[MPlayer-users] portable video format?

[Ivan Kowalenko]

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On Feb 11, 2007, at 19.52, Steve Kleene wrote:

> I've been trying with mencoder 1.0-rc1-4.1.2 to make a widely  
> compatible
> video for my web site and have struck out.
>
> My goal was to post a video that would come up for almost any XP or  
> Linux
> user.  I've done a lot of reading and testing, but apparently not  
> enough.  I
> made 7 test videos as follows:
>
>   test0.avi:  MPEG-4 codec, AVI container

MPEG-4 as DivX or XviD?

>   test1.mpg:  MPEG-1 codec, MPG container

Most compatible, also the oldest of the options here, I believe.

>   test2.flv:  FLV codec, FLV container (Flash video)

FLV actually contains H.263, I believe.

>   test3.asf:  WMV1 codec, ASF container (Windows Media Video, v1)
>   test4.asf:  WMV2 codec, ASF container (Windows Media Video, v2)
>   test5.rm:   RV20 codec, RM container (RealVideo 2.0)

Real will ALWAYS require something else to be installed.

>   test6.avi:  copy, AVI container

Copy of what?

> All were encoded with -nosound.  They all play fine with mplayer on  
> the
> Debian etch box I used to make them.  I tested them all on each of  
> 3 XP
> machines, with Media Player and RealPlayer.  I also tried loading  
> them into
> PowerPoint or Movie Maker.  The results were all over the map,  
> depending on
> what codecs the particular machine had, how their priorities were  
> defined,
> etc.  On one XP machine, neither player worked, but it played from  
> within
> PowerPoint.
>
> Is their some bulletproof way to encode a video so that it will  
> play on most
> XP machines?  I gather that YouTube videos, movie previews, and the  
> like work
> for most people, but I don't know how to achieve that from mencoder.

The only way to do this is to create something specifically for  
Windows Media Player, which don't recommend at all, since that means  
unhappiness for non-Windows users (Not sure what the latest WMV  
decoders are like in MPlayer now, but if an OS X user is using  
QuickTime, that requires the installation of Flip4Mac, which  
dramatically prolongs the loading of videos and achieves lower-than- 
usual decoding efficiency).

But what about MP4? It's either MPEG-4 or H.264 with AAC, which  
normally isn't treated so well by Microsoft (I wonder why...) but is  
beloved by QuickTime (even in Windows). If your target is home users,  
it's a safe bet that at least a percentage of them have QuickTime  
(it's required by iTunes, and iTunes is what's used by the iPod, and  
the iPod has a high level of market penetration). MP4 is also  
supported by a few other companies, like Sony, and most PMP  
manufacturers.

> I can post the test videos, but that probably wouldn't help.

Yeah, we could all produce these videos easily

> Thanks.
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