Media Player Formats.....

[Zak33]

..in my spare time, I make films

What formats do ALL Windows PC's support without trawling the net for codecs and then paying for them?

I know AVI works on Media Player......and I also know that lots of people use various software to play other formats....but a simple question is...

IF I MAKE A FILM, THAT I AM GONNA HOST ON THE NET, and I want it to the highest quality possible, WHAT WILL EVERYBODY BE ABLE TO PLAY on their standard XP PC?

I talk to and compete with Germans, Romanians, Italians, Swedes, Poles, Spaniards, Brazilians etc etc etc.....and the only thing we all really have in common is Windows, and much as Bill Gates might get my goat up for his 30,000,000,000 bonus he does deserve much of it.

NOT A WINBLOWS DEBATE THREAD.......

Just need to understand my captive audience

cheers peeps

[Iain]

Best to stick with .wmv then. It's got good compression vs quality and it will play on all the recent versions of Windows.

[Zak33]

kk..... wmv it is...there are lots of options of data rate in Moviemaker, but I am looking into a new software package.
Cheers AZ

[yamangman]

Windows Media Video version 8. The same that I used in my videos here .

[directhex]

AVI, WMV, etc etc etc, are all containers - inside those you have the codecs. for example, whilst media player can play avi files, it might need an xvid and ac3 codec as well to open files that use those codecs. as Az said, WMV files with WMA & Windows VIdeo codecs would probably suit, though bear in mind older PCs may not have the more recent Windows Media (9) codecs that WIndows Movie Maker produces.

otherwise there's very little that windows can play out of the box - i think it can do Cinepak, Indeo, and uncompressed video (as AVI), and MP3, uncompressed, or AU audio.

i might be wrong, but i don't remember windows brimming with media capability out of the box.

edit: saw the xp stipulation, think that has media player 8 support out of the box, media player 9 codecs are on windowsupdate.

[myth]

I take it you cant zip the movie and add a codec with it? Such a divx.... Or mpg 4.....

[Iain]

The big advantage with .wmv is if the user doesn't have it the correct version then Windows Media Player will perform a codec download automatically

[myth]

The big advantage with .wmv is if the user doesn't have it the correct version then Windows Media Player will perform a codec download automatically

How good is the quality? I use mpeg.. And I record at 15 megs a second....
I could use wmv, but I figured it sucked! I have the wmv pro codec.. I take it the pro is better some how...

[Zak33]

I'll be using game footage guys......and THAT is AVI using FRAPS2...so I 'm a bit quality restricted anyway

I'd love a really good OPEN GL movie grabber that didnt hit my PC like FRAPS does...FRAPS KILLS the fps in a big way....

the only other way I can imagine is with a second PC, with a vid input and mine playing to a vid output.

Bit of a cable scenario tho

[directhex]

How good is the quality? I use mpeg.. And I record at 15 megs a second....
I could use wmv, but I figured it sucked! I have the wmv pro codec.. I take it the pro is better some how...

WMV9 is actually an excelent codec, only the licensing issues put me off. it obliterates mpeg2, and can compete with many popular mpeg4 codecs, standing somewhere near realvideo 9 and xvid in quality standings.

WMV8 is not so good.

[yamangman]

Thats why I said Windows Media 8. It fits all of zak's preconditions in his first post. Although I'm sure most Win XP users will have the 9 codec, which would be the perfect choice instead.