GSpot says "File missing" but it is clearly visible in Explorer window?

[Iceblade]

Hey guys,

I'm having issues playing back my AVC encoded movies and some other files, so I fired up GSpot to see if I could see what had changed since everything was working. I noticed that several files, all dealing with the Main Concept decoder that is installed as part of Adobe Premiere CS3, were marked in pink as "File Missing". So I navigated to the path that it indicated was the location of the missing files and lo' and behold, they are there just as plain as day. Can someone comment as to what I might need to do to get this resolved? I'm not sure where to go from here.

Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Jeff

[Baldrick]

Reinstall premiere?

Or use another decoder like ffdshow for avc/h264.

[Ai Haibara]

Is the path to the files rather long, or contain spaces or unusual symbols? Or the filenames, themselves?

If the videos aren't AVI or MPEG, you might also consider having MediaInfo installed, as well (it wouldn't hurt to have around even if they are). GSpot's support for containers other than AVI or MPEG tends to be rather limited, and it also might not work well with some codecs (such as Microsoft's Windows Media codecs, in my experience), so having another utility around to get information on all videos may help.

[Iceblade]

Ai,

I don't consider this path to be particularly long:
"C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro CS3"

I am downloading MediaInfo as we speak and will let you know what it says.

Baldrick,

To be honest, I don't even want to use that darn Main Concept decoder for ANYTHING, but I can't seem to figure out why the heck it is being used on the AVC file in the first place. I'm SUPPOSED to be using the CoreAVC codec... at least that's what I WANT to use.

More info to come once I install MediaInfo.

Thanks,
Jeff

[Iceblade]

OK, so I installed MediaInfo, but I'm not sure what this is supposed to tell me other than what I already know about the file I want to play being an AVC encoded one from my Canon digital camera. I was under the impression that this tool could do the same thing a GSpot. Can someone indicate what to select to get it to show me any issues/errors or why the MainConcept decoder is being used instead of CoreAVC like I want?

Thanks,
Jeff

[Ai Haibara]

It is supposed to be a video/audio information tool like GSpot, yes. I only suggested it because I didn't know what video types you might be working with, as GSpot doesn't always work as well with all of them. (And, because it doesn't hurt to have both GSpot and MediaInfo around to get information on your files. Though, MediaInfo doesn't check the filters or playback chain the way GSpot does, unfortunately.)

Are you sure GSpot is giving you the 'file missing' error for the files, and not the decoders? I'm wondering if the MainConcept decoder installation might have been corrupted, somehow.
Does the error persist if you copy one of the videos to a folder with no spaces in the pathname (like c:\test, for example) and run it through GSpot from there?

[Iceblade]

Ai,

I don't think I can check your suggested test since I managed to remove the Main Concept decoder from the signal graph using GSpot last night, but now I'm not sure how to indicate that a different codec should be used to decode this file type. When I load the file into Gspot, it indicates that the File type is an MPEG-2 Transport Stream with a MIME type of video/mp2t. Viewing the vid in MediaInfo yields:

General
ID : 0
Complete name : H:\20100219\20100219_201841.m2ts
Format : BDAV
Format/Info : Blu-ray Video
File size : 185 MiB
Duration : 1mn 42s
Overall bit rate : 15.1 Mbps
Maximum Overall bit rate : 18.0 Mbps

Video
ID : 4113 (0x1011)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.0
Format settings, CABAC : No
Format settings, ReFrames : 1 frame
Frame mode : Frame doubling
Duration : 1mn 42s
Bit rate : 14.3 Mbps
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Original frame rate : 59.940 fps
Standard : NTSC
Resolution : 8 bits
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.518
Stream size : 175 MiB (95%)

Audio
ID : 4352 (0x1100)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Duration : 1mn 42s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 192 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Stream size : 2.35 MiB (1%)


