3ivx necessary to play back ffmpeg MPEG4 encoded videos?

[lkearl]

Does someone need to have the 3ivx Filter Suite (www.3ivx.com) installed in order to watch an MPEG4 encoded with the ffmpeg encoder? I had encoded a video using this encoder and a windows user couldn't watch it with QT until they also installed the 3ivx Filter Suite.

Prior to discovering ffmpegX I was using the 3ivx Filter Suite installed into my version of QT Pro to encode video and then was able to watch the movies using QT on a windows computer without the 3ivx Filter Suite installed.

If the basic windows QT can't play a file encoded with the ffmpeg MPEG4 encoder, is there something else that can? That way I don't have to have people install QT player and the 3ivx Filter Suite.

[major]

If you encode a movie with ffmpegX by using the "MOV mpeg-4" quick preset, then Quicktime Player 6.4 and OSX 10.3 is enough and you don't need 3ivx nor any other codecs to play it back (same with MOV XviD). However, I don't know about the PC version of Quicktime as I don't have a PC to test. Probably the PC version of VLC is able to play almost anything.

If you want to play your files both on a Mac and a PC, I would tend to advise you to use the AVI format instead. In this case, however, you need to install DivX codecs both on your Mac and your PC (either divx or 3ivx will work).

[Case]

When you say encoding to MPEG4, is that AVI/MOV/MP4?

[lkearl]

If you encode a movie with ffmpegX by using the "MOV mpeg-4" quick preset, then Quicktime Player 6.4 and OSX 10.3 is enough and you don't need 3ivx nor any other codecs to play it back (same with MOV XviD). However, I don't know about the PC version of Quicktime as I don't have a PC to test. Probably the PC version of VLC is able to play almost anything.

If you want to play your files both on a Mac and a PC, I would tend to advise you to use the AVI format instead. In this case, however, you need to install DivX codecs both on your Mac and your PC (either divx or 3ivx will work).

I've just tried a video I encoded with the MOV mpeg-4 preset and it plays properly on QT installed on my windows computer at work. So it looks like using that preset is good for cross-platform movies without requiring someone to install a DivX codec, as long as the person trying to watch it has at least QT 6.0 on their computer.