Good you figured this out!

What program did you use to re-encode the videos? If it was ffmpeg (which seems to be the de-facto standard program to use by most nowadays?), what options did you use?

Just wondering if there was any noticeable hit to the video quality due to re-encoding the videos, or did you choose to do it lossless (which in turn could make the videos much bigger than the original videos)?

This just occurred to me as I've been trying to re-encode a few old MPEG-2 encoded videos I have into something else with ffmpeg, trying to find some good balance without causing too much hit to picture quality but getting lower file sizes.

Then again, IIRC the Two Worlds videos are quite low quality to begin with so maybe it is hard to notice any further artifacts...
I think even many media players like VLC tell you what video and audio format the original media uses, as long as it is something it understands. VLC tends to understand quite many formats.

In VLC: Tools => Codec Information

ffmpeg -i Cut3.wmv -vcodec wmv2 -acodec wmav2 -b 5000000 Cut3x.wmv

I had to add the bitrate (the originals are around 5000 kbps); without that parameter ffmpeg would transcode them to 200 kbps (or something like that)... for some weird reason.
The file sizes are about the same as the originals and they don't look any worse to me (I haven't done a side by side comparison).
There are GUI frontends for ffmpeg that do batch transcoding in Windows, but since there are only 10 files I did them one by one.

Thanks.

Yeah this is more about a principle than that there would be a real visual problem with the re-encoded videos. I guess re-encoding will always cause some slight decline in video quality, unless you do it totally lossless (e.g. using the "-crf 0" option in ffmpeg when re-encoding to H.264 or H.265 format) which in turn causes the videos gain more size compared to the originals, unless the originals were some kind of raw video format without any lossy encoding.

Just thinking whether I should keep the original VC1 videos somewhere, in case some future Windows update or whatever makes also the vmw2 videos fail, and they'd have to be re-encoded yet again. I guess at that point I'd rather re-encode them from the original vc1 files, than the re-encoded ones. Or something like that...

They're in the offline installer too. ;-)

This starts to be offtopic, but sharing this since this came up and I have recently googled for it.

In order to re-encode all files in your current directory with ffmpeg:

In Linux (in this example avi files are re-encoded to mp4 files):
for i in *.avi; do ffmpeg -i "$i" "${i%.*}.mp4"; done

In Windows (in this example flac files are encoded into mp3 files):
FOR /F "tokens=*" %G IN ('dir /b *.flac') DO ffmpeg -i "%G" -acodec mp3 "%~nG.mp3"

Those examples have to be edited with any ffmpeg options one wished to use, naturally. Or then use some frontend which has batch capability...

Yeah, but when GOG updates the offline installers with the re-encoded files... :) Dunno how future-proof vmw2 is then, can we expect that Windows and/or Linux (WINE?) in 2025 or 2030 can play them fine.

I just checked my handbrake ones with Gspot and wow you cant trust handbreak, or maybe im daft... this is fantastic and the quality didnt degrade at all. Awesome!

i also found this: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=33282 Its the .cab file from microsoft to re-add the VC1 codec back into the system. Even after installing it via the INF file it didnt work. re-encoding seems to be the trick.

I just played Two Worlds a few weeks ago on my Win 10 laptop and it played the opening and cut scenes just fine. Am I misunderstanding the issue here?

ADDED IN EDIT: Just to confirm, my version is completely unmodded with no "codec" files changed (whatever the hell codec files are lol). Just installed the game (GOG version) and have been playing it. It would suck not to get the cut scenes though as they are a major part of the story (and IMO usually quite entertaining... as in often very funny).

Anyway, I know it's a Win 10 laptop. I know it's 64 bit. What I'm not 100% sure about is whether of not it's Pro but I think it is. I'm on a different computer now that is in fact Win 10 64 bit Pro, but my memory as far as that last one I played on a few weeks ago is insisting that one was the Pro version too..... but I'm not 100% certain. I should get it back out and start it up and check... but given where I've stored it that's too much of a PITA lol.

What version of Windows 10, have you run all the latest (feature) updates for your Windows 10?

It seems this problem came with certain (feature?) update in Windows 10. Maybe Win10 dropped support for that codec that those videos need, or something.

In windows 10 Microsoft dropped support for the old WMP's w7, w8, w8.1, etc. Maybe the old wmp could be at fault, particularly if you did an upgrade instead of a new w10 install, forcing you to purchase the compatible wmp.. If someone were to purchase the w10 wmp from Microsoft, would that work? It's like that old saying, "Something's rotten in Denmark".

If by version you mean whether it's Pro or Home version, as I said above I'm not sure. And if you're talking about a specific numbered version, again, as I said above it's a bit too much of a PITA to go get it and fire it up and look.

As far as updates and such, yes, that laptop was completely up to date with any new "features" that Microsoft added. I do want to add though, as I've started several threads on the topic.... Microsoft updates VERY OFTEN break games for me. Games that would run fine one day would not run at all after an update. This has happened so frequently that now whenever I get an update, the very FIRST thing I do is start firing up all the games I have installed to see which ones (if any) are now broke. And the number of times something is broke far, far, and I mean far and away leads the number of times nothing was broke. But by discovering which game(s) it is, I can then get a headstart on finding any fixes for it.

One example would be Eschalon Book 1 (and 2.. not sure about 3). A Microsoft update borrked the hell out of them... but within a day I found a "fix" that returned my ability to play it again (IIRC it had something to do with "legacy gaming" or something that the update had unchecked and it needed to be checked).

I don't remember specifically Two Worlds being one of the games affected recently.... although I do remember it being one of the games an update broke... but that was like at least a year or more ago. And I don't remember the "fix" either. I just remember an update when I went through my ritual firing up all of my games that Two Worlds was one of them on an update some long time ago (it may have even been two years ago I dunno).

I feel very badly for those that have this issue because, as I sad, the cut scenes are an integral part of moving the story forward... and it's a good story (IMO). It's truly a great game IMO. I love it and have played it multiple times and have been thinking of playing it again now. Funny thing is though, despite loving the game and having played it multiple times.... I've still never even installed Two Worlds 2 despite owning it for several years. lol I'm not sure what's up with that.

When Microsoft reintroduced VC1 into the system, that was when windows 2000 was the latest version and it was for WMV9. Skip forward to Windows 10, just think of what was discontinued and what harmful content was introduced.

Before the 1909 update, the logon screen had a cave scene for background. Now at 1909, the background scene is blurred out! Something graphic related was left out!!!

Um, no, the blur is an intentional effect. If you don't like it you can switch it off.

There is no user interface for the setting though you have to do it through the policy editor. Or if you are using the Home version that does not use group policies you have to write the setting into the registry manually using regedit.

If you have no experience with using regedit I'd advise you to not use it yourself as you can easily screw your computer and end up having to reinstall Windows.

In this case just cut out the text below and save it to a file called "DisableLoginBlur.reg" (The extension .reg is important! Make sure you don't save as .reg.txt.) and double click the file. Confirm to write the setting into your registry. This may require administrative privileges.

After that the blur will be gone.

- cut here -
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System]
"DisableAcrylicBackgroundOnLogon"=dword:00000001
- cut here -

I'm using w10 pro. Ok on the reg edit option. Thanks

Hi teceem,

thanks for the solution!

Which tool did you use to convert the videos?
I would like to convert the german version of the videos. Handbrake seems not to be able to handle WMV. Google shows me outdated MS stuff which is not working under Windows 10.

Solved: WMV Converter 3.2 is a possible and working solution.