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Video Conversion for Dummies?
Maya Remblai
The one with pink hair.
Join date: 25 Mar 2006
Posts: 434
12-25-2007 18:44
I wanted to experiment with streaming video to my land, as I have a generous amount of unused server space and bandwidth. The trouble is that the videos I have that I might like to watch in SL are in the wrong format (AVI, and MKV for a few). The only program I found that could convert to MOV without leaving a watermark, cutting the time, or costing a lot of money is A-Z Free Video Converter, which turns out huge files that can't be streamed. The smallest I could get a short clip was 50MB at a resolution of only 300x300! I tried streaming it anyway but it wouldn't load because it was too big. I've watched entire movies in SL, so I know it's possible. How do I bring the file size down?
Void Singer
Int vSelf = Sing(void);
Join date: 24 Sep 2005
Posts: 6,973
12-25-2007 22:57
doom9.org has links to free and trial version converters in their dowloads sections (along with many tools for ripping/backing-up dvds and other goodies, check there
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SuezanneC Baskerville
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Join date: 22 Dec 2003
Posts: 14,229
12-26-2007 01:32
Does this site help any? http://www.virtualdub.org/
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Osprey Therian
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Join date: 6 Jul 2004
Posts: 5,049
12-26-2007 01:32
Avid free DV is useful.
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Vlad Bjornson
Virtual Gardener
Join date: 11 Nov 2005
Posts: 650
12-26-2007 04:41
Avid DV was the best of the free Windows based video editors - but unfortunately it is not free anymore. Avid has discontinued the product and I can't find it lingering anywhere in the Web. Too bad since all of the other free editing options leave something to be desired.

You might try a program called PSP Video 9 to convert your videos for use in SL. It's a program that's meant to convert videos for use on the Sony PSP game machine, but the videos it creates will work in SL, too.

http://www.pspvideo9.com/
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Luth Brodie
Registered User
Join date: 31 May 2004
Posts: 530
12-26-2007 10:17
virtualdub is the best free video conversion out there. To make the file sizes smaller, you need to make the image size small and apply codecs.

For streaming video I usually use quicktime pro and the h.264 codec. That gives me a good compression without loosing too much quality. However they are shorter and I am taking it directly from an editing program, so I'm not sure how well it'll work for full movies (I hope you do have the rights to show).

As for Avid Free DV, I've seen it for download a couple of places but when installing it asks for a code that you can only get from Avid. It was a limited and slightly easier to use version of Express DV which has been replaced by Avid Liquid which has more tools and is less expensive.
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Maya Remblai
The one with pink hair.
Join date: 25 Mar 2006
Posts: 434
12-26-2007 17:44
Thanks for the replies everyone :)

I think now my problem is my server - it thinks PSP Video9's MP4 files are audio, and they don't play in my browser so I would assume they won't work in SL either. VirtualDub outputs AVI files, and they're pretty big anyway. My server is just an ordinary web server, not a streaming one, so I guess this is kind of a futile project considering SL's current video handling :P I guess I just have to wait for Flash support ;)
Osgeld Barmy
Registered User
Join date: 22 Mar 2005
Posts: 3,336
12-26-2007 20:48
use this
http://www.freewarefiles.com/program_6_227_27700.html
or this
http://www.freewarefiles.com/program_6_227_38401.html

and convert to mpg, which anything will play

do it right and you can get ~ analog TV quality with fairly small filesizes
EliteData Maximus
Technical Geek
Join date: 3 Oct 2007
Posts: 298
12-26-2007 22:17
how about streaming live video ?
i could check, but id ask here anyway (i like the answers and suggestions from here).
does apple provide software to stream video from a capture card ?
Osgeld Barmy
Registered User
Join date: 22 Mar 2005
Posts: 3,336
12-26-2007 22:23
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/broadcaster/
Vlad Bjornson
Virtual Gardener
Join date: 11 Nov 2005
Posts: 650
12-27-2007 09:59
From: Maya Remblai
Thanks for the replies everyone :)

I think now my problem is my server - it thinks PSP Video9's MP4 files are audio, and they don't play in my browser so I would assume they won't work in SL either. VirtualDub outputs AVI files, and they're pretty big anyway. My server is just an ordinary web server, not a streaming one, so I guess this is kind of a futile project considering SL's current video handling :P I guess I just have to wait for Flash support ;)


You don't need a streaming video server to host video for SL, any normal web server and compatible video file will work.

If you can't view mp4 files on your computer you may need to update your version of Quicktime. SL uses Quicktime to handle all of the in-world video features. If you can view a video file using Quicktime on your computer then you should be able to view that same video in SL.
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Infrared Wind
Gridologist
Join date: 7 Jan 2007
Posts: 662
12-27-2007 17:44
I suggest using the Darwin streaming server:

http://developer.apple.com/opensource/server/streaming/index.html

It will run on Windows, Macs and Linux.

Personally I stream using VLC on a PC/Windows box to a Helix server
on a Linux box. Works great! And one benefit of VLC is that it can
encode anything it can play. So the source can be mpg, swf, flv, avi,
DVDs, or even live camera feed.

- Infrared