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It appears that many AVI files are presenting problems to VLC. This sync problem or whatever it states as a problem does not exist for any other media player as any one of them can play these AVI files perfectly.

I also now have come across an AVI file that not only gets this message (to repair/or not), but the aspect ratio when playing is off. Like to stretched. If I adjust the aspect ratio manually it looks correct. But here's the rub. This same AVI file that has 2 problems with VLC, has no problems with any other player, in other players it's sync is fine (as usual) and the aspect ratio is perfect.

The settings are at default which used to be perfect for most situations. I only turn off auto detect sub-titles as they are displayed by default.

To many AVI files that are being made (within the last 9 months or so) are apparently not in sync according to VLC. But they are in sync and need no repair. And even if I let VLC do a repair, there is absolutely no difference in the files display. Wow.

This is more or less a notification. The AVI files were made by many different people and most likely different software titles. Since my main player IS VLC, this problem is DOUBLY annoying.

Keith

1. You can help debugging by providing more debug info:
a. Which OS, CPU, Mem/Disk(hard drive? flash?), VLC version (Help | About)
b. Post direct links to example videos (short clips are better) which induce the symptom.
Or post enough of the filename so that is uniquely identifiable for others to find and test.
Or if invited by a VLC developer, upload to the server they suggest.
Or point to one of the many legal test clips online from a range of very old, old, and recent encoders/containers.
c. Capture debug messages:
- Tools | Messages | Verbosity = 2
- Play file until "Repair" dialog appears.
- Capture and post the output of the message window somewhere.

2. You can help by making sure the problem hasn't been addressed in upcoming versions:
a. Get the latest bugfix branch-xxx from nightlies.videolan.org, test it in an isolated directory
b. Get the latest dev trunk-xxx from nightlies.videolan.org, test it in an isolated directory

3. Since you say the problems are recent, you can help by ensuring that your hardware is working correctly.
a. perform a detailed RAM diagnostic
b. perform a Flash diagnostic if you're using an old Flash drive, or a used one from Craigslist, or a new one from eBay..
for Windows: http://fightflashfraud.wordpress.com/20 ... elp-folks/
I have had a mobo develop a flaky RAM interface, and one Flash drive go bad after years of heavy use.

Of the last ~300 video files I've played, 16 of them caused the "AVI Broken" dialog to appear.
- 3 were incomplete files (about 97-99%) uploaded as if they were complete. Tests with GOM player and TCPMP showed occasional stuck frames video and blockiness. Dismissing the "Repair" dialog, VLC played them with the same results.
- 13 of them were a series encoded in 2004 using an unknown jank encoder with the wrong aspect ratio. Dismissing the "Repair" dialog, all played with a few defects. I think the encoder wrote identically bad headers which VLC detected but GOM and TCPMP ignored.
- No false positives - all files causing the dialog did in fact have defects, verified in other players.
- Some false negatives - many kinds of defect go undetected by VLC, merely resulting in occasional video artifacts during playback.
- No audio unsync problems in any of them.

I agree with these points:
- VLC should be configurable NOT to offer the Broken AVI dialog.
- The "repair" code deserves a look to see what sort of errors it does really repair.

I get this problem with every video shot using a Pentax K-7 or Pentax K-x digital SLR. The videos play just fine in Media Player and others, but VLC balks on every single one with the repair dialog. If I choose not to repair the video, VLC will show the first frame and then immediately stop playing.

I'd be happy to provide sample video(s) to demonstrate this. I'm experiencing the issue with multiple versions of VLC on both Windows XP and Vista on two different, relatively recent machines. This includes VLC 1.0.5 Goldeneye, ie. the current latest version.

I get this problem with every video shot using a Pentax K-7 or Pentax K-x digital SLR. ... If I choose not to repair the video, VLC will show the first frame and then immediately stop playing.

See instructions above, specifically, 1b, 1c, 2a, 2b. Look forward to your results.

