The usual: no codec found when trying to play a video

Posted by: mlord

The usual: no codec found when trying to play a video - 03/09/2008 21:08

Except this is WinXP, which I'd been led to believe didn't have the "missing codec" problem that people (incorrectly) associate with Linux systems.

So.. how do I get it to play an mpeg4 video ??
Posted by: tman

Re: The usual: no codec found when trying to play a video - 03/09/2008 21:09

Install Xvid
Posted by: mlord

Re: The usual: no codec found when trying to play a video - 03/09/2008 21:14

Originally Posted By: tman
Install Xvid


No change. I think perhaps something better than wimpy11 is needed. What do people use to view their media on this wretched platform?

Thanks
Posted by: tman

Re: The usual: no codec found when trying to play a video - 03/09/2008 21:16

It an AVI? If so then WMP should be enough. Any idea what the FourCC is for it?
Posted by: tman

Re: The usual: no codec found when trying to play a video - 03/09/2008 21:17

If all else fails then just install VLC. That usually plays pretty much everything and doesn't need codecs installed since it has its own.
Posted by: mlord

Re: The usual: no codec found when trying to play a video - 03/09/2008 21:20

Originally Posted By: tman
If all else fails then just install VLC. That usually plays pretty much everything and doesn't need codecs installed since it has its own.


Ahh.. good suggestion. I think that's what I'll try next. Hopefully my earlier attempts at adding codecs and the like didn't install too much spyware.

(it's in .avi format, output from mencoder).

Thanks
Posted by: mlord

Re: The usual: no codec found when trying to play a video - 03/09/2008 21:20

I wanted to try RealPlayer as an alternative, but the installer dies with a scripting error. frown
Posted by: mlord

Re: The usual: no codec found when trying to play a video - 03/09/2008 21:22

Originally Posted By: tman
It an AVI? If so then WMP should be enough. Any idea what the FourCC is for it?


It's in a .avi container, and file reports:

2041_20080824180000.avi: RIFF (little-endian) data, AVI, 720 x 400, ~30 fps, video: FFMpeg MPEG-4, audio: Dolby AC3 (stereo, 48000 Hz)

Thanks
Posted by: mlord

Re: The usual: no codec found when trying to play a video - 03/09/2008 21:28

Mmm.. no joy. Black video from VLC.

Here's a simple cut of the first 5MB of the file: can you play it there? (works fine on Linux)

http://rtr.ca/sample.avi

Thanks
Posted by: mlord

Re: The usual: no codec found when trying to play a video - 03/09/2008 21:34

Originally Posted By: mlord
Mmm.. no joy. Black video from VLC.


Heh.. vlc on Linux plays the file just fine, of course.
Posted by: wfaulk

Re: The usual: no codec found when trying to play a video - 03/09/2008 21:38

Easiest thing to do is install a codec pack. I've had good luck in the past with the K-Lite Codec Pack.

And, for what it's worth, GSpot is a good tool for divining information about video files.
Posted by: Waterman981

Re: The usual: no codec found when trying to play a video - 03/09/2008 21:39

I always use ffdshow as the only codec I install anymore. It will decode and encode everything I need.

If you still need a player I really like Media Player Classic.

Edit: and your file played back perfectly for me.
Posted by: mlord

Re: The usual: no codec found when trying to play a video - 03/09/2008 21:40

Originally Posted By: mlord
Originally Posted By: mlord
Mmm.. no joy. Black video from VLC.


Heh.. vlc on Linux plays the file just fine, of course.


Okay, I've gotten vlc to work, by cranking down the "hardware acceleration" setting for the Radeon driver to midway instead of full acceleration.

Ugh. See, the trick is, I'm mailing these videos cross-country to the most technically illiterate family imaginable.

-ml
Posted by: tman

Re: The usual: no codec found when trying to play a video - 03/09/2008 21:45

Your best bet would be to transcode it into something else. Sending video is a massive PITA. Got to make sure the audio and video codecs match on both ends etc...

The specific FourCC that it wants is for ffdshow. I've tried changing the FourCC to XVID or DIVX but it just doesn't like it but that might be because the file has been truncated.
Posted by: tman

Re: The usual: no codec found when trying to play a video - 03/09/2008 21:46

Originally Posted By: mlord
Ugh. See, the trick is, I'm mailing these videos cross-country to the most technically illiterate family imaginable.

Transcode to an oldish WMV or make a DVD video maybe?
Posted by: wfaulk

Re: The usual: no codec found when trying to play a video - 03/09/2008 21:46

Easiest way to be sure would be to reencode it into a format for which all Windows PCs will have support. I'm sure there are some reasonable AVI codecs, but WMV is basically guaranteed.

Also, do they have a DVD player? Burn a video DVD and send them that.
Posted by: Dignan

Re: The usual: no codec found when trying to play a video - 03/09/2008 22:13

You could also try encoding to flash video. Then you wouldn't have to send video anywhere, they could just view it online. You can get some pretty good quality from Youtube, and that other one I'm forgetting at the moment...

