A special software codec is necessary for playback of the recorded MPEG-4 sequences. Even though the files put out by Flask Mpeg have the ending .AVI they are definitely MPEG-4 files. Currently Divx is the best codec, which is available as Freeware under DivX ;-) . The audio/video drivers for MPEG-4 playback are added as plug-in to the existing Microsoft player (included in the operating system of Windows 98 SE or Windows 2000).

Divx is currently the best software codec for MPEG-4.

The software codec (Divx is shown in the picture) is accessed during playback of a MPEG-4 file.

The Divx codec can be adapted to the individual requirements. But be careful: The CPU load is always very high.

This picture shows both the MPEG-4 codecs for video that are found in the system control.

One thing must be made very clear at this point: Playback of MPEG-4 encoded video movies requires very sophisticated hardware. In our test we used a system containing an AMD Thunderbird with 800 MHz and 128 MB of memory. After all, at full screen playback (1024 x 768 x 16) of the video encoded with 720 x 576, the CPU load under Windows 2000 was almost at 80 percent. However, friends of socket7 platforms are going to be disappointed: When we tested it with an AMD K6-2/450 the playback was not smooth.

Encoding MPEG-2 files with the FlaskMpeg program requires even more computing power. Completely converting a DVD video into MPEG-4 format usually takes about 10 hours. Again, the speed greatly depends on the processor used. Otherwise the system requirements for converting video from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 format are relatively low.

Requirements For Copying DVDs

• PC system with DVD-ROM drive (country code perhaps enabled)
• Processor from 450 MHz, because of high computer power requirements
• Windows 98 or Windows 2000
• Flask Mpeg and Divx software codec

This image shows the details of a video film encoded in MPEG-4. This file runs over 108 minutes with full resolution, only takes up 698 MB and thus fits on a CD-ROM.

High picture quality despite high resolution: This sequence is from a movie and has a data rate of 110 kB per second.