captured AVI files corrupt??

[blacktooth]

I have several digital 8 cassettes that I filmed 10-15 years ago or so. I'm in a gradual process of transferring the digital video onto my hard drive. It's all family video, and I like to edit it into various DVD projects.

Some of these cassettes don't play perfectly. I suspect that the digital 8 camcorder, which went through repairs 2 or 3 times back in the day, didn't track perfectly. Some of the tapes play well now, and some don't.

The result is that as I play back the tapes on the camcorder to transfer the video files, there are occasional problems. Sometimes the video has artifacts, and sometimes the audio briefly drops and is replaced by either silence or some kind of electronic sound. I use VideoStudio for my editing, and I've never had a problem working with the AVI files that come from these digital 8 cassettes. However, if I try to play the AVI files with Windows Media Player, some files will crash the player - always in the same places. I've played the same files with Divx, and they play without crashing. (I've captured with Videostudio, WinDV, and VirtualDub and always have the same results.) Again, when I work with these files in Videostudio, I don't seem to have any problems - although I haven't done much actual editing and rendering with them.

It stresses me that these AVI files seem to be somewhat corrupt. Or maybe they're not corrupt and there's just a problem with Windows Media Player. I'm going through an awful lot of work to capture/transfer these digital 8 cassettes, and I don't want glitches or problems when I finally get down to making DVDs of these old home movies. Should I relax and not worry about this, or are there real potential problems? And are there solutions as well?

Thanks for any advice.

[PuzZLeR]

Not sure why you brought up the fact that the player plays the tapes, some well, some not. For example, if one of my VHS tapes plays with bad tracking in my VCR, then that's how it will be captured in the analog world, and there would be no fault with any decoder/player afterwards.

If the source is Digital8, just stick with a firewire cable, and WinDV. This will be a 1:1 transfer to the DV codec.

You mention AVI. This is actually a container - it's what's inside that counts as it can store dozens of different formats, including DV, which is what you should be capturing to in this context.

Windows Media Player can be flaky with some formats, especially when you don't install the correct DirectShow codecs, but so could the DivX Player too, which can be excellent or the opposite, depending on format. Editors may have different codecs under the hood, and a player like VLC VideoLAN Media Player runs on its own internal codecs, not your systems'. Some players will have more trouble than others regarding file size too. A dilution of equality in playback can be expected among a variety of formats and players.

Also, sometimes a capture can go erratic, and that would be in how the AVI was muxed. Sometimes you can remux the AVI's video and audio, such as with:
VirtualDub -> Video -> Direct stream copy
VirtualDub -> Audio -> Interleaving (Preload - 500, Interleave audio every - 1 - frames)
File -> Save as AVI
This can help in some cases, but that all depends on many factors.

A little more info would help. What are you capturing to in the AVI? (Use MediaInfo if you don't know.) Also, you can try the VLC VideoLAN Media Player, one of the best players recommended here - how does it play?

[aedipuss]

set windv discontinuity threshold to 0 and it should stop everytime it runs into a bad spot. then move forward and start a new avi after the bad spot. then you should be able to put all the pieces back together in your editor.

[blacktooth]

Using windv to capture, with the discontinuity threshold at 0, it doesn't seem to stop or recognize a bad spot. It just keeps on capturing - even through known bad spots.

I also tried the Virtualdub experiment as directed. The new saved AVI files still crash as before.

I installed the VLC player, and it is playing the AVI files flawlessly. No crashing where the bad spots are.



Above is the MediaInfo report on one of the 'flawed' files. Hopefully that gives the needed information.

Again, I'm just looking for peace of mind that these AVI files won't cause problems down the road when I'm ready to render larger, edited AVI files and/or when I'm ready to convert them into standard DVDs.
Thanks again.

[PuzZLeR]

Thanks for posting the info. The video in the AVI is indeed DV, which would be the recommended format for your project.

Again, I'm just looking for peace of mind that these AVI files won't cause problems down the road when I'm ready to render larger, edited AVI files and/or when I'm ready to convert them into standard DVDs.
Thanks again.

Is Windows Media Player the only one giving you problems? As well, do the "flawed" files reveal the same problems each time you play them, at the same spots more or less?

(And I'm not surprised that VLC VideoLAN plays them well BTW. Every computer should have this software IMO.)

A couple of things you can try:

Try the "flawed" file in another computer, or a friend's computer, etc, with Windows Media Player. See how it does. If it plays well there, then it's likely your system, and likely the files are fine, especially if they play fine with other players.

Try an encode to MPEG-2/DvD with a "flawed" file. How does the converted file work? (It could only be your Windows Media Player copy has an issue with the DV format.)

You can cut a small sample from the "flawed" file with VirtualDub's sliders (but make sure you enable Video -> Direct stream copy to not accidentally convert it to another format). Post it directly to the Forum, and only a few seconds should do. One of us can give a good opinion on it.

(PS: Not being sarcastic with the quotes, just pointing out that the file is questionably flawed. )

[blacktooth]

I have created a test file - AVI - which is about 5 minutes long and of course was captured from the digital 8 camcorder. This test file crashes Windows Media Player in 3 different places. It crashes every time, and always in those 3 places.

I put the AVI file on a thumb drive and plugged it into an old (windows xp) computer that I have. It played the file, using Windows Media Player, without crashing.

Next I took the 5 minute file and, using VideoStudio, I made a DVD. It plays in my DVD player without crashing.

Lastly, I used VirtualDub and cut up a 5 second segment. The 5 second segment contains one crashing point. I played back this AVI segment, and it did not crash (with WMP). Then I realized that I had VirtualDub set to 'Full processing mode'. I created another 5 second AVI segment with 'Direct stream'. I got a crash with this file. But then I replayed the 'Full processing mode' file and got a crash (with WMP). Then I did several more test plays. The 'Direct stream' file crashes all of the time, and the 'Full processing mode' file crashes some of the time. I do not know what to make of that.

I'll try to attach the 5 second AVI file (the one created with Direct stream).

[PuzZLeR]

Hi.

Reporting back to say I've been playing around with this somewhat.

Tried your clip on an XP machine with Windows Media Player, with all sorts of codecs, etc, installed, and it worked smoothly.

Tried this clip on a Win 10 machine, a laptop, with Windows Media Player, and no codecs, etc, installed, and it had a hiccup - I'm assuming you mean the jumpiness at about the 4-second mark was your problem. Yup, saw it too.

The file plays everywhere else just fine, so I'm really assuming the problem is with Windows Media Player failing to decode certain frames in DVCPRO properly (a format, which, ironically, is very similar to DV). Regardless, I have noticed a steady decline with this player over the last decade where I simply stopped using it anyway. I just use VLC VideoLAN for most of my stuff.

I mean, I could go ahead and install ffdshow, splitters, etc, on the laptop, but I wouldn't bother. I don't use it for this anyway. Also, I wonder if Windows Media Player's latest versions are DirectShow players any more (but don't care).

I think your file is just fine. If my DvD didn't play in a toaster too well, I wouldn't be concerned.

For peace of mind, try this test: convert it from DVCPRO to DV, which Windows Media Player should handle better. As well, in all my tests, it's been lossless.

-Install the Cedocida DV Codec (free and highly recommended).
-Load your clip in VirtualDub:
Compression -> Cedocida DV Codec vXXX
Video -> Fast Recompress
Audio -> Source audio + Direct stream copy
File -> Save as AVI

Or you can try the uploaded version here. Does it play better now on your system where it previously had problems with Windows Media Player?

(BTW - Noticed a slight audio dropout with all players. Assuming this is not the problem you were talking about.)