AM Software | Frequently Asked Questions

Q. How can I add sound and edit my AVI file that I have created with third-party animator?
A. If you wish to add or remove frames and sounds from the AVI file please use AVIedit. Other shareware AVI editors are available on the web. You can find more of their descriptions and download links here: www.davecentral.com or here: www.download.com

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Q. Why won't my animation play back on another machine?
A. The same video and audio codecs are required to play the AVI files back on a different machine. The reason for this being that the file needs to be decompressed "on the fly" before the frames can be shown. Windows includes a set of simple codecs, you can find more information at www.fourcc.org (formerly http://www.webartz.com/fourcc/ ). Using AVIedit, you can create animations in a form of animated GIF files, or FLI/FLC movies, to avoid possible "missing codec" problem. On the other hand, you can select most popular AVI codecs at compression time.

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Q. How can I put my animation into a Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, or other document?
A.

Select Insert and Object from the document
Insert the AVI file

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Q. How can I convert AVI to another format?
A. AVIedit lets you convert avi movies to animated GIF files and FLI/FLC files in either direction. Also it is possible to save avi frames to bmp, jpeg and other still image formats. Other converters available on the web might let you convert AVI's into other formats such as MPEG, QuickTime and RealMedia.

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Q. I can open a movie in AVIedit, but there is no filmstrip, (or the frames are just black, or I can see frame pictures but can not hear sound). What is wrong ?
A. It looks like you do not have a decompressor (codec) for your type of content. In AVIedit, click Edit|Info menu item. You'll see a dialog box with properties of your movie video (or audio) stream. Write down the information from Type and Format fields. Then, visit this link: www.fourcc.org (formerly http://www.webartz.com/fourcc/ ) and look for the codec by its four character ID. Download and install it.
When your friends give you a movie that played fine on their PC but yours failed to play, ask them to run AVIedit and click Options|ICM menu item. There is a list of all currently installed codecs (on their computer). Compare that list with one you see on your own PC (and install/copy the missing codecs). For audio related problems, see Options|ACM (audio compression manager) instead.

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Q. Each time I export a truecolor movie using Microsoft RLE codec I get a message "Damaged file or unknown format", while the clip is just perfect. Do you know why ?
A.To use MS RLE codec you must have 8 bit per pixel 256 colors image format. This codec does not support anything other. Unfortunately Microsoft guys still think there is nothing better than GIF-like pictures quality and they continue to sell this codec with Windows Me and Windows 2000, no matter than it was first time developed in about 1993...
Need a solution ? Just avoid using this codec. The only case when you may need to use it, is the line-art and low colored computer graphics.

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Q. Can not play .avi clip taken on a <vendor name here> digital camera. Any ideas ?
A. Many current digital camera vendors (including Fuji and Canon) offer an option to take short .avi clips that can be played later on a PC. Due to [the same] hardware chip they use to encode (compress) the captured movies, you need to install most likely the same codec, called either Motion-JPEG or MJPEG, or MJPG for short. Here are few links where you'll find the different codecs that support the same format you need.

http://www.morgan-multimedia.com
http://www.mainconcept.com
http://www.pmatrix.com
http://www.jpg.com

Please note these codecs are not freeware and some of them put a company logo when you compress your videos using MJPG encoding. However, playback is free (or even you can register yourself for free).

Important: since v3.31 AVIedit does not need any external codec, neither a newest DirectX version, to decompress Motion-JPEG avi's (those with fourcc MJPG and dmb1), because now it uses the built-in decoder.

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Q. I know what codec dll I need to install. But I do not have any oemsetup.inf or setup.exe file. How do I add the codec to Windows 2000 ?
A. Earlier versions of Windows did offer you an option to add a codec manually. These days you can't do this neither in Windows Me, nor in Windows 2000. However there is a quite simple way to add a codec once you have its .DLL file. Sometimes it can be a solution even if you have a complete installation package. Unfortunately some software vendors offer you a bit buggy setup routines that result in a serious system registry damage. In such a case, adding a codec manually is your the best way. Don't afraid, it's really qick and easy. Start regedit (Start->Run-> type regedit.exe -> hit OK). Locate the following registry branch:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Drivers32]
Create a new string parameter using the name built from a codec FourCC ID and 'vidc' string. For example, for a Microsoft RLE codec (its FourCC ID is 'mrle') you must have "vidc.mrle" created. Then assign the parameter value to .DLL's name (for example, "msrle32.dll"). Finally, close regedit and copy the .DLL to the system32 subdirectory. (This codec is already there, we used it just to show you the way).

