AVI error: no valid track. Avi file will not play.

[Simeon]

Hi. I have looked around, and can only find help on this error in the source code (i.e. I hope I am in the right place).

When trying to play a 3.6GB avi file I copied from a DV tape a couple of years ago I get the following message log:

avi error: no valid track
mpgv error: cannot peek
ps error: cannot peek
mjpeg error: cannot peek
ps error: cannot peek
main error: no suitable demux module for `/://C:\Documents and Settings\Simeon\My Documents\My Videos\Tape 3 After EP1.avi'


I simply cannot make it work in VLC. It works in WMP or Quicktime, etc... and I want to transcode it to H.264.

I have tried many things: setting "force interleaved method", setting "force index creation", unsetting "overlay video output", using command line switches for the decoder to use, and resetting my video card to default settings and trying other resolutions...

Any ideas?
Thanks

[DJ]

This is going to sound like an unusual suggestion but try renaming the file to an .mpg or .mpeg extension and try again.

[Simeon]

Hi, thanks for the reply.

I've tried renaming this file with no luck - I still get the same error messages as before.

I can't remember which program I used to stream it from the DV tape to the AVI file, but I VLC doesn't seem to like this file, or any of the other video files I made at the time. These are massive, uncompressed video files that play in other player software...

Any other ideas?

[DJ]

If you know other files or are playing correctly with VLC and it's only this one type of file you might check out GSpot on the web to see how it recognizes the file for format of audio and video, as you say you made these and put it in an AVI container. The only other program i am aware of that is similar to VLC is MPlayer with MEncoder and if it plays your file it can encode it to H.264

Another option would be editing utilities capable of doing transcoding.

http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/mp4.htm

http://www.videohelp.com/tools?s=12

[Chameleon13]

I have a similar problem, but I"m afraid I"m a noob so I can't describe it very well. I am trying to play some new AVI files that I got (they are big as well), but VLC either won't play them or plays about 30 seconds of them and then stops working. I am also such a noob I can't find the error log or whatever.

To be more precise about my problem: when I try to play of the AVI files I have, it works fine. for others, it plays for a short time (30 seconds or so) and then freezes. Sometimes, it does not load properly (or something) and it shows the total length of the video as 0:00.

any help/suggestions woul be appreciated.

[DJ]

I have a similar problem, but I"m afraid I"m a noob so I can't describe it very well. I am trying to play some new AVI files that I got (they are big as well), but VLC either won't play them or plays about 30 seconds of them and then stops working. I am also such a noob I can't find the error log or whatever.

To be more precise about my problem: when I try to play of the AVI files I have, it works fine. for others, it plays for a short time (30 seconds or so) and then freezes. Sometimes, it does not load properly (or something) and it shows the total length of the video as 0:00.

any help/suggestions woul be appreciated.

It is very difficult it try to guess with so little information. AVI is a container but what is in the container (audio & video format)? Within VLC you could look at Media Information and Messages as this will give information about the file and why VLC may be having problems with it.

In later versions of VLC, if the index for an AVI file is damaged VLC will try to rebuild it, however if the file is badly damaged, often times the file will not play.

Have you tried other players to get a second opinion?