Where can I find an H.263 decoder ?

[Ghim]

Hi !

Does anyone knows a proper Directshow H.263 deocder ? (to decode H.263 in 3GP files)

I'm looking for a commercial product with a proper licence (so ffdshow is no good for me).

I've already found Nero 6 which seems to work fine, but I just need a decoder and Nero offers a bit too much and is a bit big ^^.
I've also tried HDX4, but it was extremely buggy and I couldn't use it for what I wanted.

Thanks.

[hitbit]

ffdshow supports h263 and h263+

[Ghim]

Sorry, but as I mentioned in my previous post, I'm searching for a proper Commercial decoder. So ffdshow is not good for me...

[Sirber]

ffdshow can't be used commercialy? :confused:

[ChronoCross]

Originally posted by Sirber
ffdshow can't be used commercialy? :confused:


I think it's because it's open sourced. So it can't be licensed in something such as a media player that is sold in stores because there isn't a company that they can pay for it.

[Episode]

Um, why do you need commercial decoder? And what's wrong with ffdshow's gpl-licence and ffmpeg's lgpl-licence?

[Ghim]

The problem is not with the opensource licence...

The problem is with the patents. Inside the code of ffdshow (inside of libavcodec code to be exact), there are lots of patents used (for the video decoding/encoding). So if you want to use this codec other than for a research purpose, you're supposed to pay the licences for the patents.
And there are so many of them that it would be impossible to pay them (very expensive and you would need to pay many different companies).

[subliminal]

you can use ffdshow to decode!

[Ghim]

Originally posted by subliminal
you can use ffdshow to decode!

Could you please read the previous posts before posting ? I already explained why I can't use ffdshow.
Thanks.

[Latexxx]

Something: http://www.leadcodecs.com/Codecs/LEAD-H263.htm

[NuPogodi]

AMPL H.263 Video Decoder (http://amp.ece.cmu.edu/projects/H263VideoCodec/download.htm)

[Ghim]

Thanks for your answers.

Concerning LEAD H263 codec, the prolem is they're using their own codec type (l263) and they don't accept the encoded H263 data with a standard type (s263).

Concerning AMPL H.263 Video Decoder, this isn't a DirectShow decoder, and I'm developping using DirectShow, so I can only use Directshow filters.

[NuPogodi]

Originally posted by Ghim
Concerning AMPL H.263 Video Decoder, this isn't a DirectShow decoder, and I'm developping using DirectShow, so I can only use Directshow filters.
then, you might be interested in 4i2i H.263 Video Codec (http://www.4i2i.com/h_263_software_video_codec.htm). Copy-paste from their homesite...
Our H.263 software implements an H.263 compliant video encoder/decoder and is available as a C library and/or as a DirectShow filter which you can call from C or C++.

[Ghim]

Originally posted by NuPogodi
then, you might be interested in 4i2i H.263 Video Codec (http://www.4i2i.com/h_263_software_video_codec.htm). Copy-paste from their homesite...

Thanks a lot for the link. However, the 4i2i codec doesn't seems to work on the files I have.
I can't connect this decoder after the splitter I use so I think their codec is only H.263 standard (not +), or they use their own codec MediaSubtype, which is only compatible with their encoders.

I'm sorry, but I forgot to mention that the decoder I need should support H.263+ (1998) and not only H.263.

[Inventive Software]

Have you tried Intel ITU H263 decoder?

Not sure how old this is, or where it could be found!

Saying that, I know this is pressing things a bit, but in ffmpeg, there is libavcodec. Can you not just isolate the H263 codec you need to decode H263+ content (cause I think it can decode H263 and H263+ content), and set it up as a DirectShow filter?

Or is that breaking the license restrictions that are in place for the project you are working on?

Open source does have it's limitations. Perhaps these limitations are what's causing your problem.

Having said that, I know that Microsoft has an H263 codec. Whether it's DirectShow or not is beyond me. I think it's fairly old, so it could support the H263+ content you are trying to decode.

