No Sound Playing Certain AVI Files.

[terbium]

Since pre VLC 1.0 days, VLC has been unable to play DVD audio, which isn't so bad since I can use Windows Media Player or PowerDVD. But now the problem seems to be affecting certain .avi files (and only .avi files). I do not know if the DVD and .avi audio issues are related.

Here is a description of the issue with the avi files:
(*) On playing certain avi files, but not all, no audio is available from the beginning of the file to the end. If I attempt to change the volume, the speaker icon greys out, indicating no audio is available.
(*) On playing certain avi files, but not all, audio is available at the beginning of the file and will play for the entire file, but if I attempt to go forward or backward to any other part of the file, I lose audio for the duration of the video. In those cases, I never lose the ability to adjust the volume, it just doesn't do any good.

Not all avi files are affected.
In all cases, audio is fine in Windows Media Player
Uninstalling, cleaning, reinstalling VLC does not help
Renaming vlc.exe does not help
This seems to be happening mostly with XVID avi files, but there is no consistency. Some XVIDs are fine, others are not. I have few DIVX avi files, and they all seem to be playing normally.

System info: Windows XP SP3; VLC version 1.1.4; K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 6.3.0 (if it matters).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[terbium]

So I have been looking into this issue more since there's been no easy fix, and thought I would do some experimentation and some logging. First, I noticed I only lose sound for a certain, seemingly random, amount of time before audio picks up again. It would be awesome if someone would offer suggestions, though, even if it's burning incense and playing a Kiss album backwards (which, incidentally, doesn't help).

First, this is what VLC 'messages' had to say (verbosity=2); the video is playing, everything is fine, then I seek/scroll ahead and this is the output:

main debug: control type=3
avi debug: seek requested: 196 seconds 1%
avi debug: old:10844167 < new 196943998
avi debug: old:10866938 < new 196943998
avi debug: seek: 196 seconds
main debug: Buffering 0%
main debug: Buffering 8%
main debug: Buffering 16%
main debug: Buffering 25%
main debug: Buffering 33%
main debug: Buffering 41%
main debug: Buffering 50%
main debug: Buffering 58%
main debug: End of video preroll
main debug: Received first picture
main debug: Buffering 66%
main debug: Buffering 75%
main debug: Buffering 83%
main debug: Buffering 91%
main debug: Buffering 100%
main debug: Stream buffering done (325 ms in 24 ms)
main debug: Decoder buffering done in 0 ms
main debug: auto hidding mouse

Then about a minute or so later, this pops up (video is still playing during that time):

main debug: End of audio preroll
main warning: output PTS is out of range (54359756), clearing out
main debug: audio output is starving (332283), playing silence
main debug: auto hidding mouse

NOTES:

• There are no other audio tracks in the file.
• Video and audio tracks remain synchronized when audio returns.
• This issue occurs whether I seek forward or back.
• Same behavior whether I choose system codecs or not.
• Same behavior despite using an entirely different codec pack (or the original XVID codec).
• The PC has no performance issues and CPU/RAM use remain minimal when playing any of these files.
• Again, these videos play flawlessly in Windows Media Player. I do not like WMP. I like VLC.
• Fast-forward and rewind (using arrow buttons or speed control drop-down) work fine