Mpeg2 codec not working anymore?

[jz2000]

I downloaded the TMPGEnc 2.51, VCDEasy, and an Mpeg2 codec from
this site in Feburuary and have been making SVCDs happily since then
until last week.

I installed the MS Office last week and the computer would not boot.
I had to reinstall Window to make it work again. However, when I tried
to open Mpeg2 files in TMPGEnc, I got a message "File *.mpg can not
open, or unsupported". Mpeg1 files were still OK. I also found out
I couldn't play mpeg2 files with Windows Media Plaer and ATI file player
anymore.

I uninstalled and reinstalled the mpeg2 codec (mpeg2decoder.ax and
mpeg2parser, I think they are Ligos's). Still no luck. I tried PowerDVD
demo, no good. Then I installed WinDVD demo, I can play mpeg2 files
with Windows Media Player and ATI file player, but still can not open
mpeg2 files in TMPGEnc. Today, I installed TMPGEnc 2.52 and got the
same message.

Does anyone have any idea what happened to my system?

BTW, I used ATI AIW 128 and MMC 7.1 to capture 480x480 I-frame only
mpeg2 videos at 15 mb/s from Hi8 and then converted them to SVCD.
I got reasonably good results most of time except occasional AV out-of-
sync. Strangely, I got bad sound when playing mpeg file on computer,
but OK when playing SVCDs on TV.

[gll99]

The tmpgenc mpeg2 problem is simple. While Tmpgenc is basically free for mpeg1, it's shareware for mpeg2 and is time limited. It used to be 30 days but recent versions are only 15 days. Also in the old days if you installed an updated version, the clock would start again on the update and you would get 30 more days. Now the trial period is for all versions. If your time has expired then getting a more recent version will not get you more time. My membership here prevents me from saying more than if you want mpeg2 then you must buy it.

If you used it since FEB to do SVCD then you must have already purchased a license key. Hope you wrote it down or copied it to a file someplace.

[bugster]

gll99, you are right that TmpGenc has time-limited mpeg-2 ENCODE facilities and it must be purchased to remove this time-limit. However, AFAIK, its mpeg-2 DECODE has always relied on external decoders to be able to open and so transcode mpeg-2 files to mpeg-1 (or mpeg-2 if required/encoder still available). If this was the problem being encountered by jz2000 then a dialog saying that TmpGenc mpeg-2 capability has expired would be seen.

jz2000, I don't think the time limit is the issue here but I have seen this problem mentioned many times in the forums. I suggest you use the search button to find your answer.



[/b]

[jz2000]

My TMPGEnc 2.51 still has 29 days left on Mpeg-2 function. The
problem only started to appear a week ago after I reinstalled Win98SE
following a system crash. I couldn't load mpeg2 files anymore. Some of the mpeg2 files were actually converted by TMPGEnc before.

I did a search (keywords: mpeg2 codec) on this site and went through
almost 800 messages. I tried everything suggested and got no luck.

It seems that something broke the link between mpeg2 codec and
TPMGEnc and Windows Media player. I just couldn't figure out.

[JHebert]

Try installing latest DirectX then reinstall PowerDVD, mpeg2 codecs, TmpgEnc, etc and see if that helps.

[Vejita-sama]

Doesn't the registry 'crack' still work? Run notepad and create a file 'tmpg-mpg2-rest.reg' (or whatevery) and put in the following:

REGEDIT4
; Enables TMPGEnc's MPEG-2 encoder for 30 more days.
[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{63902277-B101-4049-8B46-C24B67E155E5}]


Then just run it. Or edit the regisity yourself.