AVI file - missing or broken index

[rhiannonj]

Hi all. I recorded a video with Lineage 2's ingame recorder. The avi file is 1.7GB (21.33 minutes). When I first opened it in WMP only the first 1.5 minutes played. Weird! I opened it in VLC and it temporarily fixes the index problem and I'm able to play the whole file but I have yet to find a way to permanently fix this. When I tried BandiFix and Remo Repair they both said the file didn't need repairing. I tried to record it in VLC after the index file was repaired but the quality is terrible. DivFix hung up on trying to check for errors. I tried convert/save in VLC and ffmpeg but they both start 1.5 minutes into the video, the file size is reduced by about 696MB, and the sound is out of sync (meaning the sound starts at the very beginning of the vid). This really has me stumped. This video has sentimental value and I'd really like to permanently fix it. TIA.

[johnmeyer]

I think VirtualDub has some sort of index fixer.

[davexnet]

Perhaps a mediainfo (text view) of the AVI would be helpful;
at least provide some more details about the file

[rhiannonj]

Perhaps a mediainfo (text view) of the AVI would be helpful;
at least provide some more details about the file

Here's the mediainfo text view.

General
Complete name : C:\Users\rhian\Desktop\Lineage II Stuff\L2 Movies\Aden Revisit\Capture 2018-06-08 Revisit Aden castle with Dreacke.avi
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
Format profile : OpenDML
File size : 16.4 GiB
Duration : 21 min 33 s
Overall bit rate : 109 Mb/s
Writing application : BandiCaptureLibrary 2.1, Aug 12 2015 (Licensed to: NCSOFT_LINEAGE2_20100420)

Video
ID : 0
Format : JPEG
Codec ID : MJPG
Duration : 21 min 33 s
Source duration : 20 min 30 s
Bit rate : 103 Mb/s
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 051 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 1.85:1
Frame rate : 30.000 FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 1.704
Stream size : 15.5 GiB (95%)

Audio
ID : 1
Format : PCM
Format settings : Little / Signed
Codec ID : 1
Duration : 21 min 33 s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 411.2 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 44.1 kHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Stream size : 218 MiB (1%)
Alignment : Aligned on interleaves
Interleave, duration : 10 ms (0.29 video frame)
Interleave, preload duration : 3099 ms

[rhiannonj]

I think VirtualDub has some sort of index fixer.

Just tried Virtual Dub. It restored the missing index which is 1.5 minutes, but stops there and doesn't play the remaining 20 minutes of the file.

[davexnet]

Perhaps there is something else wrong with the file.
I created a test MJPG avi file, chopped off the end of index in a hex editor.

Opened the file in Virtualdub2 and video/scan stream for errors
verify that you can scrub to the end of the file. If it's good set video to direct stream copy
file/export/stream copy

[rhiannonj]

Perhaps there is something else wrong with the file.
I created a test MJPG avi file, chopped off the end of index in a hex editor.

Opened the file in Virtualdub2 and video/scan stream for errors
verify that you can scrub to the end of the file. If it's good set video to direct stream copy
file/export/stream copy

Ok, I'm good figuring out some things but this one has me a bit lost. I read somewhere about the index hex file but it was greek to me. How exactly do I do this?

[rhiannonj]

Found a good youtube vid where he uses HDX to open up the bad avi file and a good one as a reference. Then he finds a corresponding line in each file and copies the lines in the reference to the bad index file, takes it into virtualdub and does the direct stream copy thing. Doing it now. I have nothing to lose. Got backups of the original. I'll let you know how it goes.

UPDATE: Didn't work. I copied everything above this line (LIST´*û?movi01wb) in the ref file and copied it to the bad. Arggg!

[redwudz]

In VD2, go to 'Video>Scan video stream or errors...' After the scan, look to the bottom of the VD2 screen and the errors are shown.
Usually, 'O feames masked (0 frames bad, 0 frames good but undecodable', if there are no problems.
Scrub by moving the time slider through the video to the end.
If OK, save the video in Direct stream copy with the preferred format. 'Flile>Export>Stream copy'.

The HEX editor will just give you some numbers and letters. Not easy to interpret. And the file can be very long.
Someone else can probably explain about the index file there.

[davexnet]

redwudz is right, I only used/mentioned the Hex editor because I purposely created a file
with a damaged index to simulate your situation. Did not mean to infer you use it yourself!

