Same MPG file on two machines opens and not.

[Thomas Leong]

From what you have provided, the file seems like a normal MPEG-2 file of SD resolution. Since it is a new PC that won’t open it, looks like Microsoft has not changed: Windows Media Player and/or A New PC Installation does not include a MEPG-2 codec. The end user must install a 3rd party MPEG-2 codec himself.

But I’m surprised that even after installation of K-Lite’s Mega Pack you still cannot play the file. In K-Lite’s Codec Tweak Tool, there are options to enable/disable codecs for various file-types. Perhaps you have not enabled the MPEG-2 file-type, or associated it with a codec.

If this (K-Lite) is too deep for you, then uninstall it. During uninstall, it will ask you whether you want to reset all options to default. Answer yes.

After that just get Quicktime or the Mainconcept codec. One of these will decode your file.

[Thomas Leong]

Sorry, but what you’ve heard about K-Lite is all bull…or from those who fear anything other than a branded name. The older version essentially uses the ffdshow codec, but the latest uses the LAV Splitter and LAV Video Decoder and LAV Audio Decoder.

I have personally used the included LAV codec and the tools provided by K-Lite to solve MediaLook logo problems surfacing on the output of a USD2,000+ software, caused by, of all things, a Euro 1,800 software…and both are USB-dongled in order to operate.

[Konstantin Davidenko]

I don’t understand one thing: if videos can be opened with players (WMP, VLC, etc), why they can’t be opened with AE? Is there is any difference in codec settings, or what? =

[Thomas Leong]

Welcome to “Codec Hell”!!

From one layman to another, here’s my best explanation –

Vlc uses the Libav source code published under the GNU Lesser General Public License – i.e. open source and generally free.

Not sure what WMP uses.

AE on the other hand is not a media player like the others. But its acceptance/non-acceptance of a file is no different from a media player: the codec must be “registered” with AE first. And in most cases, this means installed in the pc that AE is installed in, or rather installed in the places that AE looks into when a file is being ingested into AE. AFAIK, Quicktime and Mainconcept are 2 such codecs.

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

[Konstantin Davidenko] ” if videos can be opened with players (WMP, VLC, etc), why they can’t be opened with AE?”

It’s very easy to playback video. What AE does or allows you to do is mind boggling. Excluding still imagery, image sequences and internally created elements; video CODECs form the basic components that AE works with.

Today, we are arguably into the 4th generation of video CODECs. The mechanics of CODECs are such that how the files are compressed and read or decompressed vary from one CODEC to another. Not all CODECs are ideal for editing or compositing and some are even specialized for delivery of high-quality, compressed digital video. For an application such as AE, specialized or new CODECs have to be tested to ensure that they are workable/doable within AE’s workspace which is a lot more complex than a media player’s workspace which often only requires playback and transcoding capability.

If you want to work with a professional application such as AE then it is important that you stick to professionally accepted CODECs. Not only do they ensure that you will be able to work with them in AE but oftentimes, they will help to ensure better quality imagery for your output – lots of caveats there but stick with what the pros use/do and you will have a better user-experience with pro apps.

HTH
RoRK

Intensive AE & Mocha Training in Singapore and Malaysia
Adobe ACE/ACI (version 7) & Imagineer Systems Inc Approved Mocha Trainer