Playing projects on multiple operating systems

[roberthansjorg]

Hi !
I produce short video clips of singer/guitarists.
I capture and import to Premiere 6.5 to produce
an avi file of about 1.25 Gbyte. This I convert to
an mpeg file using Canopus Pro Coda and I end up with
an acceptable 280 Mpeg video file. I use this mpeg
file , which has an m2p file extention, in my AutoPlay
Media Studio program to create my CD, burning with Nero
Burning ROM.

All goes well normally and I end up with a bootable CD with
the AutoPlay Media Studio video browser with these m2p
video files on it.

This CD plays well,if sluggish to start, on my DVD ROM and my CD-RW (the one I used to burn the CD).
My system has Win 2000 as the OP and my version of Media Player is the 9 series.

The trouble arises when I give this CD to other people to try out,who have different OP's
such as Windows XP and even Win 98SE. It seems the browser boots up to the first screen
all right but the video files won't play. The friend with the Win XP OP has version 8 of Media Player installed.

When I look at the file types that Media Player is supposed to run I notice that the m2p file extension
is not shown in the list of file types. The nearest is mpv2, mp2v, mp2.

I'm wondering if this is part of the problem.
When my friend tries to open the m2p video file from windows explorer rather than from the APMS
browser a warning window opens in Win XP saying that the OS needs to know what program
created this file so that it can download required info (codec) from the net.

When I open the m2p video file from the new burnt CD from Win explorer on my system it opens straight away into
Media Player and plays well.

I repeat this CD does play on my system . I'd like it to be able to play on other people's
PC's as well. I'm using Autoplay Media Studio Pro version 4.0.0.2

Can some-one help out here.
regards
Robert

[Adam]

Re: Playing projects on multiple operating systems

To start with update your version of AutoPlay to 4.0.0.3 to do this go to Help -> Check For Update. It sounds like a codec issue, do you know of any special codec required to play m2p files? You may want to read some of the documentation from Canopus Pro Coda and see if they mention anything about this codec.

Anyone else have any ideas?

[Michael]

Re: Playing projects on multiple operating systems

Hi.

I will probably refer to Eric on this, but will add that the file extension (in some cases) can be simply changed and mediaplayer will still read and play it. (File structure being the same...) ...so test that.

Also, you might want to examine the bitrate of the mpeg. Sluggish playback can often occur due to a higher than excepable rate given the large speed differences in CD players.

The procoder software by Canopus is great for changing and converting video files. You might, as Adam addressed, play with the settings. I personally test my mpegs on several systems before sending any out. In one case recently, I added a help page with different (standard) versions of the file trying to cover as many bases as I could so that the video would play.

The codec seems like it is more or less the problem though. If you still, for some reason, have the canopus codec as part of the file, you might want to convert to standard mpeg settings and lose the proprietary one.

Good luck.
M.

[eric_darling]

Re: Playing projects on multiple operating systems

m2p? Haven't heard of that one. It's quite possible that it's a mistake, and should be changed to mp2, except, why would it work on your system? Very strange.

It's definitely NOT an operating system issue. Let's look at data rate first.

1) How long is your video clip?
2) What are the pixel dimensions of the clip? ie. 640x480?
3) What is the frame rate of your clip?
4) Have you tried playing the resulting video file from a CD on your computer or just the hard drive?

Pro Coda is like New York accent for Procoder, or what? [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[PaulW]

Re: Playing projects on multiple operating systems

I'm not sure if you have solved this problem but I just thought I would add a couple of points.

I think Eric is probably right, the file you created should've had the extension .mp2.

I think the reason you are having problems playing this back on other systems is because they do not have a dvd codec on their systems. As far as I am aware, WMP does not have access to the required mpeg2 decoder unless it has been installed with other software such as a dvd software player.

As mpeg2's usually have a higher data rate than mpeg's they will require a faster cdrom drive. It may be that your cdrom drive is causing the sluggish playback as you did mention it takes time to start.

I did manage to find a free mpeg2 decoder at the following link although I haven't tried it. www.elecard.com/download/

This may sort out the playback on your friends pc but I'm sure you would not expect anyone that plays your disc to have to download the required codec.

Have you considered mpeg-1?

Please don't take my comments as gospel as I am quite new to the business and still learning. This is just passing on some investigating that I have done in the past.

Paul