Trying to play "avi" files dl'd from Torrent to no avail

[Thresh]

This is for some Prison Break episodes. Half of them I could play and the other half, about 4 episodes appeared to work because windows media player is the one targeted to play them, but is unable to play and I get an error "unrecognised file format". The same with Quicktime, Real Player, DivX Player, and BlazeDVD. I've even tried VLC media player and G-spot to try and scan it and find out what type of codecs it needs. G-spot just doesn't recognise it and VLC plays a black screen for 3 seconds. The files are all around 350MB. They are all labeled like they should work, I doubt it's 350MB of junk, the show has got to be in there somewhere. Has anyone had a similiar problem with downloaded TV episodes like this?

 

[office politics]

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/K_Lite_Mega_Codec_Pack.htm


download and install this codec pack

 

[EricB]

I'm thinking that he need the matroska pack for this one

http://packs.matroska.org/

 

[Thresh]

The K-light one did not work. I'll try Matroska.

 

[Thresh]

I'm not even really sure what Mastroska was suppose to do, but I tried playing the video on Media Player Classic after I installed it anyway. It still didn't work. So I went to the Diagnostic utility which is the only place that allows you to open a file. There were three different program choices within that installation folder, so I picked the only one that gave you a choice to open a file - which was the diagnostic utility. I tried opening the Prison Break movie and this is what I got:

Matroska file info : D:\My Documents\My Videos\Prison Break\Prison.Break.S01E17.HDTV.XviD-LOL.avi
File size : 349.42 MB
TEbmlReader.ReaderHeader : EBML header ID not found (found 0xE5)
DirectShow RenderFile check :
Matroska Splitter : Gabest's Matroska Splitter
- Installed : no
- Can be created : no
Matroska Splitter : Haali's New Matroska Splitter
- Installed : yes, in C:\Program Files\Matroska Pack\haali\splitter.ax
- Can be created : yes
RenderFile with DirectShow : Cannot play back the file. The format is not supported. (0x80040265)

DirectShow detailed rendering :
0> MyRenderFile : D:\My Documents\My Videos\Prison Break\Prison.Break.S01E17.HDTV.XviD-LOL.avi
0> Creation of GraphBuilder : OK
0> Creation of FilterMapper2 : OK
15> Adding graph to ROT : OK
15> Creation of source filter : OK
15> # Rendering output pin D:\My Documents\My Videos\Prison Break\Prison.Break.S01E17.HDTV.XviD-LOL.avi(Output)
15> Filters matching mediatype : DirectVobSub (auto-loading version), ASX v.2 file Parser, .RAM file Parser, WavPack Audio Splitter, MPEG4 Video Splitter, QuickTime Movie Parser, RealMedia Splitter, True Audio Splitter, AVI Splitter, AC3 Parser Filter, FLV Splitter, MP4 Splitter, ASX file Parser, NSC file Parser, MPEG-2 Demultiplexer, MPEG-I Stream Splitter
15> Trying connection to DirectVobSub (auto-loading version) :
15> Failed connecting pin to DirectVobSub (auto-loading version), removing it now.
15> Trying connection to ASX v.2 file Parser :
15> Failed connecting pin to ASX v.2 file Parser, removing it now.
15> Trying connection to .RAM file Parser :
15> Failed connecting pin to .RAM file Parser, removing it now.
15> Trying connection to WavPack Audio Splitter :
15> Failed connecting pin to WavPack Audio Splitter, removing it now.
15> Trying connection to MPEG4 Video Splitter :
46> Failed connecting pin to MPEG4 Video Splitter, removing it now.
46> Trying connection to QuickTime Movie Parser :
46> Failed connecting pin to QuickTime Movie Parser, removing it now.
46> Trying connection to RealMedia Splitter :
46> Failed connecting pin to RealMedia Splitter, removing it now.
46> Trying connection to True Audio Splitter :
46> Failed connecting pin to True Audio Splitter, removing it now.
46> Trying connection to AVI Splitter :
46> Failed connecting pin to AVI Splitter, removing it now.
46> Trying connection to AC3 Parser Filter :
46> Failed connecting pin to AC3 Parser Filter, removing it now.
46> Trying connection to FLV Splitter :
46> Failed connecting pin to FLV Splitter, removing it now.
46> Trying connection to MP4 Splitter :
46> Failed connecting pin to MP4 Splitter, removing it now.
46> Trying connection to ASX file Parser :
46> Failed connecting pin to ASX file Parser, removing it now.
46> Trying connection to NSC file Parser :
46> Failed connecting pin to NSC file Parser, removing it now.
46> Trying connection to MPEG-2 Demultiplexer :
46> Failed connecting pin to MPEG-2 Demultiplexer, removing it now.
46> Trying connection to MPEG-I Stream Splitter :
62> Failed connecting pin to MPEG-I Stream Splitter, removing it now.
62> MyRenderFile finished : There is no common media type between these pins. (0x80040207)


I read the help file and apparantly there's codecs it installs as well. Does it have it's own video playing program or does it just install these codecs for Media Player Classic and other video programs?

I think at this point it's safe to say the video is corrupted. I just think it's weird that all 3 were messed up like that. They all came from different sources and were named different. Would there be anyway to repair damaged .avi files?

 

[horndude]

no, its Xvid I believe

go here and do this EXACTLY as I lay it out:
donwload this: http://www2.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/win32/MPlayer-mingw32-1.0pre8.zip

unzip that into a directory or its own

download this:
http://www.people.virginia.edu/~drf8f/MPlayer/releases/codecs/essential-20060611.tar.bz2

bunzip that into its own directory or into the "codecs" directory" inside the mplayer directory

now at this point you should have an mplayer directory on your desktop with mplayer and all its stuff inside it, and there should be a codecs directory in there too........the codecs from the second link should be in that codecs directory

now make a shortcut from mplayer.exe to your desktop

now drag the file you want to play onto that shortcut, voila, if that file is good at all, it will play

 

[horndude]

it appears your having directshow conflicts with the codecs, this is quite common because there is an API between the player and the way windows renders video using directshow and direct draw........if the directshow filters are wrong it will cause all sorts of problems with some video files........using mplayer bypasses all that crap and gives you a better video player to begin with

 

[Thresh]

The MPlayer web-site is not working, or under alot of traffic. Will this work?http://www.download.com/MPlayer-CygMP-/3000-2139_4-10518773.html?tag=lst-0-2

It's not officially the same thing but it claims to be.

EDIT: Okay, actually neither one of those links work. If you have the files yourself and wouldn't mind, could you send them to my e-mail rydell_hall@yahoo.com? Thanks.

 

[EricB]

I think your files are dead

 

[Thresh]

Looks like you copied and pasted those links wrong or typed them wrong. The MPlayer link was wrong because of the 2 in the www and the directory was wrong on the other. Anyway, I got it figured out, installed them, and it opened up a dos window saying it was getting ready to play it then closed. Nothing happened after that.