Pikmin Technical Knowledge Base - User contributions [en]

H4M file

2025-08-04T17:44:07Z

Foobar6830:

HVQM4 (file extension: .h4m or .hvqm4) is a video format developed by Hudson Soft used in nearly all GameCube games for pre-rendered video. Pikmin 1's attract demos and ending credits are found as .h4m files in <code>dataDir\MovieData</code>. After two decades of people struggling to make their own decoders, Hudson Soft's own SDK for working with this format was made available [https://archive.org/details/GameCubeHVQM4 here] in 2020 and it works with one exception: No tool is currently able to play audio from a Nintendo produced H4M file because they are modified to use [[STX_file|STX]] audio instead of whatever the default for HVQM4 is. [https://github.com/projectPiki/pikmin/blob/cb03475b08bcf87e080f70a72d799111c2d5cf31/src/jaudio/hvqm_play.c#L187 Here] is the code the game uses to play its H4M cutscenes, which should help with making a custom tool for them.
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Movie || Description
|-
| <code>cntA_S.h4m</code>
| A Pause Screen Demo That Plays When There Is Long Periods Of Inactivity.
|-
| <code>cntB_S.h4m</code>
| A Pause Screen Demo That Plays When There Is Long Periods Of Inactivity.
|-
| <code>cntC_S.h4m</code>
| A Pause Screen Demo That Plays When There Is Long Periods Of Inactivity.
|-
| <code>cntD_S.h4m</code>
| A Pause Screen Demo That Plays When There Is Long Periods Of Inactivity.
|-
| <code>sr_S.h4m</code>
| The Ending Credits Of The Game With The Normal Non 100% Ending At The End.
|-
| <code>srhp_S.h4m</code>
| The Ending Credits Of The Game With The "Best" Ending At The End.
|}
{{Credits|Minty_Meeo, foobar}}

H4M file

2025-08-04T17:38:43Z

Foobar6830:

HVQM4 (file extension: .h4m or .hvqm4) is a video format developed by Hudson Soft used in nearly all GameCube games for pre-rendered video. Pikmin 1's attract demos and ending credits are found as .h4m files in <code>dataDir\MovieData</code>. After two decades of people struggling to make their own decoders, Hudson Soft's own SDK for working with this format was made available [https://archive.org/details/GameCubeHVQM4 here] in 2020 and it works with one exception: No tool is currently able to play audio from a Nintendo produced H4M file because they are modified to use [[STX_file|STX]] audio instead of whatever the default for HVQM4 is.
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Movie || Description
|-
| <code>cntA_S.h4m</code>
| A Pause Screen Demo That Plays When There Is Long Periods Of Inactivity.
|-
| <code>cntB_S.h4m</code>
| A Pause Screen Demo That Plays When There Is Long Periods Of Inactivity.
|-
| <code>cntC_S.h4m</code>
| A Pause Screen Demo That Plays When There Is Long Periods Of Inactivity.
|-
| <code>cntD_S.h4m</code>
| A Pause Screen Demo That Plays When There Is Long Periods Of Inactivity.
|-
| <code>sr_S.h4m</code>
| The Ending Credits Of The Game With The Normal Non 100% Ending At The End.
|-
| <code>srhp_S.h4m</code>
| The Ending Credits Of The Game With The "Best" Ending At The End.
|}
{{Credits|Minty_Meeo, foobar}}

H4M file

2025-08-04T17:38:26Z

Foobar6830:

