MPG to AVI without recompression

[kbriggs]

Is it possible to convert an MPG to a valid AVI file without recompression? In other words, I want an AVI with MPEG-1 compression. Since AVI is just a wrapper format and DivX is just an AVI file with a particular MPEG-4 compression, this should be possible, right?

However, after loading an MPG, VirtualDub won't let me save to AVI using the direct video stream method. It seems like it should just be a matter of wrapping the proper RIFF header around it.

The reason I need this is because I have a particular application that can only play AVIs. It doesn't care what the compression is as long as the codec is installed but it won't accept MPG files directly.

Kent

[Tommyknocker]

I hate to answer your question with a question, but if you load your MPEG into TMPGEnc and select File-->Output to file-->AVI and select no compression, will this re-encode your video?

[kbriggs]

I hate to answer your question with a question, but if you load your MPEG into TMPGEnc and select File-->Output to file-->AVI and select no compression, will this re-encode your video?

No, that just strips out all compression and turns my 5 MB mpg into a 250 MB avi.

Kent

[mic_]

It's possible to do this with mpeg-2 files using DVD2AVI and VFAPI to create a phony avi file. But VFAPI only accepts .d2v files, and DVD2AVI (which writes .d2v files) only accepts mpeg-2, so.. Seems like it should be doable in a similar fashion though.

[BJ_M]

there really is such a thing as a mpeg1 and mpeg2 avi file (ref. doc here http://www.graphcomp.com/info/specs/ms/editmpeg.htm )

you may be able to use this free program to do it (im not sure) http://www.mpeg-mediator.com/

since as you guessed - just a header basicly (a wrapper) there should be a way to do it fairly easly - perhaps you need all I frames in the mpeg file (i doubt it though one source mentions something about this)..

i suggest doing a search on google (i did) to perhaps get more info ..

sorry couldnt be of more help .. but in answer to your question - yes it is possable ..

[bf6239]

mic_, VfAPI also accepts TMPGEnc projects, *.TPR, files. So you can load your clips into TMPG, select the needed template and save the project. Then use VFAPI to convert the TMPG project files to AVI files that you can use in apps that only accept AVI. I use this method for frameserving from TMPG to CCE.

[kbriggs]

It's possible to do this with mpeg-2 files using DVD2AVI and VFAPI to create a phony avi file. But VFAPI only accepts .d2v files, and DVD2AVI (which writes .d2v files) only accepts mpeg-2, so.. Seems like it should be doable in a similar fashion though.

I think those are "reference avi" files. If I understand those correctly, they simply contain pointers to the actual video data. That wouldn't work in my case since my actual video data will be in the database.

Kent

[kbriggs]

there really is such a thing as a mpeg1 and mpeg2 avi file (ref. doc here http://www.graphcomp.com/info/specs/ms/editmpeg.htm )

From that page it does sound like the MPEG has to be all I frames as you noted. I checked some of my existing mpgs with VirtualDub and they all have I, P, and B frames (whatever that means).

you may be able to use this free program to do it (im not sure) http://www.mpeg-mediator.com/

Just tried it but it wants me to select a codec for compression. Speaking of which, why are there no standalone MPEG-1 codecs? At least, none show up in the codec lists in programs like VirtualDub and TMPGEnc. Of course I know there has to be one installed because Windows Media Player plays my MPGs. I've been searching with google all day for a standalone MPEG-1 codec but couldn't find any.

Kent

[BJ_M]

most mpeg2 codecs also compress to mpeg1 (i think all of them do)

[kbriggs]

most mpeg2 codecs also compress to mpeg1 (i think all of them do)

Are there any mpeg2 codecs that are free, will encode, and will show up in VirtualDub's video/compresion list after installation?

The only one I found listed in DVDRHelp's codec section was Moonlight-Elecard (misspelled as Monlight, by the way) but it didn't meet any of those criteria.

Kent

[BJ_M]

that are free, will encode, and will show up in VirtualDub's video/compresion list after installation?

no

first -- mpeg2 codecs can not be free - they always require a lic

[Donny661]

You can use avisynth to make a vfapi file and use no processing or filters. I think avisynth accepts mpeg-1 if you use directshowsource("") option.

[xsbs52x]

you could just used uncompressed or huffyuv to convert to a real mpeg. no quality would be lost and then you can do what ever you want with it. what program are you using that is not accepting the mpeg file in the first place?

[kbriggs]

you could just used uncompressed or huffyuv to convert to a real mpeg. no quality would be lost and then you can do what ever you want with it. what program are you using that is not accepting the mpeg file in the first place?

I already have a real mpg. I need it to be a real avi. I should have explained better in my initial post what I'm trying to do. I'm building an application that needs to play videos directly from a proprietary database without extracting the video data to a standalone file. I can do that now by using the Windows API mmioInstallIOProc function. It allows me intercept all MCI file I/O requests and stream the video on-the-fly from my database. The catch is that this IOProc system only supports the AVI format but not the MPG format.

My customers are likely to have MPGs so I thought it would be nice if I could implement an import function to convert those MPGs to AVIs on-the-fly as I'm storing them into the database. Otherwise, I'll have to point them to third party programs like VirtualDub and get them to install the proper codecs and do the MPG to AVI conversion themselves. That's a pain in the butt but I don't see any alternative.

I was inquiring about standalone MPEG codecs just to see if an MPG could be converted to an MPEG-1 AVI in a program like VirtualDub. But apparently there is no such freely available MPEG-1 codec that makes valid AVIs.

Kent

[secretagent]

there are two free mpeg2 codecs, one for tmpgenc available in the tools section here, the other comes when you load powerdvd trial, remove powerdvd trial and it leaves the mpeg2 codec on your system

[Jukka]

Not sure if this will fit the bill, but sounds free to me:

http://www.mpeg.org/MPEG/MSSG/#source

J

[kbriggs]

there are two free mpeg2 codecs, one for tmpgenc available in the tools section here, the other comes when you load powerdvd trial, remove powerdvd trial and it leaves the mpeg2 codec on your system

But will either of these allow you to create an AVI with MPEG-1 or -2 compression?

Kent

[kbriggs]

Not sure if this will fit the bill, but sounds free to me:

http://www.mpeg.org/MPEG/MSSG/#source

J

Yeah I came across that yesterday but it contains no compiled codec for Windows. The docs, dated 1996, say they will be added "soon". Apparently not.

I did find an MPEG-2 I-frame encoder from Etymonix that had a trial version. It turned my 5 MB mpg into a 60 MB avi and played back jittery.


Kent

[xsbs52x]

sorry, i didnt mean convert to a real mpeg, i meant convert to a real avi, but you could pakage vdub with you app when u finish and maybe somehow control it through your app to convert to huffyuv or uncompressed or something similar. they are all free so i dont see any problem with this other than a little hassel