which codec was used in Mpeg 4 avi?

[vinyl.dj]

I have loads of avi mpeg4 files and I want to figure out what Codecs were used.

I loaded some of them in ffmpegX. This gives me the following info: that the file is Mpeg4, its Video Size, its Audio type and bitrate. But it does not give me the Codec info i.e DivX, Xvid etc.

How can I find this out?

[major]

Click the "info" button and you will be able to read the fourCC code indicating the codec. Note that the fourCC letters are written in reverse order, so "apjm" is mjpa (motion jpeg a), "divx" is xvid, and "xvid" is divx.

[vinyl.dj]

Thanks Major - don't know why I didn't spot that button. Now I know my external dvd player (DivX compatible) doesn't like DivX 5 - the audio is fine but it plays back the video in psychedelic colours.

Looks like I need to re-rip my DivX 5 movies to Xvid or DivX 4 for external playback. I did however try forcing the code fourcc in the header to DivX4/Xvid (in D-Vision) but it didn't work.

Anyway, I was planning on asking you another question related to external avi playback with subtitles. I have a movie.avi and movie.srt (converted from .sub) both playback fine in Mplayer but how do I re-rip the movie to include the subtitles for external playback? can ffmpegX help?.

any help appreciated.

[major]

If your player can play srt files, normally you should simply burn the srt file with the avi file and use the same name for both.

If your player can't play srt files, you can burn the srt titles in the avi by loading the srt file in the Filters tab of ffmpegX and reencoding to DivX mencoder or XviD mencoder.

[vinyl.dj]

Thanks for that Major, my player does not recognise .srt files unfortunatley.

I loaded movie.avi into ffmpegX selected Xvid [.AVI] (mencoder).
In the filters tab all I did was click load subs and choose my movie.srt file.

then I started encoding process. Although the movie starts encoding I assume I will not get any subs as my terminal reports the following:

"New_Face failed. Maybe the font path is wrong. 0mb A-V:0.000 [0:0]
Please supply the text font file (~/.mplayer/subfont.ttf).
subtitle font: load_sub_face failed."

I do have the subfont.ttf file but its probably in the wrong location.

[junkmalle]

Now I know my external dvd player (DivX compatible) doesn't like DivX 5 - the audio is fine but it plays back the video in psychedelic colours.

If you have a Philips DVP 642 there's a simple fix for this. I've seen others mention "double-clicking the system menu" on the remote will clear it up.

[vinyl.dj]

Thanks, but I got a JVC XV-N316. I have a tech spec on this player and it supports DivX 3/4 but no 5 and it doesn't like DivX subtitles either.