skybl8zr
10th January 2006, 04:00
Hi,
Hopefully I've posted this in the right place. For the record, I've used this forum a lot when searching for help on several topics and when Googling I always seem to end up in Doom9's Forum and have all the solutions at hand. Now I want to help you, and maybe you can help me in the process ;)
This subject is regarding the lack of XviD support (at the time being) in Sony's official PSP Media Manager (1.0a build 193 at the time of writing this), and how to cheat the software into thinking XviD video is not XviD video... :) PMM is the official PSP manager and I've paid bucks for a license to use it, so I'll do whatever it takes to "make it behave” until Sony releases a better build. I want to share a possible solution with you which may not work for everyone. Then again, if you already can transfer XviD to PMM successfully, please let me know. I got stuck myself after days and hours of testing and experimenting. Also Sony's Technical Support is testing my patience. It's really a slow process and they reply with totally basic solutions that I'm already familiar with and have tested with no success. But I managed afterall myself to transfer XviD files to PSP.
Like pointed out, you need to trick PMM into thinking the XviD codec isn't used for decoding your video files (or something in that sense). Please read on to see my own possible solution and maybe you guys can help me figure out a solution to the missing MPEG-4 AAC audio in the encoded PSP .mp4 files or even a less confusing workaround for the whole encoding process with XviD files.
Before installing PMM 1.0a b193, I had only DivX v6.0.9 and ffdshow-20051111 installed. PMM recognized and transferred DivX files perfectly to PSP (and it reads unencrypted DVD ifo files to easily transfer movies but I don't recommend this option as PMM currently lacks cropping tools). Then I upgraded to DivX v6.1.1.2. Now the software couldn't read my DivX files anymore. I've been experimenting with several settings, codec combinations and system configurations and uninstalling PMM (approx. a million times by now) since then to be able to initialize DivX files again (preferable XviD as I mostly use its encoder for my DVDs > .avi).
Sony recommends uninstalling the XviD codec if there are issues with DivX. According to my tests it's just not THAT simple (and who wants to uninstall XviD in the first place? I want to use XviD, not uninstall it!). In general PMM already has compatibility problems with DivX codec’s until Sony fixes this issue (hopefully soon so people can enjoy the manager to its fullest potential...well it's the official PSP Media Manager and of course it should work 100%, and Sony/MainConcept AVC encoder is among the best PSP encoders if not the best.
You probably don't have to follow these steps in this particular order but that's what I did myself (the outcome in my case was perfect video data from both DivX and XviD files but sadly no audio...this particular problem is covered in another thread with a link further down):
***As a safety precaution, backup your system settings with the Windows built-in System Restore or third-party software before following these steps***
1. Make sure you have at least DivX 3.11 alpha and DivX v4.12 installed either before installing PMM 1.0a or afterwards. Now you may experience that the software can't recognize DivX 5 files. Then go install DivX v5.21 or the latest DivX v6.1 (also try latest patches for v6.1 codec). Like pointed out before, you probably need to have at least DivX 3.11 alpha already installed before PMM recognizes DivX 5.
2. When DivX 3.11 alpha, DivX v4.12 and latest DivX v6.1 codec are installed, PMM should initialize DivX 6 files which you can tell by a thumbnail preview with corrupt video (!). This is probably because 3.11/4.12 codec’s corrupts DivX 6 files and PMM doesn't understand a thing or two (or maybe it's my fault :p). You can transfer those files to PSP but video is partly bad, audio should be fine.
3. Get the latest stable XviD codec (1.1.0) and install. Choose not to decode DIVX and DX50 with this codec.
4. Get the latest FFDSHOW codec and install every feature (just in case). Also make sure it decodes at least DIVX, DX50 and XviD files (for the record if no one have used ffdshow before it's a popular decoder with more advanced settings than DivX and XviD - and its faster and uses less system resources).
5. Use XviD's Nic's FourCC changer or AVI FourCC Changer v1.00 (the most important step for this trick to work!!). Change the FourCC of your XviD files (we need to cheat and that's the part where I don't think Sony's Technical Support will be of any assistance :p).
I.e. original FourCC of XviD file:
FourCC Description Code: XVID
FourCC Used Codec: XVID
New FourCC of XviD file:
FourCC Description Code: XVID, divx or DIVX
FourCC Used Codec: FFDS (IMPORTANT!!!)*
* Without the (IMPORTANT!!!) of course :)
6. Almost there. Just to be on the safe side you need to reset PMM's cache so it makes a clean update of your video files. Remember to close the application if it's open. Resetting PMM's cache is done like this:
:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\Sony\PSP Media Manager\ (delete everything is this folder)
Instead you could also try uninstalling and reinstalling the product.
Open PMM. Now the software should recognize and transfer all XviD and DivX files to PSP with no corrupt .mp4 video. I'm not sure why the MPEG-4 AAC audio is missing in my case (there was audio when video was corrupted...) and that's driving me nuts :eek:
I look forward to any comments regarding the outcome if you've followed this little cheating guide. I would also very much like to hear if someone knows of other possible solutions. It would all be so much easier if Sony just released a 100% working build of the PSP Media Manager...
I'll post another thread specifically about the missing MPEG-4 AAC audio in Doom 9's Audio encoding (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=105421) (will link directly to the thread when it's ready).
