Error messages when trying to open an AVI in TMPGEnc Plus

[hushpuppy]

First off, sorry if I'm posting in the wrong forum. I'm somewhat of a newbie...
I have an AVI file that I am trying to open in TMPGEnc Plus. Each time I try to open it, I get an error message that says the file type is invalid or unsupported. This is really odd since AVICodec shows that it's a standard MPG-4 AVI file and it plays fine in Windows Media Player.
Another odd thing is that it'll allow me to drag and drop the file on the audio field, but not the video (I get the unsupported message again). So it appears TMPGEnc recognizes the audio in the file, but not the video.
Does anyone have any suggestions how I can get TMPGEnc to open the file so I can get this thing converted? Maybe the avi file is missing some info that I need to add before TMPGEnc will recognize it?
Thanks in advance!

[Faithful Follower]

Try using VirtualDubMod to frameserve to TMPGPlus.
See if it works.

[hushpuppy]

Ok, I guess I'm more of a newbie than I thought. What is "frameserving"?
I think what you're saying is that I should be able to use VirtualDubMod to take the avi file and feed it to TMPGEnc in a format that it can read?
Thanks again

[csaag]

I recently had a problem when I couldn't open large AVI files in Tmpg Plus.

I had to go into the environmental settings and bump up the Direct show item to the highest priority. You'll see several items with priorities that range from something like -2 to 2 or 3. Try making the Direct Show item the highest priority (note all the original values first) I forget if I had to close & reopen Tmpg so you might as well restart it. There's also a Mpeg 2 item also I believe. Make that one the 2nd highest priority.
This is a simple quick test & you can always reset the items to their original values. I've seen several threads about problems like this that were solved by doing that.

Frameserving is indeed using Vdub to feed an AVI to Tmpg. Search the guides section here. It's a straightforward process. One advantage is that you can apply filters in Vdub if needed (Tmpg also has filters).

[hushpuppy]

Thanks guys!
Csaag, your suggestion worked! I went into the environmental settings and bumped up DirectShow and and MPEG 2 and it worked like a charm.

[csaag]

Glad to hear it!