After googling, I found this for the mpegable decoder, and yes it is directshow.

- Full MPEG-4 video conformity (ISO/IEC 14496-2)
- Full H.263 video conformity


Perhaps this is more what you are looking for?

[Ghim]

Have you tried Intel ITU H263 decoder?
Not sure how old this is, or where it could be found!

Saying that, I know this is pressing things a bit, but in ffmpeg, there is libavcodec. Can you not just isolate the H263 codec you need to decode H263+ content (cause I think it can decode H263 and H263+ content), and set it up as a DirectShow filter?

Or is that breaking the license restrictions that are in place for the project you are working on?

Open source does have it's limitations. Perhaps these limitations are what's causing your problem.

The open source licence is not a problem at all. As I previously mentioned the only problem comes from the number of patents licences. I've found a couple of H.263+ decoder source code, but I don't know how to create a proper directshow filter and I don't have the time to see how to do it.

Having said that, I know that Microsoft has an H263 codec. Whether it's DirectShow or not is beyond me. I think it's fairly old, so it could support the H263+ content you are trying to decode.
The Microsoft Decoder can't be used in Directshow and they're only H.263 (not +) codecs, used for conferencing with Netmeeting.

After googling, I found this for the mpegable decoder, and yes it is directshow.
I've tested this one as well on Friday and it seems to works not too bad but they stopped the distribution of this product.

Thnaks for all the people who answered this thread. I think I've tested quite a few decoders allready and I'm quite happy with what I've found.

[Sergei_Esenin]

Check with Ligos (http://www.ligos.com/). IIRC Intel's Indeo codec package used to have an H.263+ codec; Ligos bought Indeo and sells an updated version for XP, so maybe it still contains an H.263+ codec.

I still have copies of the old Intel version and of the old Ligos version from before they started charging for it, so if I have the chance I'll install and see if H.263+ is still included.

EDIT: Oops, I guess I skimmed over the last sentence:

Thnaks for all the people who answered this thread. I think I've tested quite a few decoders allready and I'm quite happy with what I've found.

[Daniel_HDX4]

Hi !

Does anyone knows a proper Directshow H.263 deocder ? (to decode H.263 in 3GP files)[...]
I've also tried HDX4, but it was extremely buggy and I couldn't use it for what I wanted.
Thanks.

What problems do you had with HDX4?

-Daniel

[unnikrisb4u]

Can I get an H263 Encoder and decoder codes for reference ? ( study purpose) .

[nm]

Can I get an H263 Encoder and decoder codes for reference ? ( study purpose) .
FFmpeg (http://ffmpeg.org/) has an optimized codec licensed under LGPL.
Here's another implementation (link from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.263)): http://www4.informatik.uni-erlangen.de/Projects/ScalVico/vic/

You should have opened a new thread instead of resurrecting this one.

[unnikrisb4u]

FFmpeg (http://ffmpeg.org/) has an optimized codec licensed under LGPL.
Here's another implementation (link from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.263)): http://www4.informatik.uni-erlangen.de/Projects/ScalVico/vic/

You should have opened a new thread instead of resurrecting this one.

Thanks for reply and advice.

[Ascii2]

Thnaks for all the people who answered this thread. I think I've tested quite a few decoders allready and I'm quite happy with what I've found.Ghim,

In the past, it appears that you were seeking an H.263 and H.263+ DirectShow decoder that is not part of FFDShow. A thread with such information may be found:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=95007Z

I too am looking to find a working DirectShow H.263/H.263+ decoder that is not part of FFDShow (although for different reasons). I have not been able to find very many H.263/H.263+ complaint DirectShow decoders that work well and have not yet found any that work well enough.

in the reference thread, you indicated that you were "quite happy" with what you found (post #16). What did you find?

[AlekseiV]

This thread is five years old and Ghim hasn't been on Doom9 in more than a year.