Corrupt AVI

[skustes]

Hello,
I had a problem with Windows Live Movie Maker locking up when I tried to do anything. So I uninstalled and did a reinstall of it. Now, I recently recorded some screen captures with Camstudio v2. WLMM is telling me that all of these files are corrupt, but they play correctly in Divx and QuickTime and the audio plays but the video doesn't change in Windows Media Player. I've run the files through several AVI correction programs and they all tell me there are no errors in the files. Other files, such as AVI files from my video camera (converted from AVI) come up fine in WLMM.

The error in WLMM is 0xC946001C. Anyone know anything about that?

I'd try just rerecording these, but WLMM doesn't like any of the files that Camstudio spits out. I've tried with a new install of Camstudio too. Any ideas? It seems more like a WLMM issue since none of my old Camstudio AVIs work.

Thanks!
Scott

 

[Shark007]

Most likely WLMM does not like the fourcc used by Camstudio software.
Google for and download a 'fourcc changer' and use that tool to change the fourcc of the AVI to 'divx'

 

[booklover]

What is the file size of the AVI that won't run? Is it bigger than 2 GB?

Have you considered using CamStudio 2.6b R294? Yes, it's a beta, but it fixed some of the things I hoped for (user-designated directory for file saving actually works, for instance).

Have you run the file through VirtualDub?

 

[whs]

An easy attempt would be to convert the file to .wmv with Format Factory ( Format Factory - Free media file format converter ). FF is usually very tolerant and easy on the files.

A more elaborate job would be to reencode it with MS Expression Encoder ( Microsoft Expression Encoder 4 Pro | H.264 Encoding | VC-1 Codec | Streaming Silverlight Video | IIS Smooth Streaming | Real Time Encoder | Microsoft® Expression® ). There is a free download. I use that for screen captures too. It has the very best output quality I have ever seen - but as I said, it is elaborate and the free version is limited to 10 minutes per session.

 

[skustes]

Hey y'all,
Thanks for all the responses! I'm not sure if I lack the brain capacity to properly use the FourCC converter and VirtualDub, but it still didn't like my AVIs after those two tools. The AVIs are all under 150MB, give or take.

Oh, booklover, I'm actually using that version of Camstudio now, as of yesterday.

What did work is converting them to WMV as whs suggested. So it looks like now MP4s from my video camera get run through two conversions, one to turn them into an AVI, which WLMM likes and one to get just the audio. And my Camtasia fiels get converted to WMV, which WLMM likes. Whew...that's some process!

I might look at switching to Jing Pro to screen cap MP4s...anyone have any experience with that?

Thanks again for your help
Scott

 

[whs]

I tried Jing once - very poor quality. In action videos you might not notice it so much, but the acid test is text. Capture a few pdf or Word pages and then compare. If you can live with the 10 minute limit, the Expression Encoder is really good. The output is in lossless .xesc which you have to send to the encoder that converts it to .wmv (and .mp4 in the paid version). xesc can only be read by WMP - even the WLMM cannot deal with it.

All video work is lengthy. It is only fun if you have a lot of muscle in your system. E.g. encoding with the Expression Encoder is 4 times faster on my laptop with an i7 CPU than on my desktop with a 2.5GHz duo core.

 

[booklover]

Oh, booklover, I'm actually using that version of Camstudio now, as of yesterday.

So it looks like now MP4s from my video camera get run through two conversions, one to turn them into an AVI, which WLMM likes and one to get just the audio.

Scott, you might try using CamStudio's Lossless codec for screen captures and see what happens. With CamStudio 2.6b I haven't had any problems, particularly since I reduced resolution to 16 bits. That keeps the file size under AVIs 2GB size limit and it seems to degrade quality very little, if any. If AVI file size does go over 2 GB, VirtualDub's Direct Copy has in the past rescued some otherwise unusable files.

FYI: CamStudio has a forum too, in case you're interested. One guy there has made some HowTo videos on various CamStudio subjects. If you're interested but have problems going there Monday morning, don't be discouraged. The guy in charge (in UK) is planning to upgrade the software Monday morning UK time. He expects it to go smoothly, but --
??

 

[whs]

Oh, booklover, I'm actually using that version of Camstudio now, as of yesterday.

So it looks like now MP4s from my video camera get run through two conversions, one to turn them into an AVI, which WLMM likes and one to get just the audio.

Scott, you might try using CamStudio's Lossless codec for screen captures and see what happens. With CamStudio 2.6b I haven't had any problems, particularly since I reduced resolution to 16 bits. That keeps the file size under AVIs 2GB size limit and it seems to degrade quality very little, if any. If AVI file size does go over 2 GB, VirtualDub's Direct Copy has in the past rescued some otherwise unusable files.

FYI: CamStudio has a forum too, in case you're interested. One guy there has made some HowTo videos on various CamStudio subjects. If you're interested but have problems going there Monday morning, don't be discouraged. The guy in charge (in UK) is planning to upgrade the software Monday morning UK time. He expects it to go smoothly, but --
??

That seems to be a useful forum with a lot of tips. Did you ever capture a lot of text and then upload it (where it gets another quality beating). I do a lot of tutorials and that's where I have problems with most free capture programs. Here is an example on my Vimeo site Error Message on Vimeo