I can't view quicktime movies on this machice and seeing as it's a speech would prefer just to listen anyway. Any chance you could rip and upload the audio as an MP3 or OGG file?

 http://radio.indymedia.org

Is it REALLY neccessary to use the APPLE proprietary version of MPEG4 for the video, rather than an open standard that would play OK in normal media players. Support OPENSOURCE like XVID, please.

I am reluctant to install more APPLE crap (their media players on the PC are the worst in the world, and they use the WORST MPEG4 codec- 3ivx). Anyone know how to get sound from this clip under other players? The video comes through silent, when force decoded by a different MPEG4 codec.

if you want to watch the film rather than harping on about codecs then download and install an open source player like VLC. It plays virtually everything and until we all encode our videos with the same open source codecs which isn't very likely just play them with this or mplayer.

 http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

nice video by the way and nice one for publishing it so quickly :)

We're grateful to anyone who uploads their videos. But video producers, please please please think carefully about the encoding format used. Quicktime is one of the most atrociously behaved bits of software going. For a start, unlike Apple machines, windows boxes don't even have it installed off the shelf and the software is a very hefty download (broadband and some technical knowledge necessary) so relatively few people are up to downloading and installing it. So straight off, you're massively restricting the number of folks likely to see your video which is hardly in anyone's interest. By default, the quicktime player agressively takes over the playback of just about every other video format. To change this dreadful default, you have to dive into fairly techie settings which most people aren't up to. The player has a weird, totally non standard interface. And cop this - only when you come to uninstall the software does it tell you then that if you try and uninstall all parts of it then that may cause problems.

And then there's Real player. Once again, this doesn't come installed by default and the player is a hefty download. Real player is notorious for containing some of the most aggressive spyware around. By default, it reports back to Real networks the details of every video clip that you play with it and where it came from. Are you happy with that? The playback area is tiny compared with all the surrounding adverts, offers and other bollocks cluttering up the screen.

So please video producers, try using Xvid available from:
 http://www.free-codecs.com/
and other places. Also consider using WMV as, even though WMV is another proprietry encoding format, at least windows boxes - that's 90% of users - can play such clips automatically without having to manually install codecs etc.

For those viewers who want to be able to view just about all the various commonly used formats of video clips without buggering up their windows PC then I'd recommend the following simple setup: Firstly uninstall any existing quicktime and real players. Then install the following 3 items only all from :

http:www.free-codecs.com

Download and install Quick time alternative. This is just the codec part without the awful player. However I suspect that the uninstall may still cause problems though I'm not certain on this.

Download and install Real alternative. Again this is just the codec part of real player without the junk and spyware riddled crappy player.

Download and install the Koepi Xvid codec. This single tiny codec will allow you to play not only Xvid encoded clips but also Divx (it's commercial rival).

Do NOT be tempted to install any of the codec packs you'll see on offer. These are notorious for bloating your PC with obscure and unnecessary video stuff nearly always to it's detriment.

Glossary:
Codec stands for compressor/decompressor. Nearly all video formats are highly compressed to make them small enough to realistically download. A codec is a small bit of software that plugs into your operating system enabling it to understand how to interpret and therefore play back a particular video encoding format.

hope this helps

I did what you said. I uninstalled Real Player and installed Real alternative and guess what : I couldn't play the US antiwar rally files with it. I had to reinstall Real Player. Also Real Player does not seem to report anything to Real Networks unlike you say.

Get to know what you are speaking about next time.

audio version is at  http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2005/09/6971.php