AVISNAPS - play, but periodically pause

[eXo]

I have tested this on two systems, and both systems are running the ffdshow codec downloadable from the wrappers/utilities page.

What is occuring is the AVI preview will begin playing, but after a few seconds the video pauses while the audio continues. A few seconds later the video starts again - but inevitably pauses again a few seconds later.

Both systems are fairly high end, yet both pause at almost exactly the same time.

Changing gameex options such as snap search speed (from slowest - best possible match to medium) seems to add an extra second before it pauses, and then it doesn't stay paused as long.

One of the systems is a q6600 quad core while the other is an AMD Sempron 3200. Since they act almost exactly the same I am guessing it is not a processor speed problem.

Interestingly it only seems to affect avi files. MPG files seem to play just fine.. so it could possibly be a problem with that specific version of ffdshow... although i also tried Klite and the latest ffdshow - both of which refuse to display anything and just lock gameex up.

It is also worth noting that I did not have this problem using m old vidshrunk previews, it is only with the new mamext32 avi preview files that I am having the problem.

Any suggestions are highly welcome.

[bkenobi]

This is a known and pretty well documented problem with the HiQ snaps from EMUMOVIES. Circo knows about the problem, but it doesn't seem that it's something he can either duplicate or figure out what's causing it (it's been a while, so I don't remember exactly). Anyway, the common solution is to use the SQ set (standard quality). If you are using this for a preview in GameEx, then it's the right size and won't require Windows resizing (or at least not as much). As a result, it also should take less system resources. Either way, the SD set doesn't pause after 2-3 seconds like the HiQ set does.

[eXo]

This is a known and pretty well documented problem with the HiQ snaps from EMUMOVIES. Circo knows about the problem, but it doesn't seem that it's something he can either duplicate or figure out what's causing it (it's been a while, so I don't remember exactly). Anyway, the common solution is to use the SQ set (standard quality). If you are using this for a preview in GameEx, then it's the right size and won't require Windows resizing (or at least not as much). As a result, it also should take less system resources. Either way, the SD set doesn't pause after 2-3 seconds like the HiQ set does.

Appreciate the response... I guess it's possible my vids came from there... I got them in a mamext32 extras pack - not from emumovies.

I suppose I'll go d/l the SQ pack.

[eXo]

I've just confirmed that my avi previews are not the HQ set. My set is much smaller in size, as are the videos. I would think this hints the problem is in a specific type of encoding, not necessarily the size of the files.

[bkenobi]

Well, if it's happening on other packs as well, I don't know what to say as I haven't looked at those ones in particular. Sorry, but I do know the SD emumovies pack does work...

[JohnnyG]

What is occuring is the AVI preview will begin playing, but after a few seconds the video pauses while the audio continues. A few seconds later the video starts again - but inevitably pauses again a few seconds later.

Hi,

I had exactly the same problem: I could run the video in WMP9 and it was fine, but stuttered when opening vid for GameEx. I never got to the root of the problem, but ran a registry cleaner and it sped up my AVI snap videos. I have since had to do a fresh install of XP (wireless networks, other crap, don't ask!) and lo and behold and it now works perfectly. All I can think is that I had a codec installed somewhere, and it was causing the glitch. I was using the FDDShow from the Utils as well, but I must have missed something.

Sorry this isn't much use, but i feel your pain!

Johnny

[bkenobi]

See...a fresh install fixes everything!

Actually, my guns stopped working for some reason or another and that's the last thing I have left to try, so I also feel the burn!

[Darkjasper]

Actually, I have this same problem. It actually only comes from the emumovies mame set that I have. I have a NES,SNES, and n64 avi snap set from different sources and they seem to work fine while my mame set has this issue. Dunno what it is. Also I have just done a fresh install not even 3 days ago so its not that.

[Darkjasper]

Alright I ended up fixing them By using a program to convert them to Microsoft MPEG-4 Codec (.avi). The program I used is Alive Video Converter. All I had to do was select all my mame vids and hit convert. Fixed the pausing and dont have any more issues with it. Hope it helps some of you.

[bkenobi]

Thanks, that's good to know!

[dwight]

Alright I ended up fixing them By using a program to convert them to Microsoft MPEG-4 Codec (.avi). The program I used is Alive Video Converter. All I had to do was select all my mame vids and hit convert. Fixed the pausing and dont have any more issues with it. Hope it helps some of you.

Hi,

When you converted them to Mirosoft MPEG-4 codec, did it change the number of frames per second from 60 to 30? Any other differences once converted, audio etc?

Thanks,

Dwight.

