Why won't mpg-2 encoded video play on other people's machines?

theigloo wrote on 7/28/2002, 4:21 AM

Hi there,

Whenever I encode to mpg2, it looks great, but it will NEVER play on anyone else's machine. Is VV using a proprietary codec that they wont share with the rest of the world? If so, what's the point of that?

Basically when I open an mpg2 on another machine, windows media player goes online to get the codec and can never find anything.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Matt.
www.theigloo.com

Comments

vonhosen wrote on 7/28/2002, 4:28 AM
Windows Media Player doesn't have a MPEG-2 decoder. You will need decoding software on your computer (PowerDVD etc) and then you will be able to view it. Any computer that has decoding software will be able to view your MPEGs any that don't wont.
HeeHee wrote on 7/29/2002, 4:54 PM
MPEG2 decoders require licensing and consequently are not free. Typically, you use MPEG2 for DVD Authoring. DVD's only play on Computer DVD drives and Settop DVD players. There are some rogue programmers out there that have created FREE MPEG2 codecs. You may be able to find one thru www.vdchelp.com.
theigloo wrote on 7/29/2002, 8:46 PM

That makes sense. Thanks. So, it's clear that MPG-2 is not the format for posting on the web.

Any advice on the best web format?

MPG-1 - great qualitly. File size a little large. MC codec sucks.
Windows Media - even better quality - small files - Mac users can't use it without Media player (which most refuse to get). Even if they do get it, their machines will error if they click a link to a .wmv.
Quick Time - I refuse to render to Quick time for two reasons:
1) You can full-screen it.
2) It asks you to buy it everytime you open it.
Real Media - By far the most annoying and intrusive program you can install.

Did I miss anything? Is there a silver bullet? I hope so.


kkolbo wrote on 7/29/2002, 8:53 PM
I am using QuickTime 6 and rendering converting it to MPEG-4 in MOV format. Properly tweeked I am very pleased with the result. I was stuck on Windows Media for a long time but the QT MPEG-4 implementation has stepped ahead for a little while. Corona will be out soon and let's see.

Use QuickTime Pro to convert the DV AVI's rather than rendering from VV. The MPEG-4 is better for some reason when done that way. Also learn all the inside tweeks.

K

There is no best format BTW.

Cheesehole wrote on 7/29/2002, 11:07 PM
>>>There is no best format BTW.

right on, k. hey can you tell me what you liked about QT6's Mpeg-4 that made you switch? was it quality... compatibility? does qt6 play back fullscreen (REAL fullscreen) on a pc? thanks!
kkolbo wrote on 7/30/2002, 4:47 AM
It dropped the size with still a good visual for low bandwidth encodes. The other deciding factor was I made the same bandwidth (300K) encodes with WMV and QTMP4 and watched them on Macs as well as PCs. While the PC implementation of Windows Media looked good, on a Mac with Windows Media it looked POOR. The old Quicktime looked good on a Mac and Poor on a PC. With the MP4 in Quicktime it looked good on both. I expect that folks who view my samples will be both Mac and PC so it was important to look good on both.

A 640x480 encode looks good full screen, as good as an MPEG-2 maybe not as soft, but it still requires a lot of horsepower.

k