Re: MP42 codec?

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Thanks for the help, but I am having some problems with the properties setup
(see below) and with the codec installation

In the dialog boxes from the HandyAvi software I use there is a compression
drop down box that shows the codecs seen by HandyAvi, and the WMV9 does not
show up there.


As mentioned, the more useful tool for this would be the windows media
encoder, where all these codecs are available in the user interface.

If you must use HandyAVI, you'd probably need to install the windows
media 9 VCM (video compression manager) package for it to see those
codecs, which ought to bring up a dialog to configure the settings in
the same way :

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=0C99C648-5800-4AA3-A2FE-3DE948689DB8&displaylang=en


One approach which could well work is to use windows media encoder :
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/encoder/default.mspx

There are a variety of codec options there to suit different content
types. One available codec is called "WMV9 screen capture codec"


How can I tell if the WMV9 screen capture codec was installed properly?

It should be installed if you have windows media player 9 or later.


Generally you are correct, for imaging faint objects one wants a large
telescope with a cooled CCD attached, but for the moon and planets webcams
can be useful. Also the HandyAvi software includes a meteor capture mode,
so you can set the camera looking at the sky for hours and just record the
meteors, or you can capture the sky all night long (large file) and then
scan the file for meteors. The wide angles available with webcams is good
for this as meteors can appear almost anywhere in the sky.


OK that's pretty cool - it sounds like an interesting use-case.


So to get to the WMV9 capture, download and install WME9, run it and
cancel the wizard. Head to the Properties button. Click Sources with
your webcam plugged in, and click Devices, pick webcam, and
Configure... to setup the image size you want as input.

Configure brings up my webcam software properties which has no option to set
image size.


Most webcams have some sort of config settings page, I wonder which
make/model you have....


Next go to the Compression tab, click destination : Web Server, then
on video try DVD quality video (640x480) which will probably match
your webcam input video size. I assume voice quality audio (or none)
is fine here.

I do not want to send the video to a web server, but to save to a file on my

No, but the various settings differ between file download, web server,
streaming server and so on (with some settings unavailable for some
selections)

hard drive. If I change things to "file download" I get warnings about not
being able to do two-pass encoding, and the box for two-pass encoding
becomes checked but greyed out so I cannot uncheck it.

You probably won't really benefit from 2-pass encoding, it's often
only for quite advanced high motion cases where that really is needed.

In 2 pass mode, the encoder would make 2 runs, the first is just
gathering information about the best way to encode, and the second
does the actual encode with the optimised parameters. However if
you're doing live capture, that often it's available.

Make sure in the output settings that the Broadcast checkbox is not
checked, so you're only encoding to a selected filename.

My webcam is capable of 1600x1200 video.

Click the top listed bitrate, then the Edit button.

Click thr dropdown next to Video, selecting CBR and "Windows media
video 9 Screen". Click the target bitrate box, then Edit button.

There, you can set the frame rate (e.g 1 frame per sec), bitrate (try
200K bps) and key frame interval 30 seconds. Set video smoothness to
100 for maximum sharpness, and Video Size : Same as video input.

OK out of there, head to the Output tab in the main window and select
a filename to save to. Run it for 5 minutes (say) and examine the
output video. Go to File -> Save As and save the settings as "test-1"

At this point I see blue outline box that says Input below it and (not
supported) in the middle of this frame. After pressing the start and stop
buttons the file contains audio, but no video.
There must be something I am doing wrong.

Did you definitely select your webcam ? The listed "Default video
device" may not be the webcam you have, it could be some other video
capture device. The webcam should have WDM drivers to work properly in
WME.

HTH
Cheers - Neil
------------------------------------------------
Digital Media MVP : 2004-2009
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/mvpfaqs
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