'Grand Tech Camera Codec' - DivX3 file causing errors

[theDruid]

Hi all,

I've got a movie which is a very long avi file (too big to burn to a CD), so I'd like to convert it to 2 VCD's instead.

The file plays fine in WMP, WinDVD etc.., but I'm having problems getting any encoder to convert it, or even open it for that matter.

I've tried TMPGEnc (2.510), LSX, CCE, PanEnc, BBmpg etc.. etc.. I've also tried frameserving from vDub (and nanDub) to TMPGEnc.

Many of these encoders won't open the avi as a source file, others open it but crash as soon as you hit 'encode' etc..

I've looked at the properties for the avi in GSpot and vDub:

GSpot says the video is div3: DivX3 Low-Motion.

But, vDub says that the video decompressor is "Grand Tech Camera Codec".

Both say that the audio is mp3.

Does anyone know what the problem is? I would have thought that if the file plays okay on my machine, then I've got all the right codecs - but maybe not.

Cheers,
mcdruid.

[theDruid]

I can see why nobody knew what I was on about here!!

I'll tell you what I've found out just incase anyone else runs into the same problem.

I think that the 'Grand Tech Camera Codec' is one used by ArcSoft in the sort of software that comes bundled with cheap webcams (like mine!). I believe it's a codec the software uses to put together avis from the webcam.

I have no idea why, but with one particular DivX avi I have, the 'Grand Tech Camera Codec' (also referred to as Grand Tech GT891x codec) seems to have been interfering with the real codec the file uses.

I've temporarily gone into my System32 folder, found the Grand Tech codec (GTCODEC.DLL), and renamed it so it's not loaded up when I'm trying to work on the DivX I'm talking about.

This seems to have worked fine - vDub is now showing the file as using the proper DivX codec for decompression, and TMPGEnc is encoding it to VCD/MPEG1 as I type.

As I say, I have no idea why this webcam codec interfered with this DivX file, but that's clearly what's been happening.

Once I'm finished encoding, I'll rename the file GTCODEC.DLL back the way it was, and hopefully forget about the whole annoying episode!!

As I say - just explained all that incase someone else runs into a similar problem.

Cheers,
mcdruid.