3ivX video codec playback support in XBMC

[webMASTER_P]

i've been raking my breain and searching this and xbox-scene forums for a few days and i can't seem to figure out how make that movie play. i am not sure now it was encoded, but the name is movie.xl.3ivx.mov renaming the extension to .avi also works. both play in windows. i downloaded the latest codecs from the site in readme and still no luck
any help is greatly apreciated.

[edit]
in my defence, i didn't ask to write a new codec, i read the sticky at the top. why the thread got moved here, i am not sure. anyway, see my reply below on how to get this to work.

[alex23]

hey man,

i just found this out myself, the format is called 3ivx and is based on mpeg-4. you can find out more about it at http://www.3ivx.com/

quicktime plays it natively but it doesn't look like there's any support in xbmc for it yet.

if there is, someone please correct me, because that'd make me very happy :)

[Gamester17]

no, there is no support for 3ivx in xbmc, not even mplayer support 3ivx as far as i know (3ivx is a propriotory codec format)

[webMASTER_P]

oh well, i guess that wont work
is there an app out there that can help me re-encode it to something like divx?

[Chilly_Willy]

i have a 3ivx.mov sample of a movie and it plays fine on my xbmc (9-03-2004 build)

[Gamester17]

forgot to mention that there is many version of 3ivx, maybe mplayer/xbmc supports the earlier versions, but sertinely not the later/latest

[webMASTER_P]

oh well, i am sure someone will write the codec for mplayer eventually

[webMASTER_P]

ok, got it to work, sort of
i just donwloaded a free trial of dr. divx http://www.divx.com/divx/ and converted the movie to divx
the only problem, is that it took like 15 hours to do that for a 2:50 hour movie

wanted to throw the info out there in case someone does a search for this topic.

[slideaway]

hi folks,

i have version 2004-04-30 (y) of xbmc. im trying to play 3ivx files but im having no joy. the 3ivx files have the *.mov extension and when i select to play one the scrolling file name stops a second then starts scrolling again.

ive played the files fine in winxp using version d4 451 codec from 3ivx.com and windows media player classic.

ive installed nearly all the codecs onto the xbox :

all-in-one end-user package (dmo,indeo,qt,real,3ivx)
latest win32 codecpack
quicktime5 dlls (used by the developers)
quicktime6 dlls (should be faster)
quicktime extra dlls (3ivx, zygo, etc)
xanim dlls (including 3ivx, indeo3/4/5!)

but still no joy - anybody out there who can help??

[slideaway]

has anybody been able to plat newly encoaded 3ivx files or is it something wrong with my config?

thanx

slideaway

[Butcher]

most quicktime formats are not supported. xbmc doesn't use most of the codecs you have installed - only those listed in the readme in the codecs directory.

[Gamester17]

you can find the up-to-date list of supported codecs in xbmc here (link) (http://www.xboxmediacenter.com/info_project.htm), if the codec is not listed then it's not supported, read this (link) (http://www.xboxmediaplayer.de/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.pl?act=st;f=4;t=1921)

[slideaway]

cheers ppl,

guess i'll have to wait till someone makes a codec for xbmc.... strange thing is, i have an old 3ivx file and it works fine..

cheers

slideaway

[Gamester17]

strange thing is, i have an old 3ivx file and it works fine.my guess is that container problebly has an 'old' compatible codec that ffmpeg supports (like mpeg4,vp3,svq1 or svq3)

[Vesh]

<span style='font-size:7pt;line-height:100%'>this is not a feature request</span>

i've searched here for information about 3ivx playback. seems results are spotty depending on container, so i thought getting this movie to play smoothly (it plays in xbmc [06-06] but choppy - lots of chunkiness, droppeds, earlies, lates) in xbmc was hopeless.

but then i tried it in xbmp and it plays smoothly except for a very bright, saturated strip of discoloration on the top of the video. i've played the movie on the pc in media player classic though ffdshow ("other mpeg4", libavcodec) and the edges as well as the picture quality are sharp and solid so i'm fairly certain the playback performance in xbmc and the discoloration in xbmp are not the result of a bad encoding job.

gspot proved it's uselessness by simply calling it standard quicktime. i've opened the file in a hex editor and all i can be sure of is that the audio is mp4a. i suspect the video is 3iv2 since in xbmc, without modifying codecs.conf, it's playing through the ffodivx "ffmpeg mpeg-4" videocodec set.

am i sunk? is it hopeless? is there no way to get it to play with the clarity of xbmc with the performance seen in xbmp? or do i just have to wait for some kind soul to get something going on the xbox 3ivx codec end? =p

[Gamester17]

this is not a feature requestwhy is this not a feature request (http://www.xboxmediaplayer.de/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.pl?act=st;f=4;t=2696)?, 3ivx is officialy not supported by xbmc, see http://www.xboxmediacenter.de/info_project.htm

what is the fourcc of the audio and video coded of the media file. does the same file play on a pc in mplayer for windows/linux?

