guys, discover this GREAT video editor "AVIEDIT" work well in windows XP and generate compatible AVI with VFM, even first one for 286

For my 286 25mhz, i can have fullscreen smoth video at 288x192 12fps 11khz PCM sound and 200k data rate using msvideo 1. The trick is to select interleave every frame

Upload here!

Here is the ffmpeg command i use for create AVI that can work with aviedit, need virtualdub in same directory

1ffmpeg -i in.mkv -vf "subtitles=in.mkv,scale=272:176,fps=12,eq=brightness=-0.05:contrast=1.05,palettegen" palette.png
2
3ffmpeg -i in.mkv -i palette.png -filter_complex "subtitles=in.mkv,scale=272:176,fps=12,eq=brightness=-0.1:contrast=1.1[vid];[vid][1:v]paletteuse=dither=bayer" -pix_fmt pal8 -c:v rawvideo -af "aformat=sample_fmts=s16,aresample=11025:dither_method=shibata" -ac 1 -c:a pcm_u8 out.avi
4
5virtualdub /s rawavi.vdscript /p out.avi raw.avi /r /x

Attach the virtualdub project

Is more or less automatic, i can convert a MKV with subtittles to 286 without much interaction, most are automatic. I already made a lot of content to play in my 286. Is amazing, one of my childhood dreams

Thank you very much! ^^

theelf wrote on 2026-02-23, 17:07:

Here is the ffmpeg command i use for create AVI that can work with aviedit, need virtualdub in same directory […]
Show full quote

Here is the ffmpeg command i use for create AVI that can work with aviedit, need virtualdub in same directory

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1ffmpeg -i in.mkv -vf "subtitles=in.mkv,scale=272:176,fps=12,eq=brightness=-0.05:contrast=1.05,palettegen" palette.png
2
3ffmpeg -i in.mkv -i palette.png -filter_complex "subtitles=in.mkv,scale=272:176,fps=12,eq=brightness=-0.1:contrast=1.1[vid];[vid][1:v]paletteuse=dither=bayer" -pix_fmt pal8 -c:v rawvideo -af "aformat=sample_fmts=s16,aresample=11025:dither_method=shibata" -ac 1 -c:a pcm_u8 out.avi
4
5virtualdub /s rawavi.vdscript /p out.avi raw.avi /r /x

Attach the virtualdub project

The attachment rawavi.zip is no longer available

Is more or less automatic, i can convert a MKV with subtittles to 286 without much interaction, most are automatic. I already made a lot of content to play in my 286. Is amazing, one of my childhood dreams

Thanks for the guide! I've been planning to tinker with Video for Windows on 286/386 PCs and modern video format conversion for a while now, but I never took the time to figure out how to do it.

I noticed that Aviedit doesn't accept uncompressed AVI files processed by Ffmpeg directly, but only after you run the AVI file through VirtualDub. Is there a way to configure Ffmpeg so that VDub could be skipped entirely?

I've added two more variables to the video filter for the Ffmpeg - "saturation" for additional color correction and "bayer_scale", which eliminates crosshatch effect entirely if set to 5, default is 2 if unspecified (range 0-5).

Example AVI: Compressor - MS Video 1, quality 75%, key frame every 2s (30 frames), interleave every sec (15 frames), data rate not specified (automatic).

Batch file for it:

1ffmpeg -i RML720p.mp4 -i RMLpalette.png -filter_complex "crop=iw-200:ih-0,scale=160:120,fps=15,eq=brightness=0.0:saturation=1.0:contrast=1.1[vid];[vid][1:v]paletteuse=dither=bayer:bayer_scale=5" -c:v rawvideo -pix_fmt pal8 -c:a pcm_u8 -ar 22050 -ac 1 RML120b0.0s1c1.1b5.avi

Works fine in full screen mode, but video lags behind by about 25% if played in a window, need to select frame skipping in video player's configuration to fix this.

Tested on a 286 12.5MHz 0WS, 1MB RAM, ET4000 1MB, Win3.1 640x480 256color.

