I need MPEG encoding help

[Rhino302]

I'm new to doing this stuff, but here's what i got goin

using the program Avi2VCD...saved it to my windows 98 machine....performed illegal operations till I installed Direct X 8...now says ....""'could not open source video file! you may not have a codec of DirectShow filter installed for this type of video!' ""

But heres the thing...If I browse to the program from my Windows ME machine with my LAN, I can run the program perfectly...SO what am I missing on the 98 machine that I need to get? I use my Windows ME machine for most computing applications, and was lookin at making the 98 machine an encoding box exclusively...so I need to get this working...
Thanks

[muno]

Common media controls? Something regarding to media that winme has natively installed... Try installing the media update for directx. If you're new to that stuff, use vcdgalaxy combopack (go.to/vcdgalaxy).
-M

[Rhino302]

OK thanks. I checked that site, but could only find info on ripping DVD's..I'm encoding from AVI's. I'm not sure what to download for Direct X...I found the Direct X homepage
http://www.microsoft.com/directx/homeuser/downloads/default.asp

, but dont see what I need. Do you have any ideas?

I also found this: http://download.cnet.com/downloads/0-10091-100-3663199.html?tag=st.dl.10001-103-1.lst-7-4.3663199

[This message has been edited by Rhino302 (edited 07-10-2001).]

[muno]

There's a download link too.. But, using the guide and only doing step 3 is necessary for you. Usually those kinda combo packs can be used for quite about anything if you just do some steps.
I can't help you more with the error. But, it might get resolved if you tell me with what did you save the video? 1.Using the composite/svhs port of your grapcics card? 2.Did you download it from net?3.Is it uncompressed raw avi?

1: Your drivers may be obsolete, as it could encode to the format your graphics card does (mine does asv format, compressed avi).
2: This could actually be a divx/smr file. Those kinda files have .avi file extension. You can regognize divx/smr by checking the file size, if your 1hour long movie is ~500mb in size you can be certain it's divx.
3: Uncompressed avi takes a huge amount of disk space, hour of movie takes ~50gb of disk space (as far as I can remember). If I remember correctly there's a 2gb file size limit in fat system.
Can you play the source file without any problems?
-M

[Rhino302]

I made the AVI's with my Rage Fury Pro, Composite video in..I'm pretty sure its uncompressed....1.2 GB for 15 minutes...I can play it fine on the ME machine...on the Windows 98, it will only play the audio for the file...ill check that vcd site back out..thanks

NOte: I downloaded that VCD gallery...I did step 3, it seemed to piggyback on top of a compression program i have....when i use this program, it simply says it cannot find the file that i browsed to to compress...when i browse to an already compressed mpg, it works

[This message has been edited by Rhino302 (edited 07-11-2001).]

[muno]

Aah.. Consult the ati manual on how to convert the file to more usable form. I'd strongly think it's a driver/patch related problem. Ati site might have a update or a codec for that...
Try this: http://support.ati.com/products/pc/rage128pro/win98/rage128pro_win98_drivers.html
-M

[Rhino302]

THanks...I've seen ATI patches on numerous occasions...but they all say they REUQIRE direct x 8...and I didnt want to do that on my ME machine....I wonder why they say I have to have it.

[muno]

One more thing came to mind. Try and check if the codec is disabled in multimedia properties. (Control panel->Sounds and multimedia->Last tab->Video codecs) Somewhere there should be something regarding to ati, check that those are enabled.
-M

[Rhino302]

I've got about 25 video codec's on the ME machine, and 8 on the 98 machine.....I was even able to change the format to record AVI with a certain codec so that the video wouldnt even work on the ME machine....So I just need to get the codecs over to the 98 machien...But I have no idea how...The other machine does not have an ATI card, so I probably cannot install the ATI drivers on it...

[muno]

You mean the 98 machine doesn't have ati card? Then there's absolutely noway of getting the thing working.
-M

[Rhino302]

Yeah, only one of them has an ATI card. I;ve got one last idea. Something tells me that if I install the newest Windows media player, I might get some more codecs...what do you think?

[muno]

The codecs capture cards usually use are specific for the card. If you cannot capture to mpeg1 or mpeg2 (standard formats) then I don't think there's any way to decode those, unless ati site has a specific decoder for the formats. Asus site had for the asv2 codec (I recall) (that is the format my asus card captures in, unless I specifically tell it to convert in real time). But, as the card is plugged in the wrong machine, I don't think there's much you can do but to encode it in the winme box. If your movies are short and you have vast amounts of free space, capture in uncompressed avi (this really means vast amount of free space.
-M

[Rhino302]

I've got about 31 gigs of free space. I dont understand this.. I have two options in which to capture the avi's...'NO Recompression' and 'Full Frames (Uncompressed)' I've tried both, but both dont work. I've also used Windows Movie maker and captured directly to that Windows Media Video format, but that drops frames like a bad habit

[Rhino302]

I got it to work. ATI had codecs to download for PC's without ATI hardware, to display ATI encoded AVI's....Doesn't work will all my capture codecs, but some