Customizing the "best quality to play on my computer" profile.

[Wade G. Pemberton]

Olivier, PapaJohn

If I could have what I wanted, it would be a menu item to use the "best
quality
for computer playback" selection in MM2 that maintained compatibility
with codec 7 players.
I.e. it output codec 7 .WMV files, not codec 9

I've made the first pass at editing a profile, downloading the editor
and creating my own.
Unfortunately, PapaJohn's starter .prx file isn't the high resolution
sort, and
I don't know the settings necessary to create one.

My 4 minute movie, when saved to computer using MM2's "best quality for
playback
on my computer (recommended)" setting needs 58 meg of space, but my
newest profile
creation requires only 12 megs, with of course, a noticable drop in
quality.

It would be easiest if I just took the profile currently used by MM2 and
edited it to use codec 7 under video.

What is the filename for that profile? Or, if that file is not
availble
for me to edit a copy of to change to codec 7, what are the parameters
I'm
looking to enter into a generic starter .prx?

I sent this a few minutes ago, but it's buried deep in a thread, and
essentially changes the thread's topic anyway, so I'm starting it new,
to open it up to more inputs.

 

[Olivier]

Well, first you should know that the V9 codec has a much better quality than
the V7 codec. So you will not be able to obtain the same quality for the
same file size.

If you want to use an existing .prx file, the flag that specifies the codec
is:
bicompression="WMV1" ==> V7 codec
bicompression="WMV3" ==> V9 codec

The other trick is to change the 4cc code (the first 4 bytes) in the windows
media subtype to be 31564D57 (WMV1)
<wmmediatype subtype="{31564D57-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}"

Copy this into a prx file and it should work.

<profile version="589824"
storageformat="1"
name="My V7 640x480 1.5Mbps profile"
description="">
<streamconfig
majortype="{73647561-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}"
streamnumber="1"
streamname="Audio Stream"
inputname="Audio409"
bitrate="128040"
bufferwindow="-1"
reliabletransport="0"
decodercomplexity=""
rfc1766langid="en-us"<wmmediatype subtype="{00000161-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}"
bfixedsizesamples="1"
btemporalcompression="0"
lsamplesize="2973">
<waveformatex wFormatTag="353"
nChannels="2"
nSamplesPerSec="44100"
nAvgBytesPerSec="16005"
nBlockAlign="2973"
wBitsPerSample="16"
codecdata="008800000F00E95C0000"/>
</wmmediatype>
</streamconfig>
<streamconfig
majortype="{73646976-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}"
streamnumber="2"
streamname="Video Stream"
inputname="Video409"
bitrate="1372000"
bufferwindow="-1"
reliabletransport="0"
decodercomplexity="MP"
rfc1766langid="en-us"<videomediaprops maxkeyframespacing="30000000"
quality="85"/>
<wmmediatype subtype="{31564D57-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}"
bfixedsizesamples="0"
btemporalcompression="1"
lsamplesize="0">
<videoinfoheader dwbitrate="1372000"
dwbiterrorrate="0"
avgtimeperframe="333333">
<rcsource left="0"
top="0"
right="640"
bottom="480"/>
<rctarget left="0"
top="0"
right="640"
bottom="480"/>
<bitmapinfoheader biwidth="640"
biheight="480"
biplanes="1"
bibitcount="24"
bicompression="WMV1"
bisizeimage="0"
bixpelspermeter="0"
biypelspermeter="0"
biclrused="0"
biclrimportant="0"/>
</videoinfoheader>
</wmmediatype>
</streamconfig>
</profile>




- Olivier [MS]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Wade G. Pemberton]

Well, first you should know that the V9 codec has a much better quality than
the V7 codec. So you will not be able to obtain the same quality for the
same file size.

Yes, but someone besides myself can actually open the file and play it. At the
moment I have 3 people who want to see the CD that can't open it.

