Audio missing on AVI with mp3

crueby wrote on 9/10/2002, 6:30 AM
I can use VideoFactory to create an avi that uses mp3 audio,
and it will play correctly outside of VF, but
VF itself cannot re-read its own output! Video Factory shows
AVI files with mpeg audio as 'stream attributes could not be
determined' for the audio channel. It does work if I use
an outside utility to convert the audio back to PCM.
And, my Sound Forge XP6.0 Studio CAN read the file correctly.
Does this sound just like a missing codec?
If so, how do I get it back? Or some other problem?
Anyone know what might be wrong?

Comments

discdude wrote on 9/10/2002, 7:10 AM
It is a missing codec.

For some reason, VF will uninstall Fraunhofer's "Pro" MP3 codec (at least it does in my case).

Just reinstall the codec and you should be fine.
crueby wrote on 9/10/2002, 1:24 PM
How do I reinstall the codec - where do I get it?? Please be specific, I am
not very conversant with codec.

Many thanks for all help!
discdude wrote on 9/11/2002, 8:40 AM
I'm going to need to know details about your setup to help.

What version of Windows are you running?
Do a search of your hard drive, do the following files exist: system.ini, l3codecp.acm, l3codeca.acm?
crueby wrote on 9/11/2002, 2:58 PM
I am running Win 2000 SP3 on a P4. The three files you said
to look for are there (in WinNT and WinNT/system32)

My thanks for your help on this discdude!!!
discdude wrote on 9/11/2002, 4:12 PM
Add the following to the system.ini file under the [drivers32] section.

msacm.l3codec=l3codecp.acm ;for the professional one.
msacm.l3acm=l3codeca.acm ;for the advanced one.

To be truthful, I don't know if this works under W2k, but it works great under Win98. Oh well, only one way to find out ...
crueby wrote on 9/12/2002, 11:06 AM
Gave it a shot - had no effect - must be different in Win2K.

Thanks for the info anyway - I have some emails in to the tech
support line, maybe they can come up with an answer.
discdude wrote on 9/13/2002, 7:54 AM
Has SF Tech Support helped you.

If not, did some more research. It turns out NT based OS's (i.e., Windows 2000) store codec information in (where else) the registry.

It seems like many people (Microsoft mostly) have a vendetta against the Fraunhoffer Pro codec. It gets "magically" uninstalled by many programs. Perhaps switching to LameACM might be better (check out http://mp3dev.org).

Anyway, if you want to restore the Fraunhoffer Pro codec, cut and paste the following in a text file called mp3.reg. Double click the file to automatically load this info in your registry:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\drivers.desc]
"L3codecp.acm"="Frauenhof L3 Codec Professional"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Drivers32]
"msacm.l3codecp"="l3codecp.acm"
crueby wrote on 9/13/2002, 11:47 AM

So far, all tech support has done is have me uninstall/reinstall
the applications, and ask for more details. Nothing productive
yet (I have un/reinstalled everything in sight - directx8.1,
video/capture card drivers, Sound Forge, Video Factory, Media
Player, etc. No luck so far.

I wonder if this could be a problem with VF and Win 2000 Service
Pack 3, which I recently installed. Could SP-3 have broken
video factory somehow??
crueby wrote on 9/13/2002, 11:49 AM

forgot to mention in that last post - no, adding those registry
entries did not help either. I am really wondering about
the new Win 2000 Service Pack 3 - if that somehow breaks Video
Factory - Anyone else running SP3 yet with VF? My copy of
Sound Forge 6.0 still works perfectly, but Video Factory cant
open AVI's with layer-3 sound. Seems like if it was a missing
codec, neither would work with those files.
discdude wrote on 9/13/2002, 12:15 PM
Are you saying that Sound Forge can open the audio in your AVI file but Video Factory can't? Or are you simply saying you can open .mp3 files in Sound Forge (as opposed to AVI files).

Can you give me a list (or better yet a screenshot) of audio codecs loaded on your system. This list should be under Control Panel\Multimedia\Devices\Audio Codecs. How big is your video file? Is there anyway I can download it?
crueby wrote on 9/13/2002, 1:43 PM
Yes, Sound forge Studio XP 6.0 can open these files correctly,
and Video Factory cannot open these same files correctly - it says
in the summary in the open window that it cannot determine the audio
stream properties, and then it just opens the video portion. Sound
Forge opens the same files just fine - audio AND video. Very
puzzling to me! Should they not both be going after the same codec
info??
I have put a screen cap of the codec list and a short sample avi
that gives this problem up on my server. You can download them
from:
http://home.rochester.rr.com/crueby/CodecList.jpg and
http://home.rochester.rr.com/crueby/Untitled.avi

This AVI opens just fine in every App, editor, and player I have
EXCEPT video Factory - and it used to work there too!

Any ideas? This has turned into a major puzzler. Prize of
a free bucket-o-bits to anyone who can figure this out!! 8-)

Once again, this is on a Win2000 SP-3 machine, P4 2.26Ghz
discdude wrote on 9/13/2002, 4:05 PM
Hmmm, random thoughts:

I downloaded your test file; plays fine with Fraunhofer MP3 (advanced). Decodes wrong with LameACM.

Your LameACM codec seems old. I have ver. 0.9.

You sure have a lot of MPEG codecs. I count 4 at least. Perhaps changing the priority of the codecs will help. Any app should choose the codec with the highest priority (aka lowest number) unless a codec is "hardwired" in (which it isn't in VF's case). Therefore, VF would be using the Frauenhof L3 Professional Codec (What is that anyway, doesn't sound official since "Fraunhofer" is spelled wrong). Try changing the priority of the Fraunhofer IIS MPEG Layer 3 Codec (professional), so it is listed higher than any other codec.

After this I would seriously think about dumping some of those MP3 codecs. Keep only the good ones.
crueby wrote on 9/16/2002, 4:20 PM

That did not help either (tried a lot of combinations).

Just got another email from Tech Support - now they are saying
that AVI's created using the DIVX codecs are not supported, and
that is the problem. Very interesting, since the files were
CREATED with Video Factory, but they claim they are not supported
as input! EVERY other application/editor/player/etc that I
have can read them just fine, except Video Factory 2, which
created them in the first place!
Pretty strange!
discdude wrote on 9/16/2002, 5:24 PM
I don't see what Divx has to do with your audio problem.

BTW, I can confirm that VF has problems decoding Divx 5 video. VF can encode Divx 5 just fine. VF also no problems either encoding or decoding Divx 3 and 4.

So, reinstalling Fraunhofer Pro, installing a new version of LameMP3, and messing with codec priority didn't work for you.

The bad news is that I've pretty much exhausted my bag of tricks. The only thing I have left to recommend is a reinstall of Windows. I hate to recommend this since it is recommended way too often by lazy techs. But in your case ...

Still, as a last ditch attempt, I might try unistalling all but your favoite MP3 codec.