Monday, January 3, 2005
Why Photostory 3 Video Won't Play on your Pocket PC Without WMP10 Mobile
Posted by Jason Dunn in "THOUGHT" @ 12:00 PM
When PhotoStory 3 came out, and I saw that it had video export templates for Pocket PCs and Smartphones, I immediately whipped up a video and tried to play it on my Orange C500 Smartphone...and only got audio. Puzzled, I started to dig deeper, and I eventually found the answer - and I wasn't pleased about it.
When Windows Media 9 Series came out, it introduced a series of new codecs that completely broke the Windows Media platform when it came to mobile devices. People using Windows Media Player 8 Mobile couldn't get a new version of the player, or the codecs, so there was a period of frustration and users had no choice but to buy new devices if they wanted to play back Windows Media content based on the 9 Series codecs. It was a frustrating period of time, and it upset a lot of people who felt they weren't getting the full benefit of their investment, but I thought that sort of thing would only happen once. I should have known better. :?
The exact same thing is happening again now with Windows Media Player 10 Mobile and certain types of video files. With no fanfare, two new types of video codecs were introduced to the Windows Media family: Windows Media Video 9 Advanced Profile and Windows Media Video 9 Image Version 2. The latter one is causing the problem, because that's the codec that Photo Story 3 uses. Here's a description of that codec and what it does:
"With this new codec, still images can be transformed into video by using pan, zoom, and various transition effects. By combining transitions with pans, zooms, and cross-fades, an almost unlimited number of effects can be created. The results can then be delivered at data rates as low as 20 kilobits per second (Kbps). These files, compressed using either constant-bit-rate (CBR) or one-pass variable-bit-rate (VBR) modes, can be shared easily because they are much smaller than the original image files. Note that Windows Media Video 9 Image version 2 is not compatible with the previous version of the codec."
So, in essence, this codec was needed in order for Photo Story to use the transitions from Windows Movie Maker. My question is, why? The Ken Burns-style photo zooms and pans are a perfect way to present photos. Cheesy video transitions might look good on a marketing bullet list, but in real life they should be avoided.
The story for owners of Pocket PCs without Windows Media Player 10 Mobile is grim: unless the OEM who made your device decides to release an update, you'll never get the player. And even though the codec is all you need, Microsoft has no system in place to update WMP9 Mobile with the new codec - even though, technically, it should be possible because it has a codec-pluggable architecture.
This is yet another sign that the OEMs who make and sell the devices want us to think of them as appliances, like a microwave, instead of real computers that can be updated with new software. :?
When Windows Media 9 Series came out, it introduced a series of new codecs that completely broke the Windows Media platform when it came to mobile devices. People using Windows Media Player 8 Mobile couldn't get a new version of the player, or the codecs, so there was a period of frustration and users had no choice but to buy new devices if they wanted to play back Windows Media content based on the 9 Series codecs. It was a frustrating period of time, and it upset a lot of people who felt they weren't getting the full benefit of their investment, but I thought that sort of thing would only happen once. I should have known better. :?
The exact same thing is happening again now with Windows Media Player 10 Mobile and certain types of video files. With no fanfare, two new types of video codecs were introduced to the Windows Media family: Windows Media Video 9 Advanced Profile and Windows Media Video 9 Image Version 2. The latter one is causing the problem, because that's the codec that Photo Story 3 uses. Here's a description of that codec and what it does:
"With this new codec, still images can be transformed into video by using pan, zoom, and various transition effects. By combining transitions with pans, zooms, and cross-fades, an almost unlimited number of effects can be created. The results can then be delivered at data rates as low as 20 kilobits per second (Kbps). These files, compressed using either constant-bit-rate (CBR) or one-pass variable-bit-rate (VBR) modes, can be shared easily because they are much smaller than the original image files. Note that Windows Media Video 9 Image version 2 is not compatible with the previous version of the codec."
So, in essence, this codec was needed in order for Photo Story to use the transitions from Windows Movie Maker. My question is, why? The Ken Burns-style photo zooms and pans are a perfect way to present photos. Cheesy video transitions might look good on a marketing bullet list, but in real life they should be avoided.
The story for owners of Pocket PCs without Windows Media Player 10 Mobile is grim: unless the OEM who made your device decides to release an update, you'll never get the player. And even though the codec is all you need, Microsoft has no system in place to update WMP9 Mobile with the new codec - even though, technically, it should be possible because it has a codec-pluggable architecture.
This is yet another sign that the OEMs who make and sell the devices want us to think of them as appliances, like a microwave, instead of real computers that can be updated with new software. :?