HVQM4 (file extension: .h4m or .hvqm4) is a video format developed by Hudson Soft used in nearly all GameCube games for pre-rendered video. Pikmin 1's attract demos and ending credits are found as .h4m files in <code>dataDir\MovieData</code>. After two decades of people struggling to make their own decoders, Hudson Soft's own SDK for working with this format was made available [https://archive.org/details/GameCubeHVQM4 here] in 2020 and it works with one exception: No tool is currently able to play audio from a Nintendo produced H4M file because they are modified to use [[STX|STX_file]] audio instead of whatever the default for HVQM4 is.
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Movie || Description
|-
| <code>cntA_S.h4m</code>
| A Pause Screen Demo That Plays When There Is Long Periods Of Inactivity.
|-
| <code>cntB_S.h4m</code>
| A Pause Screen Demo That Plays When There Is Long Periods Of Inactivity.
|-
| <code>cntC_S.h4m</code>
| A Pause Screen Demo That Plays When There Is Long Periods Of Inactivity.
|-
| <code>cntD_S.h4m</code>
| A Pause Screen Demo That Plays When There Is Long Periods Of Inactivity.
|-
| <code>sr_S.h4m</code>
| The Ending Credits Of The Game With The Normal Non 100% Ending At The End.
|-
| <code>srhp_S.h4m</code>
| The Ending Credits Of The Game With The "Best" Ending At The End.
|}
{{Credits|Minty_Meeo, foobar}}

H4M file

2025-07-31T23:40:07Z

Foobar6830: it's not a stereo issue because Hvqm4enc is completely fine with 2-channel wave audio

HVQM4 (file extension: .h4m or .hvqm4) is a video format developed by Hudson Soft, used in nearly all GameCube games. Pikmin 1 uses it for its pre-rendered cutscenes, found as .h4m files in <code>dataDir\MovieData</code>. After two decades of people struggling to make their own decoders, Hudson Soft's own SDK for working with this format was made available [https://archive.org/details/GameCubeHVQM4 here] in 2020. For some reason, if the H4M file was made by Nintendo, the Hudson Soft viewer throws an error and can't play any sound from it, but the video track is able to continue in silence. Audio can still be extracted from a Nintendo produced H4M file using [https://hcs64.com/files/h4m_audio_decode03.zip h4m_audio_decode] by HCS.
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Movie || Description
|-
| <code>cntA_S.h4m</code>
| A Pause Screen Demo That Plays When There Is Long Periods Of Inactivity.
|-
| <code>cntB_S.h4m</code>
| A Pause Screen Demo That Plays When There Is Long Periods Of Inactivity.
|-
| <code>cntC_S.h4m</code>
| A Pause Screen Demo That Plays When There Is Long Periods Of Inactivity.
|-
| <code>cntD_S.h4m</code>
| A Pause Screen Demo That Plays When There Is Long Periods Of Inactivity.
|-
| <code>sr_S.h4m</code>
| The Ending Credits Of The Game With The Normal Non 100% Ending At The End.
|-
| <code>srhp_S.h4m</code>
| The Ending Credits Of The Game With The "Best" Ending At The End.
|}
{{Credits|Minty_Meeo, foobar}}

H4M file

2025-07-31T23:17:08Z

Foobar6830:

HVQM4 (file extension: .h4m or .hvqm4) is a video format developed by Hudson Soft, used in nearly all GameCube games. Pikmin 1 uses it for its pre-rendered cutscenes, found as .h4m files in <code>dataDir\MovieData</code>. After two decades of people struggling to make their own decoders, Hudson Soft's own SDK for working with this format was made available [https://archive.org/details/GameCubeHVQM4 here] in 2020. H4M files made by Nintendo were modified in house to use stereo audio instead of mono, so the default Hudson Soft viewer can only play the video track in silence. Nintendo's special stereo audio can still be extracted from their H4M files with [https://hcs64.com/files/h4m_audio_decode03.zip h4m_audio_decode] by [https://hcs64.com/ HCS], but there is currently no program that ''makes'' a video with this proprietary audio format. The only option for making your own H4M cutscene is with the Hudson Soft SDK using mono audio.
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Movie || Description
|-
| <code>cntA_S.h4m</code>
| A Pause Screen Demo That Plays When There Is Long Periods Of Inactivity.
|-
| <code>cntB_S.h4m</code>
| A Pause Screen Demo That Plays When There Is Long Periods Of Inactivity.
|-
| <code>cntC_S.h4m</code>
| A Pause Screen Demo That Plays When There Is Long Periods Of Inactivity.
|-
| <code>cntD_S.h4m</code>
| A Pause Screen Demo That Plays When There Is Long Periods Of Inactivity.
|-
| <code>sr_S.h4m</code>
| The Ending Credits Of The Game With The Normal Non 100% Ending At The End.
|-
| <code>srhp_S.h4m</code>
| The Ending Credits Of The Game With The "Best" Ending At The End.
|}
{{Credits|Minty_Meeo, foobar}}