SSTV2 wrote on 2026-05-19, 20:36:

Thanks for the guide! I've been planning to tinker with Video for Windows on 286/386 PCs and modern video format conversion for […]
Show full quote

theelf wrote on 2026-02-23, 17:07:

Here is the ffmpeg command i use for create AVI that can work with aviedit, need virtualdub in same directory […]
Show full quote

Here is the ffmpeg command i use for create AVI that can work with aviedit, need virtualdub in same directory

Copy code to clipboard

1ffmpeg -i in.mkv -vf "subtitles=in.mkv,scale=272:176,fps=12,eq=brightness=-0.05:contrast=1.05,palettegen" palette.png
2
3ffmpeg -i in.mkv -i palette.png -filter_complex "subtitles=in.mkv,scale=272:176,fps=12,eq=brightness=-0.1:contrast=1.1[vid];[vid][1:v]paletteuse=dither=bayer" -pix_fmt pal8 -c:v rawvideo -af "aformat=sample_fmts=s16,aresample=11025:dither_method=shibata" -ac 1 -c:a pcm_u8 out.avi
4
5virtualdub /s rawavi.vdscript /p out.avi raw.avi /r /x

Attach the virtualdub project

The attachment rawavi.zip is no longer available

Is more or less automatic, i can convert a MKV with subtittles to 286 without much interaction, most are automatic. I already made a lot of content to play in my 286. Is amazing, one of my childhood dreams

Thanks for the guide! I've been planning to tinker with Video for Windows on 286/386 PCs and modern video format conversion for a while now, but I never took the time to figure out how to do it.

I noticed that Aviedit doesn't accept uncompressed AVI files processed by Ffmpeg directly, but only after you run the AVI file through VirtualDub. Is there a way to configure Ffmpeg so that VDub could be skipped entirely?

I've added two more variables to the video filter for the Ffmpeg - "saturation" for additional color correction and "bayer_scale", which eliminates crosshatch effect entirely if set to 5, default is 2 if unspecified (range 0-5).

Example AVI: Compressor - MS Video 1, quality 75%, key frame every 2s (30 frames), interleave every sec (15 frames), data rate not specified (automatic).

Batch file for it:

Copy code to clipboard

1ffmpeg -i RML720p.mp4 -i RMLpalette.png -filter_complex "crop=iw-200:ih-0,scale=160:120,fps=15,eq=brightness=0.0:saturation=1.0:contrast=1.1[vid];[vid][1:v]paletteuse=dither=bayer:bayer_scale=5" -c:v rawvideo -pix_fmt pal8 -c:a pcm_u8 -ar 22050 -ac 1 RML120b0.0s1c1.1b5.avi

Works fine in full screen mode, but video lags behind by about 25% if played in a window, need to select frame skipping in video player's configuration to fix this.

Tested on a 286 12.5MHz 0WS, 1MB RAM, ET4000 1MB, Win3.1 640x480 256color.

The attachment R2753015.zip is no longer available

Thanks for testing it and for the extra parameters! I will definitely try saturation and bayer_scale, the crosshatch reduction sounds interesting, anyways i like it jaja

About VirtualDub, unfortunately no, I never managed to find a way to generate an AVI with Ffmpeg that Aviedit accepts directly. I tried different combinations and formats, but in the end I always had to pass it through VirtualDub first. So as far as I know there is no way around it.

Actually I would love to find a replacement for Aviedit too. One problem I have with it is that it tends to hang with longer videos, somewhere around 24-25 minutes approximately. I know Adobe Premiere works fine, but it is a bit of a pain for this kind of quick conversion workflow.

About video playback in a window, I tested quite a few cards: ET4000, Trident 9000, Trident 8900D, WD, etc. The only one where the Windows drivers really seem to work properly in windowed playback is Cirrus Logic. Specifically I have a CL5424 1MB and it works perfectly in Windows 3.1.

Hello everyone, this is my first reply in VOGONS.

So I think a lot about my own video to working on Windows 3.11 running on DOSBox Emulator (like Bad Apple!!), but it didn't work. it show this.

