bad video dimensions information

[bl88drg]

I've always used many software to work on videos so I'm not a complete ignorant about this matter. Perhaps I shouldn't make this post on the "newbie" area, but I didn't knew where else to put it and here should do fine.


My problem is that all my videos captured by my digital camera have a bug about the avi data.


For some reason, the videos are captured on a 640x479 resolution, and yes, it should be 640x480.


Because of that, and although the frames are 640x479, the video's info is that they are 640x480, and some players (like media player) don't play the video. It displays no image and plays the sound (like if video codec was missing).


I have the MJPEG codec (which is the one used by the digital camera to compress the video) so that is not the problem about playing.


What I wanted was some software that could change the video info dimension values from 640x480 to 640x479 without recompressing the video. Although it makes the video not be a 4:3 anymore, it should probabily make the video play.


Of course that if there was a way of filling the frames last line with black to make them have the 640x480 dimensions without having to recompress, that would be better, but I guess that's impossible.


So does anyone have a program that can change that info on my videos.


It would be great that it could be a program that could change all the videos at once, but I would be happy if there is any that does it on a single file.


Thanks.

[darkknight145]

When you say media player won't play it i assume you mean Windows media player. The one line missing will not stop media player from playing a file, any resolution will play in media player, which brings it back to the file format and codecs. Of course there are some media formats that windows media player will never be able to play regardless of codecs installed.
I suggest trying another type of player such as KmPlayer which will play almost anything

[Soopafresh]

That's a strange bug. There must be a fix by the camera maker.

There might be a modification you can do to the AVI header


http://www.am-softhome.com/aviedit.html


header
Short but important part of the avi file that contains information about the codec used to create file, frame rate, picture width and height and some other properties necessary for a player or video editor. In AVIedit, you can edit the header without a rendering the entire file, using File/AVI Header menu item.

[aedipuss]

what camera? maker/model? not likely it's really 640x479, as it's not a legal size for any type of compressed video.

[bl88drg]

When you say media player won't play it i assume you mean Windows media player. The one line missing will not stop media player from playing a file, any resolution will play in media player, which brings it back to the file format and codecs. Of course there are some media formats that windows media player will never be able to play regardless of codecs installed.
I suggest trying another type of player such as KmPlayer which will play almost anything

it doesn't play on most of the players. Of course some like QuickTime or VLC media player can read it. The main problem is when I want to use those files on video editors (After Effects, Premiere, VirtualDub) the video doesn't play. It shows all frames on black and plays the audio.

That's a strange bug. There must be a fix by the camera maker.

There might be a modification you can do to the AVI header


http://www.am-softhome.com/aviedit.html


header
Short but important part of the avi file that contains information about the codec used to create file, frame rate, picture width and height and some other properties necessary for a player or video editor. In AVIedit, you can edit the header without a rendering the entire file, using File/AVI Header menu item.

I have already tried AVIedit but to change this I must recompress the video. What I want is to fix my original videos so that I can use them on anything without having to recompress or to lose quality because of it.

what camera? maker/model? not likely it's really 640x479, as it's not a legal size for any type of compressed video.

all frames dimension is really 640x479, but the header reports 640x480 which is, of course, what it should be. that bug is what is causing some players not to be able to play my video. I once got an error on VirtualDub reporting preciselly this (dimensions differing from reported and real frame size).

camera is:
HP Photosmart M627 and it's about 3 years since I bought it.


if I use some program to convert the videos into a different format or just recompressing, I can fix it. the point is that I want my original files to be usable for most video apps so I can see them or mix them or something else without having to use a new file with less quality than the original.

hope you can help me. I'm not desperate for a solution about this, but it would really be great to have this fixed. there's some stuff I have quitted trying to create because of this problem and I'd like to end those projects, even if they are not important stuff.

