How can I test an avi to save me hrs in wasted time

[fiiido]

To all you good folks out there.

I have a number of DivX(avi) and Xvid(avi) files. Some have been encoded and burned to VCD easily. However, on some files I have spent hours and days and still not resolved the problems, mainly sync, but also files that cause failure in TMPGEnc. There are numerous guides about checking this, checking that and fix this first, separate wav or not, convert to mp2, etc and doing all or some of these will solve the issues.

My question is simple.

When I download an avi what should I do first before trying to use TMPGEnc to convert to mpg for VCD?

For example:
Check for unusual frames rates, how and what do u if it is unusual?
Use Vdub-mp3 for bad frames or use Vdub 1.5.x and scan for bad frames? What do I do if found?
Checking for lost keyframes
Checking for possible sync probs which may appear later in the process.
etc
etc

So what I am looking for is a step-by-step guide to effectively "test" the avi to know whether the source is in such a bad condition I shouldn't waste time trying to convert to VCD.

An example is I just used vdub 1.5.x to scan for bad frames in an avi and it found 7 bad frames, 681 farmes good but undecodeable. I tried to extract the wav from the avi and vdub halted halfway through. Is this avi not worth the effort to repair? If it can be, what would need to be done.

Thanks for your patience in reading this. Can anyone help me and maybe thousands of others?

[wee haggis]

I prefer to use Vdub Mp3 because it copies/pastes all the bad frames which you can jot down ,then remove using Vdub.
681 bad frames (or undecodeable)is really nothing to worry about especially when you consider that an avaerage movie could be 150,000 to 200,000 frames .
I also find that its good to extract the audio and save as a WAV when the source is DIVX but when its XVID I just feed the sucker straight into TMPGEnc.
Virtualdub is not bad at showing File Information but GSPOT is even better because it tells you if you have all the right codecs and stuff.
When you find a good template for TMPGEnc that works for you...stick with it.
I have one I've used for almost 2 years and I'm at about 250 movies and counting with only a couple of mini frisbees to show for it.