VP6 Codec: I'm out of luck, aren't I?

[Makosuke]

Well, crud. I've finally run into a media file that I just plain can't watch on a Mac. It's an AVI file of some sort that uses the On2 VP6 codec, and although VLC handles VP3 (which there's also a QuickTime plug-in for), it would seem that there is simply no VP6 codec available for the Mac.

Anybody else dealt with this codec before--am I missing something, or is my best bet to go find a PC and transcode?

 

[Nermal]

I just emailed On2 and asked about it, it's worth a shot.

 

[Nermal]

They didn't give me a very direct answer, but I think the answer is no.

 

[smllpx]

Ok, I just spent way to long looking into this while at work...

MPlayer (linux) had news that they supported VP6 on 2004.04.28
and Patches in the works for VP6.2 (mailing list)

MPlayer OS X last build was 2004.03.30.

I also read a thread in their forum about trying to compile the latest MPlayer (linux) 1.0pre2.

So not yet, but is is coming. Like any OSS they could always use a hand, so if you really want to you can start hacking away at the source.

edit: also On2 lists PowerPC as a supported platform for the 6.2 codec, so it shouldn't be too difficult.

 

[Makosuke]

MPlayer (linux) had news that they supported VP6 on 2004.04.28
and Patches in the works for VP6.2 (mailing list)

MPlayer OS X last build was 2004.03.30.

Thanks for adding that info.

Howeverm, as far as I can tell the VP4, 5, and 6.x codecs are only available as precompiled x86 .dll libraries, not as part of the source--at the very least, I couldn't find any mention of them in the source or outside their "Essentials" package of .dlls.

This would imply that there's no luck yet for Mac users on that front. It would also seem that there's a contractual restriction preventing people from distributing compiled MPlayer binaries for other platforms (at least at this point), and although I'm not averse to compiling it myself (though I'd really rather not have to), there's no point in trying if the VP6 support isn't for PPC (at least, not yet).

 

[smllpx]

I know it is strange, On2 says that the PowerPC platform is supported, and yet they only offer a self extracting exe for the codec download, at least as far as I could see. (other than VirtualPC or Softwindows does anyone know how to expand a windows self extracting archive? I believe they are just an unzip program with zip data at the end... so it sould be possible)

Did you look at the Mac MPlayer cvs? I am not sure they are really using it. I haven't looked at the MPlayer's main cvs site.

 

[Nermal]

Self-extracting zips can be extracted by dragging them onto StuffIf Expander. However, I expect that the codec inside the zip is only for x86, despite what their website says.

 

[Makosuke]

As Nermal said, most self-extracting PC archives can be handled by Stuffit in my experience, but just because their codec is PPC compatible (as opposed to using some oddball tricks specific to the x86 architecture, I assume) doesn't mean they'll actually give you a working codec. They probably have something proprietary for people building PPC-based embedded systems or something, but nothing for Quicktime, anyway.

Perhaps more insulting, I noticed their website actually has a demo of a pure Java VP5 player working, but it's only a demo hardwired to a single video clip. How about a VP6 player, guys?

So far, the best solution I can think of is to find a PC somewhere, install VirtualDub (free transcoder system), and install the VP6.2 and DivX (or maybe XviD) codecs, and use that to transcode the video into something playable on a Mac. Stupid, but free (outside the PC) and it seemed to work when I tried it on a test clip (draws into question their quality claims--the transcoded video didn't look all that much worse, despite their hype).