Help Wanted

Distorted AVI – skynes

Skynes
Member

Posts: 202
From: Belfast, N Ireland
Registered: 01-18-2004
First the system stuff:

Using Windows Media 10 (though the problem affects Media Player Classic too).

Codec pack is the Combined Community Codec Pack.

Anime is stored on an external hard drive.

About 10GB of videos.

Problem:

This is a problem thats only started a few days ago, a week ago all my AVIs ran perfectly. Past few days the image sometimes go distorted. Subtitles go blurred i.e. unreadable and the general image gets smeared. All boxy too.

Occasionally when accessing the folder they're in I get an "AVI: Index not found" Error which crashes Windows Explorer. In fact WE has been crashing lots the past few days. Sometimes when I open the file I get a "Cannot play this file" error.

Recently installed stuff:

Deep Burn Pro DVD writing software.
Last Windows auto-update (no IE7 cause I hated the look of it)

I've done virus scans (AVG Free, fully up to date) and spyware scans, found a few spyware (now deleted) but I doubt they were the kind to disrupt AVI's


Any ideas? I don't wanna go down the System Restore or re-install Windows route just yet.

steveth45

Member

Posts: 536
From: Eugene, OR, USA
Registered: 08-10-2005
Possibilities are, the software you recently installed changed some codecs or added new ones. Also, your drive may be corrupted or fragmented, run a scan. Possibly you have a virus or spyware that is messing with things/slowing things down. Try uninstalling the DVD software, which is likely the source of new codecs.

Windows Media Player is often the source of pain, especially if you are watching AVI's of dubious internet origin . VLC might work for you. Purchase the videos you enjoy in DVD format. If you have already purchased them, re-rip them to your hard drive with different software.

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CPUFreak91

Member

Posts: 2337
From:
Registered: 02-01-2005
quote:
Originally posted by skynes:
Any ideas? I don't wanna go down the System Restore or re-install Windows route just yet.


Are you running windows vista?

I agree with steveth45, try playing the videos in VLC or re-ripping them with a different program.

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Skynes
Member

Posts: 202
From: Belfast, N Ireland
Registered: 01-18-2004
I removed the DVD burner software.

Virus scan and Spyware scan comes up clean.

Hard drive has been defragged.

Tried VLC.

Still got the problem.


"Purchase the videos you enjoy in DVD format. If you have already purchased them, re-rip them to your hard drive with different software."

Japanese fansub, not available aaanywhere in the west. It was all running perfectly for a while, now it's all just keeled over and died.

HanClinto

Administrator

Posts: 1828
From: Indiana
Registered: 10-11-2004
I also suspect that it's the DVD software that's caused trouble. I'm not sure that removing the DVD software would fix it -- I wouldn't be surprised if it overrode one of your old codecs with a new one. Try re-installing the codec pack that is needed for those files, whether it's xvid or divx or whatever they're encoded with.

--clint

Skynes
Member

Posts: 202
From: Belfast, N Ireland
Registered: 01-18-2004
Does it matter that this was DVD BURNING software, not DVD Playing?
HanClinto

Administrator

Posts: 1828
From: Indiana
Registered: 10-11-2004
Both kinds could be likely to install codecs. Those codecs might not be removed from your system when you uninstalled the software.

If you really feel like digging into your codec situation, a tool that I recommend downloading is VirtualDub -- it's a multi-purpose tool that was created for editing/subtitling videos, but it has a good menu interface to see what codecs are on your system, and (I believe) what codecs a particular video file is asking for.

--clint

Skynes
Member

Posts: 202
From: Belfast, N Ireland
Registered: 01-18-2004
Got that Virtual Dub, but I don't edit media, so I haven't a clue how to use it :P Lol

However, I scanned through the AVI frame by frame and my weird problem is actually on the frames!

Does this use the Codec to show the file frame by frame? Or have frames become corrupt, thus making this problem?

I did move the entire folder (all 10GB) from one Hard drive to another when the first was getting full... would that cause this?

[This message has been edited by skynes (edited February 07, 2007).]

Edit: I re-downloaded one of them and it ran PERFECTLY. I copied it to my external hard drive and immediately had problems with it... the same problems I've been having. So I checked the original file on my desktop again (I put a copy into the external) and it was perfect. Deleted the copy and put another one there, again problems.

So it seems I have a botched external hard drive...

[This message has been edited by skynes (edited February 07, 2007).]

Skynes
Member

Posts: 202
From: Belfast, N Ireland
Registered: 01-18-2004
Confirmed, its my hard drive. It's corrupted every file put onto it...

I've tried formatting it, but I get an error of "Windows was unable to format the drive"

HanClinto

Administrator

Posts: 1828
From: Indiana
Registered: 10-11-2004
Glad to hear that you've gotten down to the bottom of the problem, but sorry to hear the drive is borked -- most times those external drives use standard hard-drives that you can take out and put in your computer just like a normal IDE drive. I'm curious as to if the USB hard-drive controller is what blew, or if it's the physical hard-drive itself.

--clint

goop2

Member

Posts: 1059
From:
Registered: 06-30-2004
You could try installing Linux on the hard drive. That would tell you if its a format problem.

You say that explorer seems to crash a lot.. That happens when windows begins to get old. Or it might be the PC itself, getting old. Im not realy sure which, because I have a dual boot system. My new Kubuntu partition (on a very old hard drive) runs far better than windows. (on a slightly newer hard drive) I have had to restore windows multiple times, but it crashes just as often.

Im not realy sure whether this is because Linux is more stable, or the age of the operating system.

Also:

quote:
Last Windows auto-update (no IE7 cause I hated the look of it)

This gives the idea that you use internet explorer. Thats the most common source of spyware, viruses, and whatever malware there is floating around on the internet.

If your into torrents (and where else can you get decent fansubs? ) you should always check the comments and make sure nobody is complaining about attached malware.

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[This message has been edited by Goop2 (edited February 10, 2007).]

Skynes
Member

Posts: 202
From: Belfast, N Ireland
Registered: 01-18-2004
Fansubs aren't torrented, they're a direct download

Ive disconnected the drive, since then I haven't had a problem with explorer crashing or corrupted AVIs.

goop2

Member

Posts: 1059
From:
Registered: 06-30-2004
Thats interesting.. Have you tried connecting it to a computer with higher specs?

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Skynes
Member

Posts: 202
From: Belfast, N Ireland
Registered: 01-18-2004
My PC isn't top of the top grade, but it's capable of playing all todays games with no slowdown.

I did try it in a friends PC (which would prolly be high spec as he has more PC bits than most stores) and we had the same 'cannot format' error.

I've arranged for it to be returned to where I bought it and get a replacement.