locate decompressor for h264?

[CommanderZero]

im attempting to hardsub a video with virtualdubmod, but i cant even get my .avi loaded, that message keeps coming up. "Couldn't locate decompressor for format "H264". what do i do now

[Baldrick]

try https://forum.videohelp.com/topic296885.html

[CommanderZero]

nothing in there helped...

[Baldrick]

did you enable h264 vfw decoding under Start -> All Programs -> ffdshow -> VFW codec configuration and under vfw decoding options->decoder->codecs->h264->libavcodec ?

You can also try avidemux.

[CommanderZero]

i cant find anything under VFW codec configuration. it just stops at ffdshow and shows configuration instead. the options in that menu isnt the same as the ones you said. also, if i were to use that other program, how would i be able to get the video hardsubbed?

[Baldrick]

I don't have ffdshow here so I can't check now.

Avidemux subtitles -> https://forum.videohelp.com/topic347463.html#1822887

[Ai Haibara]

It sounds like you might have a rather old build of ffdshow. Did you install it some time ago, or as part of a codec pack?

You might try updating it with one of the more recent ffdshow-tryout builds (yes, I know you can get to the ffdshow-tryout download page from Videohelp's ffdshow Tools page, but the direct link is: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=173941 ).

[Squash]

CommanderZero,

If you don't have a menu option to go to ffdshow's vfw configuration, you should be able to get there by running this from a command line:

rundll32.exe ff_vfw.dll,configureVFW

[Ai Haibara]

I figured it was one of the older (pre-tryouts) builds, because it sounds like CommanderZero simply doesn't have the 'VFW Configuration' option in the ffdshow folder under the Start menu, and I remember one or more of the earlier builds not having that as a Start menu option (at least for me).
(If that meant VFW support wasn't as good in those earlier builds, I don't know. If CommanderZero is using an older build, it's probably best to update, anyway, as the support for h264 might be better.)

[Squash]

You're probably right about it being an old version. That's all that the main ffdshow Sourceforge page has is the old ones.

On my Vista machine, the directshow config is listed in the Start Menu as "Video decoder configuration" and VFW config is listed as "Video encoder configuration". This is a March 6, 2008 build of ffdshow. Could be confusing to some, especially since the VFW config has tabs for both encoders and decoders. I made a couple of batch files so I wouldn't have to remember which was which.

On my XP computer, the VFW config is listed as VFW config, like it should be. There's a few people doing the builds these days, so maybe it just depends on who built it, I don't know.

Also, the ffdshow I'm using in Vista comes from the Vista Codec Package, so there's a good chance the packager set it up that way, for whatever reason.

[DarrellS]

Any build from the December 24th build on will have the H264 decoder.

Also, make sure you set the decoder under Virtualdub.



Here is the Sourceforge download page...

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=173941

[Squash]

CommanderZero,

If you want to try Avidemux, like Baldrick suggested, you'd do it something like this: Open your video, then in the "Video" section on the left, click the down-arrow next to "Copy" to choose your video compression (as you probably know, you have to re-encode to hard-sub), then click the Configure box to choose compression settings (if you want to change the defaults), then click on "Filters".

Click the "Subtitles" option and you'll get 4 choices (srt/sub, ASS/SSA, Vobsub, or DVB-T). Double-click whichever matches your subs and a configuration box will pop up. Browse to your sub file to select it.

You'll need to set the "Font (TTF" line. It defaulted on my setup to a linux fonts directory (usr/lib/... or somesuch) so you'll need to change that to something like C:\Windows\Fonts or wherever (that's what it was on mine, anyway); just browse there and pick a .ttf font; I used Arial.ttf in the screen shot below. Defaults should be OK for the other settings. Use the preview to check out how it's going to look.

When you save the new video, give the filename an extension to match the container (or "format" as Avidemux calls it); movie.avi, movie.mp4, whatever. Avidemux does not automatically add file extensions.

Leave "Audio" set to "Copy" unless you want to convert it; Avidemux's "Copy" is equivalent to Vdub's "direct stream copy". If you want to change the container you can do that under the "Format" section on the left.



Edit: Nevermind. I just noticed Baldrick's above link to poisondeathray's excellent (anc concise) avidemux instructions. I imagine you've already figured it out from that.

I've got to start paying more attention before posting.