Playing and Converting old LiveExpress *.exe file

[mlisowski]

Hello,

I ave a file that was created on a Win 98 machine using Ezonic LiveExpress. Unfortunately, I selected to save it as an exe instead of avi. I have tried to play this file on an Win 2k and XP in the past and just recently again. But I still can not view them.

see also post for background.
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/307567-convert-from-ezonics-Live-Express-exe-to-som...format-extract

In the end I want to be able to convert this file is some fashion either through captuing the screen(video/audio) or converting directly.

Does anyone have any ideas on what I can do to get this file to run on an XP machine? I have tried the the compatiblity thing and no luck their either.

one of these files is attached to this post

[redwudz]

Not many of us will download and run a .exe file from a questionable source.

And please do not post the same topic on multiple forums. I've deleted the other post.

You likely need the correct software to open the file. Have you tried the manufacture's website? http://www.ezonics.com/

[aedipuss]

i'm not gonna try it, but it may be openable by winrar to allow extraction of the files.

[AlanHK]

You likely need the correct software to open the file. Have you tried the manufacture's website? http://www.ezonics.com/

That's not a real site, just SEO crap.

They appear to have used http://www.shopezonics.com, but that has expired and has nothing there now.

i'm not gonna try it, but it may be openable by winrar to allow extraction of the files.

I did, that's harmless. Didn't work.
It doesn't appear to be an archive or media file in a wrapper.

[Ai Haibara]

I've tried looking through the EXE with a hex editor - I used to extract SWFs from Shockwave Flash Projector files manually, though those were easy, being the player with the SWF appended to the end; all you had to do was look for the beginning-of-file SWF header/signature, and move everything after that point to a new file (or just delete the player part).
In this case, though, without knowing what format video is in the EXE, it's hard to tell if LiveExpress/EZonics did the same thing, or where the EXE ends and the video begins.

The EXE does reference www.intercom.com.tw a couple of times, but that site seems to be gone, too.

I also checked it in a couple of resource editors, but the video doesn't show up as a separate (extractable) resource.

At worst, you might have to do what Baldrick suggested in this post... capture the video as it's playing.

[mlisowski]

Thanks for the help.

First off I apologize for posting an *.exe but as I said that is all I have.

>>At worst, you might have to do what Baldrick suggested in this post... capture the video as it's playing.

That was the reason for my other post. Ideally, I could just run a script or aplication and it would spit out an avi, mpeg or something useful. In the absence of that I was considering the capture during playback. However, since I can not get the file to run on anything but Win98 my option are very limited. I sent e-mails to Fraps, and Camtasia and neither of them have a version that will run on the 98 machine.

So any help in convert this file or getting this file to play on a windows based machine running XP or later would be useful.

Thanks agian for all the help.

[Nelson37]

Long way around but you might try a video card for Win98 with a tv-out, then run that into a capture device.

Maybe use one of the virtual Pc softwares to run win98 and play, while screen capturing. Probable performance issues, though.

Also, might be worh using a simple hex editor and chopping it into pieces, then trying the pieces in various video editors to at least see if you can determine the video type. This is assuming the player is tacked on somehow, if it is a special format then this would not work.

[Bjs]

aviscreenclassic for win98 might help ... thou with such a small file being an exe ... it may be only the player app ... check the win98 system dosent have the video as a separate source.

[mlisowski]

Thanks.

I will look into
>>aviscreenclassic for win98.


>>..it may be only the player app..

I do not think this is the case all the files are different lenghts. I should note that most of the files are only 5-15 second long movies of my daughter when she was very young, which could account for the smaller size.

I should also mention that I went back to the program that creted the file and the only other output choice is avi. I do not know if that means the file I posted was in some sort of avi format or not.

>>simple hex editor
I am not familar with this is there a good free editor that I could try?

[Ai Haibara]

Yeah, these EXEs were apparently designed to be sent through e-mail, so they're likely kept small, with lower-resolution, highly-compressed video. Unfortunately, that makes it a bit harder to detect and extract.

I can't remember if XP allows you to set compatibility settings for running programs (running the program in a Win9X compatibility mode, for example), but if you can, have you tried that? (Edit: Is that what you mean in the first post by having tried the 'compatibility thing?')

I also tried running Dragon Unpacker on the EXE, and that couldn't find anything, either, apparently.

[Cornucopia]

IIRC, There used to be a Camstudio that ran on Win98, as I had a copy.

If you still have the encoder app, you could do a few trials:
1. Create a clip and save both as .exe and as .avi
2. Do a file hex diff/compare and see if (and where) the avi material is encapsulated within the .exe.
3. If you do it enough times and it's consistent, you'll know how to extract the material you already have.

Unfortunately, it could be that the parameters for exporting to .exe and to .avi are different enough where you might not find any common denominator.

Scott

[trs80]

Hello,

I ave a file that was created on a Win 98 machine using Ezonic LiveExpress. Unfortunately, I selected to save it as an exe instead of avi. I have tried to play this file on an Win 2k and XP in the past and just recently again. But I still can not view them.

see also post for background.
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/307567-convert-from-ezonics-Live-Express-exe-to-so...format-extract

In the end I want to be able to convert this file is some fashion either through captuing the screen(video/audio) or converting directly.

Does anyone have any ideas on what I can do to get this file to run on an XP machine? I have tried the the compatiblity thing and no luck their either.

one of these files is attached to this post

I have several of these video files.
In order to watch them I have a Windows98 VM on VirtualBox and I installed the logitech quickcam CD.

I saw your Halloween video. That's a nice costume!


[Attachment 55184 - Click to enlarge]