to register. ;-)

> Do VV3 users get any sort of deal ?

No, not that I know of.

> I thought MC codecs came free ?

MainConcept sells all of their codecs. Vegas includes the MC MPEG codecs for free but Sonic Foundry paid MC on our behalf for that privilege. That’s why you have to register the MC MPEG encoder when you first use it in Vegas. If you want to use the MC DV or MJPEG encoder you have to buy it from MC yourself.

> And excuse my ignorance but what's the difference between a DV codec and a normal (?) one ?

Codecs use some form of compression which is uses to encode your video so that its smaller than it would be if it were uncompressed. There is no such thing as a “normal” codec. Each one has its uses. DV is the codec used to record Digital Video and has a fixed aspect of 720x480 (NTSC). If you want to encode a video with DV at say 640x480, you can’t because it will only use the fixed 720x480. Other codecs like MotionJPEG (MJPG) support several aspects (i.e., 640x480, 320x480, 320x240) with varying rates of compression. These are mostly used for editing analog video because each frame is stored as a JPEG image making it very easy to edit with frame accuracy. Other codecs like MPEG are great for producing smaller output but are terrible for editing because they don’t store full frames. Some of the frames are delta frames, which need to be reassembled to edit, and then the whole stream needs to be re-encoded. If you want to learn more about codecs check out a web site like Codec Central.

~jr

Spirit wrote on 3/16/2003, 11:37 AM

Thanks JohnnyRoy - information much appreciated, and I'm a (slightly) wiser man.

I wonder what the point is of including codecs in Vegas which you can't use ?

SonyTSW wrote on 3/16/2003, 12:02 PM

Vegas enumerates the installed codecs on your machine when you bring up the custom dialog for a format, including additional codecs you have installed such as those from MainConcept. Vegas has no way of knowing whether that a particular codec requires a purchased key to unlock it or will include a watermark when you use it for rendering. All it can do is show you what is (potentially) available.