More info:
These obscure codecs are used in many different cameras based on SunPlus’s chips. (http://www.sunplus.com.tw)
It appears they use a variety of fourcc’s (SP40 to SP47 and SP50 to SP59, possibly more); I noted which fourcc’s are covered next to the download links. The only fourcc’s you’ll likely ever encounter are SP44 and SP54.
For SP5x any of the downloads in the second section at the top of the page should work.
www.fourcc.org states SP54 is “Apparently a form of MJPEG but with some header or other missing” and offers a link to a nifty utility that will convert SP54 movies into MJPG movies: http://libland.fr.st/download.html (scroll down and look for SP54 converter; the file is in .tar.gz (GZipped TarBall) format and can be opened with 7-zip or WinRAR; Windows users want to locate sp54convert.exe, which is the command-line utility). Mac OS X users may be able to compile the source code and convert the SP54 file into MJPG for viewing in QuickTime.
Installation:
1. Download the above file, and extract it (with 7-zip or WinRAR for example). (Oddly, right clicking the .inf file and choosing Install doesn’t work. I haven’t figured out what all the files do, but this should work for installation.) Move the sp30_32.dll and sp3x_32.dll files to your Windows/System folder (Windows 95, 98, Me), WINNT/System32 folder (Windows NT 4, 2000), or Windows/System32 folder (Windows XP, 2003, Vista 32-bit).
2a. Windows 95, 98, and Me: Go to your Windows folder and find the file named system.ini. Under the [drivers32] section (or create it if it doesn’t exist) add the following line
VIDC.SP34=SP3X_32.DLL
2b. Windows NT 4, 2000, 2003, XP 32-bit and Vista 32-bit: Run the registry editor (click start, run, then type regedit and press enter). Navigate to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/Drivers32. Create a string value named VIDC.SP34 with value sp30_32.dll . Navigate to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/drivers.desc. Create a string value named sp30_32.dll with value “Sunplus 32-bit AVI compression driver” (without quotes). Create another string value named sp3x_32.dll with the same value (“Sunplus 32-bit AVI compression driver” without quotes).
To check you’ve installed the codec correctly run VirtualDub. Click Video, Compression. You should see the SunPlus codec listed.
— NEED VERIFICATION —
More Info: This SunPlus codec seems associated with the SPCA501C chip.
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