Choose Xvid, but it encodes with Cinepack?!

[Rick1441]

I am using VideoWave to edit wmv's, and creating a custom template to re-encode with XVid.

 

BUT..even though I select XVid, and then click Advanced and set the customizable XVid parameters, I instead end up with a humongous (and S-L-O-W-L-Y rendered) file that Videowave has encoded with Cinepack instead! Has anyone encountered this or a similar issue? Any ideas on what might be happening, and a fix? Thanks.

[Rick1441]

Jean, thanks for the investigation, ideas and suggestions -- all very helpful.

 

BTW, a few days ago I ran across some detailed specs for EMC9 which do show XVid in the list of input formats, but not in the list of output formats. This further supports your conclusions from your own encode-to-XVid attempt.

[gi7omy]

You have me a shade confused here - as far as I'm aware, there is no 'cinepack' module in EMC9

 

Also, when Roxio encodes, it uses the codecs that are on the system - if you installed xVid, then it will use that to render the file - that's how it works. If the codec isn't there, then it fails

[Rick1441]

"Cinepak Codec by Radius" is listed among the compression choices in Videowave, as is "XVid MPEG-4" codec (which is of course the one I'm choosing, and which shows up when I re-check the custom template specs). It's an old codec that gets little use anymore. After reading your post I found it in the Control Panel codecs list as iccvid.dll. I think it's been there ever since I got this pc with XP SP2 pre-installed, though I'm not certain. Regardless, I'm definitely choosing *XVid* in EMC9.

 

BTW, as an attempted workaround I tried selecting the ffdshow codec (which I DID install myself before I got EMC9), and then in ffdshow settings instructed it to encode with XVid, which is one of its many choices. Well, again, I got a humongous file as output. Turns out that despite my XVid instruction it was encoded using something called a "cvid" codec per my players and G-Spot. I"d never heard of cvid, so I Googled, and it turns out it's another name for Cinepak! It's not even one of the choices listed in ffdshow.

 

BTW, I encode with XVid with no problem on other editors and converters I have. Why is Videowave pushing Cinepak on me???

 

CORRECTION: I had said "ffmpeg" when I meant ffdshow. I've edited above.

[jeanrosenfeld]

I tried that. I downloadedand installed the Xvid codecs, then tried to use that to convert to xvid in Videowave. However, I did not complete the rendering, it was building up to a huge file, so I cancelled.

 

It would appear that Videowave can't really use external codecs too well, even if they appear in the list (which I think is a function of the way the codecs install and are registered). I can only suggest you use divx instead of xvid. (incidentally the divx decoder can decode xvid as well, so you don't really need both). Videowave has its own divx codecs which it uses.

 

An alternative would be to use dedicated converter software. Two that are free and can convert to Xvid are Super and MediaCoder

 

http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html

 

http://mediacoder.sourceforge.net/

 

One other comment: .wmv files are pretty compressed. I think the xvid files would be bigger and of course you can only lose quality by converting.

[jeanrosenfeld]

Don't know if it would help, but you could try using GSpot to set the merit order of the competing codecs so that the one you want gets highest preference.

[Rick1441]

Don't know if it would help, but you could try using GSpot to set the merit order of the competing codecs so that the one you want gets highest preference.

 

Thanks for the suggestion, but unfortunately it didn't work. Even when I set Cinepak to lowest priority and both XVid to highest, EMC still encodes it with Cinepak.

 

BTW, I said "both" XVid because there are two listings in GSpot:

 

1. DSH XVID XviD MPEG-4 Video Decoder {64697678-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71} 0x00800000 xvid.ax

 

and

 

2. VFW XVID XviD MPEG-4 Codec vidc.xvid 0x00800000 quartz.dll --> xvidvfw.dll

 

#1 was already set to highest priority. I also changed #2 to Highest Priority. Honestly, I don't understand all this stuff (although I do know the acronym VFW stands for Video for Windows). Hope I'm not doing anything that could cause problems... CVID was already set to low priority,and I moved it down one notch to "sucks." Maybe what I listed above are just DEcoders??? (I'm not real familiar with GSpot either...)

[jeanrosenfeld]

There was a new release of ffdshow today (ffdshow_rev1309_20070620_clsid.exe). During the install I noticed that it lists a set of compatible .exe. Videowave is not listed. There is an option not to limit to compatible .exe, which may be why it shows up in the Videowave list, but nevertheless it could be that Videowave can't use it.

[Rick1441]

There was a new release of ffdshow today (ffdshow_rev1309_20070620_clsid.exe). During the install I noticed that it lists a set of compatible .exe. Videowave is not listed. There is an option not to limit to compatible .exe, which may be why it shows up in the Videowave list, but nevertheless it could be that Videowave can't use it.

 

Thanks for the info. But the primary mystery I'd still like to solve is what happens when I choose XVid directly, without ffdshow. Why is EMC using Cinepak to encode instead? XVid is my favorite avi filter, and the ability to export to avi is one reason I bought EMC9.

 

Question: Has anybody been able to create XVids with Videowave? Anybody? Thanks.