I also using FFMpeg to convert my .mp4 video to .avi video. Please help me, I'm very appreciated.

video playback on a 286 is surely very challenging, but ms video1 feels like an unimpressive video compression format, why not install an isa mpeg decode card?

noshutdown wrote on 2026-06-24, 10:36:

video playback on a 286 is surely very challenging, but ms video1 feels like an unimpressive video compression format, why not install an isa mpeg decode card?

I think totally opposite, msvideo1 impress.me.a.lot, the 8bit quantization is very good, it can compress without much loss 8bit content and with interleave can play without skips in a 1x cdrom

mtp1309 wrote on 2026-06-23, 14:34:

Hello everyone, this is my first reply in VOGONS. […]
Show full quote

Hello everyone, this is my first reply in VOGONS.

So I think a lot about my own video to working on Windows 3.11 running on DOSBox Emulator (like Bad Apple!!), but it didn't work. it show this.

The attachment IMG_20260623_212718.jpg is no longer available

I also using FFMpeg to convert my .mp4 video to .avi video. Please help me, I'm very appreciated.

this is a thread for 286, in dosbox you will emulate a 386+

You can use msvideo1, rle or cinepak codecs for video, and adpcm for audio for better compression

for a 386+ in dosbox, when you can have 16bit display, dont use ffmpeg, is too slow, use virtualdub for conversion

In my examples i use ffmpeg because 8bit quantization

theelf wrote on 2026-06-24, 10:58:

this is a thread for 286, in dosbox you will emulate a 386+ […]
Show full quote

mtp1309 wrote on 2026-06-23, 14:34:

Hello everyone, this is my first reply in VOGONS. […]
Show full quote

Hello everyone, this is my first reply in VOGONS.

So I think a lot about my own video to working on Windows 3.11 running on DOSBox Emulator (like Bad Apple!!), but it didn't work. it show this.

The attachment IMG_20260623_212718.jpg is no longer available

I also using FFMpeg to convert my .mp4 video to .avi video. Please help me, I'm very appreciated.

this is a thread for 286, in dosbox you will emulate a 386+

You can use msvideo1, rle or cinepak codecs for video, and adpcm for audio for better compression

for a 386+ in dosbox, when you can have 16bit display, dont use ffmpeg, is too slow, use virtualdub for conversion

In my examples i use ffmpeg because 8bit quantization

I see... I'm using Magic DOSBox to emulate Windows 3.11 by myself. But can you give me the prompt of FFMpeg for this? so I can test it out.

mtp1309 wrote on 2026-06-25, 05:35:

theelf wrote on 2026-06-24, 10:58:

this is a thread for 286, in dosbox you will emulate a 386+ […]
Show full quote

mtp1309 wrote on 2026-06-23, 14:34:

Hello everyone, this is my first reply in VOGONS. […]
Show full quote

Hello everyone, this is my first reply in VOGONS.

So I think a lot about my own video to working on Windows 3.11 running on DOSBox Emulator (like Bad Apple!!), but it didn't work. it show this.

The attachment IMG_20260623_212718.jpg is no longer available

I also using FFMpeg to convert my .mp4 video to .avi video. Please help me, I'm very appreciated.

this is a thread for 286, in dosbox you will emulate a 386+

You can use msvideo1, rle or cinepak codecs for video, and adpcm for audio for better compression

for a 386+ in dosbox, when you can have 16bit display, dont use ffmpeg, is too slow, use virtualdub for conversion

In my examples i use ffmpeg because 8bit quantization

I see... I'm using Magic DOSBox to emulate Windows 3.11 by myself. But can you give me the prompt of FFMpeg for this? so I can test it out.