[poisondeathray]

What does mediainfo and gspot say about the file? Maybe your decoder is flawed? Try switching to a different one (e.g. ffdshow's MJPG)

For your projects, After effects and Premiere don't smart render MJPG in AVI , so they will re-encode anyway upon export. So you might as well re-encode to a resized lossless format e.g. Huffyuv, Lagarith for import

If you just want to play it, use VLC

[bl88drg]

What does mediainfo and gspot say about the file? Maybe your decoder is flawed? Try switching to a different one (e.g. ffdshow's MJPG)

For your projects, After effects and Premiere don't smart render MJPG in AVI , so they will re-encode anyway upon export. So you might as well re-encode to a resized lossless format e.g. Huffyuv, Lagarith for import

If you just want to play it, use VLC

MEDIA INFO
General
Count : 265
Count of stream of this kind : 1
Kind of stream : General
Kind of stream : General
Stream identifier : 0
Inform : AVI: 5.94 MiB, 10s 100ms
Count of video streams : 1
Count of audio streams : 1
Video_Format_List : M-JPEG
Video_Format_WithHint_List : M-JPEG
Codecs Video : M-JPEG
Audio_Format_List : PCM
Audio_Format_WithHint_List : PCM (Microsoft)
Audio codecs : PCM
Complete name : C:\Users\Paulo Ferreira\Pictures\As Minhas Fotografias\2009-10 (Out)\HPIM5386.AVI
Folder name : C:\Users\Paulo Ferreira\Pictures\As Minhas Fotografias\2009-10 (Out)
File name : HPIM5386
File extension : avi
Format : AVI
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
Format/Extensions usually used : avi
InternetMediaType : video/vnd.avi
Interleaved : Yes
Codec : AVI
Codec : AVI
Codec/Info : Audio Video Interleave
Codec/Extensions usually used : avi
File size : 6233324
File size : 5.94 MiB
File size : 6 MiB
File size : 5.9 MiB
File size : 5.94 MiB
File size : 5.945 MiB
Duration : 10100
Duration : 10s 100ms
Duration : 10s 100ms
Duration : 10s 100ms
Duration : 00:00:10.100
Overall bit rate : 4937286
Overall bit rate : 4 937 Kbps
Stream size : 15000
Stream size : 14.6 KiB (0%)
Stream size : 15 KiB
Stream size : 15 KiB
Stream size : 14.6 KiB
Stream size : 14.65 KiB
Stream size : 14.6 KiB (0%)
Proportion of this stream : 0.00241
File creation date : UTC 2009-12-29 05:59:47.607
File creation date (local) : 2009-12-29 05:59:47.607
File last modification date : UTC 2010-01-20 22:44:46.156
File last modification date (loc : 2010-01-20 22:44:46.156
Writing library : B��AB(
���D�
Writing library : B��AB(
���D�

Video
Count : 151
Count of stream of this kind : 1
Kind of stream : Video
Kind of stream : Video
Stream identifier : 0
Inform : 4 573 Kbps, 640*480 (4:3), at 22.475 fps, M-JPEG
ID : 0
ID : 0
Format : M-JPEG
InternetMediaType : video/JPEG
Codec ID : MJPG
Codec : MJPG
Codec : M-JPEG
Codec/Family : M-JPEG
Codec/Info : M-JPEG including Huffman Tables
Codec/CC : MJPG
Duration : 10100
Duration : 10s 100ms
Duration : 10s 100ms
Duration : 10s 100ms
Duration : 00:00:10.100
Bit rate : 4572600
Bit rate : 4 573 Kbps
Width : 640
Width : 640 pixels
Height : 480
Height : 480 pixels
Pixel aspect ratio : 1.000
Display aspect ratio : 1.333
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate : 22.475
Frame rate : 22.475 fps
Frame count : 227
Resolution : 8
Resolution : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Scan type : Progressive
Interlacement : PPF
Interlacement : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.662
Stream size : 5772908
Stream size : 5.51 MiB (93%)
Stream size : 6 MiB
Stream size : 5.5 MiB
Stream size : 5.51 MiB
Stream size : 5.505 MiB
Stream size : 5.51 MiB (93%)
Proportion of this stream : 0.92614

