Converting Video Files
Does anyone know how I might be able to convert an mp4 file into something that Windows Media Player 6.4 can play? There are so many programs and formats out there - I'm not really sure what I'm looking for.
Thanks!
Does anyone know how I might be able to convert an mp4 file into something that Windows Media Player 6.4 can play? There are so many programs and formats out there - I'm not really sure what I'm looking for.
Thanks!
Comments
That’s a rabbit hole I’ve been down many times in the past. These days, handbrake suites my needs. But I don’t believe it’s what you need. ffmpeg would be the next thing I’d try.
But for playing back files in older versions of media player, I would recommend getting a codec pack instead of converting the files. I used to use K-Lite.
I tried all different versions and settings of HandBrake, and couldn't get that to work. Trying WinFF now. I forgot about those codec packs. Maybe I'll give that a shot next.
I can recommend you aTube Catcher. This program downloads, converts, records and burns multimedia. It works to convert to many formats, but in its conversion core is a front end for ffmpeg. You can find a little thing called "Profile Editor" which lets you customize the way ffmpeg is launched.
The format you probably need is an old version of AVI (Video for Windows).
I should point out that mp4 or avi doesn't really tell you anything but the container used for the video. The video and audio codecs contained with that container format are more important to know and understand. Like I said, it's a rabbit hole.
That's what I've been trying to figure out. Unfortunately I can't seem to find what audio and video formats the player supports, so what I tried to do is open some known working videos in VLC to see what formats they are. I've gotten a little bit closer I think. Now I'm just trying to see how I can make the quality better.
That one looks interesting too. Thanks for the recommendation.
Media Info Lite is a good tool for identifying the codecs used:
https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/mediainfo_lite.html
I've been testing which codec to use and I've got a working combination of aTube Catcher + Win98SE + WMP 6.4.07.1112
You need to move this file to "%UserName%\Appdata\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\DsNET Corp\aTube Catcher 2.0\Profiles", then run aTube Catcher and got to menu Profiles>Reload profiles.
Next go to the Video Converter tab and in the output profile there should be a new entry called AVI WMP 6.4 (Video for Windows). Select it. Now drag and drop the files you want to convert (or click the add button).
The converted files should be in the save location (Save To: [ Path ] ) (Which by default is the user Videos folder, but you can change that). Now you can play these files in your Win9x machine (Considering that it has WMP 6.4 installed)
Edit: Note that the conversion was made in WinVista, because aTube Catcher doesn't run in Win9x (Only XP and beyond)
Now, I've got the same query as @nick99nack too but, only to convert an .mp4 video into a .wmv to be used under Movie Maker (yes, I use the XP-based one, not the Live successor). The only difference is, it's for videos that I sometimes record with an Amazon Fire 7 (and perhaps an alternate video-editing tool but I think that should go towards a new thread).
And I wonder if Nick's issue has been resolved since.
Use a different video editor. Windows Movie Maker is old and outdated. I heard Microsoft recently released a replacement for Movie Maker, known as "Windows Story Remix".
I would assume that's for 10 only and if so, I can't get it (as I'm really unwilling to upgrade). Would be nice if there's other alternatives...
https://olivevideoeditor.org/download.php
There's a KDE video editor, but I can't remember the name of it. I am also not quite not sure if it runs on Windows or not.
@robobox Kdenlive? There's apparently an official Windows build available.
No, I'm sure you can use it on Windows 7 or 8/8.1, if you somehow know how to bypass software compatibility problems
And seriously, one way or another, there will be a point in time where you'll have to upgrade your main OS. That's just how technology works.
It's a metro app so it won't work on Windows 7 though 8.x is possible if the appx package is copied from a win10 target and installed through powershell, I think.
And Windows 7 is still good to go for everything else that isn't metro.
Anyway, virtualdub is very old and light (http://www.virtualdub.org/index.html), but with the right plugin (https://sourceforge.net/projects/virtualdubffmpeginputplugin/) it can open mp4 files. And it works on Windows NT 4.0 and 2000! On a 486!
This user of Windows 2000 as his main OS says you can keep using the old version for many years to come. You just need to be creative and willing to work at it. I realize that's not for everybody, but it can be done...
For Movie Maker, you can probably use FFmpeg (WinFF) to convert the files to AVI, which I believe Movie Maker can process. I used it just last year, but I can't remember for sure if that is the format I used.
I probably should update this thread. I used an old version of the K-Lite Codec Pack (10.0.5) and that worked with Windows Media Player 6.4 for my mp4 files. Using WinFF to convert files to AVI was also an option for low-powered systems.
Well I still won't be upgrading for Windows 10 anytime soon. Perhaps I can jump onto the macOS bandwagon which I should've done years ago...
Anyhow, both Olive and Kdenlive were no use to me, sorry to say. Olive was very unstable and Kdenlive can't even let me import .mp4 files either. Plus, it's too heavy on CPU and, for some reason it didn't let me uninstall it (as I had to manually delete its folder to do so).
Guess I'll remain the peasant of using Windows Movie Maker then.
If someone asks why they should upgrade their OS when the time comes...
Answer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_security
Need I say more?
The best security is common sense. Nothing else. And to be honest, we can take care of ourselves. At the end, the worst thing that could happen is that the OS would get destroyed and would need to be reinstalled. For example I use Vista as my main OS.
And seriously I doubt any hacker will be interested in hacking into your PC only to steal your work documents or your family pics.
Whatever, this is getting really offtopic.
@Bry89 If you don't care about using cracked software, you can use an old version of Vegas Pro (I think Vegas Pro 8 was the last compatible with Win2K, but with extended kernel you could get Vegas Pro 10 to work). Or you can simply use the integrated Windows Movie Maker, although I should mention it gets a bit unstable (In my experience)
I agree. Sony Vegas Pro is a pretty good video editor. So yeah, give that a shot, if you're willing to spend an extra $50-60 for Vegas Pro. But I would never choose to use cracked software, because I sometimes feel that that's the "wrong" way around owning software. But if you want to try using a cracked version of paid software, then give it a shot.
That isn’t why they break in. Your identity is valuable. The fact that your PC isn’t their PC is valuable. Your desire not to lose family photos and work documents is valuable.
Common sense is the best first line of defense with security, but if your OS is vulnerable, depending on the vulnerability, no amount of common sense will protect you. Things like eternal blue proved that.
Hopefully you at least have a host based firewall on those old machines or have them segmented off from your main network, because otherwise the only thing protecting them is your edge firewall and I hope everyone else on your network has common sense....
Only idiots use cracked software. No offense.
Well since my last post, I had made use of iMovie at my volunteering work which did the job I wanted, and there's also Movavi which is similar to it (although as a free trial but still, I gave that a go).