H4M file

2025-07-31T23:15:25Z

Foobar6830:

HVQM4 (file extension: .h4m or .hvqm4) is a video format developed by Hudson Soft, used in nearly all GameCube games. Pikmin 1 uses it for its pre-rendered cutscenes, found as .h4m files in <code>dataDir\MovieData</code>. After two decades of people struggling to make their own decoders, Hudson Soft's own SDK for working with this format was made available [https://archive.org/details/GameCubeHVQM4 here] in 2020. H4M files made by Nintendo were modified in house to use stereo audio instead of mono, so the default Hudson Soft viewer can only play the video track in silence. Nintendo's special stereo audio can still be extracted from their H4M files with [https://hcs64.com/files/h4m_audio_decode03.zip h4m_audio_decode] by [https://hcs64.com/ HCS], but there is currently no program that ''makes'' one these. The only option for making your own H4M cutscene is with the SDK using mono audio.
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Movie || Description
|-
| <code>cntA_S.h4m</code>
| A Pause Screen Demo That Plays When There Is Long Periods Of Inactivity.
|-
| <code>cntB_S.h4m</code>
| A Pause Screen Demo That Plays When There Is Long Periods Of Inactivity.
|-
| <code>cntC_S.h4m</code>
| A Pause Screen Demo That Plays When There Is Long Periods Of Inactivity.
|-
| <code>cntD_S.h4m</code>
| A Pause Screen Demo That Plays When There Is Long Periods Of Inactivity.
|-
| <code>sr_S.h4m</code>
| The Ending Credits Of The Game With The Normal Non 100% Ending At The End.
|-
| <code>srhp_S.h4m</code>
| The Ending Credits Of The Game With The "Best" Ending At The End.
|}
{{Credits|Minty_Meeo, foobar}}

H4M file

2025-07-31T21:43:40Z

Foobar6830:

HVQM4 (file extension: .h4m or .hvqm4) is a video format developed by Hudson Soft, used in nearly all GameCube games. Pikmin 1 uses it for its pre-rendered cutscenes, found as .h4m files in <code>dataDir\MovieData</code>. After two decades of people struggling to make their own decoders, Hudson Soft's own SDK for working with this format was made available [https://archive.org/details/GameCubeHVQM4 here] in 2020 and it just works. H4M files made by Nintendo were modified in house to use stereo audio instead of mono, so the default Hudson Soft viewer can only play the video track in silence. Nintendo's special stereo audio can still be extracted from their H4M files with [https://hcs64.com/files/h4m_audio_decode03.zip h4m_audio_decode] by [https://hcs64.com/ HCS], but there is currently no program that ''makes'' one these. The only option for making your own H4M cutscene is with the SDK using mono audio.
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Movie || Description
|-
| <code>cntA_S.h4m</code>
| A Pause Screen Demo That Plays When There Is Long Periods Of Inactivity.
|-
| <code>cntB_S.h4m</code>
| A Pause Screen Demo That Plays When There Is Long Periods Of Inactivity.
|-
| <code>cntC_S.h4m</code>
| A Pause Screen Demo That Plays When There Is Long Periods Of Inactivity.
|-
| <code>cntD_S.h4m</code>
| A Pause Screen Demo That Plays When There Is Long Periods Of Inactivity.
|-
| <code>sr_S.h4m</code>
| The Ending Credits Of The Game With The Normal Non 100% Ending At The End.
|-
| <code>srhp_S.h4m</code>
| The Ending Credits Of The Game With The "Best" Ending At The End.
|}
{{Credits|Minty_Meeo, foobar}}