[rhiannonj]

In VD2, go to 'Video>Scan video stream or errors...' After the scan, look to the bottom of the VD2 screen and the errors are shown.
Usually, 'O feames masked (0 frames bad, 0 frames good but undecodable', if there are no problems.
Scrub by moving the time slider through the video to the end.
If OK, save the video in Direct stream copy with the preferred format. 'Flile>Export>Stream copy'.

The HEX editor will just give you some numbers and letters. Not easy to interpret. And the file can be very long.
Someone else can probably explain about the index file there.

Did the above but didn't see any errors at the bottom. The vid starts 1.5 minutes in and the sound starts at the beginning. When I scan for errors it seems to skip a lot of frames. So frustrating!

Update: did another scan (I had forgotten to turn on report errors.) It says "0 frames masked (0 frames bad, 0 frames good but undecodable. But it still starts 1.5 minutes into the file.

The only way I'm able to view the whole file is via VLC and going thru that temp index repair.

[Cornucopia]

You could screen record your vlc playback.

Scott

[rhiannonj]

You could screen record your vlc playback.
Scott

Tried that and the quality was terrible.

[Cornucopia]

Shouldn't be, as long as you set the encoding properties properly.

Scott

[rhiannonj]

Shouldn't be, as long as you set the encoding properties properly.

Scott

Where do I do that? What should they be set to and should they be set prior to rebuilding the index and before recording?
P.S. It's the audio that is messed up, not the video. There's this awful buzzing sound and it lags at times.

[JVRaines]

Have you tried DivFix++? Pretty good at building indexes.

[rhiannonj]

Have you tried DivFix++? Pretty good at building indexes.

Tried that, it didn't work.

[rhiannonj]

Don't know where to go from here and am about ready to give up. No word from this yet:

"Shouldn't be, as long as you set the encoding properties properly.
Scott
Where do I do that? What should they be set to and should they be set prior to rebuilding the index and before recording?
P.S. It's the audio that is messed up, not the video. There's this awful buzzing sound and it lags at times."

[davexnet]

why don't you post the whole file to a file hosting site and perhaps one of our members will
take a look at it. A long shot perhaps, but better than the progress made otherwise

[rhiannonj]

why don't you post the whole file to a file hosting site and perhaps one of our members will
take a look at it. A long shot perhaps, but better than the progress made otherwise

Don't know where I can upload it. The file is 16.4GB.

[Cornucopia]

It was hard to understand just what you meant before (very elliptical and confusing).

Were you able to view the whole program ever? With VLC after re-indexing?
Was "bad quality" refering to video or to audio? or both?

Don't obfuscate bad playback quality (issue with the source, player) with back re-encoding quality (issue with the process/settings, codec, user, etc).
A screen recording can be set to give you exactly what's playing back. If it can play back good quality in VLC, record that. Then you have a non-corrupt version.
For detailed screen recording options, I use OBS these days. Match the video framerate, audio samplerate, color system. Give it equal or better bitdepth compared to the source. IIWY, I'd use a lossless codec option for video & audio, and then if you later want to create a highly-compressed (AVC or HEVC) MP4, you can do a CRF encode and give it exactly the quality you find acceptable.

If you could never play back some form of the clip without issue, you're probably screwed.

Scott

[johnmeyer]

VLC has an export feature. Look under the Media menu for "Convert/Save." So, bring the bad video into VLC and then export it.

[jonas more]

I have always used Avidemux when I have come across an avi with 'broken index' issues.
Open the file in Avidemux. Leave 'Video Output' and 'Audio Output' settings to 'Copy'. Click 'File' then 'Save'. Give the file a name then click 'Save'.
The resulting file should have it's index repaired and play without issue.

[rhiannonj]

It was hard to understand just what you meant before (very elliptical and confusing).

Were you able to view the whole program ever? With VLC after re-indexing?
Was "bad quality" refering to video or to audio? or both?

Don't obfuscate bad playback quality (issue with the source, player) with back re-encoding quality (issue with the process/settings, codec, user, etc).
A screen recording can be set to give you exactly what's playing back. If it can play back good quality in VLC, record that. Then you have a non-corrupt version.
For detailed screen recording options, I use OBS these days. Match the video framerate, audio samplerate, color system. Give it equal or better bitdepth compared to the source. IIWY, I'd use a lossless codec option for video & audio, and then if you later want to create a highly-compressed (AVC or HEVC) MP4, you can do a CRF encode and give it exactly the quality you find acceptable.