Here's the system info I see in Gspot:
-
DSH FmtTag: 0x00ff "MainConcept (Adobe2) AAC Decoder" {214CD0D1-FC06-41B1-8BB8-84DA4CFB17D9} 0x00200000 ** File Missing: "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro CS3\ad2daac.ax"
DSH Video "MainConcept (Adobe2) H.264/AVC Decoder" {FF890B41-A4C5-4B19-87CF-65D86EC12F1C} 0x00200000 ** File Missing: "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro CS3\ad2dsh264.ax"
DSH PCM "MainConcept (Adobe2) AAC Encoder" {866DFE40-5582-4FA6-B4BC-665781A007E6} 0x00100000 ** File Missing: "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro CS3\ad2eaac.ax"
DSH YV12 "MainConcept (Adobe2) H.264 Encoder" {FF890B51-A4C5-4B19-87CF-65D86EC12F1C} 0x00200000 ** File Missing: "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro CS3\ad2esh264.ax"
DSH RGB24 "MainConcept (Adobe2) H.264/AVC Video Encoder" {FF890B61-A4C5-4B19-87CF-65D86EC12F1C} 0x00200000 ** File Missing: "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro CS3\ad2evh264.ax"
DSH MPEG1Packet "MainConcept (Adobe2) MPEG Audio Decoder" {25AD5730-4DE0-4CF8-952A-2AEF53AC4321} 0x00200000 ** File Missing: "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro CS3\ad2mcdsmpeg.ax"
DSH MPEG1Packet "MainConcept (Adobe2) MPEG Video Decoder" {25AD5740-4DE0-4CF8-952A-2AEF53AC4321} 0x00200000 ** File Missing: "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro CS3\ad2mcdsmpeg.ax"
DSH PCM "MainConcept (Adobe2) MPEG Audio Encoder" {25AD5770-4DE0-4CF8-952A-2AEF53AC4321} 0x00200000 ** File Missing: "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro CS3\ad2mceampeg.ax"
DSH Video "MainConcept (Adobe2) MPEG Encoder" {25AD5750-4DE0-4CF8-952A-2AEF53AC4321} 0x00200000 ** File Missing: "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro CS3\ad2mcesmpeg.ax"
DSH RGB24 "MainConcept (Adobe2) MPEG Video Encoder" {25AD5760-4DE0-4CF8-952A-2AEF53AC4321} 0x00200000 ** File Missing: "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro CS3\ad2mcevmpeg.ax"
DSH MPEG1Video "MainConcept (Adobe2) MPEG Multiplexer" {25AD5780-4DE0-4CF8-952A-2AEF53AC4321} 0x00200000 ** File Missing: "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro CS3\ad2mcmuxmpeg.ax"
DSH MPEG1System "MainConcept (Adobe2) MPEG Splitter" {25AD5720-4DE0-4CF8-952A-2AEF53AC4321} 0x00200000 ** File Missing: "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro CS3\ad2mcspmpeg.ax"

Does that help? I tried Googling for basic Gspot tweaking info, but must have not used the right search terms to yield what I need.

Thanks again,
Jeff

[Ai Haibara]

I'm not sure I like the sound of those 'missing file' error messages. What did you have GSpot do, exactly? It sounds as though the DirectShow filter files are no longer there (deleted?) or have been renamed - but the system's still expecting to see them, there.

Can it be reversed? If it can, or if you can repair/reinstall or uninstall the MainConcept decoder, you should be able to use programs like DirectShow Filter Manager or Filmerit (there are a few others listed in VideoHelp's Tools section, but I don't know how well they work) to give the CoreAVC decoder more merit than the MainConcept decoder (that means the system should hopefully prefer/use the CoreAVC decoder, as you want).

[Iceblade]

Ai,

It appears as if the MainConcept issue may be because it is a trial version of those codecs that comes shipped withe Adobe CS3.

That being said, the merit of the CoreAVC decoder is at "MERIT_PREFERRED" and MainConcept is set to DO NOT USE.

Using FFDSHOW, there's no option to select the CoreAVC codec for AVC files... just ffmpeg-mt and libavcodec.

So basically, I'm not sure what tool to use to specify to my system that I want to use CoreAVC to decode my AVCHD lite encoded M2TS files from my Panasonic camera.

Thanks again.

Regs,
Jeff

[jagabo]

Using FFDSHOW, there's no option to select the CoreAVC codec for AVC files... just ffmpeg-mt and libavcodec.

ffdshow's options only control what ffdshow is doing. It cannot control what DirectShow and VFW are doing.

There are two main video handling systems in Windows: Video For Windows and DirectShow. VFW based programs (many editors) require VFW codecs, DirectShow programs (most media players) require DirectShow codecs (some VFW codecs can be accessed via a DirectShow wrapper). In addition, any program can do its own encoding and decoding.

CoreAVC is a DirectShow decoder only.

ffdshow contains both VFW and DirectShow decoders with separate controls for each.

I don't use Premiere CS3 but I think it uses private decoders, not system installed (VFW, DS) codecs.