I dont have much interest in video playback on 386+ and less in dosbox, but i think maybe your best option will be xing mpeg or cinepack/indeo 3, but i think if the S3 driver support DCI, i recommend POWERVCD because dont have the limitations of xing mpeg about size, biterate etc

about cinepack for example for a mkv with subtitles something like this

ffmpeg -i "in.mkv" -vf "subtitles=in.mkv,scale=320:240:flags=lanczos,fps=12,format=yuv411p" -c:v cinepak -q:v 1 -ac 1 -ar 22050 -c:a adpcm_ima_wav -f avi out.avi

indeo better use virtualdub, i dont know if ffmpeg support this codec for compression

aaah 25 years ago...the time when i was experimenting with playing p*rn videos on windows 3.1 with my 386 dx40 and hercules monitor

theelf wrote on 2026-06-25, 10:28:

I dont have much interest in video playback on 386+ and less in dosbox, but i think maybe your best option will be xing mpeg or […]
Show full quote

mtp1309 wrote on 2026-06-25, 05:35:

theelf wrote on 2026-06-24, 10:58:

this is a thread for 286, in dosbox you will emulate a 386+ […]
Show full quote

this is a thread for 286, in dosbox you will emulate a 386+

You can use msvideo1, rle or cinepak codecs for video, and adpcm for audio for better compression

for a 386+ in dosbox, when you can have 16bit display, dont use ffmpeg, is too slow, use virtualdub for conversion

In my examples i use ffmpeg because 8bit quantization

I see... I'm using Magic DOSBox to emulate Windows 3.11 by myself. But can you give me the prompt of FFMpeg for this? so I can test it out.

I dont have much interest in video playback on 386+ and less in dosbox, but i think maybe your best option will be xing mpeg or cinepack/indeo 3, but i think if the S3 driver support DCI, i recommend POWERVCD because dont have the limitations of xing mpeg about size, biterate etc

about cinepack for example for a mkv with subtitles something like this

ffmpeg -i "in.mkv" -vf "subtitles=in.mkv,scale=320:240:flags=lanczos,fps=12,format=yuv411p" -c:v cinepak -q:v 1 -ac 1 -ar 22050 -c:a adpcm_ima_wav -f avi out.avi

indeo better use virtualdub, i dont know if ffmpeg support this codec for compression

Thanks for information, also how to extract video to avi (msvideo1 codec) on Virtualdub?

Hi guys, i did a video codec+player for my 286, i can do 320x200x10fps with 11khz pcm perfectly, i support subtitles! for now is just a test for myself, if someone have interest, i can share

For now is a mess, watcom + asm for the player, and some bunch of scripts for codec in PC, i want to rewrite in python for my main PC, and clean asm code

theelf wrote on 2026-09-20, 21:07:

Hi guys, i did a video codec+player for my 286, i can do 320x200x10fps with 11khz pcm perfectly, i support subtitles! for now is just a test for myself, if someone have interest, i can share

For now is a mess, watcom + asm for the player, and some bunch of scripts for codec in PC, i want to rewrite in python for my main PC, and clean asm code

Sounds interesting. Though the closest I have is my 386SX when running at 8Mhz

RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2026-09-21, 11:59:

theelf wrote on 2026-09-20, 21:07:

Hi guys, i did a video codec+player for my 286, i can do 320x200x10fps with 11khz pcm perfectly, i support subtitles! for now is just a test for myself, if someone have interest, i can share

For now is a mess, watcom + asm for the player, and some bunch of scripts for codec in PC, i want to rewrite in python for my main PC, and clean asm code

Sounds interesting. Though the closest I have is my 386SX when running at 8Mhz

use turbo button!

The code is fully optimized for the 286, so it runs well on a 386SX. But it doesn't use the 386's internal 32-bit instructions. Things like 32-bit operations would be much faster if the code was made for that architecture, but it will still run good.

Today I will write a small benchmark software to test the CPU, so I can know the maximum theoretical resolution and compression you can do. Your HDD, CD-ROM, etc., will add extra overhead.

On my 286-25, I can do full 320x200 video, and on a 286-16 too. This 286-16 is a 0WS (zero wait state) board and very good, but I have it disassembled right now. I don't want to assemble it every time just to test, so I keep my Harris 25MHz on the desk and the 16MHz on the shelf, but i know full 320x200 videos is possible in this 16mhz beast

Anyways, I will prepare a few things for tonight: a player for DOS (today I will clean up the messy code), a benchmark for DOS (which I still need to write), and a converter for a Windows PC. I have a dual-core i5 running Windows XP as my main PC, and it can convert a 96-minute movie in about 3 hours.

