Info about support of video files

[Alan vanBiervliet]

Sorry if this is a duplicate request. Did not see my previous post appear.
I have been using APMS for some time and have been really pleased how the applications work so well on almost any Windows machine. Congrats I have a project that requires talking head video (customer demand!) and I need a little help to decide on the format. We CANNOT load any player on the target machines, so Flash QT is definitely out. I am also concerned about the various support for WMF based on the OS and upgrades. I have read everything I can on the support site but do not have a definitive answer about format "native" to APMS. After learning Ogg is included in the APMS player I have been using it with great succes -congrtas. Now is there an equivalent video player/codec built in? Cannot find definitive answer. Been involved with digital video for 16 years so know about quality, data rate and stuff. Small talking head is all that is needed. The most important thing is smooth playback on the greatest number of Windos boxes. Is AVI or WMF support incorporated in the player? Also when loading movies into an object is the cache/computer brain properly cleaned so a "brain freeze" is avoided on limited machines when swapping videos in and out of object? I know there is a time hit on file access but can live with that.

Thanks

Alan

[rhosk]

There's no video codec built-in to AMS. Your best bet for widest dissemenation is mpeg-1, hands down. Should play "by default" on @98% of the machines.

Good luck!

[Daniel TM]

Windows 95A is the oldest point-and-click OS and it plays .wmv videos without any codec. .wmv is also the oldest video format so use .wmv files and you can be 100% sure that any computer will play your videos without any problems.

[yosik]

Daniel, sorry to differ. wmv version 9, or even 8 will NOT play on machines without that codec...
I agree that mpeg1 is the lowest common denominator.

Yossi

[Daniel TM]

I had a Windows 95 computer and it played .wmv videos just fine. I donated it, an 11 year old OS isn't worth a thing. But I might be wrong, the Windows Media Player from Windows 95 must of had downloaded a codec for .wmv support without advising me about it, Windows Media Player does that.

[Corey]

MPEG-1 is the best way to go for legacy support. Several different video experts have mentioned that to me over the last couple years. I like .wmv but I wouldn't use it if native Win95 support is the main priority.

[Daniel TM]

What I meant was that if even Windows 95 can read .wmv files any newer version of Windows will be able to read it too.

[Corey]

But it can't, so MPEG-1 is definitely the way to go.

[rhosk]

What I meant was that if even Windows 95 can read .wmv files any newer version of Windows will be able to read it too.

I tested on a 98 machine (not connected to the Internet) and it wouldn't play wmv. Not the way to go if you want total cross-platform compatability.

[Intrigued]

Utilize MPEG1 for the best coverage.

[yosik]

Just to clarify the matter.
The fact that a file has an extension .wmv doesn't mean there is ONLY ONE TYPE of wmv. You need to know which version of wmv was it encoded to.
Win95 WOULD NOT play wmv ver 9...no way!! ver 6, or 6.4 yes (related to the basic media player in windows..) but from ver 7 on, it very much depends on content and the way it was encoded. Same goes with Win98 (if I remember correctly, there the cutoff is ver 8).
So back to common denominator.....Mpeg1.

Yossi

[Corey]

How do the older versions of .wmv compare to MPEG-1 quality wise? I wonder which one gives more bang for the buck?