GraphEdit fails to render video files

[w2kpro]

Hi Guys,

I have run into a problem creating graphs when loading certain media files into GraphEdit, GraphStudio and GraphStudioNext. GraphStudioNext returns the following error message:

VFW_E_Unsupported_Stream
(0x80040265)

Cannot play back the file. The format is not supported.

This would seem to be a nonsense message, as the system has all the required registered codecs it needs to play both audio and video files and they all play perfectly using Windows Media Player or MPC-HC with the required external codecs selected as preferred. I also get the same error message when using GSpot. All video files seem to be effected (mpeg ts,and mp4), however, the graphing apps all render most audio files such as ac3, mp2, mp3,and wav - but not aac and m4a. GSpot also works with ac3, mp2, mp3,and wav audio files.

I am running 32-bit Win7 Pro sp1 on a Samsung nc110 that uses an Intel Atom N570 1.66GHz dual core processor with Intel integrated graphics and 2GB of RAM. I have also tried 32-bit Win8 Pro on the same machine but get the same error, so it does not seem to be a case of a broken OS. DXDiag.exe reports that there are no problems with DirectX 11 and Dependency Walker didn't find any problems when loading the graphing apps.

A clue to solving the mystery might be that only video and the more recent mpeg-4 spec audio files seem to be effected. The only thing that I can think of that might be causing the problem is some obscure unmet software dependency. If anyone has a similar spec netbook it would be interesting to know if they have experienced the same error when running GraphEdit and any help would be greatly appreciated.

[usually_quiet]

You provided lots of information regarding audio, but video information for these problem files is lacking. "MPEG ts and mp4" covers a lot of territory. What kinds of video do the problem files contain -- MPEG-2, H.264 or something else?

[w2kpro]

One of the video files that would not render was a DVB-T recording. I think it is mpeg transport stream (ts).

[usually_quiet]

I can't help you over here in ATSC land, especially without a netbook, but your chances for getting help might improve if you uploaded some small clips that do not work. Good luck.

[El Heggunte]

Not all DirectShow applications build the playback graphs in the same way. This is the reason why some files are OK for WMP, but are not OK for MPC-HC or Pot Player (and vice-versa). Avisynth's DirectShowSource is yet another different beast. If you want to force Graphstudio to play an apparently-problematic file, you have to build the graph manually --- which may mean a lot of trials-and-errors. Also, many filters still work better with DirectX 9 than with DirectX 11, so you'd better install DX9 too ^.^;;

[w2kpro]

Many thanks guys for the input, I will try installing DX9c and see if it makes any difference and get back to you latter.

I have done some more testing and found a couple of video files that GraphStudioNext handles correctly. One is an mpeg-2 main video with mpeg-1 layer 2 audio in an mpeg ps container and the other is a mpeg-4 with mpeg-1 layer 3 audio in a AVI container. Here is the output from media info:

============================================
General
Complete name : VTS_02_2.VOB
Format : MPEG-PS
File size : 365 MiB
Duration : 16mn 20s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 3 119 Kbps

Video
ID : 224 (0xE0)
Format : MPEG Video
Format version : Version 2
Format profile : Main@Main
Format settings, BVOP : No
Format settings, Matrix : Default
Format settings, GOP : Variable
Duration : 16mn 20s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 2 833 Kbps
Maximum bit rate : 9 000 Kbps
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 5:4
Frame rate : 25.000 fps
Standard : PAL
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.273
Time code of first frame : 00:55:48:24
Time code source : Group of pictures header
Stream size : 331 MiB (91%)

Audio
ID : 192 (0xC0)
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 2
Duration : 16mn 20s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 224 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Delay relative to video : -96ms
Stream size : 26.2 MiB (7%)
============================================

General
Complete name : file3.avi
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 350 MiB
Duration : 43mn 45s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 1 118 Kbps
Writing application : Some super fast AVI muxer

Video
ID : 0
Format : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile : Advanced Simple@L5
Format settings, BVOP : 2
Format settings, QPel : No
Format settings, GMC : No warppoints
Format settings, Matrix : Default (H.263)
Codec ID : XVID
Codec ID/Hint : XviD
Duration : 43mn 45s
Bit rate : 956 Kbps
Width : 624 pixels
Height : 352 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.182
Stream size : 299 MiB (85%)
Writing library : XviD 70

Audio
ID : 1
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 3
Codec ID : 55
Codec ID/Hint : MP3
Duration : 43mn 45s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 150 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 46.8 MiB (13%)
Alignment : Aligned on interleaves
Interleave, duration : 24 ms (0.58 video frame)
Interleave, preload duration : 41 ms
============================================

The next two files produce the above DS error message:

============================================
General
ID : 4
Complete name : file1.ts
Format : MPEG-TS
File size : 667 MiB
Duration : 30mn 19s
Overall bit rate : 3 073 Kbps

Video
ID : 48 (0x30)
Menu ID : 137 (0x89)
Format : MPEG Video
Format version : Version 2
Format profile : Main@Main
Format settings, BVOP : Yes
Format settings, Matrix : Default
Format settings, GOP : M=1, N=37
Duration : 30mn 19s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 2 598 Kbps
Nominal bit rate : 15.0 Mbps
Width : 544 pixels
Height : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 25.000 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Interlaced
Scan order : Top Field First
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.332
Stream size : 564 MiB (85%)