I remember playing full screen video on a 386SX-16 with VFW on Win3.1 in the early '90s. So this is not surprising to me, but of course, I don't have that machine today, or any machine in that class, so I can't run it now. As the faster 286es are speed competitive with the SX16, this should be no problem on a 286. I am interested in any optimizations; they would be quite telling what these machines are really capable of.

the3dfxdude wrote on 2026-09-21, 14:54:

I remember playing full screen video on a 386SX-16 with VFW on Win3.1 in the early '90s. So this is not surprising to me, but of course, I don't have that machine today, or any machine in that class, so I can't run it now. As the faster 286es are speed competitive with the SX16, this should be no problem on a 286. I am interested in any optimizations; they would be quite telling what these machines are really capable of.

then you remember bad or you where playing 160x120 or similar

in a 386SX indeo is out of question, you can have RLE, Cinepack or msvideo1, even msvideo1 at 320x200 and 15fps in my 386DX-40 can have some slowdown, deppend of cdrom or hdd, and cinepack in a dx40 i tested deeply and is on limit, at 256 color fullscreen better 192x144 or similar

A 386SX-16 back on time, with a slow ISA, a 1x or 2x cdrom, you are lucky about stamp size video. think that most of test we do here, like my fullscreen videos test in windows, are with very good strong isa cards, like Cirrus and super fast media like USB pendrive or Compact Flash, as soon i decide to use cdrom i need to drop to lower resolution or no chance

ok, here is the software for test, please DO NOT DISTRIBUTE! is just for here to test whyle i discover bugs and make fixes

Im hosting my current version of FFmpeg along with it—it should probably work with other versions too, but since FFmpeg changes commands all the time, I included this specific one just in case my EXE fails, as the tool strictly depends on it for the first step.
Here is how the converter works. It uses FFmpeg for three specific tasks:
1. Audio extraction.
2. Video resizing and color reduction: It scales the video to a valid resolution and drops it down to 256 colors.
3. Smart duplicate frame scanning: Ideal for anime. It scans for repetitive/very similar frames, fixes the timestamps, and then drops the framerate to 10 FPS after ensuring only unique frames remain.
How to use it:
The tool supports command-line arguments, but if you just launch it normally, it opens a very simple CLI wizard. Just place it in your video directory, run it, and follow the steps.
Subtitle guidelines:

If you use subtitles, I highly recommend a resolution of 304x184 for 4:3 videos, and 320x184 (or less) for widescreen. The tool includes an option to crop the video to 4:3 or keep it as-is.
It converts standard .srt subtitles into a proprietary format, i need this way because is loaded in conventional ram
Strict limits: Maximum of 40 characters per line and a maximum of 2 lines. If your SRT file has more characters or lines than that, I recommend feeding it to ChatGPT first to clean it up and format it properly.
Note: This is exactly why I chose 184px for the video height. It leaves 16px of black bar area at the bottom to perfectly fit those two lines of subtitles.

https://limewire.com/d/68J3Z#l7f4ZfsaCX

Alright, moving on: The player has a GUI, so there’s no need to explain anything about it. However, I’m attaching a benchmark tool that I coded today in a bit of a rush.
It works, though! It generates a TXT file with useful data to fine-tune your videos. It crashes on exit—I don't know why and honestly, I don't care right now because it creates the TXT file first anyway.
Give it a try and let me know how it goes. Please do not distribute any of this yet, as everything is still very early

the player

the converter

=== convert.py -- asistente interactivo ===
(Enter en cualquier pregunta acepta la opcion marcada 'default')

Videos encontrados en esta carpeta:
1) Venus Wars.avi (default)
2) Venus Wars.mkv
> 1

Nombre de salida: VENUSWAR.dvf (derivado de 'Venus Wars.avi')

