Unsupported format or Damaged File error

[sam hain]

Hi,

About a month ago I create three different rather large (>16GB) AVI files in After Effects. I exported them as an uncompressed 24-bit color Windows AVI files with no audio onto a USB hard drive formatted NTFS. At the time could view the file from the USB hard drive etc... and could import them into PPro.

Today however I can copy all the files from the USB hard drive to the computers hard drive intact at the same the size. However when I try to load them into PPRO I get an "Unsupported format or Damaged File" error message. I get something similar in AE, and in windows media player I get an "The file format is invalid" error. I get the same error if I try to do the same thing with the files on the USB hard drive.

The thing is I get this around 2 minutes and 18 seconds into the files. I calculated that this would end up being around the 4GB mark in the file. It does this for all three files. It also does this for one file that is around 6GB but this file plays completely through without any problems.

I did have to rebuild the computer which is a SuperMicro Motherboard, (2) WD 200GB HDs, 4 GB ram, WinXP Pro SP1.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

[thecoalman]

I did have to rebuild the computer which is a SuperMicro Motherboard, (2) WD 200GB HDs, 4 GB ram, WinXP Pro SP1.
.

When you rebuilt it did you reformat the drives using the fat32 file system? if so Fat only supports up to 4 GB.

[sam hain]

Hi thecoalman

thanks for your reply. When I rebuilt the computer I formatted the hard drives NTFS. After doing some research I'm finding that there's two versions of the AVI spec: AVI 1.0 and AVI 2.0 - I found some info on it here:
http://www.puremotion.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2710

I haven't installed the latest version of direct show but will post what happens. Hopefully updating directx will help.

[thecoalman]

Hi thecoalman

thanks for your reply. When I rebuilt the computer I formatted the hard drives NTFS.

Well that was one of those longshot suggestions anyway. I'd assume you'd get an error trying to copy the file from the external drive to your HD if it was foramatted fat.

[sam hain]

Hi thecoalman,

It doesn't matter if I play the file from the USB drive or copy it to my computer's hard drive. I can actually play the file but then about 1/4 the way through I get the error. I'm guessing that its because at the 1/4 mark is right around 4GB. The total length is around 16GB for instance. I looked at the file in a hex editor and the data is still there.

I'm wondering if I had installed something that allowed me to do that. I ran VirtualDub on a copy of the file and it 'fixed' the file at the same place I get the error (1/4 way mark/4GB).

I updated WinXP with the latest directX drivers but it still doesn't work. Very strange