How can other people view the movie I make in MATLAB using MOVIEAVI?

I sent an AVI to a customer that was created by:

movie2avi(movieSlice, 'Slice.avi', 'compression', 'none', 'fps', 10);

I can view the movie, but my customer cannot. Both of us are on Windows 7 64-bit.

1. I can see the video just fine in Windows Media Player.
2. I've tried every codec that has been suggested in the documentation (error messages are listed below). What do I need to do to create a video that my customer can view?
3. If I've done everything I can do, what can I tell my customer to use to view the video?

>> movie2avi(movieSlice, 'Slice.avi', 'compression', 'none', 'fps', 10);
>> movie2avi(movieSlice, 'Slice MSVC.avi', 'compression', 'MSVC', 'fps', 10);
Error using avifile/addframe (line 151)
Use a compression method other than RLE or MSVC for truecolor images.

Error in movie2avi (line 66)
avimov = addframe(avimov,mov);

>> movie2avi(movieSlice, 'Slice RLE.avi', 'compression', 'RLE', 'fps', 10);
Error using avifile/addframe (line 151)
Use a compression method other than RLE or MSVC for truecolor images.

Error in movie2avi (line 66)
avimov = addframe(avimov,mov);

>> movie2avi(movieSlice, 'Slice Cinepak.avi', 'compression', 'Cinepak', 'fps', 10);
Error using avifile (line 174)
The Cinepak codec is not supported in this version of Windows. Please
specify a different codec.

Error in movie2avi (line 65)
avimov = avifile(filename,varargin{:});

>> movie2avi(movieSlice, 'Slice Indeo3.avi', 'compression', 'Indeo3', 'fps', 10);
Error using avifile (line 174)
Indeo codecs are not supported in this version of Windows.  Please specify
a different codec.
See Mathworks Technical Solution 1-4G50RI for more information.

Error in movie2avi (line 65)
avimov = avifile(filename,varargin{:});

>> movie2avi(movieSlice, 'Slice Indeo5.avi', 'compression', 'Indeo5', 'fps', 10);
Error using avifile (line 174)
Indeo codecs are not supported in this version of Windows.  Please specify
a different codec.
See Mathworks Technical Solution 1-4G50RI for more information.

Error in movie2avi (line 65)
avimov = avifile(filename,varargin{:});

>>

Answer 1

[Dinesh Iyer]

movie2avi provided support a bunch of really old codecs and so the recommended way to export videos out of MATLAB is to use VideoWriter.

I am surprised that your customer is unable to view uncompressed AVI files on Windows Media Player because that is supported. Is he able to view any other files from other sources?

If your customer has MATLAB, then he can try to read it in using VideoReader and try to write it out again as an MPEG-4 file using VideoWriter which I am certain will work.

If not, the only option you have is to re-encode the video in a format like MPEG-4 and send it to your customer

Hope this helps.

Dinesh

[Brian]

My customer does not have Matlab, so I need to find a way for him to view my results.

Codecs are very frustrating. It does not seem easy to detect the codec used on a particular file. It also does not seem easy for me to determine the codecs on his machine. Finally, it seems that there is really only one coded supported by movie2avi. I will refactor my code with VideoWriter and hope he can view those results.

[Walter Roberson]

tl;dr -- it isn't movie2avi's fault about the codecs

Indeo3 playback is not supported in any 64 bit program; the people who designed the encoder consider Indeo3 to be obsolete and refuse to create a 64 bit library for it.

I am having difficulty determining whether any Indeo5 was ever made for 64 bit; the information I find suggests that it was not.

Newer versions of MS Windows do not install the Indeo* codecs even to run in 32 bit mode. One source I find that might work in 32 bit mode in 64 bit Windows is http://www.hubbywifey.com/computer_stuff/20100107_indeo_iv50_win7.htm . I find information indicating that Microsoft by default disables playing the Indeo codecs in Media Player in everything from Vista onwards.