Converting from SMV

NO you can never get something to play on all media players. There are too many different kinds. What players are you trying to get to work?

I assume you are trying to convert to a more popular format like mpeg. The trick will be to get a conversion progam to recognize the format Videolink uses. Output formats are no trouble, you jsut need to pick one. The easiest thing to do is see if Nandub or Virtual Dub can play your videolink file. If so then you can convert to many different other codecs. Download VD at <A HREF="http://www.doom9.org" target="_new">http://www.doom9.org&lt;/A>

Give me fuel, give me fire, give me that which I desire.

Hi LAKEDUDE,

the file is an .SMV file.
I tried V Dub & it would not recognise it. Yes I do want to turn it into a format like mpeg, something Windows media player can use.

Grateful for any more help,

Thanks,

James

What kind of software came with the camera? Does it have Video & Audio Capture and Video Editing software: MediaStudio Pro (by Ulead) or something similar??

Give me fuel, give me fire, give me that which I desire.

Ok I got another thing for you to try.

Download Graphedit and the filter pack for graphedit. Graphedit should install no problem but you will need to modify the batch file that comes with the filter pack to include a path to the install files to the registry. If you can't figure that out get regdrop and use it to register the filters.

Graph edit is really cool it allows you to link different software packages together by just drawing a line between them. Hopefully Graphedit can find the software you already have to play back smvs and use it to convert to another format. It is a little complicated at first but kinda fun once you understand what is going on.

Once you install Graphedit and the filters (which may come together in one download) click on render media file. Find your smv file and try to render it. Render = Play. Hopefully Graphedit will be able to play the smv file. If not we are still stuck. If it does play smvs then we have some work to do. Private mail me if you get GE to play your smv and I will help you figure it out.

I use GraphEdit to convert dvd sound to mp3. In Graphedit you insert filters to do each job in a chain. The Filters to convert dvd sound to mp3 sound are: Source, splitter, decode, encode, cleanup and file writer.

The first filter is Source and all it does is pick the file you are using as an input in my case a text file containing a list of vob files that contain both video and audio info from the dvd, in your case the list would name your smv file/s.

The next filter is splitter which is used to seperate audio from video. In my case I'm only interested in audio. In your case it will be video or both.

Next is decode, this is where the work is actually getting done. In my case the audio is decoded. From this point it could be rendered (played back to listen to) or re-encoded to another format. I re-encode to mp3.

Next step in my case is to re-encode to mp3. This is done with an encoder filter setup for the proper bitrate and sample frequency you need in the output. In your case you will have an mpeg filter in this spot.

The next step I really don't understand. All I know is that you need to have a filter called Wave Dest between the encoder and final output. You may not need this step.

Last is the file writer. You will need to pick a path and file name. This step actually saves the conversion to your hd instead of dumping it into the big bit bucket in the sky.

Give me fuel, give me fire, give me that which I desire.

Hey Lakedude,

Thanks for your help so far. I managed to read the file into the original application which produced it & then get it to change it into an executable that will run on its own. This will do the trick for the moment.

just for your info, the SMV file turned out to be a Smith Micro Video file, the company that make Videolink mail. No wonder no-one had heard of it.

Anyway, thanks again,

James

Hi James,
I hope you will get this message.
I have exactly the same problem that you had 7 years ago when you could not play your SMV files in windows XP.
I managed to get a copy of the videolink mail program but it did not play the SMV files, maybe because it is only compatible with Windows 98.
I know that you managed to solve your problem at the end by producing an executable files which runs without a player, but you did not say what this program is called?
if it is the original program then hoe did u manage to use it in windows xp?
Can you please advise?
Thanks.

Sam Daniel
England.