Playback on P133 Win95 - what format

[mikesbytes]

Hi, I wish to send video to my Parents who are elderly. I live overseas from them.

They don't have a DVD player and it is not feasible to buy them one. So the only feasible option (apart from VHS) is to send them a CD which the put in their PC (P133 Win95) which uses autorun.inf to play the video. Installing new software would give them a heart attach and is definently out.

The question is, what kind of video can be played on such a low spec machine? Having the software on the CD is ok, as long as they don't see any install screens, ie it plays directly from the CD.

I have successfully produced CD's that run ".exe" slide shows and these work fine on their PC.

[tattytails]

animated gif?

[sterno]

MPEG1 at something like VCD resolution should play OK on that. I think most versions of 95 shipped with an MPEG1 codec, so it shouldn't need any extra software. I'm not sure how far above VCD resolution and bitrate you could go and be assured of getting good playback.

[vitualis]

The media player that comes with Win3.1 and up can play MPEG-1 video with MP2 audio with no problems. A VCD spec MPEG-1 file should play fine on such a machine.

Regards.

[daredevil]

i've got a p133 with win98 and it plays vcd fine, there is some vcdplayer freeware wich you can autorun

[mikesbytes]

Thanks, so a VCD MPEG1 should be fine.

Next problem, is how to run them. I understand that the following would work.

[autorun]
open=start video.mpg

The problem with this is that it may temporarly open a dos window and therefor scare my parents.

[mikesbytes]

I just discovered a better way of doing this. Check the following link.

https://www.videohelp.com/autorun.htm

describes how to get it your media player to play the .dat file and it doesn't require .dat to be associated to the media player. This means that you could produce a straight VCD which will play the same video file on the PC that it plays on the DVD player.

[mikesbytes]

Does anyone know how to get around this problem with Autoplay?

Windows cannot find mplayer2.exe

The autorun script I am using is

[autorun]
open=mplayer2.exe /play /close \MPEGAV\avseq01.dat

[mgillaus]

Hi, I'm not sure where Win95 stores mplayer2.exe in 98 and so on i think it is in c:\program files\windows media player\mplayer2.exe

so try using:

[autorun]
open=c:\progra~1\mplayer2.exe /play /close \MPEGAV\avseq01.dat

* use 'progra~1' for 95 doesn't like full length names used in run path..
if it doesn't work just use the full path to mplayer2.exe in the 'open=' part

let us know what happens

[poopyhead]

between the various MPEGs, VCD (MPEG1) requires the least CPU utilization.

[dcsos]

. A VCD spec MPEG-1 file should play fine on such a machine

But a VCD itself will cause problems..
If you needen't store over 700MEGABYTES, I suggest you put the naked file (.MPG) on the CD
and If you need an AUTORUN PROGRAM THAT WORKS LIKE GANGBUSTERS on both 95 ver b and 98 RELIABLY..
Try TYPHOON auto run

there is no Mplayer2.exe in WIN 95
Only 95 version B plays MPEG..
as something called ACTIVE MOVIE will let the MEDIA PLAYER 1 play MPEG-1

In windows 95 version a
the autorun must be for a program called
MEDIAPLAYER.exe

the only player on the system
and it lives in C:WINDOWS\

THERE is no windows media player folder on those machines so watch out!!!

for VERSION B the autorun must find a different folder
THIS ACTIVEMOVIE is called amovie.exe and is located in C:WINDOWS\SYSTEM

[mikesbytes]

Thanks for all the info. This has turned out to be much more complex than it should be. It would appear that there is no simple solution to making a VCD boot on any Windows computer as different windows releases have different names for the media player.

Specific to my parents computer, I need to find out what version of Win95 they run.

Perhaps a workaround would be to include an .MPG copy and boot it thru a brower window? (booted using booter.exe). I loose half the disk, but then again, isn't 30minutes of grandchildren running around enough anyway!

I had thought of including a video player on the disk as well. Kwang has a small one that boots without installation, but I don't know if it will take the file as a parameter?

[dcsos]

Absolutely,
you only need 2 files on the disc.
PUT AMOVIE.EXE
I'm sure you can find it some where
it may be called activemovie.exe

. I you can't find it send me your email and i'll send it..
Just rename to CLICK HERE GRAND PA.exe and tell him to clik on that befor he clicks on the movie
That and the MPG and a wrtitten note to GRAND PA

[ching0]

you could try movix.

http://movix.sourceforge.net

you burn a divx to a cd with the movix files and all, and then, just reboot your computer, and it loads a minidistro of linux specifically designed to play a video file (or group of files)

[dcsos]

Yeah that sounds easy!
NOT
I don't think your grandparents need to be subjected to being LINUX guineas..as a P133 is probably complicated enough for them

in addition MOVIX requires a minium of 64MB of ram and a "586" compatible processor (what happens if the P133 is really an AMD 133)

[dcsos]

Here is the ACTIVE MOVIE FILE

Click on it in windows 95 version a
and you can play MPEG in the MEDIA PLAYER

Version B of 95 is already equipped, but clicking on this wont hurt..

its one mega byte
http://www.idicalif.com/scripts3/hf6.idc?teamkey=IDIBASE

amovie is halfway down this page of files

[ching0]

I don't think your grandparents need to be subjected to being LINUX guineas..as a P133 is probably complicated enough for them

MAYBE if you downloaded movix, and tried it, you'd see that it automatically boots, and comes up with a nice menu that looks like a vcr.
i'm sorry but if your grandparents are too old to know how to restart a computer, maybe you should just scratch the whole movie idea.

other than that, they probably have 4 megs of video ram. so, GOOD LUCK. i, however, have gotten a divx to playback flawlessly on a P133 w/32 megs of Ram and a 4mb video card.

[mikesbytes]

Wow, this has got complex. First I would like to thank everyone for their advice.

Excuse my igorance on Linux, but am I correct to say that it would be difficult to a Linux player to transparently run on a windows machine, or can it be invoked something like a dos window. If so, then perhaps I can use something like movix?

Typical of computing, simple requirement, no simple solution.

1 disk. Put it in a DVD player and it plays video. Put it in a CDrom on a low spec Windows PC and it plays video automatically with no user intervention. 30 minutes play time is fine, so theres space to duplicate the video and/or place runtime software. VCD quality sufficient.

[dcsos]

Now MOVIX sounds like a better option..because I wouldn't guarantee it would work before for the sake of the RAM requirement..but if he say it will work with a minimum of ram..go ahead
From what I read the LINUX installs..it reboots and works as a virtual machine..
That is, it doesn't run under windows, but replaces it for a moment
(the length of the particular boot to LINUX)

You can still just make a regualr data cd
put the movie file .mpg on it
tell granpa or grandma..just click on the movie
It should work directly

If you believe they have the earliest windows 95, add the a.movie file i linked before, and rename it CLICK HERE DAD bfore burning to the cdand tell him if the movie doen't play dclick on it to install movie player.
It will not need to be launched.. as the next time pa clicks on the mpg...
it will play now!

[ching0]

yeah, plus for movix to work their computer would have to be able to boot from cdrom. some older computers running win95 or win98 were set up to NOT boot from the cdrom. so, meh. dunno.

there's a dvdplayer at circuit city for $47.01 after tax. i got it and it plays vcds beautifully :P