VLC cannot convert large .ASF File.

[abrogard]

This follows on from an earlier thread about possibly (probably?) bad .asf files created by my webcam monitoring software.

The smaller files are okay but the larger files covering some hours of webcam monitoring are seen by nearly all software as being of much smaller time length than they really are. Including VLC.

A workaround was found and passed on to me, posted on these forums, whereby one sets VLC to convert to mp4, which it does by continuing to process beyond the time at which the counter is indicating the length of expired time as being the same as the time length of the file as reported by VLC. i.e. it continues beyond its own parameters for that file.

I did this successfully a couple of time with files of over 2 gigabytes.

But now I have processed a true 'working' file : i.e. the kind of file produced on site by the software and which I have then to scan looking for anything of interest. A six hour file. 10 gigabytes.

I set VLC to do the conversion and it took more than 24 hours to do it. At some early stage it had produced a file under the converted filename of 2573 kilobytes. 2.5 gig. Many hours later it completed its task as indicated by the file position indicators and length indicator returning to zero and that file remained at that length. 2573 kilobytes.

The eventual output was only that: a 2573kB file which plays for 49seconds.

For those unfamiliar with the phenomenon VLC WILL play the original .ASF file probably in its entirety. Probably. Because it continues to play beyond what it reports as being the length of the file (1hr 2mins in this case. A file that Windows Explorer reports as being 6hrs 13minutes. So it will probably continue to the end but I've never sat through it nor set it to do it. I've got it going now and I'll check in a couple of hours, see if it is still going.

We can't explore this from VLC whilst processing because the slider is at the extreme right of its travel, believing it has processed the whole file. One cannot drag it any further. The remaining hours of the file can only be seen in real time.

It is not disputed that there's some flaw in the manufactured .ASF file. It is not only VLC that has trouble with them. We can even locate the position of the flaw - or the position that software reports as being EOF, which of course isn't exactly the same thing is it.

It was found by this other gentleman that converting to mp4 would allow VLC to play the whole file, flawed or not. But now I find VLC will not convert.

Questions of configuring VLC correctly dont arise, I think? The convert function ignores any previously loaded file and settings one might have applied and asks afresh for a file, allows choosing of the container output and bang... off it goes.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Use something else, like VirtualDub to convert to mp4

[abrogard]

i'm trying. Downloaded untold stuff , unwrapped, installed, updated, god knows what.... now whatever it is has been working for 8 hours and still 'preprocessing'... that's on the 10gig file.

Anywhere handy and clear that I can read up on what's going one when we convert from .asf to mp4?

Told it is just a 'change of container' and therefore will be fast, but it never seems to be...

An Edit, a day later:

Well MeGui ran for more than 24 hours and did nothing, except use 90%cpu to do it.

Virtual Dub will not accept an .asf file and nor will AutoGK.

The search continues....