Trying To Find Solution for playing 1996 AVI file created with a WebCam

[Jeff90046]

Hey everyone,

I am trying to play some old AVI video files I have found. I am very PC literate but do not know much about Codes at all.

I can usually get these videos to play, but most only the audio. They must have been created around 1996 when I had my first logitech WebCam.

I know this about them. When I use AVIcodec discovery tool: File : 1.76 MB (1.76 MB), duration: 0:00:18, type: AVI, 1 audio stream(s), quality: 18 %, C:\QUICKCAM\QMOVIE32.EXE -AVICAP32- QuickCam video capture driver, Version: 1.0.0.1 Audio : 387 KB, 176 Kbps, 11025 Hz, 1 channels, 0x1 = PCM, CBR, , Supported

It does not show a video stream.

If I look in VLC, I See : Stream 0, Type:Video, Video Resolution 160x120, Buffer Dimensions: 160x120, Frame rate: 14.818108, Orientation: Top Left
then Stream 1, Codec: araw, Type:Audio, Channels: Mono, Sample Rate: 11025, Bits per sample 16


I can play this in several players, get audio only and on my Windows Desktop, I do see an image from the video as an Icon.

I hope that makes sense, I have visited here before and the post I read are from people that know their stuff and know MUCH more than I do.
Thanks jeff

[jagabo]

So VLC didn't play the video? What does MediaInfo say about the video codec? Post the full text display. Can you make the video available here? This site accepts files up to 500 MB.

[KarMa]

Yes, post the mediainfo and maybe the full video. You might also get the video playing if you download FFMPEG and then drag and drop the video on the program ffplay.exe. FFplay is included as a separate .exe with the FFMPEG.exe

https://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/builds/

[johnmeyer]

Yes to using Mediainfo.

A lot of those early videos used the Intel Cinepak codec or one of the early Microsoft attempts at encoding video. Here's a link to a doom9.org thread where I was trying to restore a clip from the early 1990s. You will find a link in that thread to a tiny 1 MB clip that I posted which uses one of these original codecs. Mediainfo lists it as "CRAM" which is apparently some sort of early Microsoft codec.

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=163014

Try downloading that and see if it plays.

If you can post a sample that you have cut (no re-encoding) from the video, I might be able to transcode it or wrap it differently so you can play it.

[jagabo]

But VLC has no problem playing Cinepak.

[zing269]

It's probably using VIDEC, developed by connectix. ffmpeg may work, this thread indicates one of the developers was wanting to add support. https://www.moviecodec.com/file-types/fourcc-vdec-1966/

[Jeff90046]

Hey, thanks everyone. I just picked the easiest solution from KarMa, downloaded FFMPEG and just dropped the file onto FFPLAY. It's perfect! I have several others also and I think that should take care of those videos too.

Thanks KarMa and everyone else for taking the time to reply. I really appreciate it!

jeff

[chris319]

Now you can use ffmpeg to make copies with a more modern/universal codec, such as H.264.

[jagabo]

Something as simple as:

ffmpeg -i input.avi output.mkv

should work. You'll probably want to specify codecs and settings though.

ffmpeg -y -i input.avi -c:v libx264 -preset slow -crf 18 -c:a aac -vbr 5 output.mkv

Substitute .mp4 for .mkv you you prefer to have mp4 files.

[Jeff90046]

Awesome. Thanks for the tip. I knew this was the forum where I could get some answers.