DVMP Pro 7 User Help

Video decoders are needed to play HDV (m2t), AVCHD (mts/m2ts), MPEG-2 Program Stream (mpg/vob/mod) files and MOV/MP4 files, and they are also used in DVMP Pro's Burn-in Time Stamp and Burn-in Metadata tools.

 

If you look in DVMP Pro's Tools > Options > Video Decoders menu you will see that there are several video decoders listed for each of the compression schemes used by most commonly used video cameras, such as HDV and AVCHD etc. For example, the MPEG-2 Video Decoder (which uses an MPEG-2 video compression scheme) is used for files recorded by HDV cameras and also many Sony HDD cameras.

 

 

When you click the Select button you will see a list of available video decoders on your computer - so if for example you click the Select button in the AVC/H.264 Video Decoder section you will see a list of video decoders that use the same compression scheme that is used by AVCHD cameras.

 

You can use the Select button to choose any of the available decoders - the chosen decoder will then be used to play (and burn-in) corresponding video files in DVMP Pro.

 

Because Intel video decoders (for the MPEG-2 and AVC/H.264 video compression schemes) are effectively built into most computers, when you first install DVMP Pro it will usually automatically select the Intel decoders for the MPEG-2 Video Decoder and the AVC/H.264 Video Decoder settings in Tools > Options > Video Decoders. Also a decoder that ships with Windows is automatically selected as the MPEG-4 Part 2 Video Decoder. In most cases these are the best choice, so you may never need to manually select a different decoder, but if you experience any problems or simply want to experiment with decoders from other suppliers then you are free to do so by selecting an alternative in Tools > Options > Video Decoders. The Intel video decoders provide the advantage of hardware acceleration on many computers, so you will probably not want to change these. You can find suggestions of alternative video decoders in the Decoder Recommendations section.

 

Audio Decoders

 

Some video cameras also compress the audio data using an audio encoder. There is therefore a section in Tools > Options > Audio Decoders for selecting audio decoders. Some video cameras use AC-3 as the audio compression scheme, and some others use AAC. When you first install DVMP Pro it will automatically select an AAC decoder that comes supplied with Windows as its AAC Audio Decoder. Also it automatically selects the Microsoft AC-3 Audio Decoder, "LAV Audio Decoder" or "AC3Filter" as the AC-3 Audio Decoder.

 

 

When a supported video file is opened or burned-in and there is no corresponding video or audio decoder selected in DVMP Pro's settings then an error message box will advise you to select one before proceeding. Because DVMP Pro automatically selects decoders that are available on most computers then you are unlikely to see any of these errors.

 

Note that some video and audio decoders perform better than others, and some just do not work well with DVMP Pro. This is one good reason to stick with the Intel video decoders unless you really want to experiment with others.

 

You can find more detail about decoders, encoders and how they work in DVMP Pro in the How Burn-in Works chapter.

 

The table below summaries the video and audio decoders commonly used for the supported file types.

 

Note that there are no video or audio decoder settings for any of the DV file types. These are a special case that do not require a video or audio decoder to be selected.

 

 

See Also:

What are Decoders

Decoder Recommendations