Wmm avi 12GB

windows movie maker, error, but please describe what you are doing when the error occurs. Give all the details if possible.

Well, it's a long story. I transferred 4 miniDV cassettes from a camcorder to a hard drive using WMM 2.6 in Windows Vista. The four avi files created were saved on a external disk. 3 out of 4 files perfectly work with WMM 2.1 on my PC (WinXP) but one of them doesn't work with WMM 2.1 at all. Yesterday each time I opened its directory the Windows Explorer shut down within a minute, and when I dragged and dropped it in WMM 2.1 the program also shut down within 30 secs with no error notification.
I thought that the culprit was too little memory on internal drive so I made some more memory available (on external drive there's plenty). The result is the Windows Explorer doesn't shut down when opening the file's directory but the file still refuses to cooperate with WMM 2.1 (the program still shuts down soon after dragging'n'dropping).
Codecs can't be an issue either as all the 4 cassettes are the same type and make.
Two of my players (QuickTime and GOM) handle the file with no problem, surprisingly.
Today I managed to embed the file in WMM 2.1 using the other WinXP PC and made a project in WMM 2.1 halving the file in two and saving the two parts as two separate WMV files in their respective directories (I made sure they were saved in two separate directories). But the result was the player on that other computer couldn't play them though!
Returned home and connected the drive to my own computer (WinXP) and to my dismay the two WMV files weren't there, neither their respective directories. They'd just disappeared. Unbelieveable!!!
The interesting thing is that the original avi file is still there and it still can be played by QuickTime or GOM. And the last time it was embedded in WMM 2.1 the error message (mentioned in my previous post) appeared...

I'm thinking about that one, might take a day...

Get VirualDub. Open (or attempt to) the bad file. If it has errors in it, they will be specified when Virtual Dub rejects opening them. This is a quick way to determine if an error exist in the file.

                      Or..

You can delete the file, re-save from DV tape.

http://www.virtualdub.org/

"You can delete the file, re-save...."
Yes, I did it some time ago but the conflict persisted as the new file made the same error.
The culprit was mcmpgdmx.ax so I uninstalled the program containing it (I don't need it very much at the moment, can reinstall in future) and the problem disappeared.
But one thing still needs explaining:
why some avi files created from the same source miniDV tapes and with the same method create conflicts and other avi files don't.

Because coming off tape, which is actually a serial storage device with no error correction, it's all one's and zero's. One bad zero and you have an error.
The error it is stumbling on is possibly a Packet Sync error.
Media players will look ahead for next key frame and keep playing. A program that is going to render the video isn't going to toss a frame of your show away, so crashes the project. They are too demanding.
You re-save from same tape that has same glitch and same error every time.
The sync errors occur most often at the start of the file.
Try starting capture a few seconds after video starts to get past any possible frame errors at very start of tape.

You could also capture using a different program. One that will excuse the error and do a "Make Tape" save-as. Use that file in your project.

Yes, I agree with your diagnosis that media players have no problem with playing it (indeed, I could play it) provided that I am quick enough to open the file as the Windows Explorer shut its directory soon after I even opened it (ie the directory).
What I did yesterday was capturing the footage as a number of seperate consecutive clips so that I could analyse it step by step.
The first clip starting at the beginning of the tape was OK (no errors), the second made a mcmpgdmx.ax error, and the next ones were OK.
As for VirtualDub, it specified no errors in the file.
I think that all I need now is a good avi error checker...

Since you are working with video files, you probably have a decent size external hard drive, you'll need it.

If Virtual Dub will load the troublesome file, go back to VirtualDub and open file again.
This time click Video, select Full Processing Mode.
Compression, select Uncompressed RGB
Click Audio, select Direct Stream copy, and AVI audio.

Now do "Save AVI" and save it with new name.

You are going to be warned you are about to save an uncompressed file that may be very large, do you want to continue... click yes. After it has been saving for a minute or 2, it will show anticipated file size (more accurately) and here you can see if you're going to run out of drive space before it finishes. A save like this usually will use about the same space as the initial capture from DV camera if your camera saves as DV AVI. If camera saves as Mpeg, file will be much larger than what came out of camera.

See if this new file works.

I don't see VirtualDub as a fix-all, but this method will get every single frame saved as a whole, they all are keyframes of a sort. This method is also lossless.

If you play this new file, be prepared for the player to stumble a lot. There is no compression, so a very high data rate is going on, some players can't digest data that fast.

Thanks Tigsounds!
As I said earlier, the problem doesn't exist since uninstalling mcmpgdmx.ax.
To be honest, having done all this extensive research regarding the error and having tried so hard to find a resolution to this problem I feel exhausted.
I started to struggle with that software conflict when I was in the middle of a big video project and now the only thing I am thinking of is completing the project.
I tried the file on other computers and there were no errors, so it is very probable that the file is OK. To conclude, mcmpgdmx.ax is gone now and I feel much reassured.

I know you're exhausted.. I've seen your tracks... everywhere.
Strange... I missed that you deleted all the .ax files.