If you want to use an existing .prx file, the flag that specifies the codec
is:

<snip of profile definition>

The Windows Media Encoder editor refused to accept it. It said "The profile is
invalid. (0xC00D0BC6)"

I think I copied it accurately, but there's a good chance of the email client
messing it up, as there was lots of whitespace.

If you will just tell me the filename of the .PRX used to create the "best
quality to play on my computer" files, I'll edit a copy to use codec 7.


Wade

 

[PapaJohn \(MVP\)]

Wade,

The standard profiles that MM2 uses are embedded in the main executable or
one of the DLLs.

It seems you just have to play with the parameters offered by the profile
editor, realizing that - if a parameter isn't supported by MM2, then the
profile won't appear in the pick list.

Custom profiles with MM2 are not officially supported by Microsoft and I'm
not aware of any tutorials about them. I change one parameter at a time,
checking it in MM2 with each tweak, to be sure I'm not too far off.
Sometimes it offers a nice hint via an error message.

I think you can do what you want, and the effort to develop the custom
profile will work for your situation.

PapaJohn

 

[PapaJohn]

I forgot to mention that the file size hit by using version 7 instead of 9
is less than 10% - it usually isn't a factor.

 

[Wade G. Pemberton]

PapaJohn:

The standard profiles that MM2 uses are embedded in the main executable or
one of the DLLs.

I finally decided that by inspecting all the .PRX files on the computer and
finding none to be it.

It seems you just have to play with the parameters offered by the profile
editor, realizing that - if a parameter isn't supported by MM2, then the
profile won't appear in the pick list.

Yes, and that's quite tedious. I've changed a lot of them to what ought to be
close to okay, but MM2 doesn't put them into it's selection window, so no joy.
Having to reload MM2 for each test became tedious too.

Custom profiles with MM2 are not officially supported by Microsoft and I'm
not aware of any tutorials about them. I change one parameter at a time,
checking it in MM2 with each tweak, to be sure I'm not too far off.
Sometimes it offers a nice hint via an error message.

I think you can do what you want, and the effort to develop the custom
profile will work for your situation.

I've about determined MM2 to be mostly a waste of time unless I want to make a
small grainy video for the web, that I only a random 15% of the users to be able
to view, or the audio skips and pops.

Thanks for all your effort.


Wade

 

[PapaJohn]

It's easy to be looking for the PRX file name in the MM2 pick list of
profiles, but it doesn't use it. What it shows is the internal name of the
profile, the first entry in page 1 of the form.

 

[Wade G. Pemberton]

Olivier:

Attache is the profile I have mentioned. I have tried it in MovieMaker 2.0
and it works fine.

I'm not sure how to get it onto MM2's Save selection menu. I've loaded it into
the Media Editor successfully, and exported it, but it doesn't show up in the
menu. It does make it to Windows Media Components\Encoder\Profiles, however,
which is progress. According to PapaJohns webpage, this means the .PRX is
outside some parameter of MM2's acceptance window. Let me know what to do
next, and I'll try to save using that profile.
..
Is there another way to get it invoked other than from the Save Movie part of
MM2?

You also have an alternative solution to add Windows Media Player 9 as part
of your CD. I usually do that, as some of my friends do not have an easy
access to an Internet Connection. So I download the Windows Media Player 9
install files, put them on the CD, and create an autorun.inf to start the
installation.

Where do I find the WMP 9 install files? I usually save all install files I
download in a seperate directory, but WMP9 came on this computer, so it's not a
self-installed item. Aim me at a link, if it's a download, or at the file
names, if they're on this computer.

I'm also spending some time trying to debug the AVI sound skipping problem, but
will include info on that under a seperate title later today.


Wade

 

[PapaJohn]

Wade,

On the standard profiles. If you install the Windows Media Encoder package
(there's a link on my Setup... Software page), the Settings folder under it
has each of the options in a stand-alone prx file.

www.papajohn.org

PapaJohn

 

[Xenomorph]

I would think a player that does WMV7 can do WMV 8/9.