I get this problem with every video shot using a Pentax K-7 or Pentax K-x digital SLR. ... If I choose not to repair the video, VLC will show the first frame and then immediately stop playing.

See instructions above, specifically, 1b, 1c, 2a, 2b. Look forward to your results.

1. You can help debugging by providing more debug info:
a. Which OS, CPU, Mem/Disk(hard drive? flash?), VLC version (Help | About)

To reconfirm: I've tested on both Windows XP and Vista with older and current release versions of VLC. I've also just heard back from a colleague of mine who also uses Windows (not sure if XP or Vista), and he too is unable to play any videos from Pentax DSLRs with VLC without receiving this error.

b. Post direct links to example videos (short clips are better) which induce the symptom.
Or post enough of the filename so that is uniquely identifiable for others to find and test.
Or if invited by a VLC developer, upload to the server they suggest.
Or point to one of the many legal test clips online from a range of very old, old, and recent encoders/containers.

I don't have available hosting to upload my own videos to (my photo / video host transcodes videos to flash). You can find numerous Pentax K-7 videos online though.

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/K7/K7VIDEO.HTM
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/pentaxk7/page21.asp
http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/penta ... view/using ("View original movie" links near end of page only, NOT "View recompressed movie" links)

That should be enough to get you started... I will be happy to provide my own movie samples to a VLC developer if needed, either by email or dropbox.

c. Capture debug messages:
- Tools | Messages | Verbosity = 2
- Play file until "Repair" dialog appears.
- Capture and post the output of the message window somewhere.

Results (this is everything until the repair / don't repair / cancel dialog appears):
This is everything if you use "Don't repair", which plays only the first frame of the file and then aborts. (Other media players all play the file just fine):
Finally, this is the full log if you use "Repair", which is the only way to get the video to play in VLC:
2. You can help by making sure the problem hasn't been addressed in upcoming versions:
a. Get the latest bugfix branch-xxx from nightlies.videolan.org, test it in an isolated directory
b. Get the latest dev trunk-xxx from nightlies.videolan.org, test it in an isolated directory

I'll have to come back to this, haven't had time to play with nightlies versions yet.

2. You can help by making sure the problem hasn't been addressed in upcoming versions:
a. Get the latest bugfix branch-xxx from nightlies.videolan.org, test it in an isolated directory

Tested and confirmed not fixed in the latest bugfix branch 1.0.6-git Goldeneye dated 13-Mar-2010 02:26. Symptoms are identical to the current stable release version.

Debug messages from 1.0.6-git Goldeneye, in case they differ in any way:

* Everything until the repair / don't repair / cancel dialog appears -
* Everything if you use "Don't repair", which plays only the first frame of the file and then aborts. (Other media players all play the file just fine):
* Everything if you use "Repair", which is the only way to get the video to play in VLC:
Will test the latest dev build next.

2. You can help by making sure the problem hasn't been addressed in upcoming versions:
b. Get the latest dev trunk-xxx from nightlies.videolan.org, test it in an isolated directory

Tested and confirmed not fixed in the latest dev branch 1.1.0-git-20100313-0002 The Luggage dated 13-Mar-2010 00:48. Symptoms are similar, but not identical to the current stable release version. Differences are as follows:

* If I click "Don't Repair", I now no longer see even the first frame of the video. Instead I get a popup that says my font database is being rebuilt, which shows a progress bar, and on the first attempt takes 1-2 seconds to complete. On subsequent attempts to play the video, the popup appears and disappears near-instantly, and again there is no error message, and not even the first frame of the video is shown.

