Review / Tips

Digital Camera (digicam) such as my Pentax Optio S5n and Casio Exilim EX750 with MPEG4 capability is using Microsoft ISO MPEG-4 Video V1.1 (also known as M4S2) codec. I have no trouble playing these clip in my digicam connected to TV or in my computer. But I want to play those clip in my DVD/DivX compatible players too. At first, it was difficult for me to transfer those MPEG4/M4S2 clip to MPEG2/DVD or to MPEG4 with DivX codec. After a little googling and try, I finally found the solution.


Installation

Before we can convert video clip from digicam with M4S2 codec to a DVD or another type of video clip, we need these software to help us. Download and install these files into your computer first:

  1. VirtualDub
  2. Gordian Knot Codec Pack
  3. ffdshow-20050803

Whatever you do, please install VirtualDub first. Just extract the VirtualDub files into whatever directory you like, ea C:\VirtualDub.

After that, install the Gordian Knot Codec Pack by following the onscreen instructions.

At Choose Component Menu, make sure you select all the component of Gordian Knot Codec Pack. Please deselect ffdshow like the picture below. I suggest you used ffdshow version 2005-08-03 (or above), as in my attempt to open M4S2 file never succeded when my ffdshow is lower than 2005-08-03 version.

ffdshow

After Gordian Knot Codec Pack installation is finish, run the ffdshow-20050803 installation. Read and follow the onscreen instructions until you reach Components Selection page like the picture below. At that page, make sure you select VFW interface and VirtualDub at Applications plugins.

And at the next page, the Video decoder page, make sure you select MS MPEG4v2. Other selections is up to you but I suggest selections like the picture below.

At the Sound decoder page, my selections suggestion would be like the picture below.

And when the installer ask you where the VirtualDub filters directory, enter the directory where your VirtualDub extracted and add it with plugins subdirectory. Continue with installation

After the installation finish, we need to setup ffdshow so ffdshow is the one who handle M4S2 decoding session.

  1. Run ffdshow – VFW codec configuration menu by selecting it in the Windows Start Menu
  2. Under Decoder Tab, select Codecs setting in the left list.
  3. Find M4S2 in Supported FOURCCs/remark column and set Decoder to libavcodec. (shown in picture below)
  4. Click on OK button to save the changed configuration

VirtualDub

VirtualDub is a great free software to dub video. There are great tutorials about these powerful free software. Please check google if you want to find out more about this software.

Start your VirtualDub Program and Open your M4S2 video/avi file using File – Open video file… menu. If you follow the instructions about ffdshow then you can open your M4S2 video/avi file without any warning.
To make sure, if you open File – File Information… menu you will see information that may look like the picture below. Look at Decompressor, it will show ffdshow Video Codec.

And now I will convert this digicam MPEG4/M4S2 file into MPEG4/DivX that can be played in DivX Player. To do this, at first we need to select Video – Full processing mode menu and make sure there was a bullet/check next to the menu. Then open Video – Compression menu and VirtualDub will open up a Select video compression window like the picture below. For best compatibility, I suggest in using DivX ; – ) Fast-Motion compression or XviD MPEG4 Codec. At this sample, I used DivX ; – ) Fast-Motion.

After the video, we now move to the audio. But before we can change anything to the audio, we need to select Audio – Full processing mode menu and make sure there was a bullet/check next to the menu. After the Full processing menu selected, we can see that other menu like Conversion and Compression is now lit up.

As you may or may not known, most digicam like my Pentax Optio S5n or Casio Exilim EX750 produce a mono audio. If you like, VirtualDub support the audio conversion from mono to stereo. To make VirtualDub do the conversion, we need to open Audio – Conversion… menu and VirtualDub will show us window like the picture below. At the Channels area, select Stereo. Leave the rest alone.

And now for the audio codec, we need to change the audio codec from less popular Microsoft IMA ADPCM codec to a more popular codec like MP3. And almost like in video, we do these by open Audio – Compression… menu and VirtualDub will show us Select audio compression window like the picture below. In here we choose between DivX ; – ) Audio, Lame MP3 and MPEG Layer-3 compression. I personally prefer to use Lame MP3 compression because of its better selections.

After choosing the compression engine, we need to select the audio format. From Audio Conversion windows we found out that the audio was 22050Hz and off course in Stereo channels, so we can make that a start for selecting an audio format. As shown in picture below, I used the lowest format.

Now we are ready to recompress the file using our selected Audio-Video Compression/Conversion. We need to open File – Save as AVI… menu or press F7. Select where and file name of the output file and when you ready press the Save button. VirtualDub will process your file and show window identicall with the picture below. For faster process, uncheck the Show input video and Show output video. Wait until it finish and your new video file is ready.

Lastly, I hope now you can enjoy your digicam video in other media too. If you have corrections or questions about these matters, you can contact me using Contact page in isnandi.net.

42 Comments

  2. Hi !

    I want to do exactly the opposite : convert my DivX, MPEG-2, films to M4S2 format in order to play them on my Pentax Optio Camera.
    I can’t find the codec to encode M4S2.
    Can someone help me?

    Marc
    Reply

  6. Thank you for the great explanation. It basically worked the first try. I used a more recent version of ffdshow 9-9-2005 which did not have the Lame MP3 Audo option. I used mpeg layer 3 at the highest setting which seemed to work ok. Also one of the programs which the Gordian Pack installed (I’m not sure which one it was) said it would only work with Windows XP. I am using 98SE. I notice also that the filesize is only about 1/3 the original size for the fine mode in my EX-Z750 camera. Any comments appreciated.

    Arch Parsons
    Reply

  8. thanks for this excellent description. i used to convert pentax avi´s for further use in pinnacle studio. it worked the first try. i did not find lame mp3 audio option, however, mpeg layer 3 is fine as well.

    trying to convert into other formats, i selected video compression option “ffdshow video codec” which never works when “saving as avi”, whatever i configure in ffdshow encoder. would appreciate hint.

    thanks again. super site.

    rio wagner
    Reply

  13. Hiho!
    I can open the file in VirtualDub now, but without sound! It says under “File info”: 0x0011 Audio tag not decodable Intel DVIADPCM (IMA ADPCM).

    Using FFDShow MPEG-4 Video Decoder 2005-12-21 by the way….

    Any help on that ?? Would be great !

    Sid
    Reply

  16. Thank you for the great instructions. They have helped me get very far. However, I have run into another problem. Before or after I compress/convert the video to m4s2 to mpeg layer3 I attempt to use my video and ‘save as image sequence’. It will normally let me do it with avi, mpeg, mpg, or whatever. When I try to do it with my m4s2 (or compressed mpeg L3) it comes up with an error. It says: “Output settings must be 16/24/32-bit RGB, uncompressed in order to save a TARGA or JPEG sequence.” Is there anyone that can help me solve this error? I am trying to make a .GIF out of video I got off my digital camera (m4s2 format). Thank you

    Scott
    Reply

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