[Mplayer-advusers] codec tsccvid.dll: playback fails if vid.res. is 1024:768 (device is incompatible with this codec)

[Thomas Kranz]

Hi mplayer-users and developers,

I'm posting here because I got a tscc-codec problem and no answer/solution from the
users list. The codec is in the codec-package of mplayer.
I've a severe problem: I have here some lectures recorded with a screen capture tool
developed by Techsmith. The playback of videos with 800:600 works fine but the new 
lectures are recorded with 1024:768 and the playback with the latest mplayer doesn't work:

Opening video decoder: [vfw] Win32/VfW video codecs
======= Win32 (VFW) VIDEO Codec init =======
Loading codec DLL: 'tsccvid.dll'
get_path('registry') -> '/home/thomas/.mplayer/registry'
Loaded DLL driver tsccvid.dll
ICDecompressGetFormatSize ret: 40
ICDecompressGetFormat OK
VDec: vo config request - 1024 x 768 (preferred csp: Packed YUY2)
[PP] Using codec's postprocessing, max q = 9.
Trying filter chain: vo
Could not find matching colorspace - retrying with -vf scale...
Opening video filter: [scale]
SwScale params: -1 x -1 (-1=no scaling)
Trying filter chain: scale vo
The selected video_out device is incompatible with this codec.
VDecoder init failed :(
Cannot find codec matching selected -vo and video format 0x63637374.
Read DOCS/HTML/en/codecs.html!

"selected video_out device" is incompatible with this codec is the first hint for me, so I tried different output
devices and x11 color depth - no success. Has anybody a hint or solution to playback the video.
Examples videos can be found eg. at 
http://porta.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/lectures/TI1/LocalReplay/AVI/
(This are the working ones).

But the TI2 lecture has videos which aren't working with the described problems:
http://porta.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/lectures/TI2/02-ss/Vorlesungsaufzeichnung/video/

There are also divx-videos but with a big disadvantage - the quality is too bad for because
there are edge detection problems and aliasing effects. The results are ugly looking chars and edges.
Not very wise to encode the video in divx without an appropiate filter to avoid these problems (sharpen filter eg).

In Windows all playback is fine. I also copied the latest tsccvid.dll to the /usr/lib/win32 dir.

The codec can be found at:
http://www-i7.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/d/teaching/ws0304/modelchk/instructions.html

So here is my first check of the differences between the working and not working one:
The fourcc id is the same: 0x63637374 (tsccvid.dll)

The main difference is the resolution (800:600 to 1024:768) and the use 
of BGR 15-bit conversion to the output device 
VDec: using BGR 15-bit as output csp (no 0) (working with 800:600).

The biBitCount of the video format has also changed from 16 to 24 bit.

It seems that the colorspace/depth conversion fails with 1024:768.

I suppose that the greater resolution can't be handled by the
video filter/scaler to the output device. 
This is not very common resolution for mainstream video movies.
Are there any helpful changes to be made to the code or codecs config 
to solve this problem or is the problem the BGR 15 bit conversion with this resolution ?
Reading the codecs howto didn't helped me.

The working one has a 800x600 resolution and a 15-bit YUY2 colorspace:
appropiate mplayer log:

Loading codec DLL: 'tsccvid.dll'
Loaded DLL driver tsccvid.dll
ICDecompressGetFormatSize ret: 40
ICDecompressGetFormat OK
VDec: vo config request - 800 x 600 (preferred csp: Packed YUY2)
[PP] Using codec's postprocessing, max q = 9.
Trying filter chain: vo
Could not find matching colorspace - retrying with -vf scale...
Opening video filter: [scale]
SwScale params: -1 x -1 (-1=no scaling)
Trying filter chain: scale vo
VDec: using BGR 15-bit as output csp (no 0)
Opening video filter: [flip]
Movie-Aspect is undefined - no prescaling applied.
VO Config (800x600->800x600,flags=8,'MPlayer',0x4247520F)
REQ: flags=0x475  req=0x400  
SwScaler: reducing / aligning filtersize 1 -> 4
SwScaler: reducing / aligning filtersize 1 -> 4
SwScaler: reducing / aligning filtersize 1 -> 1
SwScaler: reducing / aligning filtersize 9 -> 8

SwScaler: BICUBIC scaler, from BGR 15-bit to Planar YV12 using MMX2
SwScaler: using 4-tap MMX scaler for horizontal luminance scaling
SwScaler: using 4-tap MMX scaler for horizontal chrominance scaling
SwScaler: using 1-tap MMX "scaler" for vertical scaling (YV12 like)
SwScaler: 800x600 -> 800x600
REQ: flags=0x437  req=0x0  
VO: [xv] 800x600 => 800x600 Planar YV12 
VO: Description: X11/Xv
VO: Author: Gerd Knorr <kraxel at goldbach.in-berlin.de> and others
Xvideo image format: 0x32595559 (YUY2) packed
Xvideo image format: 0x32315659 (YV12) planar
Xvideo image format: 0x59565955 (UYVY) packed
Xvideo image format: 0x30323449 (I420) planar
using Xvideo port 105 for hw scaling
[xv] dx: 0 dy: 0 dw: 800 dh: 640
ICDecompressQuery OK
Input format:
======= VIDEO Format ======
  biSize 40
  biWidth 800
  biHeight 600
  biPlanes 1
  biBitCount 16
  biCompression 1667462004='tscc'
  biSizeImage 1920000
===========================
Output format:
======= VIDEO Format ======
  biSize 40
  biWidth 800
  biHeight 600
  biPlanes 1
  biBitCount 16
  biCompression 0=''
  biSizeImage 960000
===========================
INFO: Win32 video codec init OK!
Selected video codec: [camtasia] vfm:vfw (TechSmith Camtasia Screen Codec)
==========================================================================


The "new" not working one verbose log:


======= VIDEO Format ======
  biSize 40
  biWidth 1024
  biHeight 768
  biPlanes 1
  biBitCount 24
  biCompression 1667462004='tscc'
  biSizeImage 4718592
===========================

and fails at
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [vfw] Win32/VfW video codecs
======= Win32 (VFW) VIDEO Codec init =======
Loading codec DLL: 'tsccvid.dll'
get_path('registry') -> '/home/thomas/.mplayer/registry'
Loaded DLL driver tsccvid.dll
ICDecompressGetFormatSize ret: 40
ICDecompressGetFormat OK
VDec: vo config request - 1024 x 768 (preferred csp: Packed YUY2)
[PP] Using codec's postprocessing, max q = 9.
Trying filter chain: vo
Could not find matching colorspace - retrying with -vf scale...
Opening video filter: [scale]
SwScale params: -1 x -1 (-1=no scaling)
Trying filter chain: scale vo
The selected video_out device is incompatible with this codec.
VDecoder init failed :(
Cannot find codec matching selected -vo and video format 0x63637374.
Read DOCS/HTML/en/codecs.html!
==========================================================================


Thanks for any help.

Thomas