[Vesh]

<s>those answers are all in the post.</s> ah, missed the all-important "in mplayer" bit. hold on (dont love it, dont have it - gotta grab).

plays fine.

according to mplayer:
mp4a
mp4v '3ivx d4 4.5'

[Gamester17]

@vesh, you still haven't answered my fourcc codec question, xbmc does not show that. you need to use some third-party application (http://www.fourcc.org/codecs.php).

ps! as you can see on mplayer's website, mplayer does not nativly support any 3ivx codecs, fourcc "3iv1" is supported on mplayer for linux/windows through win32 dll's, dll's which xbmc does not support, (xbmc almost only support native mplayer codecs (http://www.xboxmediaplayer.de/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.pl?act=st;f=4;t=1921)):
http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/design7/info.html
http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/codecs-status.html

[Gamester17]

according to mplayer:
mp4a
mp4v '3ivx d4 4.5'xbmc will try to play "mp4v" with ffmpeg mpeg-4 (mplayer native codec), not fully compatible so will cause the symtoms you see.
mplayer on pc on the other hand will likely play same with with "win32/quicktime mpeg-4 decoder" (quicktime.qts = win32 dll).

i'm merging your post into the existing feature suggestion thread for real 3ivx codec support as this is not yet supported by xbmc.

[Vesh]

*nods* especially when i saw the color band, i knew it was a best-match-not-close-enough situation. was just hoping for a band-aid that now i know isn't available.

thank ya for the time and clear response, though. at least now i can get on with other things. =]

[Crackbaby]

i tried several .xl.3ivx.mov on my xbox and some worked fine which was very nice... of the seven i have it looks like 3 work just fine and the other four don't work right. the three that work fine have multiple audio streams and the ones that don't work only have one audio stream. do you have an idea of what would be causing this?
they all play fine in mplayer
they are all encoded with qt aac audio and mp4 video.
looking at the information that mplayer spits out the only difference between the two is the ones with multiple audio streams have more tracks


works:
quicktime/mov file format detected.
--------------
mov track #0: 26780 chunks, 239247 samples
audio bits: 16 *chans: 2 *rate: 44100
audio extra header: len=103 *fcc=0x77617665
mov: found mpeg4 audio elementary stream descriptor atom (51)!
fourcc: mp4a
--------------
mov track #1: 22222 chunks, 133192 samples
mov: found mpeg4 movie elementary stream descriptor atom (86)!
image size: 712 x 360 (32 bpp)
display size: 865 x 360
fourcc: mp4v *codec: '3ivx d4 4.5'
--------------
mov track #2: 26351 chunks, 239247 samples
audio bits: 16 *chans: 2 *rate: 44100
audio extra header: len=103 *fcc=0x77617665
mov: found mpeg4 audio elementary stream descriptor atom (51)!
fourcc: mp4a
--------------
mov track #3: 24 chunks, 24 samples
generic track - not completely understood! (id: 3)
--------------
mov: longest streams: a: #0 (239247 samples) *v: #1 (133192 samples)
clip info:
name: rushmore
copyright: 1998
comments: encoded by bennyjhonson
================================================== ========================


doesn't work:
quicktime/mov file format detected.
compressed header uses zlib algo!
compressed header size: 1669558 / 3977122
--------------
mov track #0: 46101 chunks, 413123 samples
audio bits: 16 *chans: 2 *rate: 44100
audio extra header: len=103 *fcc=0x77617665
mov: found mpeg4 audio elementary stream descriptor atom (51)!
fourcc: mp4a
--------------
mov track #1: 38390 chunks, 239868 samples
mov: found mpeg4 movie elementary stream descriptor atom (87)!
image size: 712 x 416 (32 bpp)
display size: 1038 x 416
fourcc: mp4v *codec: '3ivx d4 4.5'
--------------
mov track #2: 24 chunks, 24 samples
generic track - not completely understood! (id: 2)
--------------
mov: longest streams: a: #0 (413123 samples) *v: #1 (239868 samples)
clip info:
copyright: 2002
comments: encoded by midi3e
name: gangs of new york
================================================== ========================

i deleted all of the qt codecs out of the mplayer codecs directory and all of the movies still played fine, have any ideas?

[Crackbaby]

i think the real reason that they are not working is that the 4 that don't work have this:
compressed header uses zlib algo!
compressed header size: 1235012 / 2880069

the ones that work don't have the compressed header.
any ideas?
and i guess a fix would be to replace the header with one that is not compressed. is there a good tool to do that?

[Crackbaby]

3ivx makes 100% compatible mpeg 4 files... the problem is the compressed header in the quicktime file. zlib compression support needs to be added to xbmc to make it work. take the exact same file, demux it, then remux it with a standard qt header results in it playing fine. even the multiple audio stream ones.

see in the mplayer installation guide:
intstall guide (http://www.mplayerhq.hu/docs/html/en/install.html)
in the software requirements section:
zlib - recommended, necessary for compressed mov header and png support.

i wish i could code better i'd add it myself.
the zlib site:
zlib main site (http://www.gzip.org/zlib/)

i saw somewhere you need to add a compile flag when compiling mplayer to add support but i can't find that page again.

-edit-
you have png support so the zlib library is already partially implemented, it just needs to be implemented on the video side.