As for codec hell in Windows, like others have said, just use VLC. I'm sorry, Bitt, but codec packs are awful. They're just a mess, and there's really no way to uninstall what they put on. I definitely say install VLC and never worry about codecs ever again.

And I second the suggestion for Media Player Classic. VLC is lighter than most playback software, but MPC is the lightest I've seen that can play as many types of files. That, and MPlayer, which has some nice GUIs for Windows now.

All that said, I'm sorry Mark but are you sure that file is encoded properly? VLC definitely gave me an error when opening it, but it still played afterwards. That says to me: "encoding issue."
Posted by: Waterman981

Re: The usual: no codec found when trying to play a video - 03/09/2008 22:17

It did play fine for me with ffdshow... in both MPC and WMP.
Posted by: larry818

Re: The usual: no codec found when trying to play a video - 03/09/2008 23:23

Plays fine on win2K and VLC with the Nemo codec pack. MP won't play it, claiming it's opened by another app. Stupid.
Posted by: mlord

Re: The usual: no codec found when trying to play a video - 03/09/2008 23:33

Quote:
All that said, I'm sorry Mark but are you sure that file is encoded properly? VLC definitely gave me an error when opening it, but it still played afterwards. That says to me: "encoding issue."

Yeah, the real file is fine -- the sample.avi I provided is just a raw chop of the first 5MB of the real file, missing the index from the tail end etc.. which is why vlc complains (but plays it fine regardless).

Cheers
Posted by: mlord

Re: The usual: no codec found when trying to play a video - 03/09/2008 23:35

Originally Posted By: Waterman981
It did play fine for me with ffdshow... in both MPC and WMP.


Ah.. so ffdshow is just a (good) codec package, for general use by wimp11 and others ?

Thanks
Posted by: gbeer

Re: The usual: no codec found when trying to play a video - 03/09/2008 23:48

Gspot says
Code:
FILE_NAME                      sample.avi
FILE_NAME_WITH_PATH            C:\Documents and Settings\Glenn\Desktop\sample.avi
FILE_SIZE                      5,242,880
CONT_AUDIO_STREAM_COUNT        1
CONT_BASETYPE                  AVI(.AVI)
CONT_BYTES_MISSING             1068497458
CONT_INTERLEAVE_ALIGN          Split
CONT_INTERLEAVE_PRELOAD        512
CONT_INTERLEAVE_TIME           500
CONT_SUBTYPE                   OpenDML (AVI v2.0), 
CONT_TOTAL_BITRATE             0
VIDEO_ASPECT_CONVERT_AVI1      
VIDEO_ASPECT_CONVERT_AVI2      
VIDEO_ASPECT_CONVERT_CVD1      
VIDEO_ASPECT_CONVERT_CVD2      
VIDEO_ASPECT_CONVERT_DVD1      
VIDEO_ASPECT_CONVERT_DVD2      
VIDEO_ASPECT_CONVERT_SVCD1     
VIDEO_ASPECT_CONVERT_SVCD2     
VIDEO_ASPECT_CONVERT_VCD1      
VIDEO_ASPECT_CONVERT_VCD2      
VIDEO_ASPECT_SOURCE_MATCH      
VIDEO_ASPECT_TYPE_NTSC         
VIDEO_ASPECT_TYPE_PAL          
VIDEO_BITRATE                  844
VIDEO_CODEC_NAME               FFmpeg/ffdshow ISO MPEG-4
VIDEO_CODEC_STATUS             Codec(s) are NOT Installed
VIDEO_CODEC_TYPE               FMP4
VIDEO_DAR                      1.800
VIDEO_DURATION                 0:33.868
VIDEO_FIELDS_PER_SEC           
VIDEO_FRAME_COUNT              1015
VIDEO_FRAMES_PER_SEC           29.970
VIDEO_H264                     
VIDEO_MPEG2                    
VIDEO_MPEG2_3X2                
VIDEO_MPEG2_BFF                
VIDEO_MPEG2_I_L                
VIDEO_MPEG2_PPF                
VIDEO_MPEG2_PROG               
VIDEO_MPEG2_TFF                
VIDEO_MPEG4                    MPEG-4
VIDEO_MPEG4_BVOP               
VIDEO_MPEG4_GMC                
VIDEO_MPEG4_NVOP               
VIDEO_MPEG4_QPEL               
VIDEO_PAR                      1.000
VIDEO_PICS_PER_SEC             29.970
VIDEO_QF                       0.098
VIDEO_SAR                      1.800
VIDEO_SIZE_X                   720
VIDEO_SIZE_Y                   400
AUDIO_BITRATE                  384
AUDIO_BITRATE_TYPE             CBR
AUDIO_CHANNEL_COUNT            6
AUDIO_CODEC                    0x2000 (Dolby AC3) AC3
AUDIO_CODEC_STATUS             Codec(s) are Installed
AUDIO_MPEG_STREAM_ID           
AUDIO_MPEG_SUBSTREAM_ID        
AUDIO_SAMPLE_RATE              48000
Posted by: Attack

Re: The usual: no codec found when trying to play a video - 04/09/2008 00:33

I use DefilerPak and Zoomplayer and have it download the codecs. You can also try CoreAVC. I've heard it is very good.

