Sound Codecs--Playback Problem

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Sound Codecs--Playback Problem

Postby kaitoujuliet » Mon Nov 18, 2002 12:07 pm

This is actually a question related to playback rather than video creation, but it's still a software question, so I'm hoping someone can help me.

I have several .avi files which play without sound when I try to open them using any of my usual playback software: Windows Media Player, DivX Player Alpha, and/or RealPlayer. I can get the exact version numbers for each one if that would be helpful. My computer uses Windows ME.

Someone explaiend to me that the files could be using a sound codec which I didn't have on my computer even if I had the proper video codecs, so I opened the files up in VirtualDub and checked the audio compression type under file information. Each one said "Audio Compression: unknown (tag 0161)."

A little further digging uncovered the information that this is some kind of Windows audio codec. Strangest of all, the files will play with sound if I import them into Windows Movie Maker, of all things. However, that's a very inconvenient way to watch the files, so I'd rather not use that if I don't have to.

Since I can get sound by using WMM, I'm guessing this must mean that I have the codec somewhere on my computer, but I haven't been able to find it. Can anyone suggest to me where I could find the codec file and what I should do in order to make it accessible to more conventional playback programs? Any leads would be much appreciated!
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Postby AbsoluteDestiny » Mon Nov 18, 2002 1:12 pm

The usual answer to this is

"It's Divx 3.11a Audio that is only available with divx3.11a, which you can get form www.doom9.org "

I'm guessing it works in WMM as it interprets it as the original ms codec.

I could be totally wrong though...
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Will Check....

Postby kaitoujuliet » Mon Nov 18, 2002 2:44 pm

AbsoluteDestiny wrote:The usual answer to this is

"It's Divx 3.11a Audio that is only available with divx3.11a, which you can get form www.doom9.org "

I'm guessing it works in WMM as it interprets it as the original ms codec.


.... so this is a common question, then? Sorry! I did search the forum before posting, but there are so many codec questions that I must not have turned up the right one.

I'm pretty sure I have DivX 3.-something on my computer, but I'll check when I get home to see whether it's 3.11a. I have also installed DivX 4 and 5 at other points in time; does installing a later version make the earlier version inaccessible?

Anyway, thanks for the tip. I'll report later whether it solves the problem!
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Postby RadicalEd0 » Mon Nov 18, 2002 3:18 pm

It could also just be wma version 2 which I think comes with the Nimo codec pack. I could be wrong... well just do a search on google for wma2 codec and it should come up somewhere
NMEAMV: PENIS
NMEAMV: IN
NMEAMV: YO
NMEAMV: MIXED
NMEAMV: DRINK
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Doesn't Seem to Be DivX 3.11

Postby kaitoujuliet » Tue Nov 19, 2002 1:49 pm

OK, so last night I searched my hard drive. I found the DivX 3.11 download and ran installation again just to be sure it was working properly. The files still play without sound.

The interesting thing is that when I was trying to play the file while online, Windows Media Player tried to download a codec from the Microsoft site. According to the status bar the codec downloaded successfully, but every time I clicked "install" it locked up my computer. This happened three or four times in a row. If I could get this method to work, that would be great, but it seems kind of redundant if I already have the file on my computer--and I should have it somewhere if WMM gives me sound, shouldn't I?
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Postby Aetherfukz » Tue Nov 19, 2002 2:30 pm

I have had my problems with the different DivX codizes (or whatever the plural of codec is :shock: ). Normally, if you install 3.11 first and then DivX 4/5 it should work.
But anyway, lately I have found a nice file on the net, which installes almost every common codec, works around that DivX issue, and now let's me play EVERY file I get from the net without any troubles.

This is the download: http://www.etplanet.net/downloads/movie ... 91-5.4.exe

The file's 15MB, so there are a few codizes :?: in...

Hope this was of any help to ya!
Image
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Postby kaitoujuliet » Wed Nov 20, 2002 10:59 am

OK, I tried the "Base 2019" utility too, and there is *still* no sound. Any more suggestions??? If not, I guess I can keep playing the files in Windows Movie Maker.

Juliet
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Postby CArnesen » Wed Nov 20, 2002 12:08 pm

kaitoujuliet wrote:OK, I tried the "Base 2019" utility too, and there is *still* no sound. Any more suggestions??? If not, I guess I can keep playing the files in Windows Movie Maker.

