gif animator 5 won't open .avi's

Slim · Post by **Slim** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 10:18 pm

I've been trying to create .gifs from various .avi files that I have. When I open up GA5.5 I click open existing file, click the file I want to use, click duration, adjust the duration, click ok, then click open. I then get this error message:

Unable to read the file F:\filename.avi

all my .avi files are stored on my external hard drive. I've tried moving them onto my computer and still get the error. What could be causing the problem?

Post by **VikingAnimations** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 12:06 am

Have you previously had the issue with GA crashing on loading Video I/O, as noted here? http://forum.corel.com/EN/viewtopic.php?t=12369 If so, did you remove the uvavi.vio file? That would do it right there.

If not... perhaps a codec problem? I assume .avi files play fine in Windows Media Player and other players?

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 1:12 am

You wrote:....It's an AVI file ......

Sorry but that doesn't help much.
There are a small handful of file extensions that describe that a computer file is a video. These include
avi, mpeg, mov, rm, wmv, qt, swf
Plus a few others.
Think of these as groups of a certain form of video, within those groups are lots of individuals. Liken this to animals, there are dogs, cats, snakes, birds, rodents and so on.
Within these groups are several types. For instance a dog can be a Poodle, Jack Russell, Alsatian, King Charles, Greyhound etc.

The term avi can mean any one of perhaps a hundred different types such as DV, MPEG4, uncompressed, MJPEG, DivX, Xvid, RLE, YUV, Cinepak and lots more.

You need to be more specific.

Slim · Post by **Slim** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 1:24 am

VikingAnimations wrote:Have you previously had the issue with GA crashing on loading Video I/O, as noted here? http://forum.corel.com/EN/viewtopic.php?t=12369 If so, did you remove the uvavi.vio file? That would do it right there.

If not... perhaps a codec problem? I assume .avi files play fine in Windows Media Player and other players?

I never had problems with it shutting down on me. I removed those files one at a time like you suggested and it does not solve the problem. And yes my .avi files play fine in WMP, Winamp, and VLC. However, my DVDs only play in VLC. If I insert a DVD to watch WMP, Intervideo WinDVD, and Winamp all shut down as soon as I click play. Are the problems somehow related?

Post by **VikingAnimations** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 4:07 am

I wasn't suggesting to remove any of those files - I was asking if you had done so previously. If GA never crashed when loading, you can leave those .vio files there.

I've never used VLC... but it's quite odd that WMP, WinDVD and Winamp crash when you play a DVD. Something is amiss there, for sure. It's possible VLC and it's codecs are messing with GA 5.

If you right-click the .avi files and select properties, it should show the codec they are encoded with on the Summary tab, and video sample size (8 bit, 24 bit, etc.). What do you see there for some of the .avi files that don't load?

Slim · Post by **Slim** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 6:08 pm

sjj1805 wrote: Sorry but that doesn't help much.
There are a small handful of file extensions that describe that a computer file is a video. These include
avi, mpeg, mov, rm, wmv, qt, swf
Plus a few others.
Think of these as groups of a certain form of video, within those groups are lots of individuals. Liken this to animals, there are dogs, cats, snakes, birds, rodents and so on.
Within these groups are several types. For instance a dog can be a Poodle, Jack Russell, Alsatian, King Charles, Greyhound etc.

The term avi can mean any one of perhaps a hundred different types such as DV, MPEG4, uncompressed, MJPEG, DivX, Xvid, RLE, YUV, Cinepak and lots more.

You need to be more specific.

I had no idea. How would I find the specifics for each file?

VikingAnimations wrote:I wasn't suggesting to remove any of those files - I was asking if you had done so previously. If GA never crashed when loading, you can leave those .vio files there.

I've never used VLC... but it's quite odd that WMP, WinDVD and Winamp crash when you play a DVD. Something is amiss there, for sure. It's possible VLC and it's codecs are messing with GA 5.

If you right-click the .avi files and select properties, it should show the codec they are encoded with on the Summary tab, and video sample size (8 bit, 24 bit, etc.). What do you see there for some of the .avi files that don't load?

I'm not exactly sure what I should be looking for but here's two examples

A file that doesn't work:

A file that works:

Post by **VikingAnimations** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 9:03 pm

A little more to go on would be better. What's the source of all the avi files that don't work? Were they created with the same software, using what codec, etc. If a pattern amongst the dud ones can be found, then me may be getting somewhere.

Otherwise there's not much to go on.