Avidemux suddenly has a 'grey screen' problem

[pooksahib]

Hi. I have two copies of avidemux on my PC – 2.6.8 (installed) and 2.5.6-1 (portable). The portable is a fall-back for when the 2.6.8 plays up (as it can with certain files).

I'm currently editing and converting a couple of dozen DVDs. I've done a few using 2.6.8 with no problem but today I find myself with a very strange issue. I can load a VOB file and play it but when I press 'stop' or try to drag using the back/forward buttons, all I can see is a grey screen. As you might imagine, that makes editing near impossible.

My portable version is unaffected but I'd really like to know what's happened to my installed version and how to fix it. Could some codec have been deleted (I don't and never have had a 'codec pack' installed)? This problem just appeared overnight and I've not done anything major (or minor for that matter) to my PC.

While I'm here, are there any other editors/converters out there that work in the same way as avidemux in that you can delete unwanted sections and see how the bits that are left run together? The couple of other editors I have (e.g. VideReDo) require you to select the clips you want but it's only after conversion that you can assess the 'join'.

My thanks in advance of any help offered.

[Baldrick]

Have you tried reinstall it? But I don't think avidemux uses any external decoders to decode video.

You can also try latest avidemux nightly beta portable, https://www.videohelp.com/download/avidemux_r031214_dd58_win64.7z

[pooksahib]

Thanks for the suggestions. I've reinstalled, tried the nightly and run System Restore but the problem remains. Damn weird...

[pooksahib]

As an experiment, I downloaded 2.6.1 portable. Like 2.5.6 portable, all is well. My installed version still gives grey screen when not in play mode. Ah well - the portable version gives an excellent conversion, perhaps even better than the installed one did.

The only extra hassle is that, after conversion, I have to manually delete the 'title' tag if it's to show up properly on my WDTV Live Hub. I don't suppose there's a way to prevent 2.5 generating this tag?