AVI to WAV in Virtualdub

[crumbworks]

I often extract the audio from AVI files using Virtualdub. I often do this when I want just a clip from a video file. Sometimes if the source audio was encoded in VBR, I need to extract the entire audio as a decompressed WAV, and then use that WAV file with the video in order to avoid a sync issue. I have been doing it for years without fail.

However, just recently it has been giving me an error. It says "No audio decompressor could be found to decompress the source audio format."

It worked just fine for years. I have changed no settings at all, neither in Virtualdub or in Windows. I have not installed or uninstalled anything new. Does anyone know of the solution?



Edit: I'd like to add that I installed fccHandler's AC3 ACM codec and it did not help.

[guns1inger]

Open the avi in g-spot or mediainfo and confirm the audio format

[crumbworks]

I opened it in VLC Media player and hit CTRL+I for it to give me the audio/video specs, and it said the audio format was "mpga"

[guns1inger]

Which means nothing. Use a codec identifier, such as the ones I suggested, to confirm. VLC gives me that for a number of different formats.

[crumbworks]

Oh ok, sorry. GSpot says:

Codec: 0x0055 MPEG-1 Layer 3 (VBR)
Info: 48000Hz 128 kb/s tot , Joint Stereo LAME3.96r
Stat: Codec(s) Installed

[guns1inger]

Try either virtualdubmod, or perhaps AVI Demux.

If you use virtualdubmod, open the avi and answer No when it asks to re-write the header. Click on Streams -> Stream List. Right-click on the audio track and select Full processing. Right-click and select Compression. Click on Uncompressed PCM. Click OK, then Save WAV.

[crumbworks]

I followed those steps exactly with VirtualDubMod and got the exact same error as before.

[AlanHK]

You can try BeSweet. Using the GUI, select as INPUT your AVI, choose the output format (WAVE) and GO.

[ks47]

Awhile ago I had a problem getting downloaded divx Avi to load in VirtualDub and VirtualDubMod properly from Stage6. It would play in WMP, VLC. There was no sound or it would not save the music. I finally solved the problem by scripting the video in Avisynth, and reloading to VirtualDub then I was able demux the music to wav.

TS

[crumbworks]

I tried like 10 different programs and none worked. With some, they were not able to successfully isolate the clip I wanted without a sync issue or some other error.

With other programs, I was mostly able to successfully extract a WAV file from the source AVI, but when I input them into Virtualdub or VirtualdubMod, I either got the same decompress error, or a glaring sync issue.

The only way I could get it to work was by setting the audio offset back by 13,000 ms... but that's a very lousy and inefficient solution.

[AlanHK]

Assuming you have Avisynth, try making a little AVS file like:

[movie.avs]
AVISource("movie.avi").ensureVBRMP3sync()

(The sync command is probably not necessary when you don't have any trims, but can't hurt.)

Then use: WAVI

type:
wavi movie.avs movie.wav

[Jim44]

I don't know if it will work in your particular instance, but when I occasionally get that error in VDubMod, I end up using Goldwave to extract the WAV. So far it's worked when VDM didn't.

Jim

[crumbworks]

Even opening the file in Goldwave doesn't do anything. The window remains blank and doesn't show the audio content...?

[Midzuki]

It seems your operating system has been screwed up somehow.
Over here even Avisynth scripts are happily opened by Goldwave.
Time for a general codec clean-up, I suppose.

[GideonK]

crumbworks wrote:

Edit: I'd like to add that I installed fccHandler's AC3 ACM codec and it did not help.

Did you try loading (or reloading) the LAME 3.97 Release ACM codec?
http://www.rarewares.org/mp3-lame-dshow-acm.php#lame-current-acm
Right-click on inf file and click install

[crumbworks]

Did you try loading (or reloading) the LAME 3.97 Release ACM codec?
http://www.rarewares.org/mp3-lame-dshow-acm.php#lame-current-acm
Right-click on inf file and click install

I did that, and now I get a different error than before in VirtualDub:

[crumbworks]

Follow-up question:

I grabbed another video file and went to extract the audio as an uncompressed WAV. It worked just fine. I used GSpot to see what the difference was:

Audio that worked:
0x0055 MPEG-1 Layer 3
48000Hz 132 kb/s tot , Joint Stereo LAME3.95

Audio that didn't work:
0x0055 MPEG-1 Layer 3
48000Hz 128 kb/s tot , Joint Stereo LAME3.96r

So the only difference seems to be the tot and the version of LAME used... but why even with LAME 3.97 can I not extract the latter??

[Ai Haibara]

I'm wondering if AVI2WAV might help... it'll probably export as an MP3-compressed WAV, as it did when I just tested it against a CBR AVI and a VBR AVI, but you should be able to load it into an editor like Audacity (which did complain about having to 'guess' the file format, but it still worked fine) and then save as an uncompressed WAV, or use an audio converter (I tested it with dbPowerAmp, but it should work with anything that doesn't have a problem with MP3-compressed WAVs).

AVI2WAV's documentation also claims it doesn't depend upon the codecs installed on the system, so it might work even if you're having problems with the installed codecs.

[AlanHK]

So the only difference seems to be the tot and the version of LAME used... but why even with LAME 3.97 can I not extract the latter??

Lame does not extract the file, it is used to create or play it.

You need to demux, that at its simplest shouldn't really care what kind of audio it is.

There are lots of demuxing tools.

Eg: avi2raw from http://pbx.mine.nu/w21sa/mpeg4ip.html
to extract just the audio:
avi2raw -a mymedia.avi myaudio.mp3

[ayyash]

well im amatuer, dont know much about demuxing tools so here is what I did: opened the avi in windows media player, and i had FFDshow filter running, i played around with it, and i remember clicking the "mixer" checkbox put everything in place (the sound material was shit!) then i played the segment I wanted with perfect audio, used Accoustica to capture audio, and there i have a sepearte MP3... all i need to do is get the avi and audio together n i will use dear old windows movie maker (such a stupid straigh forward tool i dont know what i would have done without it)

[Bjs]

Have you tried isolating the streams by using vlc's transcoding feature ?