A: This article specifically covers the video formats
used or considered for use up to Amiga Forever 6.0 (released in 2004). Amiga Forever
2005 and higher use industry-standard video DVDs.
In order to save disk space while trying to preserve
as much quality as possible, Amiga Forever contains videos which are "encoded" (compressed) using
the VC-1 codec, originally developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows Media 9 (WM9) technology
(where it was known as "VC-9" before being released as the
"VC-1" standard by the Society of
Motion Picture and Television Engineers). The videos on the Amiga
Forever 6.0 CD-ROM are stored in the "VIDEO" directory, and have names ending in
".WMV".
The video files can be played back with Windows Media Player
7.1 or higher on Windows, or with Windows Media Player 9 or higher
on Mac OS X. Microsoft also makes available an add-on to play
Windows Media files with Apple's QuickTime Player. VC-1-compatible players for GNU/Linux include Turbo Media
Player by Turbolinux and Xine (which requires some original
Microsoft DLLs).
The Amiga Forever 6.0 CD includes HighMAT data for HighMAT
video compatible DVD players. Additionally,
the Amiga Forever 6.0 CD is compatible with certain other DVD
players that can play back WM9 and VC-1 content.
For more information and downloads please refer to:
Please note that WM9/VC-1 is the codec used to compress videos in
Amiga Forever 6.0. Previous versions of Amiga Forever used the
MPEG-1 format.
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