Why MP4 Format?

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Why MP4 Format?

Postby Rurounikeitaro » Wed Jan 10, 2007 10:07 am

Especially recently, many people have been exporting their videos in mp4 format and using avi as their secondary for direct download or not using it at all. When it comes to avi's, wmv's, and most other formats, they open in my
Windows Media Player. Mp4?.....they don't, and that bugs me.....alot.

I'm trying to figure out why people are using this format? Better quality? Smaller file size? I didn't research it so I don't know. One thing I can say is that I oftenly download mp4 vids and don't watch them till days sometimes weeks later cause I hate VLC's media player. They don't stay in my Windows media player playlist cause they can't open there. :roll: I even sometimes delete mp4 vids alot faster than others cause I know I hate using any other player besides WMP. Shoot, Bleach TB and Ikasu were barely saved on my comp due to my MP4 hate.

So why?
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Postby Minion » Wed Jan 10, 2007 10:14 am

avi doesn't always play nice with h.264
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Postby Niotex » Wed Jan 10, 2007 11:13 am

/me waits for zero1 to stick his head out.

h264 is the best codec for things right now and it can be played in wmp when using ffdshow. It also seperates the noobs from the inovative adopters :lol:
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Postby BauziOLD » Wed Jan 10, 2007 11:37 am

h264 is the best codec for things right now and it can be played in wmp when using ffdshow. It also seperates the noobs from the inovative adopters Laughing


That´s just damn right. So why using something that isn´t the same good with bigger filesize?

Try to install also this codec pack:
http://www.cccp-project.net/
(it also includes ffdshow)
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Postby Beowulf » Wed Jan 10, 2007 11:46 am

h.264 is a ridiculously amazing codec at the time being. My Xvid encode of my newest video is 90 megs for a 512x384 version. The h.264 is 55 megs for a 640x480 version with MUCH higher quality.

Its just bigger and better in every way. Upgrade your computer and get with the times. There is surrender. You will be assimilated.
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Postby Szwagier » Wed Jan 10, 2007 2:12 pm

Rurounikeitaro wrote: stuff

On the contrary to your statement i don't see why people think of *.mp4 as a problem... If you can't play it, it's just one download and install, and then you can play as many *.mp4 as you like on various players... So howcome its always "painful to open" when it's just clicking like any other media file?[/quote]
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Re: Why MP4 Format?

Postby Scintilla » Wed Jan 10, 2007 5:36 pm

Rurounikeitaro wrote:I'm trying to figure out why people are using this format?

Because it's the new standard, and standardization helps us all (when the standard is any good, that is).

Also because it supports things like AAC audio streams, H.264 video streams, softsubs, chapters, etc.

Rurounikeitaro wrote:Better quality? Smaller file size?

With codecs like AAC and the current H.264 implementations, yes.

Rurounikeitaro wrote:I didn't research it so I don't know. One thing I can say is that I oftenly download mp4 vids and don't watch them till days sometimes weeks later cause I hate VLC's media player. They don't stay in my Windows media player playlist cause they can't open there. :roll: I even sometimes delete mp4 vids alot faster than others cause I know I hate using any other player besides WMP.

Then get the Haali Media Splitter.

(That doesn't cover individual codecs you might need and don't have, but it should allow WMP to at least open the file.)
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starting points

Postby trythil » Wed Jan 10, 2007 10:46 pm

Rurounikeitaro wrote:I didn't research it so I don't know


http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=62723
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=96059

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Postby Willen » Thu Jan 11, 2007 5:05 am

I'm sure people hated DivX (MPEG-4 SP/ASP) until it became near ubiquitous. In fact, I'm sure that if DivX didn't decide on using the legacy AVI container and instead used the container that was made for MPEG-4: MP4, the topic of this thread would be something different. Like, "I can't play this MP4 file in WMP." But I digress.

Just install CCCP like -Bauzi- suggests and most of your issues will disappear.
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Postby Zero1 » Thu Jan 11, 2007 5:47 am

Codecs are one thing, containers are another. For example if people were using H.264 in AVI as exclusively as ASP is/was being used, then it's simply a case of installing a decoder and it just works like any other AVI. The fact that it's H.264 or whatever is practically transparent to the end user once you have a decoder.

However formats like MP4 are not supported in Windows by default, this is due to MPEG licensing costs (although money isn't exactly a concern for Microsoft, so that point may be moot), but more importantly, Microsoft see MP4 as a competing format to WMV, so they naturally will not support it and try to strongarm people into using WMV (see Windows Movie Maker, it only has WMV output at sane filesizes, or huge ass interlaced DV-AVI).

So as a result of this, an MP4 or MKV file is unknown to Windows on a fresh install, there are no context menus, WMP doesn't know what it is and double clicking it does not launch a program and begin playing it.

However, it happens I have just the thing for you. You must install a H.264 and AAC decoder and MP4 parser. My suggestion is CCCP which has all of those, and is pre-configured (but be sure to remove any existing FFDShow installations if you have any, for example AMVapp used to install it), or FFDShow + Haali's media splitter on it's own if you are confident you know what you are doing. You can also install CoreAVC which includes Haali also; CoreAVC is the fastest H.264 decoder and also supports dual core/cpu.

Ok, so thats the decoding side of it done; now you can add my registry entries to the registry which will "integrate" MP4, and it will be almost no different from dealing with an AVI file in terms of double click to play or context menus/icons.

Right click and save this. Open it when complete and when prompted to add settings to registry click yes.
http://aflux.deltaanime.net/Zero1/MP4/M ... all108.reg

Now this has been updated for WMP11, but if you have an older version you can get the file icon in explorer via Tools > Folder Options > File Types > MP4 and click on advanced. Click change icon and browse to "C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe" for older versions of WMP.

There you have it, MP4 should now play just like an AVI file.
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Postby Scintilla » Thu Jan 11, 2007 7:07 am

Zero1 wrote:However formats like MP4 are not supported in Windows by default, this is due to MPEG licensing costs (although money isn't exactly a concern for Microsoft, so that point may be moot), but more importantly, Microsoft see MP4 as a competing format to WMV, so they naturally will not support it and try to strongarm people into using WMV (see Windows Movie Maker, it only has WMV output at sane filesizes, or huge ass interlaced DV-AVI).

So as a result of this, an MP4 or MKV file is unknown to Windows on a fresh install, there are no context menus, WMP doesn't know what it is and double clicking it does not launch a program and begin playing it.

I always thought that all that was because formats like OGM, MP4, and MKV didn't come around until after Windows XP did (or if they were around before, then they were way too minor to care about).
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Postby Zero1 » Thu Jan 11, 2007 6:03 pm

I tested Vista for a short while, I think it was one of the RC's; and still the MP4 support was non existant.

I think thats pretty shitty given the importance of the format. Off the bat playback (without installing any codecs/splitters/registry entries) is a pretty important factor to help a format get on it's way; that's why AVI was so stubborn. Had XP had MP4 playback off the bat do you think there would have been half the questions or complaints (which to be honest, are few at best)?
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Postby Unlimited Rice » Thu Jan 11, 2007 6:22 pm

Zero1: I got a question, what's the difference between H.264 and x264? I noticed you switching saying either one once or twice in your guide.
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Postby Kalium » Thu Jan 11, 2007 6:27 pm

H.264 is the standard. x264 is a specific implementation thereof.
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Postby AthenAltena » Thu Jan 11, 2007 6:29 pm

As far as I know H.264 is the broad term while x264 is a specific codec that is the only reasonably complete open-source version, and hence the two terms are somewhat interchangable. x264 seems to be the most "stable" of the ones available.
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