Problems with AVI file in Linux

[artaxerxe]

Hello everyone!

I have some AVI files that are the result of a GeoVision camera recording. I tried to run it on Linux using different software, but without any success. Trying to convert this file with ffmpeg:

./bin/ffmpeg -i /path/to/my/file.avi -c:v libxvid output.avi

I got this output:

ffmpeg version git-2013-10-10-65c2fe7 Copyright (c) 2000-2013 the FFmpeg developers
  built on Oct 10 2013 09:14:31 with gcc 4.7 (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.7.3-1ubuntu1)
  ...
[avi @ 0xa670d40] probed stream 1 failed
[avi @ 0xa670d40] Could not find codec parameters for stream 0 (Video: none (GAVC / 0x43564147), 1920x1080): unknown codec

When I try to run this video with VLC, it gives me this error:


"No suitable decoder module:
VLC does not support the audio or video format "GAVC". Unfortunately there is no way for you to fix this."


On FFMpeg forum, they told me that this video format is not supported yet by them.


Can anyone help me to solve my issue? I would need to convert this kind of video in many formats (ogg, webm, mp4).


Thanks in advance.


P.S. I hope to post the question in the right forum.

[Baldrick]

I have only seen a GAVC decoder/codec for windows, see https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/344612-Cannot-play-avi-file-with-vlc-player-divx-pl...highlight=gavc

I doubt ffmpeg or vlc will add gavc support any time soon.

[bat999]

....

[Hoser Rob]

Yes, it's a proprietary codec from Geovision. That's common with cctv etc. companies.

Which is why vlc & ffmpeg (or other open source) programs don't support it and aren't likely to soon. It's not an open source codec.

I had a quick look and the only source I see is a download from geovision itself, which is much better than you'd usually get for such things, but it's only for windows.

There are non-free codecs available for linux, but it'd be a Hail Mary. You didn't say what distro you're running but in ubuntu the package is called ubuntu-restricted-extras (or in my case kubuntu-restricted-extras since I prefer the kde desktop). I don't think it'd work but it should be one of the first things you install.

In your case, if you don't have a windows partition, I'd explore running a windows program under wine.

[jagabo]

In all likelihood there's nothing proprietary about the codec other than the fourcc they use. I'd try changing the fourcc to H264, AVC1 or XVID.