SOLVED: Movie plays upside down on some computers!

[alkis21]

This is the weirdest problem I've come across. The fact that it only happens on a limited amount of computers with very different setups makes it even weirder.

I have this movie file that is played in the beginning of the game. It runs fine on most computers. Some people could not run it, so I asked them to download the latest DivX Codecs. They did, and they were able to run it fine with their video players... but when they ran the game, it was UPSIDE DOWN!

Does anyone have a clue what is going on? As the video players run it, it must be an AGS thing. And I can't even experiment as I have no problem with it in my PC.

[MrColossal]

google tells me this:

http://www.divxmovies.com/faq/#4.8

try that?

[Scummbuddy]

Now I feel silly for moving this to this Tech Forum, you one-upper.

We shall meet on the battle field of the Mittens Olympics this weekend and settle this!

[Gilbert]

Well, I think this is okay here, though the cause isn't really due to AGS, it's not a trivial problem that can be judged on at first sight.

[alkis21]

google tells me this:

http://www.divxmovies.com/faq/#4.8

try that?

But the movie does not play upside down in Windows, only in the game... I'll ask the person who has the problem to try it anyway and I'll get back to you.

[Gilbert]

Hmmm, try checking the default setting, of the codecs, etc. (if any, I'm just too lazy to find where they can be at the moment). AGS uses DirectPlay to play movies, if you just play them with Mplayer (or any other players you're using), chances are there're some settings in the player which overrides the default settings.

[Radiant]

But the movie does not play upside down in Windows, only in the game... I'll ask the person who has the problem to try it anyway and I'll get back to you.

The point still applies. Some applications look for codecs in a different order, and thus may yield different results.

[alkis21]

It didn't work... I'm open to more suggestions, other than the obvious of re-encoding the video.

[Pumaman]

I've seen this problem with some DivX codecs -- did you refer them to the official codec?

I think there's one codec that plays it upside down and then uses a filter to flip it, but AGS doesn't activate the filter whereas WMP does, so you end up with this effect.

[alkis21]

I've seen this problem with some DivX codecs -- did you refer them to the official codec?

Yes, I specifically referred them to divx.com.

EDIT: Never mind, we re-encoded the video in XviD instead of DivX and the problem appears to be solved (it's been tested on two out of the three problematic computers). Thank you all for trying to help.

[Pumaman]

Glad you got around it, but it's interesting to keep a track on these things.

[alkis21]

Aargh... the problem persists in the third computer!!! 

So I'm still open to suggestions if any exist.

[covox]

Do any of the computers have the Nimo Codec Pack installed? I remember that if you were silly enough to just tick every box and install the lot, you'd get a fair few DShow filters which do stupid things like flip the video. I think the offending filter was called "bicubic resize filter" or something like that.

[alkis21]

Never find, she finally got it after uninstalling her old DivX drivers... I will finally be able to upload my demo and hope there are no serious problems.

[fovmester]

I think there's one codec that plays it upside down and then uses a filter to flip it...

Is it just me or does that sound like a stupid way to implement a codec!?