Background
We make MP4 files with Sorenson Squeeze, an "OEM" version of Sorenson which came bundled with our editing software, Avid Express Pro. While we always told Squeeze to make each video 640x480, what Squeeze DID was to make the video that size, but "tag" it to say that it was actually 320x240. Old versions of players such as VLC ignored the contradiction and threw away the tag information. Recent versions of VLC assume that the TAG is correct, show only part of the picture, and throw away the rest.

When we asked Sorenson about a fix for this bug, they only said that the version we had was no longer supported, and we should pay $229 (at least) to upgrade. (They didn't even bother to assure us that the new versions don't also have the bug.)

What Paul has done, therefore, is write a program that goes into the video file, finds the tag, and changes it to correspond with the actual size of the video, 640x480. (He is SUCH a nifty hubby.)

All videos that are on our site -- from now on -- are fixed versions. (And we are looking into fixing those archived by others.)

How does this affect you?
Well, if you're already running into the problem of your player throwing away 3/4 of the video picture, you already know. If you're NOT currently having this problem, you MAY run into it in the future if some new version of your player decides to believe the incorrect tag.

What should you do?
If you have already run into the problem and were unable to play our videos, try downloading one of the fixed versions and find out if this was, indeed, your problem.

What do you do if the newly downloaded program fixes your problem?
I'm afraid that there's little help for needing to download all the videos again. (But if you are technically inclined, we will be happy to send you our program for you to repair your own files. The program is written in Perl, so if you have or obtain Perl -- it's free -- you can use it directly. You could also translate it into another language of your choice, as it's very simple.)

Should I download the videos again if I DON'T have a problem?
It's a conservative solution, and the one I would personally choose. You never know when a future version of a player will make the early videos unplayable.

Simplest Approach to Administration of fixed and unfixed videos:
If you start a new directory and download today's videos and all future videos into that new directory, you might find your administration somewhat easier. Anyway, that's how I'm keeping track of things.

How will you know if you have a fixed version or not?
The name of the original version of a video and the "fixed" version of a video are the same. You'll know which version you have by comparing the creation dates of the videos. The rightmost column will show, from now on, the exact date on which a fixed video appeared on our site. One of the invaluable programs in your computer is the one which lists all the files in each directory on your computer. This list should have a column corresponding to when your video file was created. If you have any question at all, compare your date with the date shown for the video.

Our intention is to put up fixed versions by fandom, and announce that videos in a particular fandom are going up in LiveJournal and in our advance email list. You can join the email list by sending mail asking to join to:
maidavids at iment.com

Let us apologize for putting you through this. The players we had never showed up this bug, and it never occurred to us to examine the video file to verify such an obscure thing as the tag and the actual size corresponding. We told it 640x480, and assumed Sorenson Squeeze did what it was supposed to.