Strange AVI problem.

[kabanero]

Hi everybody,

I posted this in DV forum, but I thought somebody can help me here.

I got strange problem yesterday with AVI file.
I captured 01h:13m:58s of video from my Sony D8 cam to PC with Vegas Video 3.0c via FireWire. I edited it little bit and then rendered a new AVI file (video only) with DV (Type 2) codec. The size of the new AVI file is 15GB. It has 131,095 frames and time is 01h:12m:54s.

No Problem:
When I loaded it in TMPGEnc 2.54, it showed correctly 131,095 frames. When I loaded it in Vegas Video timeline, it showed 131,095 frames, and 01h:12m:54s.

Problem:
When I tried to play this AVI with ATI File Player, WM Player 9, and PowerDVD, it played only 4m:57s. When I loaded it in CCE 2.66, it showed only 8,921 frames (=4m:57s). When I used CCE 2.62 I didn’t have problems with Vegas DV (Type 2) AVIs.

What’s going on? Has anybody had this problem? Who is guilty party?: Vegas Video DV AVI (Type 2), or CCE 2.66, or WMP 9 and ATI Player, or WinXP SP1?

Any help is appreciated.

[wmansir]

It could be that the programs are having trouble reading past the 2GB mark in the file, this is due to the use of an old style AVI header, which has this limitation.

To see if this is the problem try this.

Install AviSynth if you don't have it.

Write a script that simply contains the line:

AVISource("C:\video\MyVideo.avi")

With your vidoe filled in. Open the .avs script in Vdub or WMP. If that doesn't work you could also try:

OpenDMLSource("C:\video\MyVideo.avi")

But to tell you the truth, I'm not familiar with DV so it could be something related to the format that I'm not aware of.

[kabanero]

I solved the problem.

Here are my discoveries:

1. I installed cce 2.64 along with 2.66. Then I opened 2.64 and 2.66 at the same time and loaded that AVI file in both encoders. 2.64 showed 131,095 frames, 2.66 showed 8,921 frames.
So, the first guilty party was cce2.66.

2. Then I decided to go through Vegas Video preferences. Under general tab I noticed that I had two options checked that I didn’t have them checked under previous installation of Vegas:
1. Use Microsoft DV codec, and
2. Strictly conform to AVI2 specification.
I unchecked them and re-rendered that AVI file again. Then I opened this new AVI file in WM Player 9, ATI Player 7.6, and they showed correct time: 01h:12m:54s. Then I opened it in cce 2.64 and 2.66, and they both showed 131,095 frames.

I am not sure which setting was the problem, but my guess would be, that Use Microsoft DV codec was the problem. So, Microsoft is the second guilty party.

So, conclusion is:

If you use Vegas Video 3.0 to capture, edit and render DV AVI (Type 2) files and want them to encode to MPEG-2 with cce 2.66, DO NOT CHECK these two settings:

1. Use Microsoft DV codec, and
2. Strictly conform to AVI2 specification.

Regards.

[auenf]

the problem is more likely to be the 2nd box, AVI2 has a limit of 2gb/file, DirectShow has unlimited avi size (well, limited to file system).

Enf...

[kabanero]

Originally posted by auenf
the problem is more likely to be the 2nd box, AVI2 has a limit of 2gb/file, DirectShow has unlimited avi size (well, limited to file system).

Enf...

Enf,

I think you are right.

[dumb13]

Originally posted by auenf
the problem is more likely to be the 2nd box, AVI2 has a limit of 2gb/file, DirectShow has unlimited avi size (well, limited to file system).

Enf...

The 2GB limit might as well be the problem, however, there should be something around the codec as well. I have run into the same problem (see my post here: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=36632), and the thing is that any (DV) AVI between 1GB+ ( which is just above the 4 min., where encoding crashes) and below 2GB reproduces the problem.

I am not sure, how can I set the right codec for capturing (ULVS5 seem to be ignoring any settings, and not being an expert of Premire, no clue there), but my bet would be on this as a root for the problem.

Anyhow, I needed some workaround on the issue, so let me share here my final observations:

1. using CCE v2.62 instead of v2.50 seemed to solve the problem (though I read somwhere on the forum, that v2.62 isn't a good version)

2. frameserving the original captured type-1 AVI (Sony miniDV cam, firewire, ULVS5) with Avysinth directshowsource seem to be "eatable" for CCE v2.50 - which otherwise does not accept type-1. It is running currently a one-pass VBR for the vaf, than I try to ran a multipass VBR - will let you know - if it works, than we are there with DV to MPEG2 with CCE!

Regards
dumb

[kabanero]

Hi dumb13,

Everything is working ok now with cce when I unchecked that check box in Vegas Video 3: Strictly conform to AVI2 specification. AVI 2.0 specification has 1GB limit because 4m:57s of DV AVI is 1GB in file size.

Also I was right about cce 2.66.01.01/02. It had a bug. See my other (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?threadid=36757) post:

[dumb13]

Thank you kabanero, this explains everything.

Now I have to figure out, how to achive this settings in ULVS5 or Premiere6 - in case I really want to stick to CCE 2.50 (not sure I do ...)

BTW: frameserving type-1 DV worked just fine, however the color quality is visibly worse - no point in going this way any further, especially when the newer releases of CCE seem to behave ok.

Regards
dumb