Using Poser 8 still. I know that Poser will only read .avi files, but I have never been able to get an avi file to load properly into Poser unless it was actually exported from Poser itself. I don't really know a lot about video formats, so I apologize if what I am saying makes no sense, but is there a specific avi format that must be used? Do I need a special codec or do I need to encapsulate it using a certain format. I notice that when exporting a video from Poser it gives the option of using a number of different compression options, but when using another video converting program they do not show as options. I have been trying to get this to work for years now, and anywhere else I ever ask this question I am told that as long as it is .avi, it will play, and this has not been my experience.

The second half to my question is how do I convert it? I have access to Magix Movie Editor and Windows Movie Maker, and I would assume that the former is capable of doing this. What export settings should I be using to make the video compatible? If anyone is familiar with any freeware that can do this, I would greatly appreciate it. I have also tried VLC player with no success as well. If anyone has any experience with this I would be grateful for any advice.

Thank you,

     Is your computer 32bit or 64bit?  A 64bit system will often be unable to read an AVI which was compressed with a 32bit codec.

     Load the AVI into your video editor, then save a copy with a new name, using either another codec which works on your computer, or save an uncompressed version.

Quote -      Is your computer 32bit or 64bit?  A 64bit system will often be unable to read an AVI which was compressed with a 32bit codec.

     Load the AVI into your video editor, then save a copy with a new name, using either another codec which works on your computer, or save an uncompressed version.

Thanks for the reply. I have a 64Bit computer now, but I had this same problem back with my 32Bit one as well. Even files I have converted to avi myself don't want to load in Poser. It seems to be very picky about the files it loads and I must just not be selecting the correct compatibility. I will try doing it uncompressed. Is there any conversion software you would recommend, and do you know what codecs will Poser accept?

     It isn't Poser;  it is your computer's repertoire of codecs that limits what AVIs you can use.

     Any video editor, Flash compositor, or GIF compositor should be able to do a conversion.  Try re-saving the AVI (under a different name) as an uncompressed AVI.  It's a memory hog, but it totally sidesteps the codec issue.

     I have several computers, and amongst them, I have Adobe Premiere CS4, Adobe Flash CS4, SwishMax Studio, ULead/Corel GIF Animator 5 (on all of my computers!), and ULead/Corel VideoStudio 11.

     You may even have a GIF/Flash compositor without realizing it.  Some photo manipulation programs came with GIF/Flash companion apps.  PhotoShop often included ImageReady, Paint Shop Pro came with Animation Shop, and PhotoImpact came with GIF Animator 5.  You can look among your installed programs, and/or look for a launch command/button in the photo manip program.

Quote -      It isn't Poser;  it is your computer's repertoire of codecs that limits what AVIs you can use.

    

I did not know that. I thought all this time it was Poser since I can play these videos on just about every player on my computer. I thought I already had these codecs. So do I need to download a codec for Poser itself, or is it just a general system thing? Once again I know very little about video formatting, or even how exactly codecs work. All I know is that they have to do with the way the video is compressed. So what would I need to download to - for example - load a DV-AVI file? Or am I getting this wrong? Pretend I don't know anything (which isn't far from the truth ;)

(HotDog36)

Quote - ...I can play these videos on just about every player on my computer.

     I stand corrected, then.  Poser's movie node is essentially a player.  But I know of no way to rectify this so that Poser plays that AVI with that codec (do you know which codec was used?)

     The solution is still to load the AVI into a video editor (Magix Movie Editor?) and save an uncompressed copy -with a different name!- to use in Poser.

     If someone geekier than I knows of a solution, please chime in! :tongue2:

Thanks! I will try the uncompressed AVI. This is kind of a new area for me and I wanted to understand the workings of this feature a little better. Thank you for the help.

For stubborn AVI's, I use VirtualDub (it's a free program)

I load the AVI and choose "Save Old Format AVI" (of course, choose a new name)

I've never really messed with .avi in Poser but this problem seems to pop up fairly frequently. I don't know whether Poser is especially picky about codecs or what.

Get GSpot http://www.headbands.com/gspot/ It will tell you which video/audio codec an avi is using. If you have a clip that does work in Poser, you'll be able to see which codec works.

VirtualDub is great but I also use Avidemux http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/ for simple editing and transcoding (conversion).

You might also try Sherlock the Codec Detective. It was built for XP but is supposed to work on Vista. Maybe it will workk on Win7. It gives you details about the codecs installed on your system and their status i.e. if one is broken.

http://www.updatexp.com/sherlock-codec-detective.html

Hope that helps. 

Thank you. I think I will play around with VirtualDub to try to fix up some of these files. For some reason I never have heard of Avidemux before. There are so many "free" converters out there, but most of them are either viruses or trial versions that put watermarks on everything. Avidemux from what I have read seems pretty good. I will try that out as well.

The reason I don't just use Magix is because it doesn't take the video format I need it to read either. So I need to convert the file so Magix can read it, so I can convert it so Poser can read it. By the time it has been converted twice more the video quality really plummets and even then the avi output is kind of glitchy.

Just a note. If a file will play in Windows Media Player (WMP) then you should have the codec installed. Some of the popular players e.g. VLC pretty much have their own built in codecs so they may play a video even though the codec isn't available for WMP. Also, some installed codecs may be output only i.e. only the decompressor part and you can't use them to encode video. There are codec 'packs' available that offer a lot of codecs, but in general it is best not to use them. Try to find only the specific codec you need or install only that one from a pack. Currently, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC is quite popular (YouTube, BluRay etc) and produces very good size/quality and (IIRC) is built into AviDemux. I have no idea whether Poser will deal with it though :-)