Audio
Count : 132
Count of stream of this kind : 1
Kind of stream : Audio
Kind of stream : Audio
Stream identifier : 0
Inform : 352.8 Kbps, 22.05 KHz, 1 channel, PCM (Microsoft) (Little / Unsigned)
Format : PCM
Format settings : Little / Unsigned
Format settings, Endianness : Little
Format settings, Sign : Unsigned
Codec ID : 1
Codec ID/Hint : Microsoft
Codec ID/Url : http://www.microsoft.com/windows/
Codec : PCM
Codec : PCM
Codec/Family : PCM
Codec/Info : Microsoft PCM
Codec/Url : http://www.microsoft.com/windows/
Codec/CC : 1
Codec settings : Little / Unsigned
Codec settings, Endianness : Little
Codec settings, Sign : Unsigned
Duration : 10100
Duration : 10s 100ms
Duration : 10s 100ms
Duration : 10s 100ms
Duration : 00:00:10.100
Bit rate mode : CBR
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 352800
Bit rate : 352.8 Kbps
Channel(s) : 1
Channel(s) : 1 channel
Sampling rate : 22050
Sampling rate : 22.05 KHz
SamplingCount : 222705
Resolution : 16
Resolution : 16 bits
Stream size : 445416
Stream size : 435 KiB (7%)
Stream size : 435 KiB
Stream size : 435 KiB
Stream size : 435 KiB
Stream size : 435.0 KiB
Stream size : 435 KiB (7%)
Proportion of this stream : 0.07146
Interleave, duration : 1.00
Interleave, duration : 44
Interleave, duration : 44 ms (1.00 video frame)



GSpot






I'm now using ffdshow (I didn't knew it also decoded MJPG) but it still doesn't play on Media Player.


But I can play it even on Winamp...


I know After Effects won't smart render my clips but still it's less one compression step it has to pass through, and so, even if minimal, better quatilty.

[poisondeathray]

I know After Effects won't smart render my clips but still it's less one compression step it has to pass through, and so, even if minimal, better quatilty.

Lossless compression means NO quality loss, not "minimal"... the analogy in the audio world would be flac. There are no additional losses from infinity generations of re-encoding.

There's something bizzare about your file, Mediainfo says your file is 640x480, yet gspot says 640x479.... weird

[Cornucopia]

I'm betting it might be something wrong with gspot. I've been using it less and less. It already has a number of bugs (some that I've mentioned before) and hasn't been updated in years.

Besides Gspot, how do you even KNOW that your file IS 640x479?

Scott

edit: Have you been in contact with HP?

[poisondeathray]

Can you post a small sample? If it's <6MB you can upload it directly to the site , or if larger, use a free hosting site (e.g. mediafire.com)

[bl88drg]

I'm betting it might be something wrong with gspot. I've been using it less and less. It already has a number of bugs (some that I've mentioned before) and hasn't been updated in years.

Besides Gspot, how do you even KNOW that your file IS 640x479?

Scott

edit: Have you been in contact with HP?

first time I noticed it was when virtualdub warned about that. it's not a gspot bug. I only installed it now because poisondeathray asked what info appeared on it and I already knew the video was 640x479 before.

no, I haven't been in contact with HP. it's not such a big deal, so I never contacted them, but nothing appears on google about this subject, so, if there was something on any site of them it would have already appeared.

I know After Effects won't smart render my clips but still it's less one compression step it has to pass through, and so, even if minimal, better quatilty.

Lossless compression means NO quality loss, not "minimal"... the analogy in the audio world would be flac. There are no additional losses from infinity generations of re-encoding.

There's something bizzare about your file, Mediainfo says your file is 640x480, yet gspot says 640x479.... weird

I know what lossless is. But still it will make me have to compress those files into that format. I will not lose image data but I'll have to spend time recompressing and I will have to deal with bigger files.

