compress movie so that it plays back on all computers

[bapcia]

hello!

i am trying to make a short video sequence that can play on all computers running windows 98 and later without havining to install a codec.

the questions i have are:

* is there some codec that is installed on all windows versions that can be used?

* is there some codec that has a silent installation that can be started from a batch file?

---8<---

here is my story so far:

PLAN A:

my first approach was to check out if some suitable codec was included in windows. so i fired up vmware (virtual pc "emulator") with a clean installation of windows 98 and saw that "intel indeo 5.04" was installed.

so i compressed my file using "intel indeo 5.11" that is installed on my windows 2000 system and tried playing it on the windows 98 virtual machine. and it worked good and played correctly on both systems.

but then i tried playing the file on my laptop which (for some reason -- probably it's the default installation) has indeo 5.10 installed. and the video turned out black and white (or rather in in some brownish hue, with some red on top and blue on bottom).

(i also tried compressing the file inside the virtual machine, using indeo 5.04, with exactly the same results - perfect playback on win98/indeo504 and win2000/indeo511 but black&white on winxp/indeo510)

so i tried compressing the file on the laptop, using indeo 5.10. and guess what!! i get the same results again!! meaning it doesn't play back correcty on the very same computer that encoded the file!(?!?)

i guess the problem COULD be that i have installed some weird stuff on my laptop and that it in fact does work with the version of intel indeo that should come with windows xp. i will try to find some clean installation of windows xp and try it out.

NOW FOR PLAN B:

i read some other thread about creating autorunning cds with installations of codecs. i am not planning on using my file on a cd, but rather within a macromedia director movie. but i guess i can modify the shortcut (or create a batch file) so that 1) it installs codec and 2) runs my director movie. i surfed to the page that was mentioned in the thread, but it listed like 40 different files that could be used. i would just like to know if any codec has a silent installation option!

all help greatly appreciated!

/bap.

[setarip]

MPEG1

[bapcia]

thank you for your quick answer, sir.

howerer (and i should've probably mentioned this) i think i have to make it an .avi-file.

that's because i am embedding the movie file in a macromedia director project. when importing movies (.avi) to quicktime i get the option to use it as an "avi" or "quicktime".. when i tried to import a mpeg1-file i didn't get the option, and it automatically used quicktime to render the file.

of course quicktime has to be installed on the target machine in order to show quicktime files/streams/objects/whatever. and i cannot go with that.

/bap.

[bapcia]

problem solved

well it looks like i solved it (with your help of course)!

there turned out to be a plugin system in director.. and after some searching i found out that there were a lot of plugins specializing in video rendering in director.

too bad they all cost around $99 ... but i "solved" it somehow.

so now i can use the mpeg1 in director and it works great on all windows!

well.. if somebody has a better idea, preferably one that does not include "solving" as mentioned above i would be glad to hear about it!

/bap.

[setarip]

"well it looks like i solved it (with your help of course)!"

My pleasure ;>}

[Enchanter]

Consider using the MS MPEG4 V2 codec. From my experience, Win98SE (not sure about the first edition though) and later natively support its playback.

[UncasMS]

i'd opt for MS V2 as well.

the output quality when used with nandub/sbc is very good and much better than mpeg1.

decoding this codec should be possible on almost any windows system.