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Q. After capture ends I get sometimes a message "Capture sequence failed", but clips is jerky a bit, no matter if there was a message or not. What's wrong ?
A. Most likely you experience capture performance problem. AVIedit allows you to set the percentage limit (threshold) for a dropped frames, by default it is 10%. So, if you captured 100 frames and 11 were lost (dropped) then you will see a message. Likewise, 5 or 7 dropped frames wouldn't cause the message to pop up, but file will be anyway jerky.
Here are few tips how to boost your capture performance. Using them all or some of them, hopefully you will get rid of dropped frames.

have a dedicated standalone computer for capture only
disable any redundant background tasks like scheduler, disk defragmenter, backup software, antiviral tools
stop any network activity, drive sharing, e-mail poller, currency stock monitors etc.
avoid using slow and/or outdated codecs (Cinepak, Indeo, MS Video 1) to compress captured video, use either Motion-JPEG, HuffYUV or MPEG4 codec
when possible, choose YUV video format (not RGB24) in the capture card properties dialog box
when possible, keep picture width and height as multiplies of 8 or 16
have a dedicated hard drive (not a partition, but a physical device) to capture videos - do not share the same drive with system files, swap file etc.
defragment and preallocate capture files
do not connect capture hard drive to the same cable as your CD-ROM/CD-RW/other IDE devices
limit your drive write-behind cache size
use the best source video tape you have
never hurry up on a capture :)

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Q. How do I see which codecs I already have on my system?
A. AVIedit lets you enumerate and view both the video and audio codecs installed. Select Options|ICM menu item to list video codecs, or use Options|ACM menu item to list audio codecs.

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Q. How do I split/join video-clips/movies?
A.In general, there are two most common cases when you have to split a file. First one, when you need to send/upload a file to somebody who' mail box is too small, or a web site space is limited. Second case, you want to burn a CD-R but file won't fit.
To split the files before transfer you can use any archiver that supports splitting, like WinZip or WinRAR. The second is even better just because it adds recovery data to the compressed block, that makes it easy not only detect a corrupted part of archive, but also recover it without re-sending or uploading.
Of course, finally one must decompress all the parts of a splitten archive to get the entire file you sent. Otherwise, no playback is possible.
Obviously you can't use this method for CD burnin'. You must keep your file in .avi format, not .zip neither .rar... In AVIedit, you can delete a part of avi file with one keystroke or a mouse click. So, when you need to make file shorten, simply select an area that doesn't fit & delete it, then save to new file. For more information see How Do I... topic in AVIedit Help file (for step by step guides), also read more about DivX encoded avi's editing here.

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Q. How many codecs are there? If AVIedit doesn't include them, can't I just download 'em all?
A. There are about a hundred of different codecs available. As like many other video editors, AVIedit does not add or remove/replace any codec for you. The reason is, if some codec was used to compress the movie, then the same codec must be used at playback time. So it is a bad idea to have end user (read: you) to install some software just to get their proprietary codec installed.
AVIedit offers a built-in MJPG decoder only because it is an industry standard and it is activated only if user has no other MJPG decoders installed.
AVIedit does not include third party codecs by three main reasons:

download size of AVIedit setup might increase by 50-100 MB
it is hard to keep all the included codecs up to date
some codecs require registration fees or disallow their redistribution

That does not mean that AVIedit is incomplete, of course. If you really need all the known codecs, go ahead and download them. Though, it will be waste of HDD space and many other people will have difficulties playing your avi files that use exotic video and audio codecs. Be compatible!

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Q. When I edit and save my movies in AVIedit, it often takes a hour to finish. My friend reported that even older computer saved a large file in a few minutes, using the same AVIedit version. What's it ?
A. Most likely, your friend used "no recompression" option instead of a video codec name. In this case AVIedit works as fast as if you copy your file to a new location, and compression just remains the same (unchanged). If you do not see such an option in the list of suitable compressors, then maybe you have deleted some so-called key frames. This happens very often when you edit DivX encoded avi's. Please visit our site Readings section and read more about repair and editing of DivX movies.

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