[James_Ward]

Hi,

This is my first post, so please excuse my ignorance should I demonstrate it.

I have an Aiptek DV4100 which records video in MPEG-4 format. This plays fine on a Windows machine with Windows Media Player, but not on Tiger (Windows Media Player). Is there a codec I can add to the Tiger WMP to address this, or a utility to conver the .ASF file to something I can play on the Mac?

I can send you an example file if that helps.

Thanks in advance,

James

[Jacke]

If all you want to do is play it, get VLC.

If you want to do editing with it you'll have to first convert it to something more Mac-friendly. It's a bit long to explain, you ask if you need to know more.

[James_Ward]

I downloaded and compiled ffmpeg, but get this when I try to convert the movie:

james-wards-powerbook-g4-17:~/src/ffmpeg jeward$ /usr/local/bin/ffmpeg -i /Users/jeward/Desktop/IMG_0010.ASF t.mov
ffmpeg version 0.4.9-pre1, build 4755, Copyright (c) 2000-2004 Fabrice Bellard
configuration:
built on May 30 2005 12:26:40, gcc: 4.0.0 20041026 (Apple Computer, Inc. build 4061)
[asf @ 0x217294]ff asf bad header 11 at:16385
[asf @ 0x217294]ff asf skip 0 100
[asf @ 0x217294]ff asf skip 0 43
[asf @ 0x217294]ff asf skip 0 0
[asf @ 0x217294]ff asf skip 0 0
[asf @ 0x217294]ff asf skip 0 20
[asf @ 0x217294]ff asf skip 0 12
[asf @ 0x217294]ff asf skip 0 0
[asf @ 0x217294]ff asf skip 0 0
[asf @ 0x217294]ff asf bad header 11 at:32769
[asf @ 0x217294]ff asf skip 0 27
[asf @ 0x217294]ff asf skip 0 8
[asf @ 0x217294]ff asf skip 0 0
[asf @ 0x217294]ff asf skip 0 0
[asf @ 0x217294]ff asf skip 0 92
[asf @ 0x217294]ff asf skip 0 12
[asf @ 0x217294]ff asf skip 0 0
[asf @ 0x217294]ff asf skip 0 0
[asf @ 0x217294]ff asf bad header 11 at:49153
[asf @ 0x217294]ff asf skip 0 54
[asf @ 0x217294]ff asf skip 0 32
[asf @ 0x217294]ff asf skip 0 0
[asf @ 0x217294]ff asf skip 0 0
[asf @ 0x217294]ff asf skip 0 114
[asf @ 0x217294]ff asf skip 0 13
[asf @ 0x217294]ff asf skip 0 0
[asf @ 0x217294]ff asf skip 0 0
/Users/jeward/Desktop/IMG_0010.ASF: could not find codec parameters
james-wards-powerbook-g4-17:~/src/ffmpeg jeward$

Any ideas?

Thanks again,

James

[Jacke]

Try using the "-vcodec copy" flag for video passthrough. Does the file play in VLC?

Edit: I'd like to see an example file (just out of curiosity) if you could put it up on Yousendit.com or something.

[James_Ward]

Originally Posted by Jacke

Try using the "-vcodec copy" flag for video passthrough. Does the file play in VLC?

Edit: I'd like to see an example file (just out of curiosity) if you could put it up on Yousendit.com or something.

Yousendit.com needs an e-mail address to send it to? It's only 1M.

[James_Ward]

It plays in VLC, but the -vcodec copy option didn't help ffmpeg.

[Uncle Skeleton]

I'd like to see that file too. You can send it to metahoot@3ivx.com

ffmpeg should tell you some basic info about the file before throwing errors, which makes me think this isn't really an asf file. Can you open it in a hex editor like HexEdit and paste the first page or so (of hex, not ascii) into a post here? More info: http://www.applesolutions.com/bantha/movieFAQ

[Jacke]

Originally Posted by James_Ward

Originally Posted by Jacke

Can you tell me what VLC says is the video format?

Stream0:
Codec ms

Stream1:
Codec M4S2

Since VLC can play it, I don't think the file is corrupted. Try using ffmpegX (a front-end for ffmpeg) to convert to an avi, using MP3 for audio and passthrough for video (for minimal quality loss). If it works you should be able to put it into a mov file with DivX Doctor and play it in QT after you install the MS-MPEG4v2 codec (since that what it seems the video is, get the codec here).

[James_Ward]

Originally Posted by Jacke

Since VLC can play it, I don't think the file is corrupted. Try using ffmpegX (a front-end for ffmpeg) to convert to an avi, using MP3 for audio and passthrough for video (for minimal quality loss). If it works you should be able to put it into a mov file with DivX Doctor and play it in QT after you install the MS-MPEG4v2 codec (since that what it seems the video is, get the codec here).

What would the ffmpeg command line be in this case?

[Jacke]

Originally Posted by James_Ward

What would the ffmpeg command line be in this case?

Not sure, but I got the sample file and I'm seeing the same error as you reported earlier, so it probably wouldn't make any difference. I'm trying to convert it smoothly right now (if you're curious, I'm using the 'Advanced output' in VLC to get a QT file, but I'm having problems with QT beachballing on the resulting file).

This proved to be quite a troublesome file...

[James_Ward]

I can't install ffmpegX:

##cp: /Library/Application Support/ffmpegX/mpeg2enc: No such file or directory