AVI Overview by John F. McGowan, Ph.D. (c) 1996-2004, John F. McGowan http://www.jmcgowan.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Petrana Voice Commands for DVD Voice control of DVD player software for the disabled and users of Home Theater Systems that use a PC as the DVD player.
What is in this Overview? - Overview of Video for Windows, DirectShow (ActiveMovie), and AVI What is AVI? Disclaimer How to Get the AVI Overview WHAT'S NEW About the Author Brief Table of Contents Most Common AVI Question: What does "could not find vids:xxxx ..." error mean? UTILITIES, SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION, AUTHORING, ETC. Installation, Configuration, and Other Issues AVI and the WORLDWIDE WEB Audio and Video Codecs Troubleshooting AVI Business and Economics of AVI PROGRAMMING/TECHNICAL TOPICS Microsoft Windows Video Programming Multimedia Technical Information Microsoft Windows Device Drivers Glossary Chronology Detailed Table of Contents Most Common AVI Question: What does "could not find vids:xxxx ..." error mean? UTILITIES, SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION, AUTHORING, ETC. - How to play an AVI file? - DOS - Windows - Macintosh - Unix - VAX/VMS - Amiga - OS/2 - Atari - How to convert AVI to various audio/video formats. - MPEG (.MPG Files) - QuickTime (.MOV or .MooV) - Animated GIFs (GIF89a) - Microsoft ASF (Active Streaming Format) - Sequence of Still Images in Separate Files - Smacker (.SMK Files) - RealNetworks RealMedia Streaming Format (.RM Files) - How to convert other audio/video formats to AVI - QuickTime (.MOV or .MooV) - Sequence of Still Images in Separate Files - Autodesk Animation (FLI or FLC) - MPEG (.MPG) - Animated GIF (.GIF) - Real Media (.RM) - Real Video - Real Audio (.RA) - How to Convert a Sequence of Still Images in One Format to a Sequence in Another Format - Authoring AVI Files CREATING AVI FILES - How to capture screen to AVI files - Multimedia Authoring Tools to Create AVI Files - NewTek LightWave - Caligari TrueSpace - Fractal Design Ray Dream Studio - CorelMOVE - Macromedia (or MacroMind) Director - How to import AVI files into Lightwave - How to create AVI files from analog video (Video Capture Cards) - From VHS tapes and video cameras - From Hi8 tapes and video cameras - Video Capture under Video for Windows - Video Capture Cards - Video Capture through PC Parallel Port - What to do about horizontal tearing in the video? - Hard Drive Video Capture Issues - Video Capture Cards with Windows NT Drivers - How to create AVI files from Television - How to Create Morph Effects for AVI Files - How to compress the audio sound track in AVI files MODIFYING AND EDITING AVI FILES - How to change frame rate of AVI files - How to crop an AVI file - How to edit AVI files - VidEdit - Personal AVI Editor - MGI VideoWave - Corel Lumiere Suite for 32-bit Windows - Ulead Media Studio Pro - Adobe Premiere - in:sync SpeedRazor - Asymetrix Digital Video Producer (DVP) - Fast Movie Processor - Peck's Power Join - How to compress the audio sound track in AVI files - How to create NTSC (or PAL) Safe AVI - The Phantom Final Frame when Viewing an AVI - Binary File Editors for Viewing and Editing AVI - RIFF and AVI Parser/Viewers - John McGowan's VidTrace - Microsoft RIFFWALK - Bill Luken's RIFFSCAN - Editing and converting WAV files - CoolEdit - GoldWave - Macromedia SoundEdit - in:sync Speed Razor - Sonic Foundry's Sound Forge - Editing and converting Sound Files on Macintosh MISCELLANEOUS AUTHORING QUESTIONS - How to output AVI files to videotape - Size limits on AVI files - How to get around 2 GB AVI Files Size Limit - How to Fix Problem with AVI files from CorelMove 4.0 - What is Type 1 DV AVI? - What is Type 2 DV AVI? Installation, Configuration, and Other Issues INSTALLATION AND CONFIGURATION - Where to get the 16-bit Video for Windows for Windows 3.x - Reinstalling Microsoft's Video-for-Windows in Windows 95 - How to get ActiveMovie 1.0 - Installing and configuring AVI Codecs in Windows NT 4.0 - How to give AVI files a different extension in Windows 3.1 - How AVI Files are Handled in Windows 95 INFORMATION SOURCES - Bibliography of sources of information on Video for Windows and AVI - Internet Newsgroups with Information on AVI and Video - Where to find information on digital audio and video standards other than AVI. MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS - PC Video Card and Video Chips - Video Cards with Windows NT Drivers - How to embed an AVI file in a Microsoft Word Document - Microsoft's Changing Names - Answers to miscellaneous other frequently asked questions about AVI - AVI and Your Health (Eye Strain) AVI and the WORLDWIDE WEB - Effective use of video on a Web page - How to embed an AVI file in a Web page - Configuring Netscape Navigator 3.0x to Display AVI Files - Netscape Navigator Plug-ins to play AVI - Configuring Internet Explorer 3.0x to Display AVI Files - Sending AVI by E-Mail or Network News Postings - How to encrypt AVI Files - MIME types of AVI - Configuring Web Servers to Handle AVI Files - Apache - CERN (or W3C) - NCSA HTTPd - Microsoft Internet Information Server 3.0 - Netscape Enterprise Server 3.0 - AVI and Java - AVI