Juliet


From the "it's-ok-because-i'm-in-tech-support" department:

I hate to state the obvious, but please make sure your speakers are plugged in... :wink:

Chris Arnesen
Technical Support Specialist
Hollywood Entertainment
http://www.hollywoodvideo.com/
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Postby RadicalEd0 » Wed Nov 20, 2002 3:06 pm

please re-read my post
DOWNLOAD WMA2 :shock: jeez
NMEAMV: PENIS
NMEAMV: IN
NMEAMV: YO
NMEAMV: MIXED
NMEAMV: DRINK
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Postby kaitoujuliet » Thu Nov 21, 2002 2:08 pm

Carnesen: Yes, the speakers are plugged in. I get sound on lots of other files, but not these particular ones.

RadicalEd0: Your suggestion is next on my list of things to try. Forgot to mention that.

However, I'm starting to suspect it's DivX 3.11a after alll. I had the installation file on my computer, but I'm not sure I ever actually ran it. The problem is that I already have the DivX 5 bundle installed and there doesn't seem to be any way to get rid of it before installing 3.11a. Plus, when I try running the installation program, it brings up a window titled "File Progress" but with no status bar, and then the computer freezes. I really hope I don't have any serious issues here, especially since the affected files have been running super-slowly ever since I tried downloading the codec through WMP. (It's version 6, by the way, if that helps.)

Juliet
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Postby kaitoujuliet » Thu Nov 21, 2002 2:11 pm

EDIT to previous message: Sorry, I mistyped. The entire computer doesn't freeze when I get that "File Progress" window, but the installation program does. The only way to get rid of it seems to be by using Task Manager.

I plan to re-download DivX 3.11a tonight and see if that improves things. Would it be safe just to delete the DivX 5 files before I install 3.11a? I tried using the uninstall utility, but it said I didn't have an uninstall log file for DivX 5.

Juliet
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Postby klinky » Thu Nov 21, 2002 8:17 pm

My guess is that there is something using the divx files when you're trying to install them and the two conflict. Disable any anti virus you have and run MSCONFIG(if you have it) and kill all the startup items. Then try re-installing..


Alot of times when I was trying to install the 3.11a codec it would prompt me saying that what is it..... l3acm? Argh, the mp3 ACM codec .dll file was older then the one it was overwriting, I'd say overwrite it any ways and when I would go to check the codec out, I was limited to 56kbps bitrate. This was since I believe the MS codec didn't get overwritten. So I tried again, same thing happen. Finally I killed explorer, re-launced it and re-installed. It worked fine after that.


~klinky
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Postby ErMaC » Fri Nov 22, 2002 4:03 am

klinky actually the ACM thingy gets cached, so you have to reboot after overwritting the l3acodec.acm file and then it works. ^_^
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Postby klinky » Fri Nov 22, 2002 4:35 am

Killing explorer, would that effectively do the same thing as rebooting ^_^.
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Partial Success, and New Problems

Postby kaitoujuliet » Fri Nov 22, 2002 11:43 am

Well, a combination of your suggestions seems to have done the trick. I managed to uninstall my previous DivX files using the uninstaller attached to my virus checker. I then exited the virus checker and ran msconfig, a nice utility which I didn't know about before. I decided to install the Nimo pack, since it had both wma2 and DivX 3.11a. After installing that, I re-installed the DivX 5 bundle so that I could get my DivX Player Alpha 2.0 back. The formerly-soundless files now play with sound on Windows Media Player and Real Player, although they are still soundless in Divx Player. Yay!

BUT ...

My Windows Media Player is now useless for anything except .wmv or .amf files. One problem developed back when it tried to download the codec while online, and the other one developed after I went through the process described above.

The earlier problem is with .mpg files. No matter what their original size, WMP tries to display them as 720 x 480, and both the video and the music are very choppy. I have had this choppiness problem before when playing files originally sized at 720 x 480, but it used to play 360 x 240 files smoothly at the original size. I tried setting "Zoom" to 50% and that reset the video size but didn't fix the choppiness.

The newer problem is with .avi files. I think all the ones I tried are DivX encoded. Newer DivX files, which used to play on WMP with no trouble, now appear at 720 x 480 *and* upside-down and backwards! The older files are right-side up, but they are similarly large and the sound is out of sync with the video. (I know the sync problem is a common one with DivX and WMP, but I thought I'd mention it.)

The newer DivX files play successfully through DivX Player Alpha 2.0, but the older ones are still soundless through that player.

All the files seem to play successfully through RealPlayer, but that is not my first choice for viewing because of the obnoxious startup sequence.

So, does anyone have suggestions for fixing this new situation? I really appreciate all the help you people have given me so far, and I'm sorry to have to keep coming back and asking for more!

Juliet
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