Please help. Getting no video on this avi

[Stormblade]

Hey all,

I have an avi that I can't get to play. Sound is fine but no video. When I try to play it in Media Player (Both 6.4 and 8) it plays the sound only. THEN when I close it, it crashes the player.

So I loaded it up in Virtual Dub. It said the codec was Pinnacle Systems MPEG Codec. I tried loading it up under Premiere with similar results. I've searched to see if I could find the codec but so far no luck. Any ideas?

[Batman]

Install the divx 3.11 alpha codec.
If this does not solve the problem, install the divx 4.12 codec (refuse its offer play divx 3.11 content)

[Stormblade]

I did as you suggested but it didn't help. This file wasn't a DivX file as far as I knew and before I removed everything and did what you suggested I had Divx 5.0 installed. I had no problem playing DivX movies.

[Batman]

You might want to post the file properties.

[Stormblade]

Sure thing. I'm attaching a screenshot of the file properties as told by Virtual Dub.

[Batman]

Check divx-digest.com and search google.com for a possible codec for this Pinnacle file.

[Batman]

See if you can convert the file in TMPGEnc ensure the output format is avi (be sure to select divx compression because if you don't you could end up with a large file)

[Stormblade]

No luck. I converted it to both an mpg and avi. The resulting file still has sound only but now at least the resulting files don't crash the player.

And I've been searching google and others for that codec with no luck so far.

One thing. In TMPGEnc I couldn't select Divx compressor. In fact it wouldn't let do much of anything. The source file is an avi and once I loaded that I had the option of converting to mpeg or outputting to AVI. I did both with the same results. But I didn't see where I could change the compressor. It's been a while since I used TMPGEnc and I just upgraded to 2.53

[Batman]

This probably won't help you. However, there are tiny miniscule, and virtually obscure buttons (when you select the avi file name you can see small buttons) that let you select compression.

[Stormblade]

Heh I found the buttons only because you told me what screen. The dialogue that comes up for saving the AVI is too short. I just barely saw the buttons. I saved it to DivX 5. 50% of original size but of course I can't tell the video quality hehe.

I'm not sure if the window looks like that because of my graphics settings or what. I'm using normal fonts but my resolution is 1600x1200x32. Take a look at why I couldn't find the buttons.

In any case I guess I'll continue to look for this codec but I'm not sure which one exactly I'm looking for. In TMPGEnc when I looked through the list of compressors available I had Pinnacle DV Codec listed as well. (I own the DV500).

[Batman]

Did you create this avi? Check vcdhelp.com, divx-digest.com there is some information on dv conversion. Perhaps, there is software in your dv camcorder that might help you (special drivers software, etc...). When you converted this file in TMPGEnc did you see the movie properly (audio and video)?

Maybe you should select the Pinnacle codec in TMPGEnc. Maybe if you push all the right buttons you'll get somewhere

[Stormblade]

Yes I created the AVI using the DivX 5.0 codec. It was 50% smaller than the original AVI which I found impressive. I just recently got the DivX 5 codec so haven't had a chance to play around with it yet.

As for TMPGEnc no I didn't see the video. This is the problem. No matter what I use the video does not show up at all. I've tried TMPGEnc, Virtual Dub and Adobe Premiere all with the same results. No video. When converted the resulting file has no video. I'm assuming it's because the video codec is either not there or not working properly.

Although Virtual Dub says its Pinnacle System Mpeg Codec I am not sure if it's that codec but have no idea how to verify this. I haven't been able to find that codec anyway.

I looked up the Video Codecs installed on my system and the Pinnacle DV Codec is there.

[setarip]

Go to:

http://www.moonlight.co.il/products/mpeg2decoder.shtml

The elecard MPEG2 Decoder purportedly handles "Pinnacle MPEG-2 AVI decoding". If you scroll toward the bottom of the page, it indicates a free demo version available for download.

Let us know of your success ;>}

[Stormblade]

No luck yet. I installed this I think. The zip file they had for download didn't have an installer but I ran the register.bat file and then I put the .reg info into the registry. Didn't work.

Just now I downloaded and installed a program called Graphedt and loaded the file up. Here's the attachment of the info it gave me which I'm not quite sure of. However, you'll note that no where does it say Pinnacle like Virtual Dub did. I tried re-installing Morgan Stream Switcher just in case but that didn't help either.

[Stormblade]

Just wanted to say thanks for everyone's help on this. I finally solved the problem. I learned quite a bit about the limitations of some software.

The entire problem was the AVIs used the I263 codec and I didn't have that installed. I installed that and voila all is well.

The only way I found this out was loading the file once again in Premiere but instead of trying to convert or preview I checked file properties. Premiere was the ONLY application that correctly identified the codec being used in the file. Virtual Dub didn't, TMPGEnc didn't, Graph Edit simply said unsupported and showed nothing at all. And of course Media Player (both 6.4 and 8.0) were useless. They simply crashed.

Well, now I know so thanks again.