rescue screwed video which plays but will not reencode ? can't graphedit

[prom3theus]

OK i captured something and somehow the divx5.03 codec was all screwy, which it seems to do when i use virtualvcr and don't go back in after every capture to reset the settings. (note i'm not saying every time I START virtualvcr, I mean every time I actually capture the codec settings get screwed) They just get all f'd up. Anyways I forgot and captured something I can't recapture. Here's the problem, the video plays and is in a 320x240 window inside a green outer 512x384 window. If I play it, I use the g400 decoder filter, if I play it it plays fine inside the small section of the frame. If I load it into virtualdubs, avisynth, etc I end up getting no video at all.

I've tried graphedit, and honestly I can't seem to figure out what exactly I need to do to actually WRITE the encoded video. I render it and it looks fine. Then I try to output it using a file writer or dump filter and the output doesn't seem to have a valid avi file header. I tried using divx3.11, divx5.02, divx5.11, huffy, as compression filter, no good.

Any suggestions?

[DigitAl56K]

Check to see if you have XVID installed and if its overriding DivX.

Also, update to version 5.1.1 (or at least 5.05), 5.03 has known-issues:)

[prom3theus]

Really I was wanting to know exactly how to ensure I output a correctly encoded video in graphedit. Like I said, it's rendering fine, I just can't seem to encode it, or any video, in graphedit. I run the decoded video into the encoder, and I've tried the same codec both times ( file -> divx5 decoded -> divx5 encoder -> dump ) and I can't get an avi file out the back of it.

Any suggestions?

[stephanV]

thats not how it works i think.

you probably need the file writer filter (instead of dump) and before that probably a container muxer (avi, mp4, matroska... whatever)

but why dont you use a "real" encoding tool?

[prom3theus]

Ah, I had tried a file writer also, actually I tried several configurations. I think an avi muxer is not one I tried though, considering I wasn't doing any muxing. But, basically are you saying that even if I encode something using an avi encoder, that I still need some kind of avi container around it, explicitly?

I can't get the file to load in any editor/encoder I have, yet it will play fine, and render fine, so I need a more direct way into the filters.

Thanks for the suggestion, I will try a muxer with one input and see.

[prom3theus]

Hey thanks! It worked and I was able to reencode it in a different format, and then IT would load into an editor so I could crop the video portion out. Great insight.