What codec to use for max. accessibility?

[epsteinaaron]

A warm greeting to all.

I have created a substation alpha subtitle file, with Media Subtitler, for a video that is going to be placed on the internet.

Then, importing the MPEG video and audio of the original video, as well as the substation alpha subtitle file, I have tried creating an .avi file with VirtualDubMod.

The goal is for the video to be viewable by *everybody* who visits the site (and who has the most basic, obvious, widely-available software), without their having to install an additional codec.

My question is: what codec must I use for this?

For XviD, the person who visits the site apparently needs to have installed the codec in order to view the video. I don't know about the various versions of DivX. And Microsoft MPEG-4 video codec? Or WMV codec?

I would like to ask one more question. I have noticed that .wmv seems to be a very common format for internet videos. VirtualDubMod cannot create .wmv files. Is it simple or advisable to convert the .avi file I've created with VirtualDubMod into .wmv with a program such as Adobe Premiere? Or are there other free programs out there besides VirtualDubMod that can dub my subtitles (in SubStationAlpha or SubRip) onto the original video, and make a .wmv video out of them?

I would be very grateful for your help. Thank you very much for your time in reading this.

Sincerely,

Aaron

[anonymez]

WMV or Flash would be the way to go. Windows Media encoder for the former and mencoder for the latter (or maybe something like Sorenson Squeeze if you're not comfortable with CLI).

Virtualdub/mod or Avisynth for adding hard subs.

Is it simple or advisable to convert the .avi file I've created with VirtualDubMod into .wmv with a program such as Adobe Premiere?

Why not

[epsteinaaron]

Still searching for a solution...

Thank you very much for your reply.

I downloaded Windows Media Encoder 9, opened my .avi video made with VirtualDubMod (XviD codec), and started the conversion to .wmv. It is a 12 minute video. I let the conversion run for two hours, and the estimated remaining time at this point was another two hours. It is also a compression of a compression, which I don't imagine is ideal.

Is there any way to simply install the .wmv codec into VirtualDubMod, like it is possible to do with DivX or XviD? I have not found this codec on the internet.

I also tried the second variant you mentioned: but on the internet I could only find a "shell" for the program, which did not work. Is Flash a codec as well? And can this Flash codec be installed on VirtualDubMod?

Is it possible to create an .avi file with VirtualDubMod with one of the two codecs you mentioned?

I'm afraid I don't understand the manner of proceeding you mentioned (I'm not at all tech savvy, but an utter beginner).

Thanks again for your help!

Aaron

[anonymez]

It is also a compression of a compression, which I don't imagine is ideal.

Correct, but if the content is going to stream (and thus be heavily compressed), it probably won't matter too much.

Is there any way to simply install the .wmv codec into VirtualDubMod, like it is possible to do with DivX or XviD?

Virtualdubmod only outputs AVI/MKV/OGM, you most likely do not want WMV or Flash in any of them.

I'm afraid I don't understand the manner of proceeding you mentioned (I'm not at all tech savvy, but an utter beginner).

The easiest method is to hard sub with Virtualdub, then simply upload the video to Youtube and embed the video into your page.