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Home Office: PC Video Untangled

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Oh, the joys of playing a video on your PC. When you've got the right file format running in the right media player at the right speed, it's a technological marvel. But all too often the video player says, "Hey, that's an Apple movie, pal! So go take a flying leap!" Or words to that effect.

Fortunately, you can do more than just shrug when a video won't play on your PC or a Web site won't let you download a video file for offline viewing. This month I share a few of my video secrets with you. So now, for your viewing pleasure, Bass Productions presents, "What's Wrong With This Picture?"

The day after my October column about the wireless video camera that I installed in my backyard hit the newsstands, e-mail began flooding my in-box from readers kvetching that the AVIs I created wouldn't play on their PCs.

The number one problem: not having the right media player or browser plug-in needed to play one or more of the primary video-file formats--Microsoft's ASF (also called NetShow) and AVI, Apple's QuickTime (MOV), RealNetworks' RealAudio (RA), and the open MPEG format.

To complicate matters, QuickTime and RealNetworks' RealPlayer play AVI, and RealPlayer also plays ASF. All of these plug-ins and players are available for free at our Downloads library.

Updating your players will solve most problems, but some players won't let you view a video even if you smack the side of your monitor smartly (long the electrician's repair technique of last resort).

Some AVI, MPEG, and MOV files must be downloaded to your PC before you can view them. Videos in these formats play directly from your PC rather than streaming off the Web. This gives you more control over the way the videos play, and downloaded video files generally play back more smoothly. The disadvantage: They take a while to download.

If a video you want to download and play later starts playing immediately, grab the reins: In both Internet Explorer and Netscape, right-click the link (or picture) and choose Save As.

Note that RealAudio is streaming only, and the producer can set both QuickTime and RealAudio to stop you from saving or modifying the file. The workaround is to stop the file after it downloads but before it finishes playing, then find it by its temporary name in the Internet cache and save it with a new name in a new location. For more on streaming video, don't miss this month's Internet Tips.

Even if you have all the right players and plug-ins, your PC may lack a codec (compressor/decompressor software). AVI, MPEG, and RA files can embed dozens of video and audio formats, compressed or not. You may need to install a specific codec to view the video.

When a file won't play, you'll see--if you're lucky--an error message identifying the missing codec. Upgrading to the latest version of the player solves most codec problems.

RobWare's $10 File Investigator shareware (available from our Downloads library) lets you find the codec a video file uses with a single right mouse click. Armed with that information, go to Control Panel and check to see whether the codec is installed: Choose Multimedia, click the Devices tab, and select Video Compression Codecs.

If the codec is missing, head for the Codec Zone, a major supplier of updated codecs and a terrific utilities resource. It offers tools for converting various video formats and for combining and splitting files.

For an in-depth, understandable survey of movie players and codecs, visit Codec Central. It's the site I used to make sense of this mishegoss.

If you download the latest video players and codecs and still experience technical difficulties, it's time to embark on some independent study. Read John McGowan's excellent tutorial on AVI files, and for troubleshooting MPEG problems, check the Moving Picture Experts Group's FAQ. Then read Microsoft's "Troubleshooting Audio and Video Codecs."

You'll find more utilities for creating, playing, and distributing video clips in "Top Ten Video Tools."

Now that you've got the picture, click on the links below to download the polar bear image and movies I created with a digital video camera on a trip to northern Canada--and no, fresh-frozen columnist was not on the bears' lunch menu.

Contributing Editor Steve Bass is president of the Pasadena IBM Users Group. Sign up for his weekly e-mail newsletter.
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