Help needed with Codec problem!

[Anonymous54]

Can anyone here help me?

I have a 30 min video file from around 2009 that I cannot get to play. It used to play fine on my Mac, but not any more.

I have tried multiple players (Flipformac, VLC, DivX etc) on a Mac and a PC, and different codecs etc but it will not play. The best I have got is picture, but no sound. The problem seems to be it has been encoded with WMA3 and WMV3 codecs (The error I keep getting in VLC is - "Codec not Supported").

I have tried downloading and installing old version of Windows Media Player and VLC - still no good.

I have pasted in the information below that the MediaInfo application gives me

If anyone could get this working and send me a copy I would be willing to pay them

if you can help, please send me a message and I will send you the file via DropBox

Thanks all


-------------------------
* * * MediaInfo Mac 0.7.36.0 file analysis report.
* * * MediaInfo Mac is ©2010 by Diego Massanti - http://mediainfo.massanti.com
* * * MediaInfoLib by Jerome Martinez - http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net
Created on: 3 May 2017, 15:38:18 BST
Report for file: oil and gas video.mov

General / Container Stream #1
Total Video Streams for this File.................1
Total Audio Streams for this File.................1
Video Codecs Used.................................WMV3
Audio Codecs Used.................................WMA3
File Format.......................................MPEG-4
Play Time.........................................30mn 31s
Total File Size...................................72.4 MiB
Total Stream BitRate..............................331 Kbps
Encoding Library..................................Apple QuickTime
Video Stream #1
Codec (Human Name)................................WMV3
Codec (FourCC)....................................WMV3
Frame Width.......................................238 pixels
Frame Height......................................134 pixels
Frame Rate........................................12.500 fps
Total Frames......................................22898
Display Aspect Ratio..............................16:9
QF (like Gordian Knot)............................0.664
Video Stream Length...............................30mn 31s 865ms
Video Stream BitRate..............................265 Kbps
Video Stream BitRate Mode.........................VBR
Video Stream Size.................................57.8 MiB (80%)
Video Stream Language.............................English
Date of Original Encoding.........................UTC 2010-08-24 08:06:55
Audio Stream #1
Codec............................................. WMA3
Codec (FourCC)....................................WMA3
Audio Stream Length...............................30mn 31s 865ms
Audio Stream BitRate..............................65.2 Kbps
Audio Stream BitRate Mode.........................CBR
Number of Audio Channels..........................2
Sampling Rate.....................................44.1 KHz
Bit Depth.........................................16 bits
Audio Stream Size.................................14.2 MiB (20%)
Audio Stream Language.............................English
Date of Original Encoding.........................UTC 2010-08-24 08:06:55

[jagabo]

Drm?

[Anonymous54]

I don't think so, as it used to play find on my Mac a few years ago, but now (after many OS and Software updates) it does not

[jagabo]

I don't think so, as it used to play find on my Mac a few years ago, but now (after many OS and Software updates) it does not

Still sounds like DRM. Or a corrupt file. Is this a video you purchased?

And what do you mean by "will not play"? What exactly happens when you try to play it? Do you get an error message? Garbled picture? Sound?

Players like VLC have WMV3 and WMA3 decoders built in. So it's not a codec problem.

[Anonymous54]

A week ago it would play with the picture fine, but no sound.

Then I tried installing/updating different video players and codecs, and now all I get is either a blank screen, or an error message that says "Codec not supported, VLC could not decode the format WMA3" and "Codec not supported, VLC could not decode the format WMV3"

I have tried it on a Mac (OS 1.11.6) and on a Win 7 PC

I have tried:

VLC
Windows Media Player/Flip4mac
DivX
Realplayer
Quicktime
Elmedia player

[poisondeathray]

Try re-wrapping into the proper asf/wmv container format , maybe with ffmpeg

WMV in MOV probably isn't very stable or compatible with many things

[Anonymous54]

err, any advice how I do that?

Try re-wrapping into the proper asf/wmv container format , maybe with ffmpeg
WMV in MOV probably isn't very stable or compatible with many things

[sneaker]

ffmpeg -i "input.mov" -map 0 -c copy -f asf "output.asf"


P.S.: Your MediaInfo version looks very outdated.

