[MPlayer-users] portable video format?

[Ivan Kowalenko]

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(De-Top-PosteD)

On Feb 14, 2007, at 06.35, info at danielerossi.net wrote:

> Guillaume POIRIER wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> On 2/12/07, Ivan Kowalenko <ivan.kowalenko at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> 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

[snip]

>>> MP4 is also supported by a few other companies, like Sony, and  
>>> most PMP manufacturers.
>>
>> seconded. In addition, the creation of MP4 that can be decoded by  
>> QuickTime is documented...

[snip]

> maybe late I would like to suggust to open source porject relateted  
> do Mplayer (and/or ffmpeg) for distribution purposes:
>
> 1. you can pack a cd with mplayer exetable, skipping any codec  
> question:
>
> for example, under windows you can use MPUI if you like a User  
> Interface:
> http://mpui.sourceforge.net/index.php?page=about.
>
> and add a simple "autorun.inf":
>
> [AutoRun]
> icon=anyname.ico
> open=MPUI.exe
> [MPUI]
> AutoPlay=1
>
> and in a similar way for linux (I guess) and mac user, even all  
> together in one single cd.

Good idea, but it has three problems. First: I don't think there's a  
way to auto-run an OS X app or a Linux app from a CD. Second: if the  
distribution method is the internet, the point is moot. Third: your  
average winblows user is going to be confused to hell trying to use  
MPlayer, or even how to figure it out. As blashphemous as this  
sounds, portable VLC might actually be a better idea.

> 2. for web you can use (open source) swf format, even with playback  
> control like in FlowPlayer, and thus it will play in any browser  
> with flash installed.
> http://flowplayer.sourceforge.net/. <http:// 
> flowplayer.sourceforge.net/>
> Encoding is quite advanced and you can choose near any resultion  
> and bitrate.
> Even from command line (example):
> "ffmpeg.exe -i test.avi -b 1600 -r 25 -s 640x480 -hq -deinterlace  - 
> ab 48 -ar 22050 -ac 1  test.flv".

FLV and SWF are a little different, and I beg to differ on that being  
a good idea at all. I HATE FLVs. They require the use of h.263, which  
isn't perfectly suited to your average video. Your audio quality is  
also inferior. Playing inside a web browser means additional CPU  
cycles are expended on the browser, and the FLV only works when  
embedded. Stand-alone Flash players refuse to make FLVs work, which  
is totally insane. It's just a bad idea.

> 3. (too difficult for me, and maybe not possible) create a "self  
> executable file" (i.e. a "Projector") with mplayer.

That is, in my opinion, almost worse than the last suggestion.  
Projectors lock you into one architecture with one operating system.  
God forbid a stray OS X or Linux or BSD user wander into this guy's  
website and want to see the videos. Oops! You don't have Windows!  
Sorry, you're out of luck. Well, to be perfectly honest, there's too  
much of that already.

P.S. Please don't top-post. It's considered bad form.
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