a "universal" format/codec?

[gin]

I work for for a post production firm, and we have trouble distributing digital versions of our work. This consists of a demo reel, so there's a need for quality. Filesize isn't too important, as long as it fits onto a CD-R.

Normally we use AVI's but every now and then, a client calls up and complains that a file isn't viewable. No clue what codec is used, but they run on every PC the company has. It can't be anything too recent, since it's output by SpeedRazor or Tremor.

I've tried using MPEG's instead. We've never had any clients having problems viewing those (except for the usual computer-phobic problems). However, when trying to play an MPEG of high resolution (640x480 or better), the video starts to skip, and this on a 1.8 GHz CPU.

It's useless even considering asking the client to install a new codec, so DIVX or XVID is out. And I don't even want to think what would happen if someone with a Mac calls up. No one here has any experience with them.

I'd appreciate any suggestions as to a format/codec that could meet our specifications. I'm sorry if I'm in the wrong forum, I get the impression that this place is DIVX-happy. If so, I'd appreciate a link to a more appropriate forum.

[Enchanter]

I found that the MS MPEG4 V2 codec can be natively played on Win98SE systems and above (i.e. does not require the installation of any codec for its playback).

[gin]

Thank you, I'll try this out. May I ask what program you use? Right now I'm converting with a freeware program called avi2mpg2. There doesn't seem to be a way to select codecs that I can find.

[Enchanter]

nandub (which allows for 2-pass encoding mode with the said codec).

Actually, I am not too sure if the MS MPEG4V2 codec is natively recognised by a Mac (I don't use one), so perhaps a Mac user can input something here?

[UncasMS]

i very much doubt that ms-v2 will work on a MAC

[gin]

Unfortunately Nandub can't even open the file. It complains about not being able to find a decompressor for a 'dvsd' format, which I gather is DirectDraw instead of VFW. Help?

[Batman]

The most universal codec you can find is probably the "mpeg-1" compression format.

[gin]

Does MPEG1 have codecs the way AVI does? Also, regarding the video stalling/skipping problem (see first post), can someone tell me if that's due to something I did wrong during conversion or the MPEG format itself? Larger AVI's run just fine.

[Batman]

Most PC's are able to playback mpeg-1 files, yes it does require a codec. However, usually no installations are required as mpeg-1 is part of most OSe's or players (such as Windows and can be played in Quicktime).

An mpeg-1 file usually requires very few system resources and you shouldn't have any problems playing it on 500mhz+ machines.