[Anonymous54]

err, sorry to be thick here, but i tried that line in terminal and it says

-bash: ffmpeg: command not found

[JVRaines]

Have you installed FFmpeg? Is it in your path?

[Anonymous54]

yes, i have downloaded ffpgeg, but i still cant get it to work

i am running the command from the ffmpeg folder

sorry, this is all new to me

[Anonymous54]

ok, i have downloaded FFmpeg, but i have no idea how to install it. i have two folders on my desktop, one called "ffmpeg-3.3" and "ffmpeg-3-1.3"

what else do i have to do to get ffmpeg working?

[Anonymous54]

ok,i have got ffmpeg installed and ran the following (input.mov is my movie)

ffmpeg -i "input.mov" -map 0 -c copy -f asf "output.asf"


i get this:

Could not find codec parameters for stream 0 (Audio: none (WMA3 / 0x33414D57), 44100 Hz, 2 channels, 65 kb/s): unknown codec
Consider increasing the value for the 'analyzeduration' and 'probesize' options
Guessed Channel Layout for Input Stream #0.0 : stereo

[JVRaines]

I would say your audio stream (and perhaps the whole file) is corrupt.

[Anonymous54]

ok thanks. this is very frustrating as i have seen the video in the past and have had no problems with my hard disk since

[JVRaines]

You could try ffmpeg -codecs to get a list. I'm not sure it reads WMA3.

[Anonymous54]

i just tried that and the only WMA that appear is

D.A..S wmalossless Windows Media Audio Lossless
D.A.L. wmapro Windows Media Audio 9 Professional
DEA.L. wmav1 Windows Media Audio 1
DEA.L. wmav2 Windows Media Audio 2
D.A.L. wmavoice Windows Media Audio Voice

[JVRaines]

Wikipedia tells me that WMA went from Version 2 to Version 7. MPlayer tells me that 0x33414D57 is the ID for WMA Pro Audio. Sounds like you have a corrupt or obsolete stream header. You could try going into the file (a copy!) with a byte editor and changing the FourCC to "WMA2" or "WMA9" and see what happens.

[Anonymous54]

any suggestions for a byte editor i can use?

[JVRaines]

I use HxD.

[Anonymous54]

Hxd doesnt work on a mac

i downloaded and tried "Hex Fiend" but couldnt find anything in my movie file called "FourCC"

thanks all. i have given up now.

[sneaker]

33414D57 is the code for 3AMW (reverse WMA3). So JVRaines suggested changing it to 32414D57 and/or 39414D57. (I have no idea if that will work.)

If you send me the file I can test it.

[Anonymous54]

33414D57

i cant find that hex code anywhere in the file

[JVRaines]

My suggestion was to search for the text string "WMA3" in the file and change it wherever it occurs.

[Anonymous54]

i have changed all instances of "WMA" to "WMA2" - same problem

and

i have changed all instances of "WMA" to "WMA9" - same problem

[JVRaines]

Hmm. I find very few references to "WMA3" on the 'net and they point to WMA Pro and Version 9. Maybe your file is stuck in versioning hell; I know that Microsoft monkeyed around with the version numbers quite a bit. Have you tried playing your file on a Windows machine with Windows Media Player? In particular, an older version of WMP? You might also give Windows Media Encoder a try.

[Anonymous54]

Have you tried playing your file on a Windows machine with Windows Media Player?

yep. tried that. no joy...

[davexnet]

If this is not a sensitive file, could you post it to the forum?

[jagabo]

I verified that VLC can't play WMV and WMA2 in a MOV container (I don't have any WMA3 to test) even though it has no problems playing them from a WMV or MKV container.

There is no WMA7 or WMA9 fourcc. The WMA library went from version 2 to 7 (and later to 9) but the fourcc didn't change to those numbers.

[Anonymous54]

here it is...

if anyone can get it working i would be very pleased

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hr4301fgw1zabxa/oil.mov?dl=0