[MPlayer-users] encoding mpegs for windows users

[D Richard Felker III]

On Mon, Aug 04, 2003 at 04:35:30PM +1000, Chris Phillips wrote:
> [Automatic answer: RTFM (read DOCS, FAQ), also read DOCS/bugreports.html]
> Hi,
> 
> I occasionally send friends etc some small videos made
> on my digital camera. The camera used some form of
> mpeg (mpeg2, mpeg1?) which makes huge files, so I used
> mencoder to reduce the bit rate to about 250 kbps
> using the lacv mpeg4 coded.
> 
> However a lot of times windows users claim windows
> media player won't play the .avi files produced (I
> have no problems with playing them under XP, or with
> mplayer naturally). Using the msmpeg4 option helps
> sometimes but not always.

There are two possible problems here.

1) The user doesn't have codecs installed.
2) The user has encountered the evil WMP/XP bug intentionally inserted
   by MS to prevent people from playing evil 'illegal' files like
   divx. :)

Problem 1 is easily remedied by installing FFDSHOW (windows dshow
codec version of libavcodec) or Divx5 (nasty spyware). If you use
"msmpeg4" codec, on the other hand, they need either FFDSHOW or Divx3
(warezed+hacked ms dll) to play it.

Problem 2 is different. Apparently MS decided to make their AVI file
reader in DirectShow misidentify non-OpenDML AVI files as MP3 audio
files if they have more than 2 valid MP3 packets in the first 16k or
so of the file. This is fairly rare, but it can happen if the video
uses very few bits at the beginning (e.g. all black). It should be
possible to make a workaround in mencoder, possibly by padding the
beginning of the file with junk, or maybe just adjusting the audio
muxing options to mencoder. This problem is very annoying because it's
hard to detect; you have to have the version of WMP that comes with
winXP to see it. So, rather than try to work around it, ...

> Can anyone suggest:
>   - A better way of using mencoder to make a more 
>     windows friendly format
>   - Better video player for windows which I can 
>     suggest they install.

...you might just be better off having your friends install the
windows version of mplayer. :)

http://mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/win32-beta/

There's no gui, but if you put a shortcut on the desktop you can just
drag movie files onto it. Or, make a file association so
double-clicking avi files starts mplayer. The big benefit of using
mplayer rather than the windows junk out there is that you don't have
to install all the stupid windows codec files and deal with getting
them configured right. Everything's just compiled into the program and
bypasses the directshow crap entirely, just like running mplayer on
*nix.

Rich