You may have seen a PD demo of an application called PlayAVI that went some way towards allowing us all to view PC format video clips. Now however the authors of PlayAVI, Warm Silence software, have produced a completely transparent way of incorporating foreign movie formats into RISC OS applications.
Like the best utilities, once installed you almost forget that MovieFS is there as it integrates so seamlessly into the desktop. Simply copy a set of files into your ARMovie application directory and run MovieFS on boot-up, and you can gain access to a whole range of movies and animations originating from the PC world.
Another simple utility supplied with the package allows CD ROM users to map PC format file extensions to standard Acorn file types, the upshot of which is that you can just double click on Video For Windows (AVI) files, or QuickTime movies and sit back as (in most cases) they spring to life on your desktop. Since MovieFS works as an addition to the Replay system, rather than an application in its own right, this means that any third party product that makes use of Replay can now work with foreign format movie files. So editing packages such as Empire and CineWorks, and multi-media authoring packages like Genesis are automatically extended to work with these new formats.
MovieFS is also capable of converting alien video clips to native Replay format - enabling you to distribute applications incorporating movie clips without the need for the MovieFS system. Simply by holding down shift and double clicking on the clip icon, you open a window containg a Replay file which can then be saved to disk - nothing could be easier. MovieFS is not infallible however, some clips still manage to trip it up, while others playback in audio only mode. This said, the package is under constant development and as upgrades become available they are expected to be offered free to registered users.
[Actually, files converted to Replay format still use the decompressors we supply. These are not distributable, though they can be licensed.] The main advantage for multi-media authors is that MovieFS opens up the huge libraries of royalty free clips, often available at pocket money prices. Obviously the cost of licensing and distributing video clips is huge, and while it might be worthwhile in the PC domain, the smaller worldwide base of Acorn equipment means that relatively few people have produced Replay compatible clip libraries. Thus MovieFS should solve the problem of sourcing high quality video clips for use with standard RISC OS applications.
Performance: **** (4/5)
Features: *** (3/5)
Value: **** (4/5)
Overall: **** (4/5)