Can't play *.avi files anymore

[John_do]

I can't play *.avi files anymore???

It have always worked so????

Windows mediaplayer or Winamp crash, and so does the explorer!

Am I missing a codec or ???

TIA.

[alchemistresearch]

Have you tried removing the programs that crash and re-installing?

[John_do]

Nah not really, because I don't think you can uninstall explorer.

I forgot to say that VirtualDub can play *.avi files?

[bighousie]

I can't play *.avi files anymore???

It have always worked so????

Windows mediaplayer or Winamp crash, and so does the explorer!

Am I missing a codec or ???

TIA.

I have the same experience; when i try to open an avi-file with Wind. Mediaplayer or Winamp both players crash and disappear??

[bazooka]

You could try a different player.

Bsplayer is really good and so is vlc media player.

[mpack]

Am I missing a codec or ???

You don't get crashes due to missing codecs (unless an existing but incompatible codec claims to be the right one), you get an error message instead.

I've had problems like this in the past due to installing a buggy AVI codec on my PC. When Windows AVI support is activated it does some kind of check (I don't know the details) of all the installed codecs. Once it reaches the buggy codec, it crashes.

Have you installed some kind of codec pack recently? Or any kind of video related software that might have installed some codecs?

If so, and if you are using XP then hopefully you created a restore point just before it, in which case you can restore to that point. Otherwise you may have to uninstall or disable codecs manually until you find the culprit.

[mpack]

I forgot to say that VirtualDub can play *.avi files?

And I forgot to say why...

The Windows OS has built in support for reading AVI files, but not every app uses it, partly because the interface is rather limited, and partly to avoid problems like this. Media Player (naturally) uses the OS, and so will many other apps. VirtualDUB I believe does not, it uses its own AVI processing code, and hence is not susceptible.

[junkmalle]

I forgot to say that VirtualDub can play *.avi files?

And I forgot to say why...

The Windows OS has built in support for reading AVI files, but not every app uses it, partly because the interface is rather limited, and partly to avoid problems like this. Media Player (naturally) uses the OS, and so will many other apps. VirtualDUB I believe does not, it uses its own AVI processing code, and hence is not susceptible.

I don't think so. I believe VirtualDub uses the older (now deprecated by MS) VFW APi, whereas WMP and Winamp use the newer WDM API. So a bad WDM filter is probably causing the crash.

[mpack]

I don't think so. I believe VirtualDub uses the older (now deprecated by MS) VFW APi, whereas WMP and Winamp use the newer WDM API. So a bad WDM filter is probably causing the crash.

I believe VirtualDUB only uses VFW for video capture. For reading already existing AVIs it has its own AVI parser - see AVIReadHandler.cpp in the VDub source code.

[bighousie]

If a bad WDM filter is the cause, what to do about it? And what is a WDM filter?

[bighousie]

You could try a different player.

Bsplayer is really good and so is vlc media player.

Yeah, i know, but the pity is that i make use of SubSync for subtitling and that program uses Windows Mediaplayer! So i can't use SubSync anyfurther!

[junkmalle]

I don't think so. I believe VirtualDub uses the older (now deprecated by MS) VFW APi, whereas WMP and Winamp use the newer WDM API. So a bad WDM filter is probably causing the crash.

I believe VirtualDUB only uses VFW for video capture. For reading already existing AVIs it has its own AVI parser - see AVIReadHandler.cpp in the VDub source code.

Thanks mpack, I took a quick look at the source and you're right about VirtualDub's AVI file parsing. So that could be a source of problems with other programs.

[junkmalle]

If a bad WDM filter is the cause, what to do about it? And what is a WDM filter?

WDM is Windows Device Manager. Try playing the file with Windows Media Player 6.4 -- it's included with Windows XP in c:\program files\windows media player\mplayer2.exe. If you can open the file with that you can use File -> Properties -> Advanced to get a list of all the codecs and filters that are used.