E
Eltee
I don't know whether I should cry or laugh 'bout this. Seriously.
Some of you might remember I posted an article titled "Codecs hell" a fortnight
or so ago. I was complaining about how one doesn't have any control of
(un)installing codecs. Video codecs to be exact. I was given advice that I
should check my video driver. Disbelieving at first I finally gave in and
installed the newest I could get. Needless to say the results were the same so I
concluded that it wasn't the driver's fault. Nevertheless, I decided not to give
up entirely and didn't format the whole thing, as I "threatened". ;-) Instead, I
have been trying out various video files encoded with various video and audio
codecs, trying to figure out the intricacies of video on Windows. I haven't been
able to conclude anything firm yet, when I experienced something unbelievable. I
came across a "special" .avi. It's so "poisonous" that merely selecting the file
(one left click on the file in Windows Explorer) crashes the Explorer. Not the
player, mind you, not the codec, not the driver, the Explorer! The crash is
graceful, however: it pops up the infamous dialog offering to send an error
report. After getting rid of it (either by sending the report or canceling it),
the Explorer (including the desktop and the taskbar, thw whole bit) shuts down
and when it "comes back" it offers restoring the Active desktop (which I don't
even have enabled in the first place!). Fergawdssake! This is outrageous!
Some other observations: opening the .avi in Windows Media player crashes the
player, yet selecting it in the player's File-Open dialog is "safe". File itself
is filesystem-wise OK, I can copy it fine, the CRC is good. Virtual Dub survives
opening the file but reports errors. Rebuilding the index with DivFix doesn't
help: explorer and player still crash, Virtual Dub still reports errors. Now get
this: on another machine I can view that same .avi with no problems, with same
set of codecs installed. Needless to say, I can select it in Explorer, too.
Now, let me stress this once again: selecting a particular .avi file in Windows
Explorer causes a crash. Does anyone have any idea what could be wrong and what
could remedy the problem? Most importantly: what on Earth could foul up the
system to behave like that?
Some of you might remember I posted an article titled "Codecs hell" a fortnight
or so ago. I was complaining about how one doesn't have any control of
(un)installing codecs. Video codecs to be exact. I was given advice that I
should check my video driver. Disbelieving at first I finally gave in and
installed the newest I could get. Needless to say the results were the same so I
concluded that it wasn't the driver's fault. Nevertheless, I decided not to give
up entirely and didn't format the whole thing, as I "threatened". ;-) Instead, I
have been trying out various video files encoded with various video and audio
codecs, trying to figure out the intricacies of video on Windows. I haven't been
able to conclude anything firm yet, when I experienced something unbelievable. I
came across a "special" .avi. It's so "poisonous" that merely selecting the file
(one left click on the file in Windows Explorer) crashes the Explorer. Not the
player, mind you, not the codec, not the driver, the Explorer! The crash is
graceful, however: it pops up the infamous dialog offering to send an error
report. After getting rid of it (either by sending the report or canceling it),
the Explorer (including the desktop and the taskbar, thw whole bit) shuts down
and when it "comes back" it offers restoring the Active desktop (which I don't
even have enabled in the first place!). Fergawdssake! This is outrageous!
Some other observations: opening the .avi in Windows Media player crashes the
player, yet selecting it in the player's File-Open dialog is "safe". File itself
is filesystem-wise OK, I can copy it fine, the CRC is good. Virtual Dub survives
opening the file but reports errors. Rebuilding the index with DivFix doesn't
help: explorer and player still crash, Virtual Dub still reports errors. Now get
this: on another machine I can view that same .avi with no problems, with same
set of codecs installed. Needless to say, I can select it in Explorer, too.
Now, let me stress this once again: selecting a particular .avi file in Windows
Explorer causes a crash. Does anyone have any idea what could be wrong and what
could remedy the problem? Most importantly: what on Earth could foul up the
system to behave like that?