Windows XP MJPEG Codec
 

Hi everybody from Auckland,

While abroad these last weeks, I've been able to solve the mystery as to why some have had difficulty viewing the videos on my web site. They're produced by my Canon S110 PowerShot, which means they're AVI files with PCM audio and MJPEG encoded video. (They also have funny frame rates and audio sampling rates which makes reencoding into something like MPEG awkward and untenable.)

Unfortunately, Microsoft operating systems prior to Windows XP don't include an MJPEG codec, and while Quicktime comes with the MJPEG codec and is capable of viewing the videos, the AVI file extension calls Windows Media Player by default. Rather than asking people to go changing their defaults, I'd rather just have them download a codec if they can't see the video. (Even better, I'd rather Microsoft make its MJPEG codec downloadable by Windows Media Player.) But, most problematically, there are no freeware MJPEG codecs available--all the ones downloadable off the web have expiration dates or watermarks.

My question is this: Is there any way to swipe the MJPEG codec from Windows XP and put it on (for example) a Windows 2000 machine?

Thanks for your help if you can solve this tricky issue.

It took more Googling than usually necessary, but I found the solution I was looking for.

DirectX contains an MJPEG codec and is a free download.

Hope this helps others who wonder why their Canon still camera movies won't play on their computers.

Keep in mind that even if you could swipe a codec to another
PC this might not be legit. I didn't know DirectX included an
MJPEG codec. Interesting, thanks for the info!

Hi,

I'd like to fix my MJPEG digital camera movies in Vegas. I seem to have two MJPEG decoders (Pinnacle sys and Quartz.dll) on my WinXP system, but Vegas doesn't seem to like MJPEG AVI files from my Canon S40 digital camera. The sound is displayed, but not the video data. How do I get Vegas to use the MJPEG codecs ? Otherwise, can anyone suggest a free
MJPEG codec?

I read in dvinfo.net that directx came with an MJPEG compressor, but after installation of DX9, Vegas still doesn't read MJPEG AVI files properly. Only the audio shows up in the timeline. I'm using WinXP.

Thank you for any help.

Yes, I've never had luck with Vegas importing Canon Digital Camera movie files either, codec or no.

If by "fix" you mean reencoding to a more standard format, if you're not careful, you may do more harm than good, since both the movie frame rate (15 fps, even slower than the S110's 20 fps) and the audio sample rate (11.025 kHz) are unusual. Resampling the audio is likely to distort it somewhat imperceptibly, but resampling the video's frame rate without introducing a whole host of problems won't be easy.

If Vegas still gives you grief, you might give medi@morph a shot. There's a free trial version, and the full version is $25.

I have successfully edited MJPEG AVI's from my Canon A70 Camera in Vegas 4.0. I never really thought about it, but I have the PicVideo MJPEG codec installed on my system and everything works perfectly.

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