Codecs messed me up?

mutantfish01 · Post by **mutantfish01** » Tue Dec 26, 2006 3:07 pm

Hey, I joined this site hoping you guys can really help me. I've been making amvs for a fair amount of time now and I've really gotten used to this process.
1. use DVD Decrypter to get the dvd's files onto my computer.
2. open DVD2AVI to save the clips into avi file format.
3. import avi clips into Windows Movie Maker and work away!

I've had 2 really weird problems that have completely prevented me from doing this....and i can't figure out how to fix it.

One thing I've noticed was that in Windows Movie Maker, when I watch my video from halfway in the timeline (or anywhere not at the beginning), the audio is NOT on target at all (missing by like 3 or 4 seconds). Would upgrading WMM or reinstalling it help?

The biggest problem I've had is that I had some old videos that wouldn't play with my new computer, so I downloaded some random codecs hoping to play them...but that didn't work... so I uninstalled those codecs that I just put on, which shouldn't matter. NOW, whenever I name and click save in DVD2AVI, THE PROGRAM CRASHES!!!!!!!!! AHHHHH!!!! I don't know what I did to screw this up, cuz I've been doing this and it worked just fine this entire time. All I've done since the problem occured was add and then remove some codecs...in a XP Codec Pack...and I don't see how that could happen. Please, if anyone can help me, I'd really appreciate it.

PROBLEM: DVD2AVI crashes right when the save button is clicked.

Smaller PROBLEM: Windows Movie Maker won't let me preview a current project in the middle of the timeline without the audio being off synch.

WORST CASE SCENARIO: I attempt to system restore my comp to yesterday or earlier (which I'm not sure how to do).

mutantfish01 · Post by **mutantfish01** » Tue Dec 26, 2006 5:24 pm

Also, I've confirmed that DVD2AVI is being crashed by a codec called ffdshow but...well... I don't even have that on my computer. How could something that's not on my computer cause a problem for a program? I've added the codec, but DVD2AVI still crashed, and so I deleted ffdshow from my comp.

mutantfish01 · Post by **mutantfish01** » Tue Dec 26, 2006 5:36 pm

UPDATE! Hey! I solved the problem by reinstalling a version of ffdshow that i found from this link.
http://www.animemusicvideos.org/phpBB/v ... ht=ffdshow
I screwed with the settings a little bit and BOOM...it works.

Could someone tell me how this problem even came into place though?
Also...I wanted to know about the whole WMM not letting me preview stuff without throwing off the audio synch, if that's possible.

Zarxrax · Post by **Zarxrax** » Tue Dec 26, 2006 5:37 pm

Don't use dvd2avi. It is an extremely old and buggy piece of software. Use DGIndex as a replacement.

angelstarfire_hikarist · Post by **angelstarfire_hikarist** » Wed Dec 27, 2006 1:43 am

That's a bit harsh... DVD2AVI is just fine... I have never personally had any problems.

A good thing to do is just keep a list of codecs you use... ones you need, etc. I have a bunch that I install on every computer, so I don't have any problems. ^^

Willen · Post by **Willen** » Wed Dec 27, 2006 7:02 am

Zarxrax is correct in calling it extremely old (in internet/computer terms 2003 is old), and buggy. Go here: http://neuron2.net/dgmpgdec/dgmpgdec.html and scroll down to the Introduction section for the DVD2AVI (and MPEG2DEC) bugs. It is possible that the audio sync issues you are having are a result of using DVD2AVI (OR, it's just WMM being WMM).

mutantfish01 · Post by **mutantfish01** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 12:11 am

Nope... DVD2AVI is just fine. It crashes every now and then, but overall it works really good. The new version doesn't save files directly to AVI, so I'd prefer to just keep that extra step down. The whole audio synch thing seems to only have happened on one song, so I don't have that problem with others. Thanks for the help though, I've found these forums to be really helpful.

trythil · Post by **trythil** » Fri Dec 29, 2006 3:50 pm

mutantfish01 wrote:Nope... DVD2AVI is just fine. It crashes every now and then, but overall it works really good.

Two big problems with DVD2AVI are (1) the headache with version incompatibilities between DVD2AVI and Avisynth plugin and (2) it loses frames, which can be a real problem for editing. (Or, depending on how you cut things, maybe not.)

Donald Graft has a more detailed explanation here:
http://neuron2.net/dgmpgdec/dgmpgdec.html

The new version doesn't save files directly to AVI, so I'd prefer to just keep that extra step down.

The ability to create an AVI file was deemed redundant, since frameserving to VirtualDub can accomplish the same thing with little additional work.