Hoople <hoople_ny@hotmail.com>The Cornell freeware version of CU-SeeMe is not distributed with any codec other than the grey scale (B/W) that is built in. A codec is a COmpression DECompression used to reduce the ammount on information that has to be sent accross a network connection to make up a frame of video. To see color video some type of color codec is required to be installed on your computer in addition to this CU-SeeMe software. Without it all color video senders cannot be opened and appear as "Lurkers" in the CU-SeeMe status window. The accepted video conferencing codec standard has become the M-JPEG. This codec was originally written by P-Matrix for White Pine software. Others have now entered the M-JPEG codec market as cited below.
cuseemeworld.com |
http://www.cuseemeworld.com/ | Probably the easiest installation of these here. Go to this website and click on Download CUseeMe Web and it will install the M-JPEG codec as well. Free!!!! Once it's installed you'll have a free, non-expiring MJPEG codec that will work with Cornell 1.0 (actually it installs m-jpeg, H.261 and H.263 but the H.261 isn't recognized by Cornell.) | Morgan Multimedia |
http://www.morgan-multimedia.com | Registration of this codec is $25 US. A tip from squeek: Go to Start/Settings/Control Panel/Multimedia/Devices. Expand the video compression codecs, then double click on the "Morgan Multimedia MJPEG 32-bits codec" entry, then click on Settings. In the settings dialog for the codec, turn off MMX in both the decompression AND the compression sections. Before I did this, all people saw of me was a grey screen. |
Pegasus Imaging |
http://www.jpg.com/products/picreg.html | $18 USD registration. The installation of the registration code that is e-mailed to you will remove the watermark logo in the video that appears otherwise. |
Main Concepts |
http://www.mainconcept.de/html/mjpeg_codec.html | After one hour use the encoded video will show company logo. This demo codec is fully functional except that a watermark is added. Upon purchase, the registered version will be sent by e-mail. Registration is 25$ US. |
Many vendors supply the codec as a single file with a wizard based installer. Download the codec and run the file by double clicking on it. One M-JPEG codec distribution that's not on above list supplies their codec as a DLL file and an INF file. For this type of codec for installation I have created a pictorial step-by-step procedure located here. This involves using the Control Panel, Add Hardware applet.
There are other color codecs as well that may be required in order to see 100% of all users. Not all versions of CU-SeeMe have the ability to send with M-JPEG version 1.xx for many reasons. These additional codecs are:
The Lucent H.263 codec is is a receive only codec useful for Cornell version 1.0 CU-SeeMe users. This make it possible to see White Pine CU-SeeMe 4.0 Pro users IF they are sending with the H.263 codec. White Pine CU-SeeMe version 2.x.x cannot use this as an extra codec, White Pine CU-SeeMe version 3.1.x has the H.263 codec built in (White Pine H.263 codec). An illustrated step-by-step installation directions page is located here. The H.263 codec uses a frame differencing algorithm (based on pixel mapping), and so the color video being sent doesn't span multiple packets.
The Indeo codec appears on many PC as they are installed by other programs. Usually versions 3.2 and 4.1 are installed though via Windows Media Player in WIN95/98. The video quality of those earlier versions is inferior to the video produced by the 5.11 version here: http://www.ligos.com. Download this file to upgrade the 3.x and 4.x on your computer at the same time as you will get some bug fixes and feature improvements.
Here is a listing of the codecs and the CU-seeMe versions associated with them. This is a short, probably incomplete listing.
CU-SeeMe Grey 1.0 --- Cornell 1.0b10 Mac OS PPCHoople <hoople_ny@hotmail.com>All contents © 1997-2002 by Hoople