[MPlayer-users] windows XP can't play mencoder files?

[D Richard Felker III]

On Wed, Nov 20, 2002 at 11:07:51PM -0600, Jason Pepas wrote:
> [Automatic answer: RTFM (read DOCS, FAQ), also read DOCS/bugreports.html]
> > Umm, DO NOT use msmpeg4v2. It's an ancient codec meant for use in asf
> > only, not avi, so the windows players won't like it! You should always
> > be using mpeg4 for encoding, unless you have very special needs.
> 
> what about the fact that windows media player will automatically download the 
> msmpeg4v2 codec, but will not download an mpeg4 codec?  You must understand, 
> when sending a file to a complete computer illiterate, once you get to the 
> point of "Ok, now just go download the Divx codec", you have completely lost 
> them.

Send the ffdshow installer along with the movie and tell them to run
it first, perhaps?

> although, windows xp doesn't seem to like msmpeg4v2 anyway, so I guess I lost 
> the compatibility arguement...
> 
> So, what is the recommended mpeg4 based codec if you are trying to target 
> windows media player compatibility (and mac quicktime player compatibility)?  
> My goal here is to be able to sit down at any computer and have my videos 
> supported "out of the box".

Hmm. I really don't know for WMP, unfortunately. Perhaps wmv1? The
quality is horrible and it probably doesn't work on Mac, though. As
far as Mac is concerned, I think AVI with mpeg4 video in it would
probably work out of the box if you set the fourcc to MP4S instead of
DIVX. Experiment a little to see.

Rich