If you could never play back some form of the clip without issue, you're probably screwed.

Scott

Yes, after VLC rebuilds the index the video plays fine, both audio and video.

When I record the playback after re-indexing that recorded version is when the buzzing in the audio occurs and the video lags at times. What is OBS? I don't know where to find this to match the video framerate, audio samplerate, color system and give it equal or better bitdepth compared to the source. Nor do I know how to create a highly-compressed (AVC or HEVC) MP4 OR a CRF encode to give it the quality I like.

Sorry I'm such a noob.

[Cornucopia]

OBS = Open Broadcaster Software. It is often used for streaming (to Twitch, etc) but is equally adept at screen recording.
You should already know about your media's info from MediaInfo, so take that knowledge to use for those settings.
Your playback & recording pass will create, if you follow my suggestion, a totally new temp file that is HUGE because it is losslessly compressed. Then take that and use one of many apps mentioned here for the final conversion, of which there are many helpful tutes, demos, examples. Things like Handbrake, MeGui, Hybrid, or even CLI tools like ffmpeg. If you want, after, you could delete the temp recording file.

And if you are new, this a good place to learn about such things. No need to be sorry.

Scott

[rhiannonj]

I have always used Avidemux when I have come across an avi with 'broken index' issues.
Open the file in Avidemux. Leave 'Video Output' and 'Audio Output' settings to 'Copy'. Click 'File' then 'Save'. Give the file a name then click 'Save'.
The resulting file should have it's index repaired and play without issue.

I tried Avidemux. When I open the file I get a runtime error.

[rhiannonj]

OBS = Open Broadcaster Software. It is often used for streaming (to Twitch, etc) but is equally adept at screen recording.
You should already know about your media's info from MediaInfo, so take that knowledge to use for those settings.
Your playback & recording pass will create, if you follow my suggestion, a totally new temp file that is HUGE because it is losslessly compressed. Then take that and use one of many apps mentioned here for the final conversion, of which there are many helpful tutes, demos, examples. Things like Handbrake, MeGui, Hybrid, or even CLI tools like ffmpeg. If you want, after, you could delete the temp recording file.

And if you are new, this a good place to learn about such things. No need to be sorry.

Scott

Thanks Scott. I'll give that a whirl later but holy moly you aren't kidding that lossless quality creates a huge file! 7gb per minute! This file is 21.5 minutes long. YIKES! Not enough room on my HD. Might have to try recording in a different format.

[Cornucopia]

7 x 21.5 = ~150GB. How small is your drive?!
Space is still fairly cheap these days (BBuy has 1TB drives for $50). Don't skimp.

And BTW, in the grand scheme of things those actually aren't that big - it's not like we're talking 4k or higher, or stereo3d, or 32bitHDR, or other raw format.

Plus, I don't quite know where you got that number.
1920 x 1080 x 16bits (422yuv) x 30fps ÷ 2x average compression is around 500Mbps or ~3.7GB/minute, or around half your figure.

Scott

[rhiannonj]

7 x 21.5 = ~150GB. How small is your drive?!
Space is still fairly cheap these days (BBuy has 1TB drives for $50). Don't skimp.

And BTW, in the grand scheme of things those actually aren't that big - it's not like we're talking 4k or higher, or stereo3d, or 32bitHDR, or other raw format.

Plus, I don't quite know where you got that number.
1920 x 1080 x 16bits (422yuv) x 30fps ÷ 2x average compression is around 500Mbps or ~3.7GB/minute, or around half your figure.

Scott

My drive is 810gb and I have 187gb free. I'm not going to spend money on another drive to perhaps fix this vid. I got that number when I went into OBS and changed the output recording to lossless and it gave me that warning. I need to take some time and delete a lot of "stuff". Most of it is screenshots and captures from a game I play.

[rhiannonj]

Just wanted to update this old thread of mine. A friend told me about AVIFix. It's a part of the Dxtory video capture software package. He sent me the separate AVIFix.exe file and it repaired all of my corrupted avi files. Just wanted to pass this along.