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Activity Forums Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy Certain .AVI clips will not convert with sound…

  • Certain .AVI clips will not convert with sound…

    Posted by Damon Packard on February 27, 2009 at 12:34 am

    I’m not entirely sure which might be the correct forum for this question, this isn’t necessarily FCP related it’s more related to media conversion but I see no other forum that comes close to relating to this,..so..here goes..If someone can’t be of help, please direct me to the correct forum. thanks.

    I do a lot of media conversion from various formats using QT, VLC Player, Video Converter for Mac, Cleaner, Mpeg Streamclip, Sorenson Squeeze, Visual Hub, etc
    Quite often i still run into certain (PC created) .avi clips that simply WILL NOT export/convert WITH SOUND, they will only PLAY with sound on the VLC Player but cannot seem to be converted into any kind of format WITH sound. (sometimes i’m simply attempting to make an audio file from these avi’s) I’m assuming this is some kind of codec issue but since i only know the clip as an .avi (and some AVI’s convert fine including Divx and Xvid, others don’t) and have no known way of analyzing the clip i don’t know how to convert it.
    Any idea’s, suggestions?

    Damon Packard replied 17 years, 2 months ago 3 Members · 3 Replies
  • 3 Replies
  • David Johnson

    February 27, 2009 at 1:49 am

    I’m sure you know this, but just in case, much like an MOV, an AVI can be made with any one many different codecs so it sounds like the ones you’re having trouble with are muxed (video and audio combined into one track). I very rarely use AVIs since they are kind of unpredictable so I can’t tell you the precise solution, but will mention a couple things that should help you find the solution.

    Demuxing isn’t a feature that sells compression/conversion software so its one that some software has, but it often isn’t mentioned in the features lists. Because I need to do it infrequently and haven’t in a while, when I do run into your situation, I just have to try each of the compression/conversion tools I own, which is what I suggest. I’m certain at least one of these will pull audio from most any muxed AVI, but don’t recall which one(s): Grass Valley ProCoder, Sorenson Squeeze, Autodesk Cleaner Xilisoft Video Converter, and/or RAD Video Tools Bink & Smacker (yes, that’s really the name ;~).

    Also, these are some codec information applications that, in my humble opinion, every video professional should have in their toolbox for situations like this: KC Softwares AVI Toolbox, KC Softwares Video Inspector and GSpot Codec Information Appliance. If I recall correctly, most of those are freeware.

    I hope my ramblings are somehow helpful … good luck!

  • Lisa Strong

    February 27, 2009 at 4:40 am

    I just ran into a problem playing an AVI this very day. Sound played, but picture was black. I installed Perian 1.1.3 (a free download), and it plays properly now. Haven’t tried exporting, though. Something to try.

    Lisa

  • Damon Packard

    February 27, 2009 at 3:04 pm

    Thanks so much for the help, weird thing is I found out about Perian just a few hours before your post completely by accident by seeing it installed on someone else’s Mac here at the studio. This is exactly what has been desperately needed for a long time for the Mac (and Quicktime) it works beautifully. I knew there were genius freeware application designers out there, now the question is, when will someone put out a new and updated alternative to Mac the Ripper, (heheh)

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