Resolucion:
1) 320x200 (pantalla completa) (default)
2) 320x152 (widescreen fullhd)
3) 320x184 (16:9 subtitulo + crop)
4) 304x184 (Formato 4:3 con subtitulo)
5) 288x176
6) 256x152
7) 192x160
😎 192x144
9) 160x120
10) Otra (ANCHOxALTO a mano)
> 3
Recorte de costados (crop) antes de escalar a 320x184 -- en el VGA modo 13h
los pixeles NO son cuadrados (se estiran a pantalla 4:3), asi que un video
16:9 necesita recortarse un poco para no verse deformado en la pantalla real
del 286. Para un video 1920x1080 (16:9 exacto) el valor correcto es ~18.5%.
Es un PORCENTAJE del ancho ORIGINAL del video (mitad de cada lado, centrado).
Porcentaje de recorte total (0-90) [18.5]:

Dithering:
1) bayer (default)
2) floyd_steinberg
3) sierra2
4) sierra2_4a
5) none (sin dither)
>1
¿Aplicar correccion de niveles (blackcrush, reduce ruido en sombras)? [y/N]: y

¿Incluir subtitulos? [y/N]: y
Varios .srt encontrados en esta carpeta:
1) Venus Wars.srt (default)
2) Do.srt
>1
Threshold (% de pixeles iguales para no actualizar un bloque) [55]:
Colorlimit (distancia RGB^2 minima para forzar actualizacion) [1000]:

and thats all! aaa simple wizard, aaat first leave most stuff defaault like threshold or colorlimit

This is awesome! You should definitely open a new thread specifically just for this video converter/player so that it doesn't get lost in the pages of this thread.

I tested conversion of four videos in total and noticed that converter tends to mess up color palette. Out of four different videos, only one converted properly. One video turned out grayscale, other had light brown/red colors replaced with white and last video didn't even convert into a playable file, not sure why, but its palette file turned out entirely black.

Video that didn't convert is the same one that I attached in my last post of this thread, interestingly enough, neither original MP4 file, nor raw AVI, nor compressed AVI file converted.

A few observations:

-The image quality of the converted file is good, but the output file also takes up a lot of space. A 66s video at 320x200 res. takes up 20MB of hard disk space, at 160x120 res. it takes up 7MB (this is the video that turned out grayscale), for reference, the same video converted using Aviedit and MS Video 1 compressor at 75% quality - takes up only 3.2MB at 12FPS, though its quality is crap in comparison 😀

-Video player won't play a video if PC has no sound card installed. It would be nice to have an option that would omit sound track entirely and allow player to run this way.

-Converter allows custom resolution selection, but no option to change frame rate, thus some videos turn out way too jerky/uneven at 10FPS, it would be nice to have 12, 12.5 and 15FPS options, so that most commonly used video frame rates could be halved.

-It would be great to have more 4:3 aspect ratio resolution options among the existing ones, such as 224x168, 256x192 and 280x208.

-Videos does not play under DOSBox, which complicates testing.

Regarding the performance - I didn't notice any slowdowns running 160x120 videos on a 286-16 MHz machine, one of the tested video's playback at 320x200 res. turned out way too jerky by default, mainly because it was converted from 30 down to 10FPS, so I couldn't tell whether it lagged or not, but the benchmark results were as follows:

1=== ANALISIS Y RECOMENDACION (basado en mediciones reales) ===
2Presupuesto por frame a 12.5fps: 80000 us
3  - Full-frame video (320x200=64000 bytes): 16386.1 us (20.5% del frame)
4  - Llenado de audio (882 bytes, rep movsb):  238.9 us (0.3% del frame)
5  - Margen reservado disco/overhead:        20000 us (25.0% del frame)
6  - TOTAL usado (peor caso, 320x200):        36625.0 us (45.8% del frame)
7
8Costo por bloque cambiado: 22.89 us/bloque
9
10>> En tu 286, el maximo cambio de bloques antes de que
11>> convenga mandar el frame completo es: 715 bloques

Not sure how to read them to be honest, does it mean that this machine covers only 20.5% of a full frame at 320x200?