Archive for February, 2007

VC-1: Complex Profile is supported a bit

Wednesday, February 28th, 2007

I’ve just added some support for WMV3 Complex Profile (aka old Advanced Profile).
I don’t know why most samples (users complaining about) I’ve met are anime. It’s a good chance they will work now.

And here is updated list of CP features explained:

  • RES_X8 – additional bit at the end of I-frame header pointing if this is normal I-frame or this is special coded frame (I’m sure that’s exactly WMV2/8 J-frame with different header)
  • RES_FASTTX – somehow interferes with P-frames but bitstream is not changed
  • RES_RTM – old P-frame format (header should be the same but some additions on macroblock level). This is also quite common in old WMV3 files. Not RE’d yet

VC-1: Blu-Ray is now supported too

Saturday, February 10th, 2007

Now FFmpeg and MPlayer support VC-1 in MPEG2-TS streams which can be found on Blu-Ray discs.

Thanks to Martin for providing sample and Nico Sabbi for implementing handling of this in both FFmpeg and MPlayer.

HD-DVD decoding

Wednesday, February 7th, 2007

For those whom it may interest.
What are the things needed to play HD-DVD movies in open-source multimedia player?

  • Decrypted movie (use this tool)
  • Demuxer support
  • Video decoder
  • Audio decoder

EVO demuxer is really just slightly modified MPEG stream demuxer. FFmpeg and MPlayer fresh SVN versions support it (MPlayer was there first). I don’t know about other multimedia players but that’s quite easy to implement.

Video decoding: there are three possible choices – MPEG-2, H.264 and VC-1. First two should work fine, the last one should work but with some bugs (I will fix them eventually).

Audio decoding: is also tricky – standard AC3 audio will work, DTS is supported via libdca and E-AC3 is still to be figured out.

Conclusion – try current SVN of MPlayer and see if it works to you. And if you care about Blu-Ray support (and it does not work) – please provide a sample.