installing mjpeg codec on machine w/o RR?

[Cellular Mitosis]

I have recently acquired enough old spare parts to throw together an old P 133.

I have a much faster computer as the "primary machine" in which the rainbow runner is installed and which does the capturing.

What I would like to be able to do is to capture the file with the primary machine, and then send the file over the network to the secondary machine to do the actual editing with.

So, is there any way to install the MJPEG codec on the secondary machine if it does NOT have a RR? And, will this work (editing on a machine with no RR)?

Thanks

[fluggo99]

Sounds like a good application for the Morgan MJPEG codec, which is available at <a href="www.morgan-multimedia.com">www.morgan-multimedia.com</a>. The User FourCC for Matrox MJPEG is dmb1; that's an option in the Morgan codec's control panel.

[miker]

you might want to use the 133 as the hardware capture box, and the powerful one for software editing. unless you have agp rr

[Cellular Mitosis]

no can do. G200 is AGP. 133 has no AGP.

[Rick6612]

Hi Cellular Mitosis,

I used to do my capturing, editing, etc., on a Pentium 166 MMX machine. Then I upgraded to a 400 MHz PII machine. Not only did the video capture/play back part of it work better on the faster machine, but I can also tell you that the editing was A LOT more fun on the faster machine too! Waiting for for MSP to draw in the frames on those filmstrips on the timeline with that old 166 MMX was a real pain in the ass. Rendering took forever, too.

I'm not sure why it is that you want to do your editing on your 133 machine, but I suspect you will find it to be brutally slow to work with...

Rick

[Cellular Mitosis]

you see, I am a college student, so it would be cool to be able to start an editing job, and then go off to class, or be able to play quake while I am editing, or do anything else with the other computer. I just wanted to be able to start up the machine with some video editing work, and not have it intrude on my computing while it is editing.

[Cellular Mitosis]

Well, I have made quite a bit o headway on this matter.

I messed around with the morgan codec, but it says it expires after a trial period. But it did get me going in the right direction.

I looked at the inf file that comes with the morgan codec, and tried to figure out what exactly it was doing. With a little bit of experimenting, I have determined you only need one file, one registry entry, and one line in the system.ini file to get the codec working. I got it working on a machine without using the installation or the exe or anything.

copy the m3jpeg32.dll file to windows/system.

add line in system.ini under [drivers32]
vidc.MJPG=m3jpeg32.dll

under HKLM/system/currentcontrolset/control/mediaresources/icm
make a new key "vidc.MJPG"
in that, make a new string value called "Driver" with the data "m3jpeg32.dll"

just with that, a machine will play back MJPEG avi's.

Now, on my machine with the rainbow runner, it reports "pvmjpg20.dll" as the vidc.MJPG

Unfortunately, this file does not seem to exist on my system, even though it plays back MJPEG flawlessly...

I tried instead using RRIcm.dll on the P133 but to no avail.

I messed around in the rainbow runner installation stuff and it says RRMjpg.ax is the MJPG decompressor. I tried using that file name in the above procedure as well but to no avail.

Does anyone know what is up with pvmjpg20.dll? How can my machine report that that is the mjpeg driver it is using when that driver is not on my machine? (i used find and it did not come up).

If it all it takes is one file and a couple of ini/reg tweaks to get MJPEG to playback on a machine without a rainbowrunner, I have got to beleive there is a way to do this using matrox's drivers.

Why? Well, if you try playing back a MJPEG AVI, it will use the rainbow runner - but then if you pause it and open up another MJPEG, it is very obvious it is using software to play back the second file, so it must be possible.

Has anyone else had any success doing stuff like this?

[Cellular Mitosis]

The above process I described works for the morgan codec even when you rename the .dll file it comes with, as long as you keep the name consistent in everything you do.

Do you think it is possible that by skipping the installation process, and using a different name, the driver will not expire after the trial period?

I realize that many of you may say doing something like this is essentially pirating the morgan codec.

But think about this: I shouldn't have to do this in the first place. I slapped down my hard earned cash to buy a rainbow runner. I paid for video editing, and that's what i expect. The fact that I am having to go to great lengths to be able to capture on one machine and edit on another is something of an insult.

What I am tying to say is: I shouldn't even need the morgan codec in the first place, because matrox should have provided me with the means to do what I am trying to do when I handed them my money.

[This message has been edited by Cellular Mitosis (edited 25 January 2000).]

[This_Idiot]

Oh dear..

I can see the regulars reaching for their tin hats and running for the bomb shelters

"I realize that many of you may say doing something like this is essentially pirating
the morgan codec". Yes, many of us might. That's because it is. You are deliberately attempting to find a way around paying the registration fee (in this case a very modest amount).

Let me put this a different way. Income Tax evasion is theft. For every dollar that you don't pay in legitimate taxes, either the rest of the community ends up paying OR the government (local, federal, whatever) has to cut the services it provides. Yet we all hate paying taxes, and most of us try and find a way of minimizing the amount of tax we pay. That's fine until we get to the point of actually lying about the tax that we legitimately owe, and therefore imposing an unfair burden upon the rest of the community.