Edit:
Your sample file plays perfectly for me.
Posted by: wfaulk

Re: The usual: no codec found when trying to play a video - 04/09/2008 00:46

Originally Posted By: Dignan
As for codec hell in Windows, like others have said, just use VLC. I'm sorry, Bitt, but codec packs are awful. They're just a mess, and there's really no way to uninstall what they put on. I definitely say install VLC and never worry about codecs ever again.
Many are awful. I linked to one I've had success with. All it does is install some codecs and a few pieces of software, like GSpot and MPC. Installing individual codecs always left me in a bigger mess if I had to install more than one or two.

Originally Posted By: Dignan
And I second the suggestion for Media Player Classic. VLC is lighter than most playback software, but MPC is the lightest I've seen that can play as many types of files.
MPC uses the Windows codec system. If he can't play it with WMP, he can't play it with MPC. Period. It's merely a different UI for the exact same playback software built into Windows.
Posted by: mlord

Re: The usual: no codec found when trying to play a video - 04/09/2008 01:18

Originally Posted By: mlord
Quote:
All that said, I'm sorry Mark but are you sure that file is encoded properly? VLC definitely gave me an error when opening it, but it still played afterwards. That says to me: "encoding issue."

Yeah, the real file is fine -- the sample.avi I provided is just a raw chop of the first 5MB of the real file, missing the index from the tail end etc.. which is why vlc complains (but plays it fine regardless).

I've since replaced the sample.avi file with a full/complete sample (same codecs), and vlc no longer complains about it on startup. Otherwise no difference (still need to crank down the h/w accel on my P4 Radeon box).

Recoding as WMV (both version 1 and version 2) didn't work, neither did ordinary mpeg-2. I like the format I've already coded to, as it also keeps the audio perfectly in sync.. something that other encoding options seem to bugger up.

I've sent a link for the sample.avi to the intended recipient, along with a link for the vlc installer, and asked her to try those and report back.

If all goes well, I'll burn the videos to DVD-ROM and mail them across the country.

Thanks folks!
Posted by: drakino

Re: The usual: no codec found when trying to play a video - 04/09/2008 03:37

Sadly video playback is pretty much a mess on any OS. Too many formats, too many companies with their own attempts to control the market, and no clear leader. Video never has had quite the killer format like audio did with MP3.
Posted by: Roger

Re: The usual: no codec found when trying to play a video - 04/09/2008 06:00

Originally Posted By: mlord
Otherwise no difference (still need to crank down the h/w accel on my P4 Radeon box).


Video driver or codec bug. I had a similar problem with WMP on a Radeon card -- things that were too bright came out black. VLC obviously does something different (probably not exercising the acceleration quite so much), because that worked OK.

That card's since gone bang, so I can't check your file for you...
Posted by: mlord

Will it never end? WinXP UDF support? - 04/09/2008 19:09

So, I'm burning these 3-GByte files to DVD-R now, to mail out west. Burned first disc, and popped it into the WinXP box here just to ensure things are alright, and...

It comes up with an empty root directory on the DVD.
"Properties" shows that XP knows it is a "UDF" filesystem, but it refuses to show the contents.

Again, this works fine on Linux, even on the exact same machine.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321640

Q: Does Vista also suffer this M-bare-ass-ment?
Q: Is there a spyware-free UDF driver available for XP?

Thanks guys.
Posted by: tman

Re: Will it never end? WinXP UDF support? - 04/09/2008 19:24

Have you closed the session?

Use a different UDF variant? XP can do UDF but not whatever one you're using it seems.
Posted by: mlord

Re: Will it never end? WinXP UDF support? - 04/09/2008 19:46

Originally Posted By: mlord
Q: Does Vista also suffer this M-bare-ass-ment?

Mmm.. judging from Google results, I'd say that both XP and Vista lack full UDF support. Bummer.

I think I'll just mail a USB hard drive to her, instead of trying to fiddle further with this lack of basic functionality.

Thanks
Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Will it never end? WinXP UDF support? - 04/09/2008 21:24

Just burn it as UDF 1.5. Easy-peasy.
Posted by: Shonky

Re: Will it never end? WinXP UDF support? - 06/09/2008 01:17

Why the need to burn UDF at all?
Posted by: mlord

Re: Will it never end? WinXP UDF support? - 06/09/2008 10:45

Originally Posted By: Shonky
Why the need to burn UDF at all?

Another Microsoft limitation -- without UDF, it cannot handle LARGE files at all (> 2GB, I think). Which is why DVD-Video discs always have the main feature split up into a bunch of small VOBs.

EDIT: the video files I'm dealing with here, began life as 40GB recordings (6hrs each of HDTV at 1080i), and have been squished down to 720x400 resolution, resulting in 3.something GB files.

Again, Linux doesn't care.

Cheers