What codecs does VS PRO X2 use?

[scubamut]

Is there any way of showing what codecs VS uses at any time, especially for ENCODING videos? Does anyone know of a utility which can do this? Is it possible to select the codec that VS uses to render a video, or is this hard coded into VS?

I ask these questions as quite often VS may complain/hang/crash processing a video which plays just fine in several media players and which GSPOT confirms that the necessary codecs exist and has no problem rendering. There are lots of examples, but a recent one was an AVI video with a Dolby AC3 Stereo audio track (codec 0x2000), which VS will load and preview just fine. But "Properties" shows audio as "unknown ACM format" and rendering causes VS to crash:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: vstudio.exe
Application Version: 12.0.0.0
Application Timestamp: 48490238
Fault Module Name: StackHash_cc57
Fault Module Version: 6.0.6002.18005
Fault Module Timestamp: 49e03824
Exception Code: c0000374
Exception Offset: 000ab0bf
OS Version: 6.0.6002.2.2.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: cc57
Additional Information 2: 2f94d6cd8f7a950a7914aa0966c19aa2
Additional Information 3: 5e22
Additional Information 4: e42e6da12c29cc6c54b091850d88ff55

Video spec:

General
Complete name : E:\Videos\Avidemux Script Testing\Tests for different audio filters\114aftenac3.mp4
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 4.58 MiB
Duration : 11s 11ms
Overall bit rate : 3 492 Kbps

Video
ID : 0
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.0
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 3 frames
Codec ID : H264
Duration : 11s 11ms
Bit rate : 3 414 Kbps
Width : 1 440 pixels
Height : 1 088 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate mode : Variable
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Resolution : 8 bits
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.073
Stream size : 4.48 MiB (98%)
Writing library : x264 core 83 r1400 20fa784
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=3 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.0:0.0 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=6 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=0 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / wpredb=1 / wpredp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=26.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00

Audio
ID : 1
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Codec ID : 2000
Duration : 5s 440ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 128 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Resolution : 16 bits
Stream size : 85.0 KiB (2%)
Alignment : Aligned on interleaves
Interleave, duration : 65 ms (1.94 video frames)

If I render this video using another utility (avidemux, for example) without modifying the video track but just altering the audio to PCM, say, VS will load, play, edit and render this video with no problem. "Properties" correctly idetifies the audio as "PCM" in this case.