how can i find what codec this is using

[interrupt13]

hi everyone i am probably posting in the wrong forum but i am not sure... i have a file and it is labeled as a .wmv but clearly it is not because windows media player wont play it... furthermore which was strange... i played it in linux and to my surprise i could watch it! i am baffled.. i want to figure out what codec it is and how to make it work in windows... i can send it to anyone who wants to examine it.. its 19 megs i might upload it to some webspace in the future if ppl want to have access to it... i've tried g-spot so dont suggest that... it doesn't work... but i have not used any other programs.. because i dont know of any others... thanks for your time guys... i appreciate it much

[hellfred]

Originally posted by interrupt13
hi everyone i am probably posting in the wrong forum but i am not sure... i have a file and it is labeled as a .wmv but clearly it is not because windows media player wont play it... furthermore which was strange... i played it in linux and to my surprise i could watch it! i am baffled.. i want to figure out what codec it is and how to make it work in windows... i can send it to anyone who wants to examine it.. its 19 megs i might upload it to some webspace in the future if ppl want to have access to it... i've tried g-spot so dont suggest that... it doesn't work... but i have not used any other programs.. because i dont know of any others... thanks for your time guys... i appreciate it much
Which program was able to play back that file under linux? (mplayer? xine?)
Best choice seems to be trying to get the codec name from that program.
MPlayers output on the console should contain that information, but you can add a -v (mplayer -v filename.wmv) to get even more info.

Hellfred

[interrupt13]

i used ktotem and xine both worked... i will try mplayer next time thanks for that bit of info

[hellfred]

Originally posted by interrupt13
i used ktotem and xine both worked... i will try mplayer next time thanks for that bit of info
As mplayer is my favourite, i rarely ever use xine, and have never heared of ktotem. But i do know that xine outputs quiete a lot to the console, too, if you start it from one. Most probably the verbosen parameter "-v" will be implemented, too. Just give it a try.
xine -v /path/to/file

Hellfred

[interrupt13]

hi i hope you're still here LOL its been a while, i wasn't able to log back into my linux partition because of some problems.... anyway i played the file back with the -v flag and it said (i couldn't get all of it but i believe this is the vital video information):


Opening video decoder: [mpegpes] MPEG 1/2 Video passthrough
VDec: vo config request - 720 x 480 (preferred csp: Mpeg PES)
Trying filter chain: vo
Could not find matching colorspace - retrying with -vop scale...
Opening video filter: [scale]
SwScale params: -1 x -1 (-1=no scaling)
Trying filter chain: scale vo
The selected video_out device is incompatible with this codec.
VDecoder init failed :(
Opening video decoder: [libmpeg2] MPEG 1/2 Video decoder v2.0
libmpeg2: Using MMXEXT for IDCT transform
libmpeg2: Using MMXEXT for motion compensation
VDec: vo config request - 720 x 480 (preferred csp: Planar YV12)
Trying filter chain: vo
VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0)
Movie-Aspect is 1.33:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect.
VO Config (720x480->720x540,flags=1,'MPlayer',0x32315659)
VO: [xv] 720x480 => 720x540 Planar YV12 [fs]
VO: Description: X11/Xv
VO: Author: Gerd Knorr <kraxel@goldbach.in-berlin.de> and others
Xvideo image format: 0x32595559 (YUY2) packed
Xvideo image format: 0x32315659 (YV12) planar
Xvideo image format: 0x59565955 (UYVY) packed
Xvideo image format: 0x30323449 (I420) planar
aspect: Warning: no suitable new res found!
[x11] NET style stay on top ( layer 1 ). Using state _NET_WM_STATE_STAYS_ON_TOP.
using Xvideo port 61 for hw scaling
aspect: Warning: no suitable new res found!
[xv-fs] dx: 0 dy: 0 dw: 640 dh: 480
[xv] dx: 0 dy: 0 dw: 640 dh: 480
Selected video codec: [mpeg12] vfm:libmpeg2 (MPEG 1 or 2 (libmpeg2))

so can anyone tell me what i would need to download to be able to watch this in windows? obviously linux has the codec and windows doesn't... any response would be greatly appreciated! thanks for the help!


btw i forced it to play the video at 640x480 using -screenh and -screenw on the command line.. just in case u were confused :D

[avih]

somewhat OT, you can run mplayer for windows too. it's a pretty good player. next time u won't HAVE to boot linux for that (although it's nice to do that once in a while ;) )

[hellfred]

With mplayer.exe without -v you should get something like:
...
Playing Wonderful.avi
AVI file format detected.
VIDEO: [XVID] 608x336 24bpp 23.98 fps 992.4 kbps (121.1 kbyte/s)
Clip info:
Software: Nandub v1.0rc2
...
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
Selected video codec: [ffodivx] vfm:ffmpeg (FFmpeg MPEG-4)
==========================================================================
...



With -v you should get something like this:
...
==> Found video stream: 0
======= STREAM Header =======
Type: vids FCC: xvid (64697678)
Flags: 0
Priority: 0 Language: 0
InitialFrames: 0
Rate: 2997/125 = 23.976
Start: 0 Len: 124173
Suggested BufferSize: 72722
Quality 10000
Sample size: 0
found 'bih', 108 bytes of 40
======= VIDEO Format ======
biSize 40
biWidth 608
biHeight 336
biPlanes 1
biBitCount 24
biCompression 1145656920='XVID'
biSizeImage 612864
===========================
...
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
INFO: libavcodec init OK!
Selected video codec: [ffodivx] vfm:ffmpeg (FFmpeg MPEG-4)
==========================================================================
...



In the later one the information

Type: vids FCC: xvid (64697678)

is the most precise one of what you are actually viewing.
To help understanding, what the FCCs (=fourcc) mean, you can visit e.g.:
http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/codecs-status.html

Hellfred

[interrupt13]

Athlon-XP 2500+, Asus A7N8X-X

Hey i have the exact same thing :D

also what is OT ?


and to hellfred the information is not there? should i get the mplayer for windows and post again more definite? thank you for your help guys i really appreciate it!

[avih]

OT= Off Topic ;)

[hellfred]

Originally posted by interrupt13

and to hellfred the information is not there? should i get the mplayer for windows and post again more definite? thank you for your help guys i really appreciate it!

Send the whole output of mplayer with and without in a privat message.
(click button user cp in the top of the forum and select private messages).

Hellfred