MPEG4 Modifier v1.3.4 Released (Updated 2005-Dec-14)

[Moitah]

This program modifies a MPEG4 video (XviD, DivX) without re-encoding (aspect ratio, userdata, packed bitstream removal, and interlaced field order). The video must be in an AVI container. There is also a command line version sharing most of the same features which even runs in other OSes with Mono.

IMPORTANT: As of version 1.4.0, requires the .NET Framework 2.0. Versions 1.3.4 and earlier require the .NET Framework 1.1 or newer.

NOTE: Aspect ratio modification works by changing a flag in the VOL headers, which is ignored by most decoders.


Changes:

1.4.4:

• Fixed a few small issues that prevented DivX subtitles from working.
• Added *.divx to the supported extension list in the file dialogs.
• A default file name is now provided when saving.

1.4.3:

• Doesn't remove delay frames anymore, this caused synch problems with joined videos.
• FourCC and user data information are now shown in the "Video Info" text.
• It's now possible to pack videos containing drop frames.

1.4.2:

• Fixed several problems with OpenDML reading/writing (writing bad OpenDML index entries, out of memory exception or unnecessary reading when loading, incomplete loading of files with damaged/missing index).

1.4.1:

• Fixed some problems with packing which also required corrections to the timestamp calculation code.
• If you try to load a non-MPEG4 video, the error message now displays which codec the file uses.
• Better default directories for load/save file dialogs.

1.4.0:

• AVI handling code completely rewritten, supports OpenDML and incomplete files (rebuilds the index including keyframe flags).
• Ability to add/readd packed bitstream.
• Optimized some parts, runs significantly faster.
• Added Cancel button on load/save progress window.
• Doesn't freeze explorer while loading a file after dropping onto the source textbox.
• Updated code to take advantage of C# 2.0 features, and lots of cleanup.

1.3.4:

• Re-added support for files with packed bitstream containing real N-VOPs (apparently the XviD 1.1 betas do this)

1.3.3:

• Fixed bug when unpacking files with missing N-VOPs (caused by cutting/joining)
• Removed support for files with packed bitstream containing real N-VOPs to simplify code

1.3.2:

• New feature: Video Info now shows how many warp points are actually used (for example, DivX indicates 2 warp points in the VOL, but the 2nd one is never used)
• Added detection for corrupt RIFF chunk sizes
• Fixed byte order problem in AVI index on big endian systems (for command line unpacker running on OS X)

1.3.1:

• Added percent in titlebar of progress window
• Added 1.85:1 display aspect ratio
• Fixed saving AVIs with no index
• Fixed small cosmetic issues in main window

1.3.0:

• New feature: option to automatically change user data when unpacking
• Fixed bugs with 'rec ' list indexing
• Added progress bar during load and save
• A file can be loaded from the command line, or by dropping it on the AVI Source text box
• Error checking is less strict (no more "No dummy N-VOP found for packed frame" and "Invalid VOL" errors)
• Files are closed sooner, and output file is deleted if an error occurs during save
• Other code improvements and clean-up

1.2.0:

• New feature: modification of field order for interlaced videos
• New feature: video information (i.e. whether or not QPel/GMC were used, stats for how many I/B/P/S/N-VOPs were used, list of VOP type and timestamp for each frame, etc.)
• Packed bitstream removal can now tell the difference between dummy N-VOPs and real N-VOPs (though I'm told no encoder currently writes real N-VOPs in a packed bitstream)

1.1.0:

• New feature: packed bitstream removal
• New feature: userdata modification
• Recognizes frames written in '00db' chunks

1.0.0 (Changes over the "rp.exe" preview):

• Has a proper GUI
• Warns if the AVI is OpenDML
• Reads the frame width/height from the video (for DAR->PAR calculation)
• Writes dwSuggestedBufferSize in the video stream header (it wrote 0 before)
• Supports 'rec ' lists
• Code has been restructured

Download: Binary | Source

[bond]

seems to work great (also with other mpeg-4 codecs (not only divx5 and xvid), like 3ivx )

especially i like the display of already existing ar info stored in the stream

[communist]

Works fine for me. Tested with XviD encodes and VLC media player.
Thanks for the nice tool

[SiXXGuNNZ]

thanks for the app and now the gui

[Moitah]

I'm glad it's working okay . Could someone take a screenshot of it with a video loaded in Windows XP/2003 with the new visual style? I think it should display properly using the new style controls but I have no way to test it.

[bond]

it seems to need pretty long to load tough (i am under winme)

[SiXXGuNNZ]

Originally posted by Moitah
I'm glad it's working okay . Could someone take a screenshot of it with a video loaded in Windows XP/2003 with the new visual style? I think it should display properly using the new style controls but I have no way to test it.

?

http://www.10kbullets.com/xp-theme.jpg

this what you asking?

