what causes freezing avi?

[maca]

I have occasionally downloaded avi files which play normally by themselves, but which freeze about 10 seconds into the film when I attempt to convert to mpg. When this happens, NO software I have will get past this freeze point, not VirtualDub, TMPEnc, you name it. If I leave the film to encode without noticing the freeze, I'll get an mpg with all the audio but a picture that remains frozen, always very near the beginning. I would estimate this happens in about 1 out of 10 avi files I encounter. Anyone know what causes the freezing picture, and what I can do about it? Thanks in advance.

[mats.hogberg]

That's the quality of downloaded AVI's for ya! They are damaged. If it's only 1 out of 10, consider yourself lucky.
Occationally, updating the codec to latest version can help, but mostly, trying to fix a broken AVI is such a PITA, it's simply not worth the trouble, IMO. Delete and forget (or be satisfied with watching it on the computer monitor).

/Mats

[maca]

Thanks for your reply. In fooling around with a couple of my damaged avi since posting last night, I have discovered that Intervideo WinDvd Creator will plough through the freezes and create an mpg. Of course it has very few features, so I'm screwed if the avi needs subtitles or aspect ratio change or anything else, but for the average avi it seems to work, so far.

Maybe this fact can help others who encounter the deadly "avi freeze".

[jtoolman2000]

I can't comment fully as I don't know what sort of " Downloads " you are talking about. You do realize that they cannot be commercial movies that are presently copywrited! Tv shows may be all right ( Maybe!!! ) public domain stuff like fan produced flicks are OK. Anyway, it is a total crap shoot when you download these files. As you have very clearly experienced, they freeze and worse, many do not even play of are NOT what the name claims them to be. Great way to get unsolicited porn.

Best bet,,, buy the DVD program or movie and back it up using any of the many methods and tools illustrated here. The point is that yat least you own it rather than downloading it. Guaranteed that the quality will good to great which is more than anyone can say about the crap that is usually shared via P2P

Don't mean to step on anybody's toes.

[redwudz]

I usually drop them into VirtualDub and let it check for errors. I use VDMod most of the time. If it can get through them, you may be able to save them in fast recode using the same codec.

If VD can't make it through, I usually give up.

Sometimes it's as simple as the timecode is messed up and VD can often fix that.

Or the audio is corrupted and that stalls out the video. In that case, save the audio and video separately. You will likely have sync problems if you try to fix them, then recombine. It depends on how much effort you want to go to. Or you can dump the audio and you may get just the video to play.

I've also found that VLC Media Player can play corrupted AVIs better than some other players.

[mats.hogberg]

Great way to get unsolicited porn.

Damned! Never happened to me Could you give an example? (To wife: No! Honestly, I was just trying to view this home improvement show I missed last night, and this is what I got! No, Ouch! Please, NO!)



/Mats

[redwudz]

A couple of weeks ago our receptionist in the office with the rare internet access on her computer accidently downloaded a trojan that popped up full page porn ads at random.

She tried to keep working on the computer, but with the public wandering in and out, it was hilarious. Every time something popped onto the screen, she had to scramble for the monitor switch.

The IT guys saw no humor in it at all. Took her computer away and sanitized it for a couple of days.

[mats.hogberg]

Been there, done that. Embarassing, to say the least. Was about to show a customer our latest development, when porn popups started exploding all over the screen.
I blushed for an hour...

/Mats

[maca]

You do realize that they cannot be commercial movies that are presently copywrited!

I don't download things that are readily available on dvd; I look for things that people have posted from rare, OOP vhs, etc., things that I really couldn't get any other way, so I'm not cheating anyone of an income by downloading them because there's nowhere for them to be purchased (except perhaps from some grey market source who's making money off material they don't have rights to.)

I view avi downloads like a treasure hunt, not as a way to get around buying a dvd. My legitimate dvd collection is huge and more are purchased all the time.

[h2o_skiman]

The typical reason this happens is you have Divx encoded AVI file and either you do not have the Divx codex installed on your computer, or the player does not accept the Divx codex. For example, I have Divx Player and codex installed on my system, but Windows media player 9, always freezes 10 seconds after starting when a Divx AVI file is played. The same AVI file plays fine using other players on my system.

Download the Divx player and you should be fine.

[redwudz]

Even easier would be to use a player like VLC Media Player which has it's own codecs, then you don't need to download anything to just watch most all video formats.