FOURCC code "VGPX" error

Stone

Guest

Greetings,

I’m looking for the alaris webcam codec to view a few videos that I created of my kids. I cannot find the software or codec. Can you help please.

Thanks in advance for all your help

John

Guest

I believe the VGPX codec is available at

www.freecodecs.net/files/Alaris.zip

However, there are no install routines with the zip file - just a .inf

I haven’t figured out how to install for XP, so don’t ask.

Ames

Guest

Did you figure out how to install this codec on XP? I can’t even register the DLL. Thanks.

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I examined the inf file, and it turns out it was intended for an installation on Windows 9x, and possibly Me (it puts the necessary info in the system.ini file). (For those who have win 9x or me, just right click the inf file and choose install).

It’ll take a bit of work to get the thing installed in Windows NT, 2000 or XP.
So you have your zip file. Just extract the contents, and move the file vgpix32d.dll to your system32 folder (windows/system32 on xp, winnt/system32 on NT/2000).
Next run the registry editor - go to the start menu, choose run, then type regedit.exe. Navigate to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Drivers32. If you scroll down a little on the right you’ll notice the pattern string value name:vidc.[fourcc] with value:[name of codec file]. Go to edit, new, string value. Name it VIDC.VGPX Then double click it and for value put vgpix32d.dll
Next, go to the key (“folder”) just above that (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\drivers.desc). Create another string value named vgpix32d.dll Then for value put in “Alaris VGPixel 32-bit AVI compression driver”, without quotes.
To check you’ve done this right, go to your control panel, sound and multimedia, hardware tab, and video codecs (at the very bottom). You should see the Alaris codec listed.

Normally I check via VirtualDub, by going to video, compression. The list of codecs will be listed on the left. In this case I didn’t find the Alaris codec, so I could only take a wild guess that it’s a DirectShow codec. (This kind of makes sense, since when you go to advanced properties in control panel it has a box that allows using DirectDraw). Actually it does have a VfW module (since samples are openable in VirtualDub). Encoding might just not be enabled.

Let me know if this works!

Last edited 16 Jan 2009 09:07 am by anonymous

Ames

Guest

Thanks. That works, it does install it. Unfortunately it didn’t work for the video I was trying to play though. Thanks again.

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Sometimes avi’s get truncated, so it’s good to try an alternative player like avipreview or media player classic too.

Brian Kenney

Guest

Your solution worked perfectly. I had an old Alaris webcam years ago when I was still running Win98 and I desperately needed to view and archive some old videos shot using their obscure codec. Thanks to your fix I was able to import them successfully into Adobe Premiere and then resave them as DivX files. Kudos!

anon

Guest

i have been looking for a solution to this for like a year... thank you.

Lasvan Chareunchit

Guest

I tried it on xp and it didnt’work. Is there a difference if it’s a USB or Parallel Port Alaris cam??

burnt

Guest

I also have 5 year old home video from alaris of great sentimental value.

anon, you are brilliant. But, although the codecs show up everywhere you said, since I followed your XP instructions, I see a thumbnail snapshot of the video BUT IT STILL WON’T RUN the picture.

Perhaps there is a web service that can accept the files and convert them to a viewable format for a fee? Like mpg or wmv?

Is there ANY thing else I can do?

I had the old parallel port webcam, not USB back then...

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I finally got my hands on some VGPX samples (thanks to compn from the mplayer project) to test the solution I posted years ago. It works, but there’s a couple of bugs. The DirectShow part of the codec doesn’t seem to work (at least on newer versions of Windows - I just get a black screen).
The fix (in Windows XP) is to go to Control Panel, Sounds and Audio Devices (Sounds and Multimedia in Windows 2000), go to the hardware tab and open video compression. Double-click on the entry for the Alaris codec, and UNcheck the box that enables DirectDraw.
You can also play and/or open and edit the videos in VirtualDub (this latter fact shows the decoder is also VfW (Video for Windows)).

Last edited 16 Jan 2009 09:04 am by anonymous

toast

Guest

Amazing! I tried to google this and nothing would help me, but this thread has finally gotten my Weecam videos to play. Thank you SO much! You have no idea how appreciative I am.