Hopefully I've posted this in the right place. For the record, I've used this forum a lot when searching for help on several topics and when Googling I always seem to end up in Doom9's Forum and have all the solutions at hand. Now I want to help you, and maybe you can help me in the process ;)
This subject is regarding the lack of XviD support (at the time being) in Sony's official PSP Media Manager (1.0a build 193 at the time of writing this), and how to cheat the software into thinking XviD video is not XviD video... :) PMM is the official PSP manager and I've paid bucks for a license to use it, so I'll do whatever it takes to "make it behave” until Sony releases a better build. I want to share a possible solution with you which may not work for everyone. Then again, if you already can transfer XviD to PMM successfully, please let me know. I got stuck myself after days and hours of testing and experimenting. Also Sony's Technical Support is testing my patience. It's really a slow process and they reply with totally basic solutions that I'm already familiar with and have tested with no success. But I managed afterall myself to transfer XviD files to PSP.
Like pointed out, you need to trick PMM into thinking the XviD codec isn't used for decoding your video files (or something in that sense). Please read on to see my own possible solution and maybe you guys can help me figure out a solution to the missing MPEG-4 AAC audio in the encoded PSP .mp4 files or even a less confusing workaround for the whole encoding process with XviD files.
Before installing PMM 1.0a b193, I had only DivX v6.0.9 and ffdshow-20051111 installed. PMM recognized and transferred DivX files perfectly to PSP (and it reads unencrypted DVD ifo files to easily transfer movies but I don't recommend this option as PMM currently lacks cropping tools). Then I upgraded to DivX v6.1.1.2. Now the software couldn't read my DivX files anymore. I've been experimenting with several settings, codec combinations and system configurations and uninstalling PMM (approx. a million times by now) since then to be able to initialize DivX files again (preferable XviD as I mostly use its encoder for my DVDs > .avi).
Sony recommends uninstalling the XviD codec if there are issues with DivX. According to my tests it's just not THAT simple (and who wants to uninstall XviD in the first place? I want to use XviD, not uninstall it!). In general PMM already has compatibility problems with DivX codec’s until Sony fixes this issue (hopefully soon so people can enjoy the manager to its fullest potential...well it's the official PSP Media Manager and of course it should work 100%, and Sony/MainConcept AVC encoder is among the best PSP encoders if not the best.
You probably don't have to follow these steps in this particular order but that's what I did myself (the outcome in my case was perfect video data from both DivX and XviD files but sadly no audio...this particular problem is covered in another thread with a link further down):
***As a safety precaution, backup your system settings with the Windows built-in System Restore or third-party software before following these steps***
1. Make sure you have at least DivX 3.11 alpha and DivX v4.12 installed either before installing PMM 1.0a or afterwards. Now you may experience that the software can't recognize DivX 5 files. Then go install DivX v5.21 or the latest DivX v6.1 (also try latest patches for v6.1 codec). Like pointed out before, you probably need to have at least DivX 3.11 alpha already installed before PMM recognizes DivX 5.
2. When DivX 3.11 alpha, DivX v4.12 and latest DivX v6.1 codec are installed, PMM should initialize DivX 6 files which you can tell by a thumbnail preview with corrupt video (!). This is probably because 3.11/4.12 codec’s corrupts DivX 6 files and PMM doesn't understand a thing or two (or maybe it's my fault :p). You can transfer those files to PSP but video is partly bad, audio should be fine.
3. Get the latest stable XviD codec (1.1.0) and install. Choose not to decode DIVX and DX50 with this codec.
4. Get the latest FFDSHOW codec and install every feature (just in case). Also make sure it decodes at least DIVX, DX50 and XviD files (for the record if no one have used ffdshow before it's a popular decoder with more advanced settings than DivX and XviD - and its faster and uses less system resources).
5. Use XviD's Nic's FourCC changer or AVI FourCC Changer v1.00 (the most important step for this trick to work!!). Change the FourCC of your XviD files (we need to cheat and that's the part where I don't think Sony's Technical Support will be of any assistance :p).
I.e. original FourCC of XviD file:
FourCC Description Code: XVID
FourCC Used Codec: XVID
New FourCC of XviD file:
FourCC Description Code: XVID, divx or DIVX
FourCC Used Codec: FFDS (IMPORTANT!!!)*
* Without the (IMPORTANT!!!) of course :)
6. Almost there. Just to be on the safe side you need to reset PMM's cache so it makes a clean update of your video files. Remember to close the application if it's open. Resetting PMM's cache is done like this:
:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\Sony\PSP Media Manager\ (delete everything is this folder)
Instead you could also try uninstalling and reinstalling the product.
Open PMM. Now the software should recognize and transfer all XviD and DivX files to PSP with no corrupt .mp4 video. I'm not sure why the MPEG-4 AAC audio is missing in my case (there was audio when video was corrupted...) and that's driving me nuts :eek:
I look forward to any comments regarding the outcome if you've followed this little cheating guide. I would also very much like to hear if someone knows of other possible solutions. It would all be so much easier if Sony just released a 100% working build of the PSP Media Manager...
I'll post another thread specifically about the missing MPEG-4 AAC audio in Doom 9's Audio encoding (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=105421) (will link directly to the thread when it's ready).