movie codec detection?

apu95

Caffeine-->Code Converter
Joined
25 Apr 2002
Messages
502
hey guys,

i downloaded a movie file and i cant get it to play. its supposed to be an avi file, but wmp wont open it. i have the latest divx codec as well as the latest xvid codec. is there anyway to detect the codec the file has so i can get the appropriate codec for the movie?

thanks,
Apu
 
I was going to suggest GSpot but looks like zedric beat me to it. Also perhas the file is corrupt or only partial? If the file is divx you could try something like "divfix" on it.
 
Wow, sweet utility. Where has it been hiding all my life.

Bad news is GSpot says my video file is fine, codecs are all installed but it still crashes WMP, and every other player I tried says it can't handle it. Any other ideas?

Every time I try to play it or even right click on it I get an error:
"Windows Explorer has Encountered an error and needs to close."

I tried:
-Left double clicking the file to play.
-Opened WMP and selected the file.
-Right clicked file to change the name.

All with same result. Windows Explorer detail is:
AppName: explorer.exe AppVer 6.0.2800.1221 ModName xvid.ax
ModVer 0.0.0.0 Offset 0003dd11

WMP detail is:
AppName: wmplayer.exe AppVer 10.0.0.3646 ModName xvid.ax
ModVer 0.0.0.0 Offset 0003dd11

Any ideas? requests for more info?
 
LeeJend said:
Wow, sweet utility. Where has it been hiding all my life.

Bad news is GSpot says my video file is fine, codecs are all installed but it still crashes WMP, and every other player I tried says it can't handle it. Any other ideas?

Every time I try to play it or even right click on it I get an error:
"Windows Explorer has Encountered an error and needs to close."

I tried:
-Left double clicking the file to play.
-Opened WMP and selected the file.
-Right clicked file to change the name.

All with same result. Windows Explorer detail is:
AppName: explorer.exe AppVer 6.0.2800.1221 ModName xvid.ax
ModVer 0.0.0.0 Offset 0003dd11

WMP detail is:
AppName: wmplayer.exe AppVer 10.0.0.3646 ModName xvid.ax
ModVer 0.0.0.0 Offset 0003dd11

Any ideas? requests for more info?

Formatting is always an option :laugh: . J/k. Try testing the file on a buddies computer(even a work computer) And if it works for them, then thats trouble. Also trying firing that movie up in winamp.
 
You should give the FFDshow Filters a try. Will beat any codec pack out there, hands down.

I have the new Feb 05 ones up on my server. Might not fix it but it's worth a shot. You might also look into using Zoom Player or Media Player Classic

http://www.luna-fx.com/blog/media/2005/02/04/ffdshow-20050201.exe

And some info on them to those that are new

- fast video decompression using optimized MMX, SSE and 3DNow! code
- support for different codecs: XviD and all DIVX versions
- additional support for MSMPEG4v1, MSMPEG4v2, MSMPEG4v3 and H263
- can act as generic postprocessing filter for other decoders like MPEG1 or MPEG2
- image postprocessing for higher playback quality
- automatic quality control: automatically reduces postprocessing level when CPU load is high
- hue, saturation and luminance correction (MMX optimized)
- two sharpening filters: xsharpen and unsharp mask
- blur and temporal smoother
- tray icon with menu and quick access to configuration dialog
- noising with two selectable algorithms
- resizing and aspect ratio changing
- subtitles
- completely free software: ffdshow is distributed under GPL
 
zeke

I tried Winamp, PowerDVD, Realplayer and Quicktime. I'm wondering if the file was intentionally corrupted since it crashes explorer. I scanned it and the file had no signs of viruses.

Good idea. I'll try the file on another machine.

EDIT
Can't even get the file over to another machine, it crashes explorer.
 
Luna said:
You should give the FFDshow Filters a try. Will beat any codec pack out there, hands down.

nope, it doesn't the best codec pack is the k-lite mega codec pack, its much better than the ffdshow, i had some problems with ffdshow, and they were quickly resolved when i removed it and installed the mega codec pack, also its the only codec pack that you will ever need.
 
try a fourccchanger comes with alout of codec packs you probaly have it just dont know it. quick fix in some cases.
 
