Can't play mpeg

[TheWarrior97]

I am venturing into creating my video karaoke with karaoke builder and nero. I have created avi and mpeg2. The avi seems to play on kjams..but I can't get the mpeg2 to play. I downloaded and placed in the folder as instructed on your site. But all it does when I play it is a black screen and the activity window says audio buffer and it slowly increases with to the right...but not as it normally does. instead of it changing from grey to purple...a block of purple moves toward the right side. Does this make sense?

[dave]

don't use mpeg2, first: it sucks, second: you have to pay for it due to licensing, third: it's hugely CPU intensive, fourth: there is a free alternative

please use mpeg4 instead (m4v)

[TheWarrior97]

Maybe I am doing something wrong. I tried AVI, mp4, & wmv with no luck. Is there a maximum size to the file that will play? They play with windows media player so I know they aren't corrupted. It appears like it is playing but no sound and no video.

[dave]

mp4 is supported. are you sure you have an mp4 file? if so, send it to me and i'll try. no there's no limit on file size.

wmv is not supported (but probably should be), kjams doesn't use windows media player.

[TheWarrior97]

Yes that worked rather well the re-encoded file. I was using Nero...they used to be a great program...not so sure anymore. Which version of quicktime re-encoded it?

[dave]

Just any version of QuickTime will do it. I used QuickTime 7

[TheWarrior97]

I don't have the purchased pro version of quicktime only the basic player. Is there a certain codec that kjams reads that maybe nero doesn't burn but quicktime does? Is wmv going to be a format in the future? actually it appears mv4 is an apple based mpeg4 and mp4 is not....hmm.

[dave]

mpeg4 and m4v are the same thing, just a different file extension. they are supported by quicktime and windows media and just about every media playback app there is.

if you export from QuickTime, you can use the AppleTV exporter (it exports mpeg4).

i recommend using HandBrake to do your encoding, it reads all formats, and exports well-formed mpeg4, and is free.

[TheWarrior97]

I have been trying handbrake out using mp4. My video and sound plays but they are very choppy to a stop.....go....stop speed. What settings do you recommend for recoding? Is there a setting in kjams that I didn't check?

Maybe it is the audio codec. coding mp3 or passthru mp3 gives me black screen. aac (flaac) gives me stop and go video. ACC (ffmpeg) gives me the closest to fluid video and sound except the video is a little on the slow motion side.

[dave]

don't go larger than 720p and set your bit rate to maybe 600kbps

i recommend 15-20fps

this is just cuz kjams doesn't use hardware to play back the video