Demuxing/Encoding .pmf (PSP) video files

[Joe Forster/STA]

I used the following command line to re-package the raw H.264 stream, you sent, into an AVI container:

<path>\mencoder -of avi -ovc copy -o copyrawxclip.avi copyrawxclip.264

And then I manually edited the resulting AVI in a hexa editor because it had a weird FourCC. At offset 0x0070, the bytes 0x05 0x00 0x00 0x10 were changed to the string "h264"; at offset 0x00BC, the same four bytes were changed to "H264".

I didn't find a properly working general Video for Windows or DirectShow filter (video codec) for H.264 streams:
- The download at http://www.free-codecs.com/x264_Vide...c_download.htm is not a codec, rather the the encoder software.
- The latest ffdshow at http://ffdshow.sourceforge.net/tikiw...etting+ffdshow simply doesn't work for this media type.
So I tried VLC player 0.8.5 (see a download at http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/win/27193 ), with its built-in H.264 decoder; the AVI sample played fine. I hope this helps!

[Edit] Ohhh, as for AC3 streams:
- Get the WinAMP AC3 input plugin from http://winampac3.sourceforge.net to be able to play AC3 audio (and check if a particular file is indeed in AC3 format).
- Get BeSweet from http://dspguru.doom9.net to convert among all kinds of audio formats: WAV, MP3, AC3, OGG, DTS. If you like, I can give you batch files that help with converting any audio format (that BeSweet can handle as input) to WAV, MP3, AC3 or OGG format.

[Cyber Akuma]

Hmm, well, first of all I needed to add two more switches to mencoder, "-noski"p and "-ofps 29.97"

Without -noskip I just get a useless 4k junk file.

I had tried using the FourCC changer included with the Xvid codec to change it before I had posted this problem here, but it didnt work.

So, I tried what you said about manually editing it with a hex editor.

It still would not play in MPC (yes, I can play other h264 video in it) but worked in VLC. Id really want this file to be playable in just about anything that supports AVI and the h264 codec, which is just about every player I know of except for WMP, so I can't have an AVI file that only works in VLC, since the file is likely still slightly corrupt.

Also, the file was filled with instances of this text "[= MPlayer junk data! =]", any idea why that is there?

Ill look into that plugin and program for converting the audio.

[Joe Forster/STA]

As for the need for those extra two command line options, perhaps, you're using a different version of MEncoder than I do. I'm using version "dev-CVS-050928-16:38-3.4.2" (the 1.0 pre8 release).

I do rip DVD's myself but I always use the XviD codec. I have no idea about where an official, usable H.264 codec exists for Windows, if at all. (Do you know a definitive download location for such a codec?!) If there's no such package, it shouldn't be a surprise that you can't play H.264 video in any media player, only ones that explicitly support it, with some custom DLL of their own...

Don't mind the junk data; yes, MPlayer adds that to the unused parts of the header, but that's just garbage, it's not there instead of anything useful!

[Cyber Akuma]

Originally Posted by Joe Forster/STA

I do rip DVD's myself but I always use the XviD codec. I have no idea about where an official, usable H.264 codec exists for Windows, if at all. (Do you know a definitive download location for such a codec?!) If there's no such package, it shouldn't be a surprise that you can't play H.264 video in any media player, only ones that explicitly support it, with some custom DLL of their own...

Theres two ways.

You can use FFdshow, it sorta is an all in one codec, but its not a codec pack. But ill admit that it's decoder isnt that great, itll do the job. FFdshow is actually integrated into VLC, thats what VLC uses to decode video.

You can also get the CoreAVC codec, but it recnetly went pay, its pretty much the best one though.

Im sure theres others that can decode h264 video, but ive never tried them, I heard quicktime installs one too but im not about to install quicktime on my system to try it.

I have had no trouble playing h264 video in MPC before..... other than the fact that my crappy old pentium 3 CPU can barely handle it if its too high bitrate/resolution XD

As for my mencoder version, this is what I got when I ran it:
MEncoder 1.0pre7-3.4.2 (C) 2000-2005 MPlayer Team

[Joe Forster/STA]

As I wrote above, the latest ffdshow doesn't play this video. (Or it could play it if it was registered itself to the "H264" FourCC?!)

[Cyber Akuma]

Originally Posted by Joe Forster/STA

As I wrote above, the latest ffdshow doesn't play this video. (Or it could play it if it was registered itself to the "H264" FourCC?!)

FFDshow is what VLC uses, so if VLC can play it, then FFdshow cant, its MPC thats unable to read the AVI file correctly. I can play other .avi and .mp4 files encoded with a h264 video stream fine in MPC.

Hmm, strange. FFdshow's homepage hasent been updated since 2004, but there are websites on the net that have a version that was released on September 3, 2006.

Anyway, I am certain that ffdshow has a h264 decoder, ive seen it. I dont know why this file isn't playing in MPC but I doubt its an h264 codec issue. Every other player that isnt VLC or mplayer was unable to play this file either, it didnt create a correctly formatted AVI, vlc just manages to ignore the errors.

[Joe Forster/STA]

Again, no matter if any codec can decode H.26 video streams if that codec is not registered onto the "H264" FourCC in the Windows registry! I think this is one of the major problems why you can't play the video with any media player: it tries to open the file, with the help of the registered codec, but finds none, so it displays "unknown format" or similar and gives up. However, if a media player - notably MPlayer - uses its own database or codec registration system then it may be able to find the correct decoder for such streams...

As for ffdshow, the link I wrote above does give you a quite recent download, even if the main page, http://sourceforge.net/projects/ffdshow/ , is damn old, for some weird reason... (Erm, 2006 September? Do those web pages come from the future?! )