Strange codec question from "robbie"

[cjolley]

A new member named robbie PM'd me with this.
I have no idea why, also no idea what the answer is.

HELP
CAN YOU HELP i HAVE JUST JOINED THE FORUM, I CAN NOT GET MY AVID AVI FILES TO PLAY ON WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER 8 ON XP.
THE MESSAGE I GET IS THAT IT CAN NOT FIND VIDS.DMB1,DECOMPRESSOR. (I THINK THIS IS A CODEC)

DO YOU KNOW WHERE I CAN GET THIS CODEC AND INSTALL IT INTO XP

THANKS

chuck

[Ted222]

Easiest solution I can see is to upgrade to Media Player 9.

good luck,

Ted

[Sciascia]

AVID media files (OMFI) are proprietary and to my knowledge they do not have a codec or DirectShow Filter that can be installed to play them in other apps like WMP. He will have to export it to another format in most likelihood.

[landrover]

Sciascia is right about the proprietary OMFI format, but Avid systems come with the Avid AVI codec, which is intended to use when exchanging material vice versa between Avid Systems and 3rd party applications like After Effects. Which still means that you have to import or export your material into or from the Avid system.
For some reason it is practically impossible to obtain this codec by itself. I did some experimenting with the codec in the past and on my system it behaved like you can expect from lossless codecs like HuffYUV:
very useful for editing/compositing, not for just playing back and enjoying your average TV-show in Windows Media player.

Robbie´s problem is clearly that WMP is looking for a MJPEG codec, hence the DMB1 error.

[Sciascia]

If I remember right AVID Also uses HW acceleration for the MJPEG codec.

[Flying dutchman]

C'mon guys, dig deeper in your memory.

"DMB1" (or, more correctly, "dmb1") is simply the FourCC code for Matrox' MJPG codec.

I guess what "Robbie" meant with AVID is AvidCinema, the proggie that came with the Marvel. Remember?

[landrover]

Oh my God, yeah!

Because I work on Avid systems daily, I don´t have associations with Avid Cinema anymore when someone is referring to "Avid". However, I stated in my earlier reply that Robbie´s WMP was having a MJPEG decompressor error, so it´s not entirely out of my mind. And if it´s the case that Robbie´s problem is referring to Avid Cinema, then the error lies in the fact that Avid Cinema outputs in Quicktime format, which can´t be read in WMP.
Sciascia: Avid´s proprietary OMFI format is in fact a high end hardware MJPEG format. Compressing and decompressing is done by the Meridien box.

[Sciascia]

Couldn't remember the name, Meridian is right. So which OS are you running, the Macs or the NT machines? I used to have a few of the newer NT Xpress machines at my old job and they were great, especially with the Unity Media server, but my new job has all old Macs. Sad thing is that they never seem to break, so I am quite a bored engineer these days.

If it is about the AvidCinema, LandRover is right, it is a Quicktime issue, that was one of the things I really couldn't stand about that app, plus I think that it can only use Quicktime 3, the newer versions hosed the app.

[Dr Mordrid]

DMB1 is the Matrox MJPeg codec. What Robbie needs to do is install a software MJPeg codec like PICVideo or Morgan and QT;

PICVideo ($28 license for non commercial useers:

http://www.pegasusimaging.com/picvideomjpeg.htm

Morgan ($20 license)

http://www.morgan-multimedia.com/technicalsV3.htm

Both can use the DMB1 fourCC.

Dr. Mordrid

[landrover]

Yes Doc, but not if it´s about playing back Avid Cinema output in WMP.

Sciascia: no Macs here, I work on Avid Media Composer under NT4 and Avid Express under Win2K.