[mikeX]

visuals work fine here as well:


It takes some time to load here as well for a 48KB executable (P4 1.8, nothing crazy though), but I guess that can't be helped with .NET.

[Moitah]

Yeah that's what I wanted to see, thanks guys, it looks fine.

mikeX: I looked at the AVI you sent. It will be simple to fix but I won't have time to mess with it until tomorrow evening.

[sysKin]

Hi,

now that you have a VOL header parser/rewriter, I have a feature request

Please pretty please let us re-write (or add, if there wasn't any) userdata info

Userdata has a startcode 0x000001b2 and is followed by normal ascii string. Comes after VOL, but might even come before it, I'm not sure.

It would be very very useful for the following two things:
- removing fake DivX userdata ("DivX999b000p") which makes xvid expect packed bitstream, and completely b0rks decoding from mp4. This *is* an xvid ussue but until it's fixed, it would be a great workaround.

- adding "old xvid" identification, which will make new xvid decode old (xvid .9) streams correctly. These streams do not have any userdata, and xvid assumes iso mpeg-4, but they are broken. If xvid can identify them with proper userdata, it would apply a workaround and decode them good.
The userdata for that is "XviD0001".

Regards,
Radek

[Moitah]

Originally posted by sysKin
Please pretty please let us re-write (or add, if there wasn't any) userdata info

I was thinking about doing this already, actually. That's why I gave the program a more generic name instead of "Aspect Ratio Modifier" .

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally posted by Moitah
I was thinking about doing this already, actually. That's why I gave the program a more generic name instead of "Aspect Ratio Modifier" .

I had wondered about why you named it what you did!

This is a fabulous tool I've already used it to change the AR of a couple of 800MB DivX encodes, prior to muxing into an MP4 container.

No speed problems here, as your tool could change the AR header and re-write a new file much faster than mp4UI can mux

Additional features, such as packed bitstream removal, 4CC changing, and being able to add/alter 'summary information' would be the icing on the cake.

That said, it's a really great tool already.

There are a lot of clever people on this forum... I just wish I was one of them!


Cheers

[bond]

hm i am not so sure if its a that good idea to make it too easy to change the user data of the bitstream
i mean it should represent the infos the encoder thinks should be set!
i dont think it should be compared to the fourcc, which the people change as they wish... the user data should really be a very accurate way to show the correct info about the bitstream!

for example i find it very usefull if i analyse a buggy mp4 file and see that the stream was originally packed by the encoder, which points to possible solutions
now if people start to mess around with this (who knows what people are going to do...) its not that good imo

maybe the editing should really be limited to very specific tasks, like the ones syskin mentioned and should not include a "you can change it all as you want" option

also about the "packed bitstream flag removing" option (as simply too many muxers exist which dont unpack the stream when muxing to mp4, its really important to know that the stream was packed originally!!) i think it would be a really better solution if the xvid decoder could ignore the bitstream description, than allowing the people to change the flag in avi, which means its in no way ensured that a correct mp4 muxer is used afterwards!
also maybe giving the user the false security that if this is changed, packed bitstream might cause less problems in mp4 or so, which is not the case of course

its good to have an easy way to identify originally packed bitstreams in mp4, as its really an important issue!
therefore i dont think people should be able to manually remove flags set by the encoder indicating that the stream was packed originally!

[bond]

i just thought about a possibility to make it work with the xvid decoder, but still have it marked that the stream has been initially packed:

only change the "p" at the end of the user data of divx5 and xvid to "n"!
that way the xvid decoder will not bork anymore, but its still clear if you analyse the user data, that the stream was output packed by the encoder

[GrEEk_OuTcAsT]

Hm, I think this that I ask is difficult. How about supporting matroska files? I know that in the video streams in matroska you can select AR, but it doesn't work to me .

[Zhnujm]

Just got the right firmware to try it with my Xoro311pro, works fine.

Thanks.

[unmei]

GrEEK_OuTcAsT: are you sure they are not written to the file? or is it just your player doesn't know what to do with it? Because if its a player issue no additional tool can fix it..

I set my aspect ratio always on muxing with mkvmerge and it always worked so far. The shell extesions shows it and both MPC and TCMP use it correctly (and these are the only players i use).

[bond]

Originally posted by GrEEk_OuTcAsT
Hm, I think this that I ask is difficult. How about supporting matroska files? I know that in the video streams in matroska you can select AR, but it doesn't work to me .

they way AR is stored in matroska has nothing to do with the AR stored in mpeg-4 streams themselves, therefore mpeg4modifier isnt really the right tool for changing matroska aspect ratios

[SeeMoreDigital]

Moitah,

Have you had chance yet to decided what other features you are going to include?


Cheers

[Soulhunter]

Originally posted by bond
Also about the "packed bitstream flag removing" option...

And, re-writing the AVI unpacked ???


Bye