9.1Installing the PC Software
If your video file is not an MPEG4 Simple Profile .avi file of the proper size, you will need to re-encode it using the following utilities. For the AV400, you will need to create an AVI file that is MPEG4 Simple Profile with a resolution up to 720 x 576 (depending on frame rate) and a sound track that is stereo MP3 or WAV. In actuality, in all cases, a resolution beyond 640x480 does not add any advantage.
Run the program SETUP.EXE (the Archos Installation Utility) found on the AV400 hard drive in /Data/PC Installation. Please install the programs in the following order.
DivX™ Codec
This software will install the DivX™ Compression/Decompression onto your PC. You should shut off any anti-virus programs when installing this or other codec software. This is not a program that is run by itself. Rather, it installs background software which allows your computer to do high quality video compression. This is the MPEG4 compressed video type that the AV400 knows how to play. You can find this codec software, as well as an application that allows you to play DivX™ videos on your PC, at the website www.divx.com.
Virtual Dub™
A utility for transcoding one video file into another. This is a general purpose transfer and cleanup utility which has many options allowing for even the most difficult video translations. When you install it with the Archos Installation Utility, it will automatically unzip. It will prompt you to save it to C:\Program Files\VirtualDub. You should use this default directory location. Otherwise you will have to instruct the MPG4 Translator program where to find it.
MPG4 Translator
This program, developed by Archos, is a “Front-end” for the Virtual Dub program. It has a simple interface which you use and it then tells Virtual Dub how to process the video file. It sets all the parameters for Virtual Dub specifically to create a video file in the right size and format to be read by the AV400. When you run it for the first time, the MPG4 Translator will need to locate the Virtual Dub program. If you did not install Virtual Dub in the default location, you will have to show the program where Virtual Dub is.