The same goes for software piracy. I've got no interest in seeing Bill Gates get richer and I feel the same way about all of those software producers who charge such unrealistic prices as to make their supposedly mainstream products out-of-reach to the everyday user. Still, no matter what we feel, illegally copying and using this software increases the burden on those who legitimately purchase the products.

Now can I change the scenario a little, and tell you about a couple of guys that I've chatted with quite a lot over the last couple of years. These guys have realised that many of us are suffering from lack of functionality that would make our lives a lot easier. So they did a lot of work to try and produce something to help us all out. This takes a lot of guts, research and work, and quite reasonably they ask a small fee from everyone that wants to use their products.

You argue that Matrox should have provided you with the means of capturing and editing video for the grand sum that you paid to them. Well indeed they should. And they did. They provided you with a hardware accelerated capture card and a codec suitably tailored to make the most of the hardware acceleration. Funnily enough it's licensed to a single workstation, rather like Windows, MS Office, Lotus SmartSuite, Adobe Anything etc etc.

Usually the reason that I "have a go" about piratism is that as webmaster here I am conscious of the lunacy of US law and the fact that as webmaster I can be held responsible for the views expressed on this forum.

In this case, I'd go further and point out that without the help offered by Giom (Morgan Codec) and Markus (AV_IO) amongst others, we'd all be a lot worse off.

Now 25 bucks isn't exactly a lot to ask, so please just pay up and count yourself as privileged. Alternatively, if you are determined to do your own thing, please keep it to yourself or go and spill it to some sleaze site instead of here.

Don't think that I'm on a mission here, you can all live with your own consciences (as I live with mine). But please keep this site out of your dealings.

[Cellular Mitosis]

Hmm. Let me appologize. I didn't mean to give off the impression I am trying put the developers of the morgan codec out of business.

Let me say first off that my intention is not to try and figure out a way to defeat the trail offer limitation of the morgan codec so I can massively distribute a "crakced" version or anything like that. I am not one of those hackers who like to pirate software and hand it out everywhere he goes.

In fact, my goal in doing all this is to figure out what matrox driver I need to grab off one machine to put onto another. It is not my intention to permanaetly use the morgan codec. I am only trying to use it's installation process to figure out what drivers do what and use that to figure out what matrox driver's should do the same.

Maybe I took it the wrong way, but your post really made it sound like you feel I am a person of questionable morality. This is entirely not the case. In fact, you are looking at a prime example of how piracy can help to create a consumer.

Back when I was a freshman in high school, I priated a lot of popular games. I couldn't afford them then, but now that I am in college and have been working for a few years, I have money to spend on things like that. The result? I have since gone back and bought all those games I loved so much, even though I don't play them now. I felt like I owed companies like ID a debt. Now of course, in an ideal world I would ahve paid $50 for them when they came out instead of the lower prices I pay now because they are antequated software titles, but still I did go back and buy them. But now, when I like a demo for a game, I actually do go out and plop down $50 for a game. Same story for my music collection. Basically, about two years ago I didn't own any software. Now about 95% of my software and music collection is 100% legal.

So, back in high school, piracy basically got me hooked on games and music. The result is that now I am in a position to legally buy these items, I have become a very big consumer. If I had not pirated all that stuff, I don't see how I would be so interested in computers or music today, and I wouldn't have the desire to go out and spend massive amounts of money on these products.

Now don't get me wrong. I am not trying to say that piracy is the ideal situation, but it certainly did make me the consumer I am today.

All I am trying to say is that I am not some sort of hardcore hacker or pirateer. When you say things like "spill it out to some sleaze site" and "you live with your conciense, I'll live with mine" and "please keep this site out of your dealings", well, quite frankly you make me out to be some sort of hardened criminal.

You mentioned that the product is licensed to one machine. Yes, I understand this. I don't have two copies of the software. My rainbow runner came with capture software and Ulead editing software. Those are licensed to one machine. The capturing software is in the 566 machine and the ulead software is the 133 machine. I am not making duplicate copies of software here. The rainbow runner, of course, is only in one machine as well.

I realise that $25 isn't a lot to pay, but still, I don't see why matrox themselves didn't release a playback codec. Why would they limit it so that you can only watch the videos you make on the machine you captured them on? (or on another machine with a rainbow runner).

Listen, IF it turns out that there is absolutely no way use a matrox driver, then yes, I will gladly fork over $25 for this option.

I am not trying to figure out a way around the registration fee, because I don't want to use the morgan codec at all. I want to use the matrox codec. That is what i am trying to figure out how to do. If I can't, then sure, I'll buy the morgan codec and become mildly annoyed with matrox for forcing me to go to a third party to accomplish something which should have been natively supported in the first place.


[This message has been edited by Cellular Mitosis (edited 25 January 2000).]

[This_Idiot]

Well I think that you managed to miss my main point here, but whatever.

There are plenty of arguments both for and against piracy. At the final call, we have to make up our own minds what our personal opinion is.

My personal opinion is that I don't want to lay myself open to litigation from US crazy-horses.

Now, if you want to playback your AVI's on a different PC, why don't you choose a FREE codec ? Cinepak, MPEG, ASF, Indeo, etc. You need to play with them a lot to get the best out of them,but isn't that part of our hobby ?