.avi files suddenly stopped working

[morpheus]

To save space, I re-encode all of my SageTV .mpg files into .avi files using the xvid codec. SageTV picks up on this and moves them from SageTV Recordings to Archived Recordings. Everything was working fine until about a month ago (I think it was a 4.X upgrade). Now, when I try to play my re-encoded videos, I can only hear the sound (no video/blank screen).

Does anyone have any idea why this suddenly stopped working? Did SageTV deliberately remove the ability to play .avi files?

[blade]

I watched an .avi file just yesterday.

[wesleydnc]

I have had a similar issue periodically.
I run a Plextor TV102U and can record directly to DIVX.
However about once a month the DIVX drivers get blown out and Sage quits recording.
I've seen this problem twice now, the drivers are corrupted and when I find the correct one and reload it then Sage is fine for a while again.

I've given up recording in DIVX now, and have just bought larger drives to install in the Sage box so I can leave everything in mpg format.

The software is running on a dedicated P4 2.8Ghz with 1Gb Ram. Asus P4P motherboard Intel CPU, 450GB on 3 drives, Sage 4.0.0

I'm getting ready to load 5.0.2 and hope to try recording in DIVX again.

[morpheus]

I also have a Plextor, and I tried recording using the embedded Divx codec, but I was not happy with the quality or the space utilization (specifically, it does not support variable bit rate recording). Therefore, I have been reencoding using mencoder and the xvid codec.

As I said, SageTV used to play these files fine, now I just get a blank screen although I can hear the sound. I have installed and reinstalled xvid and Divx codecs for Windows, and I can see them registered as codecs in Control Panel-> Sounds and Audio-> Hardware-> Video Codecs (see attached).



For some reason, the video still won't play.

[morpheus]

I solved this problem. I had to completely remove all of my existing codecs first from the Control Panel-> Add or Remove Programs then manually remove any remaining codecs from Control Panel-> Sounds and Audio Devices.

Next, I had to install the latest versions of the necessary codecs. Previously, I was using the Gordian Knot codec pack, but apparently it has some quite old versions. I got the latest versions from each codec developer's web site.

Everything seems to be working now.