Format Search

SuperFusion · Post by **SuperFusion** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 12:30 am

I'm lookin' for the MS- MPEG-4 V1, 2, and 3 formats and was wondering if anyone knew where I can find one?

rose4emily · Post by **rose4emily** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 3:20 am

You might want to clarify.

Are you looking for a file in one of the MS-MPEG4 formats?

They're easy enough to find, but I don't think there's some special search for them anywhere, so you'll just have to dig through AMVs and other stuff you've encoded/downloaded in search of something with one the MS-MPEG4 FourCC codes.

Or a codec for one of the MS-MPEG4 formats?

If so, you might want to try DivX or XviD. MS-MPEG4 has its special issues (being less than fully complient with the MPEG4 standards), but it still usually plays fine through a modern MPEG4 codec like DivX5 or XviD.

Or maybe some information on the MSMPEG formats?

The Guides on this site have some info on codes - probably including MS-MPEG4. If you want to know more, Doom9 is a site with a fair amount of user and consumer-directed information on video codecs. Finally, a Google search is never a bad idea.

rose4emily · Post by **rose4emily** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 3:26 am

Actually, one more thing I should clarify:

MS-MPEG4 is a family of relatively old MPEG4 codecs that (sort-of) implement the "Advanced Basic" profile (or whatever specific term is applied to nearly all of the MPEG4 you come into contact with) of MPEG4.

Microsoft did create a format commonly associated with MPEG4, but that's something different. It's called "AVI" - you might have heard of it. The Motion Picture Expert's Group (MPEG) also created a format for MPEG4 video, called "MP4". You probably haven't heard of it, but it bears a much stronger resemblance to Quicktime or Matroska than it does to AVI. Unfortunately, AVI took off (mostly due to illegally distributed DivX3, A.K.A. MS-MPEG4v3 the hacked version) before MP4 had a chance to shine as a technologically superior solution - and MP4 has consequently gone the way of the BetaMax.

Scintilla · Post by **Scintilla** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 11:25 am

When you asked me about this before, I forgot to mention <a href="http://www.aziendeassociate.it/cd.asp?d ... ffdshow</a>, which has support for the MS MPEG-4 codecs.

Qyot27 · Post by **Qyot27** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 7:42 pm

rose4emily wrote:Unfortunately, AVI took off (mostly due to illegally distributed DivX3, A.K.A. MS-MPEG4v3 the hacked version) before MP4 had a chance to shine as a technologically superior solution - and MP4 has consequently gone the way of the BetaMax.

Huh? AVI was already the major [native] Windows video container for several years when the MP4 container was finalized. MP4 is currently growing in popularity also, due to iTunes (even though the extension is .m4a, but it's still the same container, just limited to audio), and MP4 video/audio multiplexed export is available through Quicktime (not to mention the MPEG-4 Tools command line multiplexer). H264 is also expected to be widely distributed in MP4 or at least increase the container's popularity.

SuperFusion wrote:I'm lookin' for the MS- MPEG-4 V1, 2, and 3 formats and was wondering if anyone knew where I can find one?

If you don't want to use ffdshow to decode MS-MPEG4v1/2/3, search for 'MS-MPEG4 VKI'. They're often distributed with the version of VDub that allows you to open ASF files, although they're also often able for seperate download. It includes codecs for all three of them.