Audio #1
ID : 64 (0x40)
Menu ID : 137 (0x89)
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 2
Mode : Joint stereo
Mode extension : Intensity Stereo + MS Stereo
Duration : 30mn 19s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 192 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Video delay : -18ms
Stream size : 41.7 MiB (6%)
Language : English

Audio #2
ID : 65 (0x41)
Menu ID : 137 (0x89)
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 2
Mode : Joint stereo
Duration : 30mn 19s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 128 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Video delay : -18ms
Stream size : 27.8 MiB (4%)
============================================

General
Complete name : file2.mkv
Format : Matroska
File size : 1.70 GiB
Duration : 2h 12mn
Overall bit rate : 1 840 Kbps
Movie name : file2
Encoded date : UTC 2013-09-16 12:48:17
Writing application : mkvmerge v6.3.0 ('You can't stop me!') built on Jun 28 2013 20:09:41
Writing library : libebml v1.3.0 + libmatroska v1.4.0

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.0
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 5 frames
Muxing mode : Container profile=Unknown@4.0
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 2h 12mn
Nominal bit rate : 1 744 Kbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 800 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 2.40:1
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.047
Title : Video
Writing library : x264 core 120 r2164 da19765
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=5 / deblock=1:-2:-1 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / subme=9 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.15 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-3 / threads=12 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=240 / keyint_min=23 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=60 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=1744 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format version : Version 4
Format profile : LC
Format settings, SBR : No
Codec ID : A_AAC
Duration : 2h 12mn
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Title : Audio

Text
ID : 3
Format : UTF-8
Codec ID : S_TEXT/UTF8
Codec ID/Info : UTF-8 Plain Text
Title : Subtitle
============================================

As stated earlier, all the files play faultlessly in Windows Media Player, so the problem seems to be with GSpot and the graphing apps not connecting to the relevant splitters/codecs/renderers.

[El Heggunte]

Did you know that MPC-HC has a context-menu item which shows the DirectShow filters that are being used

Besides: if you run MPC-HC and Graphstudio at the same time, you can tell Graphstudio to "connect" to the functional playback graph by pressing "CTRL + G"

Regarding WMP (which SUCKS by definition), you will need to have the DirectShow Filter Graph Spy:

http://alax.info/blog/777

[w2kpro]

I installed DX9c (which also needs .Net 3.5) on Win8 Pro, but am still getting the same error message. I use MPC-HC's Play > Filters menu quite a lot, but did not know about the Ctrl+G trick which I will experiment with, thanks for that info.

How does one load a problematic video into GraphStudioNext to experiment with filter combinations? I have tried using the Graph > Insert File Source (Async.) method on file1.ts above, but I end up with a file source that only has one output pin. File1.ts is a DVB-T recording and should have, video, audio and subtitle pins. The video pin should connect with MS DTV-DVD Video decoder, and the audio should connect with MS DVT-DVD Audio decoder - the two default decoders on Win8.

[El Heggunte]

AFAIK, the latest DirectX9 update is a standalone package, which DOES NOT depend on the silly dotNET frameworks. UNLESS µicro$oft themselves have screwed the latest installer of the DirectX9 package and/or Windows 8, go figure.

Anyway: TS files can be demuxed by LAV Splitter, AV Splitter, or the standalone MPEG Splitter from MPC-HC.
Do you have any of these

[w2kpro]

Thanks guys. As you expected the problem was due to a lack of an external splitter. I had Haali installed, but it did not work well with GraphStudioNext for some reason - only produced a video output pin. I then tried AVSplitter and LAV Filters which both worked. I also had a problem with connecting GraphStudioNext to a remote running graph - in this case MPC-HC playing a DVB-T recording of a TV show. I got an E_NOINTERFACE (0x80004002) error. The problem turned out to be an out of date proppage.dll, when version 6.6 was registered I was able to produce a graph of the filters that MPC-HC was using to play the file (see attached dvb-t.jpg).

There is one further problem, I manually constructed a graph of the same DVB-T file (see attached predators.jpg) which plays in GraphStudioNext, but so far have not been able to work out how to display the dvbsub subtitles. I have VS registered, but it does not seem to be compatible with any of the subtitle pins, and the two filters that MPC-HC is using (see attached dvb-t.jpg) must be internal, as they are not listed when using a filter manager such as Radlite.

[hech54]

If I may be so (b)old....what is the point of GraphEdit, GraphStudio and GraphStudioNext?
Why do these programs exist.
Under what circumstance would you need these programs?

[usually_quiet]

If I may be so (b)old....what is the point of GraphEdit, GraphStudio and GraphStudioNext?
Why do these programs exist.
Under what circumstance would you need these programs?

Technically speaking, they are development tools for computer programming using DirectShow.

You would need them to test what filter combinations and or capture device settings work best if for example you were writing your own capture program or your own media player software. They would save you the trouble of re-compiling your program each time to test a new filter chain.

However, they can be used on their own to play media files or (with a capture device) to capture video and audio. They may allow access to controls that media player software and capture programs don't allow users to configure.

[w2kpro]

I've attached a short dvb-t video clip that has subtitles. VSFilter does not seem to be able to render dvbsubs, if anyone has a solution to the problem I would be interested in hearing from them.