[Darkjasper]

nope

[mightypeniz]

Exo - Not sure whether this is a GameEx thing or a codec thing, but you can circumvent the problem by disabling audio output on those video files - in the Advanced Configuration tool --> audio settings, turn off the "audio in snap previews" setting.

[eXo]

I appreciate all the info guys - I went ahead and just converted my video files to mpeg2 format. I wanted to keep the audio on them, so that seemed like the way to go.

[Inigo Montoya]

I had a similar problem with the SQ snaps from emumovies. I was able to use a version of ffdshow newer than the one listed on gameex.net. It seemed to alleviate the problem and it now plays smoothly. I'll try to see which version I am currently using.

[Tom Speirs]

Hi all,

I'v been playing around with video in GameEx last couple of days.

Ive made an update to the libraries. If your getting a problem with snap videos pausing, can you please try replacing the attached files, and let me know

This also stops GameEx crashing if your using the latest FFDSHOW which has a bug stoppng the snaps playing if you have audio enabled. They still dont play but GameEx should not crash. I have reported the bug on the sourceforge site of FFDSHOW tryouts, after spending quite a bit of time examing the exact code that causes it to crash. The problem only occurs if audio is enabled in snap videos.

I think this should fix the HQ set of emumovies. Ive only tested with dkong.avi as Im still downloading but that plays perfectly for me.

Let me know.

Thanks.

Tom

bin.zip

[sofakng]

I'm having this same exact problem and I've downloaded that latest GameEx from the website and copied over the two files from your attached bin.zip, but now GameEx won't launch. (it immediately crashes)

Also, can I stop videos from being streched vertically? For example, the game 1942 is a vertical game but the video is in the standard 4:3 ratio. GameEx stretches the 4:3 video vertically and then it looks very squished and distorted...

[bkenobi]

I noticed the distorted video problem, but couldn't figure why it was doing it. It being a vertical game probably explains it though.

I don't think you need to use the zip file at this point. As far as I know, there was an update to fix these issues released a couple weeks back, so this file shouldn't be needed.

[sofakng]

I don't think you need to use the zip file at this point. As far as I know, there was an update to fix these issues released a couple weeks back, so this file shouldn't be needed.

Hmmm... I'm not sure but I definitely still have the exact same issue mentioned in this thread... (eg. the video preview only plays audio [no video] and freezes after 3 seconds, but if I disable audio then the video plays fine).

[bkenobi]

I should mention that I haven't payed attention to the distorted video lately, so Tom may have addressed it. But, from what sofakng is saying, it doesn't appear so.

[Tom Speirs]

Hmmm... I'm not sure but I definitely still have the exact same issue mentioned in this thread... (eg. the video preview only plays audio [no video] and freezes after 3 seconds, but if I disable audio then the video plays fine).

Thats actually a different issue. That issue is caused by recent versions of FFDSHOW which have a bug that makes it not work with GameEx.

[Circo]

I'm having this same exact problem and I've downloaded that latest GameEx from the website and copied over the two files from your attached bin.zip, but now GameEx won't launch. (it immediately crashes)

Also, can I stop videos from being streched vertically? For example, the game 1942 is a vertical game but the video is in the standard 4:3 ratio. GameEx stretches the 4:3 video vertically and then it looks very squished and distorted...

The correct way to prepare the MAME videos for GameEx is to copy the files from the vertical folder into the horizontal folder. That will replace the vertical "letterboxed" games with vertical 3:4 videos. Now they will play perfectly in gameex. That is why all of the different formats in the collection, mamewah for example requires the "letterboxed" versions to play right, whereas gameex doesn't.

[sofakng]

I'm very close to buying (eg. donating) GameEx, but I'd really like my video previews to work first... (and I don't want to re-encode them because I shouldn't need to, espicially when they work fine in MaLa and WMP11, etc).

Hopefully I'm just doing something wrong or maybe not using the latest version? (even though I got it directly from the website?)

[Tom Speirs]

I'm very close to buying (eg. donating) GameEx, but I'd really like my video previews to work first... (and I don't want to re-encode them because I shouldn't need to, espicially when they work fine in MaLa and WMP11, etc).

Hopefully I'm just doing something wrong or maybe not using the latest version? (even though I got it directly from the website?)

Like I said there are issues with the latest versions of FFDSHOW (ie your video codecs) and gameex. This is in the FAQ. You need to use the version of FFDSHOW on the GameEx web site, or turn off the audio.

[Dedos]

Is this still an issue? or has it been fixed? I'm having the 2 second delay as well. I have the avisnap audio off.

Thanks

Dedos