help with avi export and codec 1

[terror]

hi all,
I've built and rendered out a bunch of movies in after effects. Then pieced them together in premiere and exported as an avi with indeo codec. It plays on every machine in my office (win 2000,98,XP)
But it does not play for my client on ANY machines in his office aside from an old work station setup.
I need this to play on win2000.

I am wondering if anyone has any knowledge in this matter.
Or suggestions or ideas why it may not be working. I've pretty much exhausted my knowledge base...
If this is not enough information, please let me know and I will get more specific.
I've just downloaded codec indeo 5 to try the whole export again.

thankyou kindly
-Terror

 

[jasek78]

Do you have the codec installed on your client's machines?

jason

 

[terror]

it is a rather strange situation, I've come to realize...
I do not have access to the clients computer. It is sort of a project no one is supposed to know about until the time of showing. So, to get around this, I think we will be sending different versions xported with diff codecs....unless I can get more info on the type of machine it will be played from.

I think the more important question at the moment is this:
why are avi's made on the mac not playing anywhere else? Are they not cross platform?
I am making the files in After Effects on the Mac, bringing them together in Premiere on the PC. This is annoying and time consuming cos the PC is much slower than the mac when rendering or exporting. Any idea where I can go for more information on stuff like this and some sort of Codec knowledge base?
(I forgot to mention, the avi file is going to be brought into Microsoft Power Point as part of a much larger presentation)

thanks again,
Terror

 

[jasek78]

The way I see it, the problem is the codec. In order for a video to play (on any computer), the computer needs to have the codec that the video is compressed with.

I used to have the opposite problem. The place I used to work for had an old mac that I had to do all of the compressing on, because the videos came from a Sphereous drive and the codec didn't work under a windows platform. (which was a shame, because I had 2 SGI dual processor boxes, each with a 5110 wildcat vid card.)

Anyways, You have to find out what codecs your client has installed on his/her computers. Otherwise, you can compress the videos with your favorite codec, and just send along the codec installation files along with the videos. You can try just using the "Microsoft AVI" codec, which should work on any windows computer.

The only other reason videos won't play on PCs would be file size/computer performance problems. If the client only has older (like under 200MHZ/16MB RAM) computers, then you need to use a codec that doesn't use a lot of processing, or cut the movies down to shorter clips.

 

[terror]

well...Mymac is a g4 dual processor that i just acquired. The pc's are running win 2000 and have enough memory and are fairly fast machines.
All the systems have quicktime 4 and quicktime pro installed. if that makes a difference.
are you saying the mac codecs are not compatible with the pc?
regarding the first problem with the client not being able to playback the avi....
I am now messing with directX 8a, thinking this has something to do with playback. I have downloaded the latest codecs that windows media players uses. It seems, directX is involved in both windows media player and quicktime.

i have also sent the client an exe made from director 8.5 of the same avi file. he can't play that either. Trying to narrow down the problem on his machines without knowing his machines is rather difficult. But if I can duplicate the problem, i suppose I can come up with a solution. I appreciate any more thoughts or input in this troubleshooting. also, the client is not close where i can just run back and forth to do testing...aaarrrrgh

 

[jasek78]

Have you tried exporting the videos as Quicktime movies? They should play on your clients machines.

Otherwise, what I would do, is to export movies using several different codecs. Just 5-10 second clips will work fine for testing. Name them according to the codec used, and put them on a CD and go to the client site once. Find out what codecs you can use, then work from that info.

 

[terror]

jasek,
thanks for your input and suggestions. I've ftp the client with a bunch of different tests using diff codecs and also sent him an exe that installs most recent codecs.

He is now able to see the movie using codec indeo 5.1 (i think)
thanks again

 

[jasek78]

no problem... Any other questions just ask...

jason

 

[terror]

okay, I probably will in the future. This is all new to me.
-much obliged,
Terror