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  • Viewing .avi videos on Buster

    From bob prohaska@3:770/3 to All on Tue Aug 2 15:30:48 2022
    How does one view .avi video files on a Pi running Buster?

    I've an old Canon A460 that captures video clips in .avi
    format. When I connect the camera to the Pi it's recognized
    and I can copy the files to the Pi, but when I try to open
    them vlc player comes up with a black screen showing an orange
    and white traffic cone.

    Thanks for reading, any suggestions appreciated!

    bob prohaska

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  • From alister@3:770/3 to bob prohaska on Tue Aug 2 18:42:16 2022
    On Tue, 2 Aug 2022 15:30:48 -0000 (UTC), bob prohaska wrote:

    How does one view .avi video files on a Pi running Buster?

    I've an old Canon A460 that captures video clips in .avi format. When I connect the camera to the Pi it's recognized and I can copy the files to
    the Pi, but when I try to open them vlc player comes up with a black
    screen showing an orange and white traffic cone.

    Thanks for reading, any suggestions appreciated!

    bob prohaska

    AVI is not a format, it is a wrapper around the file that specifies many
    things including the format & codec in use
    you probably do not have the correct codec installed




    --
    Be careful! Is it classified?

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  • From bob prohaska@3:770/3 to alister on Tue Aug 2 21:11:24 2022
    alister <alister.ware@ntlworld.com> wrote:
    On Tue, 2 Aug 2022 15:30:48 -0000 (UTC), bob prohaska wrote:

    How does one view .avi video files on a Pi running Buster?


    AVI is not a format, it is a wrapper around the file that specifies many things including the format & codec in use
    you probably do not have the correct codec installed

    If I open the media file using VLC Media player and open tools > codec I see: stream 0
    Codec Motion JPEG Video (MJPEG)
    Video reolustion 64x480
    Buffer dimensions 640x480
    Frame rate 10
    orientation top left

    stream 1
    Codec: Araw
    Type: Audio
    Sample rate 11024 Hz
    Bits per sample: 8
    Bitrate: 88kb/s


    Meanwhile the progress bar moves back and forth, as if something's
    running. If I click the play button nothing changes.

    There's no prompt or error message saying a codec is needed.
    If I open current media information all values are zero.
    The file size is nearly six MB, so it's not empty.

    I'm baffled.

    Any suggestions appreciated!

    bob prohaska

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  • From Jan Panteltje@3:770/3 to Mike on Wed Aug 3 15:35:20 2022
    On a sunny day (Wed, 3 Aug 2022 14:45:38 +0100 (BST)) it happened mjb@signal11.invalid (Mike) wrote in <tcdu62$n0u$1@posie.signal11.org.uk>:

    In article <tccgul$1r3gi$1@dont-email.me>,
    A. Dumas <alexandre@dumas.fr.invalid> wrote:

    To see what ffmpeg thinks of a file, don't specify an output file name: >>"ffmpeg -hide_banner -i input.avi" (hide_banner just to skip the annoying >>program info header). But really, that should be the same as the stream >>info from VLC.

    Or just use

    ffprobe (filename)

    which dumps its opinion of the file content, streams, codecs, resolutions ...

    If you are using the "other" toolset -- avprobe does similar

    I use mediainfo

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  • From A. Dumas@3:770/3 to bob prohaska on Wed Aug 3 15:55:48 2022
    bob prohaska <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote:
    I tried using
    ffmpeg -i MVI_0001.AVI -r 24 2nd_home_screen.mp4

    That seems to run without errors and produces a file, but still
    VLC player renders a black screen. The progress bar behaves normally,
    and the sound is played back. Just no picture....

    If I try to use Firefox ESR to open the .mp4 file it reports the
    file is corrupt. The Chrome browser reports no errors, but delivers
    neither picture nor sound. Not even a progress bar.

    mplayer shows the video just fine.

    Huh. What does ffprobe say about both files?

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  • From A. Dumas@3:770/3 to Mike on Wed Aug 3 15:55:48 2022
    Mike <mjb@signal11.invalid> wrote:
    A. Dumas <alexandre@dumas.fr.invalid> wrote:
    To see what ffmpeg thinks of a file, don't specify an output file name:
    "ffmpeg -hide_banner -i input.avi" (hide_banner just to skip the annoying
    program info header). But really, that should be the same as the stream
    info from VLC.

    Or just use ffprobe (filename)
    which dumps its opinion of the file content, streams, codecs, resolutions ...

    I didn't know about ffprobe, but it seems it's simply an alias for 'ffmpeg
    -i' (almost; it doesn't warn about a missing output file). It even prints
    the same annoying banner which can be hidden with the same option
    -hide_banner.

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  • From bob prohaska@3:770/3 to All on Mon Aug 15 16:24:52 2022
    FWIW, it turns out openshot, which is in the apt repository, converts
    .avi files that aren't browser-viewable into mp4 files that play just
    fine in the chrome browser.

    Thanks for everyone's help!

    bob prohaska

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From A. Dumas@3:770/3 to bob prohaska on Mon Aug 15 16:42:40 2022
    bob prohaska <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote:
    FWIW, it turns out openshot, which is in the apt repository, converts
    .avi files that aren't browser-viewable into mp4 files that play just
    fine in the chrome browser.

    Thanks for everyone's help!

    I bet that's just an ffmpeg wrapper. Which is fine, if it works.

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