Is it the prog, or my movie?

[uneek-flip]

Well, I'm having a hard time trying to convert some of my avi movies, to mpeg. I use TMPGEnc to convert my movies, and some of them work, but others, it says errors like "unsupported!". what's that supposed to mean? Then, i did a comparison between the movies that worked and the ones that didn't. It seems that in the details (right click on the movie > properties > details), under video format, the ones that don't work says "unknown format", and the one's that do work, has something like "DIVXMPEG4 V3"... what's the problem? is it the program or the movie.. can someone help.

[dumwaldo]

first there are 2 divx codecs you should have installed.
DIVX 4.whatever is newest
available at http://www.divx.com
also
DivX 3.11 alpha
available at http://www.divx-digest.com

the newer divx 4 codec does not understand divx audio so you need the divx 3.11 alpha codec as well. when installing the divx 4 codec you will be asked if you want it to decode 3.11 content, say NO to this.

the other possibility is that some part of the video, either the video or the audio is encoded with a variable bit rate that TMPGEnc does not understand. if the file still shows as unsupported after both divx codecs are installed then try using VirtualDub to re-encode the file with constant bitrates.

[uneek-flip]

yea i downloaded both those, and when i try to play my movie on the playa... it won't even open....

[dumwaldo]

sorry i forgot to mention one other codec. the navi codec that shadowrealm uses is available from http://www.smr-movies.net/index_smr.html this is a pretty low lovel video codec as it uses an extremley low bitrate and 20 FPS. generally files that use the navi codec (also called smr patch) usually have (smr) in the title. if these are smr movies then i suggest you get a comfortable desk chair and relax there and watch your movies, smr converts to vcd horribly.

if the smr patch fails and the files will not play even using the playa (which plays incomplete files) then the file is either corrupted or just plain fake.

if you downloaded these movies from a peer to peer program there are many things that can go wrong with the transfer from usual crc errors to programs that use multiple sources using mismatched files. there also seems to be some people who like to pass fake movies over peer to peer programs.

[uneek-flip]

ummm it's not an smr movie though... im still wonderin what the unknown format is all about though.... you know, when you right-click on the movie, check details and under the video format? why are the ones that don't work have "unknown format", and the other one's that do work has something like "divxmpg v3" or sumthin.??

[dumwaldo]

there is a header imbedded in the file that tells windows what codec (dll file) to refrence to understand how to read the file. either that header was damaged during transfer or you lack the required .dll file (codec) to play it. the properties box can only report what windows understands so it will only tell you the codec type if you have the codec installed. there are tons of avi codecs around but the the above mentioned ones are the only ones i am aware of that will offer enough compression to make a realistic sized file for a movie.

again let me state that it is entirley possible that it is a fake file. it is not difficult to create an archive file of 600 meg of bullshit then rename it to the greatest movie ever made.avi then put it on kazza or morpheus or e-donkey or audiogalaxy and it gets spread around.

without getting to specific can you say where you got the file? it might be able to speak volumes for what the problem is.

[uneek-flip]

when im in windows media player, i check the properties and it says "audio codec: MPEG Layer-3 Decoder" & "video codec:Microsoft MPEG-4 Video Decompressor"... what's that?

[Vejita-sama]

TMPGenc has trouble w/ MP3 audio. Try extracting/saving a wav file of the avi w/ Virtual Dub. Then use the avi as video source and the wav as audio source.

[PhArAoH]

Try:
Open TMPGEnc, go to Options -> Environmental Settings -> VFPI plugin ->Right click on Directshow Multimedia File Reader -> then click on higher priority. Do this until Directshow Multimedia File Reader item is at the top of the list.