Okay, MAJOR .avi H264 issues.

Mii · Post by **Mii** » Sun Jun 29, 2008 9:41 pm

So I've been working on these issues for the past few weeks and I can't for the life of me figure anything out.

I have an .avi file with the codec of H.264/MPEG-4 AVC. It plays in the VLC player but not winamp.

A long time ago I had this same file that I tried to work with in Windows Movie Maker, and it just came up as a black screen and no audio. I searched around online a bit, downloaded 1 codec and it worked just fine. I backed up the file and my computer ended up crashing, so I lost all the previous codecs I had installed trying to find the one that worked.

Now I'm stuck with the same issue again - I've tried putting the file in gspot but it says I have all the codecs I need to download. I messed around with VFW Configuration in ffdshow and enabled H.264 plus about a thousand other things, tried the file in movie maker again, and this time only the audio plays and not the video.

I've also tried playing it in Vegas 8.0, but it wouldn't open at all - when I messed around with ffdshow, it eventually opened but the audio doesn't work and there's still just a black screen.

I've looked around this forum quite a bit, and I've tried loading the video into virtualdubmod to change the compression to Huffy or Lagarith, and the video loads into VDM, but it's still just a black screen. I try playing through it and on the bottom it says "Error decompressing video frame (etc,etc, random number): A codec-specific error occurred. (error code1)".

So, I'm just stuck. It's worked before, but I can't seem to figure out what kind of codec I used to make it work. Gspot isn't helping at all - and it seems that somehow the problem turned a thousand times worse, because nothing seems to work.

Thank you to anyone who decides to help me out on this. I appreciate it.

Kariudo · Post by **Kariudo** » Sun Jun 29, 2008 10:10 pm

h.264 isn't really meant for the .avi container in the first place, which may be the source of your problems.

As a side note, editing with h.264 files isn't any better than editing with divx/xvid files (you'll encounter the same problems. Black screen in program and the like)

your best bet is to make a small avisynth script and load that into vdub

ffmpegsource("path to video")
should do it for ya, you should also make sure that your resolution is mod 16
just in case...link to get ffmpegsource

Mii · Post by **Mii** » Sun Jun 29, 2008 10:40 pm

Thank you so much for responding!

I'm very very new at all of this, so I'm not exactly sure how to make an avisynth script in the first place, but I'll try to figure it out. I downloaded ffmpegsource but I'm also not sure how to incorporate that into vdub. Do I just put it in front of the video path in the script editor and that's it? When I click "script editor", absolutely nothing comes shows up, it's just empty. So I'm at a bit of a loss..

Haha, I'm sorry if I'm sounding like an idiot with all of this.

(By the way, no one has to explain everything to me on here.. if someone points me in the direction with guides or anything I can follow to figure this out, I'd be more than happy to look up and read whatever I have to.)

Thanks again. >_<

Mii · Post by **Mii** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 5:29 pm

Okay, back again! |:

So I read up a bit and I made the small script, tried to play it in windows media player but it says the track is unseekable (and something about "line 2"), I'm a bit lost in all of this. It also won't load in virtualdubmod because the file can't be found - but I'm pretty sure I have the correct path.

I moved the ffmegsource to the plug in folder.. I had it in windows as well, but it wouldn't work either way.

Sorry if I'm bothering anyone. ;_; I'm just so lost.

Kariudo · Post by **Kariudo** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 10:47 pm

could you post the script you made?

rook2pawn · Post by **rook2pawn** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 3:03 pm

Kariudo is right on the money. X264/h264 in an AVI is going to create serious HAVOC. Im not an expert but Ive skimmed enough Doom9 to know that putting a x264/h264 inside an avi is going to leave important bits of information for any decoder to interpret the x264 compressed footage. Formats should be mp4/mkv (matroska), avc, or .264 (the last two are for no audio, mux them into a mp4/mkv later).

Next, in my experience, Sony Vegas has serious issues with importing x264/h264 properly. Ive gotten random green blocks and wierd tearing before, sometimes it works.
I've heard similar things with people on Macintosh, where their Quicktime basically dies on x264 encodes because QT *on a mac* likes "real h264".. This is just what ive heard.

When you install FFDShow, it gives you the option of "not limiting" where FFDshow can be applied. Vegas doesn't interact with FFDShow at all except for render as->encode custom -> ffdshow. Really, don't use WinAmp or any new Windows Media player. VLC is not using your ffdshow by the way.
I suggest mplayer2.exe you can find it in your C:\program Files\Media Player .
People suggest media player classic, because they don't realize mplayer2.exe is the exact same thing, but only with even LESS frills. That's what you want, a barebones app that simply serves to be a pass-through for your FFDShow.

Also, Windows Movie Maker doesn't correctly communicate with "Windows" properly. I mean by this, there is an invisible framework for requesting and using and putting away and allocating/deallocating useage of services, such as instances of FFDShow. Well, Movie Maker simply doesn't communicate properly with the operating system! This is why you get strange behaviour with Movie Maker and footage that requires FFDShow to be called upon to interpret.

Mii · Post by **Mii** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 12:32 am

Thank you for all the advice!

So should I somehow put it in mkv format instead? Or will the script work?
I apologize for asking so many questions - I've just been working on this for awhile and I'm so confused. :\

The script I made.. er.. I really don't think I did it right at all.

AVIsource("path")
ffmpegsource("path")

Yeah.... I don't think I'm doing it right whatsoever. I read up on it a bit and I'm not sure what else I should put. ":\

Thank you guys for the advice nonetheless, though.

The Origonal Head Hunter · Post by **The Origonal Head Hunter** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 12:49 am

just go with AVISource("path") and then load that script into VirtualDubMod and export it from there as a lossless codec or uncompressed avi.

The Origonal Head Hunter · Post by **The Origonal Head Hunter** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 12:50 am

The Origonal Head Hunter wrote:just go with AVISource("path") and then load that script into VirtualDubMod and export it from there as a lossless codec or uncompressed avi.

if you're wanting to edit with it that is, to clarify.

Mii · Post by **Mii** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 9:24 pm

Thanks again for the help.

Yeah.. the script isn't working. I made two, one with an AVIsouce and one ffmpeg, and every time I try loading one of them into virtualdubmod it doesn't do anything. It's still just a black screen with the "error 1" where the frame information is. It won't let me save them into videos, either.

I also tried opening the scripts with mplayer2.exe to see if they play, but I don't have it anywhere. (I have vista) - I've tried opening them in other things as well, but the avisource one says "ACM failed to suggest a compativle PCM format (C:\Users\folder\Documents\code.avs, line 1), and the ffmpeg source one says "Script error: there is no function named "ffmpegsource". I looked that up a bit and I moved the ffmpeg folder to windows > system 32.. still nothing.

Bah.. so lame. It seems no matter what I do, nothing is working.