[Crackbaby]

well i am a little disapointed. i figured out what was going on on the mpeg4 .mov that was breaking playback on them and you didn't even reply that you weren't going to implement it. i have found an alternate solution to get them to play. i don't think adding zlib support would be that hard.

[appleguru]

i'm not sure why, but some 3ivx xl .movs (3ivx mpeg-4 enocded video; aac audio in a .mov container) play fine whereas others do not play at all (upon selecting them, xbmc just acts like nothing happened...) i'll look into it a bit more and see if i can determine any differences between the files that work and the ones that don't... i can also provide test clips if needed.

[deltop]

make sure you test them with a win32 build of mplayer, latest version is mplayer-pre05 (which will be implemented into xbmc soonish afaik).

if they don't work with mplayer you 'll have to wait until the mplayer devs fix the problem.

http://www.christianroessler.net/mplayer/index.php

you might also want to check into 3ivx's compatabilty with ffmpeg which is what mplayer uses to decode mpeg-4 streams. generally they should work, but unless 3ivx is directly supported (unlikely since it's a propriety codec) some may not which is most likely the problem here.

[appleguru]

they *all* work fine in the latest mplayer on the pc (well, fine shortof a few audio synch issues with a few files... ;))

i've yet to look at the differences in the files, but in terms of the video bitstream, 3ivx is 100% mpeg-4 spec compliant (ie, it's all mpeg-4 video). i have a feeling this bug is somewhere in the .mov parsing ;)

[appleguru]

ok; found the commonality between files that play and files that don't:

compressed headers.

those with compressed movie atoms do not play; those without do... any idea on a fix?

[deltop]

ah yes now i remember, yep this needs to be implemented in xbmc.

it's been brought up before. if you do a search you should find the relevant posts on the problem. if you could add your support to one of the existing threads on the subject in feature suggestions that'd be great.

[appleguru]

thanks for moving/combining my thread with this one; glad to see that it's not just me 8)

well, okay then, add another request for zlib compressed movie headers support to the list :-d

[appleguru]

btw, for those following: official feature request for this on xbmc's sourceforge page:

https://sourceforge.net/tracker....=581841 (https://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1000518&group_id=87054&atid=581841)

looks like this will be added soonish :d

/me rejoices and thanks all the xbmc devs for their hard work.

[Crackbaby]

thats what i said 2 weeks ago, did you read the previous posts?

[appleguru]

yes, i did. (my posts originated in a thread i started before i knew of this one's existence; they have been merged.)

[Crackbaby]

cool.. i like your tracker. btw

[appleguru]

well, at least xbmc (with the mplayer core updatded to pre5) now plays .movs with compressed headers...

now if its .mov parsing was more roboust and it could playback my .movs that start with flash menus or sprite tracks (ignoring the tracks it can't play) as well as playing back .movs with mutiple audio/video tracks (a selection menu would kick ass!) then i'd be the happiest man alive :p

[elupus]

i find it very weird that 3ivx doesn't playback in xbmc acually. if i remeber correctly 3ivx is supposed to be confirming to mpeg4 specs entirely, it should be playable by ffmpeg which is used in mplayer. will se if i can find a sample and figure it out.

[ezar2003]

@elupus: you can download samples here (ftp://ftp.mplayerhq.hu/mplayer/samples/v-codecs/3ivx)

http://www.telefonica.net/web2/ezarzone/image_3iv1.jpg

for i play this files, i use:
a) this mplayer (http://www.telefonica.net/web2/ezarzone/mplayer.rar) (unrar mplayer and codecs.conf and copy in mplayer dir)
b) this codecs (http://www.telefonica.net/web2/ezarzone/qtextras.rar) (unrar and copy in mplayer\codecs)
c) xbmc 2004-08-29 and some modif that are in sf.

@appleguru: can you test with your xbmc? (download a) and b) and it works firts time!)

[appleguru]

@elupus... no, 3ivx plays fine in xbmc... who said it didn't? :d

this thread was about compressed header support, which the latest build of mplayer (pre5, which you updated to core to) fixes.

my comment about more robust .mov parsing still stands tho :p

maybe i'll make another post, but here's what i mean for now:

1. read metadata in .movs (title, performers, date, comments, etc)

2. not fail on .movs that contain some tracks xbmc can play and some that it can't (ie .movs with flash/sprite menus but still 3ivx mpeg-4 video/mpeg-4 audio)

3. have some way to eanable/disable playback of multiple audio/video tracks (and to enable the playback of such .movs)

4. support for quicktime text tracks (for movies with subtitles, etc)

5. support quicktime chapter markers (a subset of text tracks really) for easy movie navigation...

btw, i can provide sample clips for... all of these kinds of .movs ;)

[deltop]

appleguru: is any of this supported in mplayer?

not sure where you would go to get a build to run on your platform, but if you can hunt down a copy and check then you'll know if it's possible to support it in xbmc.

if mplayer doesn't support these features then you won't see it in xbmc until it does.

mplayer supports sub and audio tracks in ogm and matroska, since they are widely used (although no chapter support yet), but to be honest the .mov container seems to be not much in use apart from in movie trailers, from what little research i've done on the subject .mov isn't highly thought of at all (at least not on the mplayer mailing list lol).