Can you post a small sample? If it's <6MB you can upload it directly to the site , or if larger, use a free hosting site (e.g. mediafire.com)

sure. I already thought about it. the clip I'm using for testing if it works is a very small clip and doesn't have anything important on it. so, sure I can post it

hpim5386.avi

[poisondeathray]

So it's not the decoder; the 479 width occurs before that in the filter chain.
If you render the file in graphstudio , 479 is output from quartz.dll (windows AVI splitter) in the output pin.

Re-wrapping the file didn't work (e.g. avimux-gui, or avidemux stream copy) to fix the width, but at least you can do cut editing in avidemux

If you don't want lossless intermediates, you can use an .avs script for each file to frameserve in. FFMpegSource2() decodes it at 640x480. The .avs import plugin works for both PP CS4, and AE CS4. You could even do batch scripts, there are avisynth batch tools


The other weird thing about that file is the frame rate: 22.475 is really non standard

[aedipuss]

hp specs say it's -

HP Photosmart M627 digital camera L2420A
HP Photosmart M627v digital camera L2422A
HP Photosmart M627xi digital camera L2421A
Feature Description
Resolution Still pictures:

* 7.4 MP (3152 by 2342) total pixel count
* 7.0 MP (3040 by 2288) effective pixel count



Video clips:

* 640 by 480 total pixel count, 22 frames/sec

if you are actually getting 640x479 the camera is broken.

[jagabo]

The AVI File Header says the frame is 640x480. The AVI Stream Header (the header for the video stream) says it's 640x480. The Avi Stream Format chunk says it's 640x479. All the tools I tried had no problems dealing with the file as is. I changed the file so that all the headers indicate 480 or 479. See if either works:

all640.avi

all639.avi

Both work with all the tools I tried.

[bl88drg]

The AVI File Header says the frame is 640x480. The AVI Stream Header (the header for the video stream) says it's 640x480. The Avi Stream Format chunk says it's 640x479. All the tools I tried had no problems dealing with the file as is. I changed the file so that all the headers indicate 480 or 479. See if either works:

all640.avi

all639.avi

Both work with all the tools I tried.

The first one works.


Can you tell me how to change it so that I can do it on all my videos recorded by this camera?

[jagabo]

Can you tell me how to change it so that I can do it on all my videos recorded by this camera? :)

I used a hex editor and changed the byte at offset b4 from df to e0:



Note that's a zero in "e0", not the letter o. All the videos from your camera should have that same field in the same location.

[poisondeathray]

jagabo - how did you know to change that exactly?

I didn't see the sign saying "hey it's width parameter here"

i.e what steps or clues suggested to change that and to that specific value?

[jagabo]

I'm pretty familiar with AVI structure. I used VirtualDub's hex editor which also has a RIFF chunk tree view:



The chunk is highlighted in orange, the field in green, the name of the field and description are at the bottom of the hex editor window "biHeight...". The field is a 4 byte value in little endian format:

DF 01 00 00 --> 000001DF = 479

[bl88drg]

I'm pretty familiar with AVI structure. I used VirtualDub's hex editor which also has a RIFF chunk tree view:



The chunk is highlighted in orange, the field in green, the name of the field and description are at the bottom of the hex editor window "biHeight...". The field is a 4 byte value in little endian format:

DF 01 00 00 --> 000001DF = 479

big wow!!!

ok... I knew VirtualDub had a hex editor. I didn't knew was that it was able do identify the diferent information "areas" of the AVI files.


very nice to know that :P


I'll probably use another hex editor to make things faster, but it is always good to know virtualdub has this feature.


I can work fine with Hex Editors and I'll know what to do. Long time ago, in the MSDOS times, I used PCTOOLS a lot for modifying games. Mostly I changed uncompiled strings, but in some games I actually changed some data (I had a team on ActuaSoccer which players' skills were all at value 100... and also there was a way of playing against green players xD).


thank you very much for all this info


I guess soon I'll have all my videos fixed


Oh... and btw... I'm not the guy on the video xD (I only noticed now that a friend of mine appeared in the end... I'm sure he doesn't bother about sharing his face on this website... ehehehe)