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Trying to convert my videos into old enough codecs/containers to play on ancient PCs

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computerdude92

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Why would I do such a silly thing you might ask? Well, they are workout videos, so the playback quality does not matter to me. I found a website called cloudconvert.com and I tried a few settings for the conversion to the oldest stuff possible so I can play them on WMP 7.0 even.

The videos I have are .MPG with 720x480 resolution and 29FPS. The convert settings I chose are in the pic snapshot I have here:


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Image Screenshot-2024-10-30-04-12-54 hosted in ImgBB
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(Please double click on the image to view it in fullscreen)


The test PC I used was a Toshiba Tecra 8000 with a PII 366 cpu, 128MB ram, and 2.5MB video ram. OS is Win2k SP4.

I was unsuccessful in getting the converted files to play on WMP 7.0 and PowerDVD 4.0 XP. I then tried VLC 0.60 and only the video itself plays, but not the audio.

I'm not very familiar with video/audio codecs and containers. What are some examples of the oldest and most compatible? Do any of you know any better sites I can convert my files on?

Thanks for any help.
 
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Just convert them to standard MPEG1 / VideoCD files (352×240). That's easy to handle for a PII.

I would highly avoid xvid/divx-based codecs these days, as those were very bad hacks of a codec that became proper MPEG-4.
 
Hi, have you tried Xing MPEG player version 1.3 software? I used it on my win98 AMD k6 500 system back in the late 90's early 2000's. I still have my original 1.44 floppy disk software that came bundled with my gforce 2 graphics card or Yamaha sound card somewhere. I'm sure a Google search will find more info. Good luck.
 
You need MPEG1 for video cd-like which will most definitely play on a P2 machine. And if you have dvd decoder in it (many video cards from the era do) you can have dvd-video-like MPEG2. Anything newer most likely won't work.

Use ffmpeg and specify proper container/video codec/audio codec from the wiki.

xvid/divx are hacks and you won't have consistent results without addition software installed if it is your goal.
 
I had MPEG1 Video CDs playing fine on a Pentium 90 (non-MMX). Look up which video codecs your graphics card/chipset has hardware decoding support for (if any).
 
A 366mhz-ish Pentium II is about the floor for being able to handle DVD-quality MPEG2 video in software. I recall that my 400mhz Celeron desktop could play a DVD without a hardware MPEG decode chip, but it did have a much better video card than the OP's laptop that undoubtedly contributed something in terms of scaling/color space conversion/etc. And even with that it pretty much nailed the CPU to the wall doing it.

But MPEG2 isn't a particularly great codec to use for this kind of task; it's better quality than MPEG1 but only at fairly high bitrates. (read: large file sizes; figure around 2-3 gigs an hour for DVD quality.) MPEG-1 will look pretty bad but if you're willing to downscale to 320x240 you'll end up with something that will play on anything north of a Pentium and still be... okay, I guess, as long as you're looking at it from across the room or otherwise have really low standards.

If you really want a challenge try finding codecs to work on a 486 or lower. Cinepak, anyone?
 
MPEG2 is inefficient, true, if the pc won't do anything except playing it MPEG-4 Part 2 ("proper divx") might work, it needs more processor power to decode is I think most likely not supported by hardware, Tecra 8000 does seem to have DVD, so mpeg2 would be hardware decoded, but not mpeg4 + some mp3 for audio which is also taxing... I don't remember what system I had back then every pirated movie started to come out in mpeg4
 
Look at how bad the quality of the weezer video from the windows 95 CD is. That's probably what you need pattern after if you have any desire to go older than the PII you mentioed,
 
Maikudou said:
Tecra 8000 does seem to have DVD, so mpeg2 would be hardware decoded
Click to expand...

According to the specs I found online the models that came with a DVD ROM drive also came with a hardware decode chip, the ones that didn't, well, didn't.

MPEG-4 Part 2 may well *just* work on a machine of that caliber, I remember playing videos like that on that Celeron, and PIIIs that weren't much faster. But of course most modern MPEG-4 encoders use H.264 or other even more modern codecs, which definitely will not fly on a PII.
 
Thanks for your support so far!

Looks like FFmpeg is a command line program. I don't do well with non-GUI stuff, but I'll try it if there is no other option. Are there any other software recommendations please? I want to use an online free convert site that's simple to use. Is AVI the best container? I'll try MPEG1 as suggested.

I don't use Linux for anything much other than basic web surfing. It's too complicated getting some native software to install on Linux, but for Windows, the latest versions I use on my home machines is Windows XP and Windows 7. (No Internet use on those)
 
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DSC00212 hosted at ImgBB

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Here's this gem of a laptop with my living room setup. I use a wireless IR keyboard and a VGA to TV converter box.

Tecra runs Win2k handsomely, but it's kinda sad that it takes 2006 Audacity 35 minutes to export a 2.5 hour podcast in MP3 with this machine. It's funny to play with all right... ;);)

I love that it has Yamaha OPL3 MIDI too! And It's nice to have easy file transfers with Win2k using USB thumb drives. Someday I'll try Win95 on it.


BTW... How do you remove smileys that you've already put onto the text body? I wanted a funnier and more fitting one, but it looks like what I chose turned out good...
 
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computerdude92 said:
Thanks for your support so far!

Looks like FFmpeg is a command line program. I don't do well with non-GUI stuff, but I'll try it if there is no other option. Are there any other software recommendations please? I want to use an online free convert site that's simple to use. Is AVI the best container? I'll try MPEG1 as suggested.
Click to expand...
Try TMpgEnc:

TMPGEnc 2.525 Free Download - VideoHelp

Tmpgenc is a MPEG video encoder, convert to MPEG1(VCD) and MPEG2 (SVCD, DVD) with several settings and filters. Also basic MPEG1/MPGE2 joining, splitting, demultiplexing and multiplexing.
www.videohelp.com www.videohelp.com

It has free MPEG1 Video CD encoding, but the MPEG2 encoding was trialware.
 
If you decide to use ffmpeg, here are the commands for you case:

Code: 
# videocd-like, SD, mpeg container
ffmpeg -i your_source_file.mpg -map 0:v:0 -c:v mpeg1video -vf scale=352:-1 -b:v 1150K -map 0:a:0 -c:a mp2 output.mpg

# dvd max quality, SD
ffmpeg -i your_source_file.mpg -map 0:v:0 -c:v mpeg1video -vf scale=720:-1 -b:v 9M -map 0:a:0 -c:a mp2 output_dvd.mpg

# dvd-like but smaller 2Mbit bitrate, works ok in my tests
ffmpeg -i your_source_file.mpg -map 0:v:0 -c:v mpeg1video -vf scale=720:-1 -b:v 2M -map 0:a:0 -c:a mp2 output_dvd.mpg

# mpeg4 SD
ffmpeg -i your_source_file.mpg -map 0:v:0 -c:v mpeg4 -vf scale=720:-1 -b:v 2M -map 0:a:0 -c:a mp3 output_mpeg4.mpg

# to do all the same without resizing, remove "-vf scale=720:-1" part
 
Btw, all the apps and sites use ffmpeg behind the scenes, you don’t need to pay anything or send videos back and forth via internet for such tasks when a free local tool is readily available. But it’s up to you, of course.
 
Agree, I tried maximum bitrate MPEG1 supports, it’s good quality, just small picture. I can compare it to between live SD tv translation and factory made vhs tape if viewed on an analog tv.
 
Any reason you can't export them as raw uncompressed files? I know space might be an issue then but is it?
 
Won’t it be even more demanding in terms of IO throughput? I also don’t know many uncompressed formats with sound from Win9x era.
 
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