Raspbmc .Avi no video - sound only

[jets]

I am experiencing problems when trying to play some .avi-files. I have tried to play them both locally and via network. I also have acquired the licenses for both MPEG2 and VC1. I get only sound, no video. Raspbmc does produce a preview thumbnail (or whatever it is called).

I get this error in the xbmc log:
14:40:13 T:2931557440 ERROR: COMXVideo::Open : Video codec unknown: 11

So it looks like it is a codec problem.

Here is what ffmpeg says about these files:

pi@raspbmc:~$ ffmpeg -i xxxx.avi
ffmpeg version 0.8.6-6:0.8.6-1+rpi1, Copyright (c) 2000-2013 the Libav developers
built on Mar 31 2013 13:58:10 with gcc 4.6.3
Input #0, avi, from 'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.avi':
Metadata:
encoder : Nandub v1.0rc2
title : xxxx
ISBJ : xxxx
artist : TRiX
copyright : Nandub SBC [1000Kbps] / Lame VBR MP3 [96-160Kbps]
comment :
Duration: 00:41:17.44, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 1182 kb/s
Stream #0.0: Video: msmpeg4, yuv420p, 512x384, 25 tbr, 25 tbn, 25 tbc
Stream #0.1: Audio: mp3, 44100 Hz, stereo, s16, 145 kb/s

And this file plays partially with problems and stops playing after few minutes:

pi@raspbmc:~$ ffmpeg -i xxxxxx.avi
ffmpeg version 0.8.6-6:0.8.6-1+rpi1, Copyright (c) 2000-2013 the Libav developers
built on Mar 31 2013 13:58:10 with gcc 4.6.3

Seems stream 0 codec frame rate differs from container frame rate: 2.00 (2/1) -> 25.00 (25/1)
Input #0, avi, from 'xxxxxxxxxxxxx':
Metadata:
encoder : QuakeDub 0.0022
title : LoL
ISBJ : LoL
artist : LoL
copyright : LoL
comment :
Duration: 00:41:54.72, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 1169 kb/s
Stream #0.0: Video: mpeg4, yuv420p, 512x384 [PAR 1:1 DAR 4:3], 25 fps, 25 tbr, 25 tbn, 2 tbc
Stream #0.1: Audio: mp3, 48000 Hz, stereo, s16, 172 kb/s

It looks like I am missing a codec. But how to proceed? Any help?

[jamesh]

That does sound like the codec is not enabled - are you sure you codec codes are correctly entered?

[jets]

Yes, I believe so, as other files play well. However, I am now exploring on converting these files to H264. Apparently Raspbmc has some trouble with msmpeg4..

[dom]

Yes, I believe so, as other files play well. However, I am now exploring on converting these files to H264. Apparently Raspbmc has some trouble with msmpeg4..

msmpeg4 is not mpeg4 compliant. We (or any hardware codec) won't play it.

[jamesh]

Second file that also fails (not straight away) was mpeg4 though...although that sound like a different problem.

[jets]

Yes, I believe so, as other files play well. However, I am now exploring on converting these files to H264. Apparently Raspbmc has some trouble with msmpeg4..

msmpeg4 is not mpeg4 compliant. We (or any hardware codec) won't play it.

Aha. Thanks, good to know. If the conversion to h264 works well, I will proceed on converting all the files.

[jets]

Second file that also fails (not straight away) was mpeg4 though...although that sound like a different problem.

Well, I will try to convert that as well, if it would make it playable..

[jamesh]

You'll find H264 has much better compression - about half of MPEG4. It was worth it for me to move everything to H264 simply of storage grounds!