Supported Video Formats


can play all common digital video formats. However, not all formats work well with 's advanced playback features. Please consult the following table:

works best with the MPEG-1 and DV (pure digital video; the format you get when you directly upload uncompressed video from your digital video camera) video formats. With these formats, you will enjoy instant response times with all playback features. The advantage of using MPEG-1 over DV is that MPEG-1 offers high quality video at a relatively small file-size, which saves disk space. Thus, for most applications, MPEG-1 is the recommended format for use with .

generally works pretty well with the DivX format, however the response time for the jump forward and back features may not be instantaneous as they are in the MPEG-1 format. This delay depends on how the file was encoded.

Thanks to RPS's "converted" mode, Windows Media Video files will respond very well to ’s advanced playback controls.

To encode your own DivX files so that they work perfectly in (no delay when jumping), simply set the "Codec Performance" to "Fastest." This will give you a faster encoding time as well, but result in a somewhat lower quality image during playback. To also have the same higher quality image as before, simply increase the encoding bitrate somewhat (resulting in a somewhat larger file size.)

QuickTime video typically works quite well with 's advanced playback features, but this depends largely on the specific codec used to produce the file (some .mov files work better than others).

In order to play MPEG-2 video, you need a MPEG-2 codec loaded on your computer (sometimes an MPEG-2 codec comes with the DVD-player software that accompanies your DVD-ROM drive. Otherwise you may have to buy and install a MPEG-2 codec.) Assuming you have an MPEG-2 codec, can play MPEG-2 files. However the frame-by-frame and jump forward and back features are not reliable for this format. (Depending on how the file was encoded jumping forward and back may work quite well, but frame-by-frame is unlikely to work well.) Therefore, we recommend converting MPEG-2 video to MPEG-1 format. Doing this will also save you disk space, with hardly any noticable degradation in video quality.

Assuming you have an MPEG-2 codecs, DVDs might be directly viewable using by directly opening the .vob files. However, this is unreliable at best (it will work some of the time.) Furthermore, the response times for 's advanced playback features may vary widely, depending on how the DVD was created. As such, we recommend converting the content of DVD discs (the .vob files) directly to MPEG-1. Doing this will ensure instant response times with the advanced playback features. Also, ’s cataloging feature can effectively re-create the functionality of the DVD menus, and will give you much more flexibility in designating the clips you want to see, anyway.

Bottom Line: If you have digital video files in a format that doesn't work well with 's advanced playback controls, we recommend you convert those files to the MPEG-1 format. Find out how to do this on the next page!