LeeJend said:
Wow, sweet utility. Where has it been hiding all my life.
That's what I said to when I found it. ;)

Did you try to press Render in GSpot? If render works it means the codecs *should*be ok. If it fails it means the codecs aren't working for some reason,even though they are installed. The error messages look like it's thexvid codec that messes up.

I've attached a file that will stop explorer from trying to preview avifiles. This would probably help your explorer from crashing (but notwmp). It also helps when Windows decides you can't delete movie files.Very handy. Just rename the .txt to .inf, right-click and selectinstall.

As for codec recommendations, I only use ffdshow and ac3filter. Works on everything so far. ;)
 

Attachments

  • XP-AVIFIX.txt
    749 bytes · Views: 127
Zedric said:
That's what I said to when I found it. ;)

Did you try to press Render in GSpot? If render works it means the codecs *should*be ok. If it fails it means the codecs aren't working for some reason,even though they are installed. The error messages look like it's thexvid codec that messes up.

I've attached a file that will stop explorer from trying to preview avifiles. This would probably help your explorer from crashing (but notwmp). It also helps when Windows decides you can't delete movie files.Very handy. Just rename the .txt to .inf, right-click and selectinstall.

As for codec recommendations, I only use ffdshow and ac3filter. Works on everything so far. ;)
zedrik, how do I use that text file?
 
To LeeJend....

I think I had a simmiliar problem to yours where it kept giving me
an error. So I download and started using the VLC @ VideoLan Player.
And it worked fine.

However, since I was really used to WMP....i just really needed it to
work and i found that my Xvid was actually kinda screwed up and
I had to remove it. I think there are 2 DLL files in system32 which
can be removed. So I removed it and re-installed the Xvid codec.
WMP worked fine after that. Reinstalling without removing the DLLs
first wont fix it.

I dont know if it helps..but it solved my problem. Could be
simmiliar to yours....
 
I advise against ffdshow. Its inbuild decodes are based on older code revisions of the actual codecs it support and I have always recieve masking, double vision, rainbow pallete or corrupted frames using it.

As has been recommended before, windows users should either install all the codecs by hand or use K-Lite mega codec pack.

I cant comment on vlc as I@ve not used it for more than 15 seconds and deciding it wasnt for me just yet.
 
In order:

Zedric
- Yes, it rendered just fine so I'm looking for the corruption in my machine.
- Have looked into what that registry patch does and will use it if I can't locate what is corrupted based on Freewilly's advise.

Perris
- I loaded VLC and it plays the file just fine. Definitely problem with my machine somewhere.
- I exported and attached the registry entry that zedric's text file works on. (Just in case anyone wants to look at them or needs to reload them...)
-Just save the attached files to disk. Rename it from .txt to .reg and then click on it (or use import in the regedit menu) to enter them back into the registry.

And here is an explanation of why the registry patch may be needed.
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v31/vic31.htm

Wow, this has been a great thread I've been deleting what I thought were corrupted AVI's for too long. :)
 

Attachments

  • reg key2.txt
    1,010 bytes · Views: 103
ok, i tried the stuff listed here and it still doesnt work. the fourcc code is rubbish, it shows weirdass characters, and even when i do change it, the vid doesnt work. i'm going to try redownloading the vid anyways. thx for all the replies :)
 
And with more research:

The culprit is an old (last updated in 2002) XP file called shmedia.dll that tries to read the entire AVI into memory if there is no index information in the file. Zedric's reg fix deletes the call to this file when accessing an AVI.

"When you select an AVI file more than 700 MB in Windows Explorer, it maybe hangs so that you get such error if you want to delete the file. "

BTW Windows won't let you delete shmedia.dll , I tried several times. Windows replaces it from it's back up files. So it looks like if you want to handle AVI's bigger than ~700 MB you need to do the registry patch.

Microsoft help file on this:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;822430

I'm looking into the hotfix it talks about.
 

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