Problems with some DivX files

[tseongsun]

For some reason my windows media player doesn't recognize the codec of certain DivX movies I have. If I use a program to read the headers or go rightclick -> properties and check the codec it properly shows up as DivX MPEG4 V4 which I know I can play because I have other files with the same compression which work just fine.

With the files that are having the problem, the audio comes up fine but no video shows up. So while the avi is running, I go to File -> Properties and for some reason it all of a sudden says that the video codec is unknown. This doesn't happen for all DivX movies, only certain ones. I have the newest divx codec so I don't think that's the prob, and the movie plays fine in "the playa" but I don't like using that prog cuz it crashes on me a lot.

Does anyone know what the hell is going on? I don't think it's my computer hardware not being fast enough, and it's not my divx codec if it plays in "the playa" so I think it's the file itself but I don't know how to fix that.

Windows XP Pro
1.5ghz Athlon
256mb RAM
32mb Geforce2 GTS
40gb ata/100 RAID @ 7200rpm

[Enchanter]

The latest as in DivX5?

Here's a suggestion. Install 3.11 followed by 4.x (Not allowed to play 3.11 contents). DivX5 may be the latest, but it's not necessarily better than the older ones and certainly 100% compatibility is not achieved yet. I'm still waiting for the big fixes to be released.

p.s.
1. I know not what the header for DivX5 is, but I would hazard it is the same as 4.x, which is DivX Codec. 3.11a contents carry the header of DivX MPEG4 V3 (Not V4 as you've typed).
2. Hardware is of secondary issue. Having the right codecs and installations are more important.

[muzikul]

same problem

I am having the same problem. I uninstalled DivX 5 and first installed 3.11, and then 4.x without allowing it to play DivX 3 content. This fixed the sound on one movie in which I could only see the picture... but I have two movies that have sound but no picture. Instead, I get the visualizations as if I were listening to music. Does anyone have any other suggestions as to what the problem might be?

[tseongsun]

Update:

After messing around with the file for like 2 hours last night, this is what I found out.

A) The problem is with the headers in the file. Using Vdub... first I direct streamed a copy of the first 2 minutes of the non-working avi and tried playing it. viola! it worked! So then I opened the bad-avi up in v-dub's hex editor and then got the RIFF chunk list and compared it to the working test avi I extracted. The non working avi's header section was huge compared to the working ones, and it also had "unknown" sections at offsets 000000D4 and 0000015A.

B) Using a prog. such as Avi Info to edit the headers does not fix the problem.

C) The only working way to get these movies to work (that I have found) is to go into VDUB, set audio and video to "direct stream copy" and then stream the avi into a new file. This new file works just fine and you can just throw away the old one.

I would really like to know how to fix the avi's cuz I don't want to go through and stream every single file I have, even on batch processing it would be kinda tedious. I hope the new info helps some master-techie think of a way to fix this problem. Thanks for everyone's time, and I hope this helps out those of you who have the same problem.

[muzikul]

Thanks for sharing what you've found out. I'll give it a try with mine in VD as well.