and VRML - AVI and NetShow - Converting AVI to Microsoft Active Streaming Format (ASF) Files - Sources of AVI Video Clips on the Web - Low Bit Rate AVI for the Web REAL-TIME OR STREAMING VIDEO OVER IP NETWORKS - Limitations of AVI and Video for Windows over Networks - NetShow - Microsoft's Changing Names - Internet Video Standards and Pseudo-Standards AUDIO and VIDEO CODECS - Video for Windows compressors and decompressors WHAT THEY ARE, WHERE TO GET THEM, WHICH WORK BEST! - The Old Guard - Full Frames (Uncompressed) - Color Formats - Intel Real Time Video 2.1 (Indeo 2.1?) (RT21) - Indeo 3.2/3.1 - Microsoft Run Length Encoding - Microsoft Video 1 - Cinepak - Motion JPEG - Editable MPEG - The New Wave - VDOWave (VDOLive) - Indeo Video Interactive (Indeo 4.1) - Indeo Video Interactive (Indeo 5.x) - ClearVideo (aka RealVideo) - SFM (Surface Fitting Method) - QPEG - H.261 - H.263 - Microsoft H.263 (M263) - Vivo Software H.263 - Intel I263 H.263 (I263) - Shannon Communication Systems (SCS) H.263+ - Telenor R&D H.263 - Xirlink H.263 Video Codec (X263) - MPEG-4 - Microsoft MPEG-4 Version 3 (MP43) - Microsoft MPEG-4 Version 2 (MP42) - Microsoft MPEG-4 Version 1 (MPG4) - DivX MPEG-4 (DIV3) - DivX MPEG-4 (DIV4) - AngelPotion MPEG-4 (AP41) - Lightning Strike (Infinop) - Aware Motion Wavelets Video Codec - VxTreme Video Codecs NOT Available for AVI - Sorenson Video - Which AVI video codec is best? - Performance of the AVI Codecs A table with typical compression ratios of Video for Windows codecs. - Which Video for Windows codecs are supported by QuickTime on the Apple Macintosh? - How to determine which codecs are installed - How to determine which codec was used to compress an AVI file - Microsoft Four Character Codes (FOURCC) - Microsoft GUIDs for Video for Windows Codecs - Color Formats - Video Compression Technologies Run Length Encoding Vector Quantization Discrete Cosine Transform Discrete Wavelet Transform Contour-Based Image Coding Frame Differencing Motion Compensation - Audio Codecs - How to determine which Audio Codecs are Installed Troubleshooting AVI - Why can't I play my AVI file? - Why does AVI file freeze when playing back from CD or DVD Player? GLOSSARY CHRONOLOGY PROGRAMMING/TECHNICAL TOPICS MICROSOFT WINDOWS PROGRAMMING THE OLD REGIME - Windows Multimedia System - Video for Windows - Wave (Waveform Audio) - AVI file format - RIFF Files - Original AVI File Format - OpenDML AVI File Format Extensions - Where to get the exact specification of AVI? - AVI and Windows Bitmaps (DDB, DIB, ...) THE NEW WAVE - ActiveMovie - GUID's and AVI - DirectShow (ActiveMovie 2.0) - DirectDraw - MMX - ActiveX - Microsoft's Changing Names - What is Type 1 DV AVI? - What is Type 2 DV AVI? HOW TO PROGRAM IN WINDOWS - Playing an AVI file within a Windows Application - Reading and Writing an AVI file within a Windows Application USEFUL INFORMATION FOR AVI AND VIDEO PROGRAMMING (NOT WINDOWS) SOURCE CODE - Where to get C source code for an AVI Player Including Many Codecs - Where to get C source code for a JPEG Encoder or Decoder - Where to get C source code for an H.263 Video Encoder or Decoder - Where to get C source code for an MPEG Video Encoder or Decoder - Where to get C/C++ Source Code for Wavelet Image Compression TECHNICAL INFORMATION - Where to get an explanation of Color, Color Spaces, Gamma and All That - Where to get Detailed Information on Graphics File Formats? - Where to get Detailed Information on Audio File Formats? USEFUL INFORMATION FOR NETWORKED VIDEO PROGRAMMING - Internet Video Standards - MIME - RTP (Real Time Protocol) - RSVP (Resource Reservation Protocol) - IP Multicast - UDP (User Datagram Protocol) WINDOWS DEVICE DRIVERS AND VIDEO - What is a driver? - GDI Device Drivers - DirectDraw Hardware Abstraction Layer - Virtual Device Drivers - Windows NT Driver Model - Win32 Driver Model (WDM) - Setup Information Files Awards Credits ABOUT THE AUTHOR John F. McGowan, Ph.D. is President of the Research and Development Division of GFT Group Incorporated, a private research and development company. Dr. McGowan is the creator of Petrana. Petrana is an artificial personal assistant who talks to the computer user in spoken English and operates computer applications for the user easily, comfortably, and enjoyably, giving the user free use of his or her hands and freedom of movement. Petrana Voice Commands for DVD Voice control of DVD player software for the disabled and users of Home Theater Systems that use a PC as the DVD player. Dr. McGowan was a project manager and key contributor for CompCore Multimedia's SoftDVD product, one of the first Microsoft Windows DVD players, as well as other CompCore products. He has developed software implementations of image quality metrics, perceptual optimization of JPEG image compression, and video quality metrics for NASA. He has contributed to the conceptual design of systems for televising missions to Mars for NASA.Dr. McGowan offers the following services in the area of computational algorithms, especially for image and video processing:
These services are described in detail at John McGowan's Services Offered
jmcgowan11@earthlink.net © 1996-2002 by John F. McGowan, Ph.D. Disclaimer