* If I click "Repair", the dev build of VLC is no longer able to properly play the video even after repair. Instead, I get the repair status dialog which completes its progress bar in a few seconds with my short test video, then a popup of the same font database dialog mentioned in the previous item, which again disappears near-instantly. Finally, the VLC window then resizes but without any video pane (as if I was playing an audio file), and I see the position indicator move from left to right across the VLC window as if there was a file playing. There is however no video *or* sound being played - the only indication of activity is the position indicator movement. Last note on this one is that it took quite a while after finishing "playing the video" in this instance for me to even be able to cut'n'paste from the message window, because it continued updating with "waiting decoder fifos to empty" and a variety of other repeated messages for quite a few seconds after "playback" ceased.

Debug messages from 1.1.0-git-20100313-0002 The Luggage, in case they differ in any way:

* Everything until the repair / don't repair / cancel dialog appears -
* Everything if you use "Don't repair", which no longer even plays the first frame of the file. Instead, it throws a popup message about the font database being rebuilt, and then silently aborts. (Other media players all play the file just fine). Note that on the first attempt to play, the font database message takes 1-2 seconds to fill its progress bar, while on subsequent attempts the popup appears and disappears near-instantly, but the symptom otherwise doesn't change - no frame of the video is shown, and no error message is given:
the final debug log will appear in a separate post since its length is putting me over the post limit.

This continues from the previous post, because as noted the length of this log was putting me over the character limit for a forum post.

* Everything if you use "Repair", which also no longer plays the video in VLC. Instead, I get the repair status dialog which completes its progress bar in a few seconds with my short test video, then pops up the same font database dialog mentioned in the previous test, and removes it near-instantly. The VLC window then resizes but without any video pane (as if I was playing an audio file), and I see the position indicator move from left to right across the VLC window as if there was a file playing. Note that in addition to their being no video pane, no sound is played either in this instance. Last note on this attempt is that it took quite a while after finishing "playing the video" in this instance for me to even be able to cut'n'paste from the message window, because it continued updating with "waiting decoder fifos to empty" and a variety of other repeated messages for quite a few seconds after "playback" ceased.:

To narrow the scope, I can verify one problem:
Pentax K7 MJPEG .AVI movies are reported "broken." When the file is "repaired", the repair occurs (nearly instantly in 1.06 branch, 5 seconds in 1.05), then plays and ends normally. When not "repaired," plays only a few frames and a small amount of audio, then stops and closes the video window.

This occurs in Windows XPPro SP3, VLC 1.05 and 1.06 branch, tested against this downloaded video file:
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/K ... GP2354.AVI (45 MB)
which is a 1280x720 MJPEG 30.00FPS Audio PCM 32000Hz Mono AVI file.

The video does NOT play in Miro 2.5.4, which merely hangs with an hourglass, or plays one or two frames, then stops.

Just for information, the video plays correctly in Quicktime player 7.6.5(518.40), GOM Player 2,1,21,4846, TCPMP 0.72RC1, Windows Media Player 11 Version 11.0.5721.5268, Winamp 5.572(x86), and IrfanView 4.25 (Prefs/Video/Use Directshow enabled), but not Realplayer Enterprise 6.0.22.2378 (no MJPEG codec).

Since this is a new (ish) camera, and some of my players are quite old, I suspect the problem exists in the VLC AVI "broken file" detection. Searching for MJPEG AVI in the forums, there have been several MJPEG compatibility issues over the years.

More later.

Since we've not had any response here, I've gone ahead and created a bug report summarizing the details myself:

http://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/3512

Since this thread is a few weeks old now, I'll try the absolute latest nightly bugfix / dev builds again just as soon as I've got a moment.

I can confirm this bug has now been squashed in the latest bugfix branch of VLC, v1.1.0-rc-20100518-0202 The Luggage.

Thanks to everybody who helped out!

Great news !

so there is no way to disable or set a default action for that dialog ? because it's annoying and doesn't do anything.

edit: never mind.

to get rid of the 'broken or missing avi index' in vlc do this:

tools>preferences
show settings:all
search for 'avi' click demuxer>AVI
set 'force index creation' to 'never fix'
press save
done

Or just tools -> preferences -> input/codecs -> "damaged or incomplete AVI file"

Thanks!