H.264 Avi video under Perian v1.1

[josephK]

Hi everyone!

I've just upgraded to Perian v 1.1 and a couple of .avi videos encoded with H.264 in handBrake stopped working in QuickTime 7.4, just sound and a flat white screen. (same in QT 7.4.1)
They work perfectly if I use v1.0 except for the subtitles.(made the downgrade to confirm)
Anyone else around having this issue?
Thanks to all for any feedback!

[Mr VacBob]

This is possible if they used MBAFF/interlacing, I guess... post one and we'll see.

[jigo]

just sound and a flat white screen.

Same here with my handbrake avi's. Going back to 1.0 fixes it.

[Mr VacBob]

Oh, i see, if it doesn't have an SPS in the header it can be counted as interlaced... playing in the betas relied on uninitialized memory/QT bugs, I guess.

This only affects h264 avi; any other format will work. (plus mp4 is actually editable and works on your ipod)

[josephK]

This only affects h264 avi; any other format will work. (plus mp4 is actually editable and work on hardware players)

Made some tests and, yes this is restricted to the avi files encoded with h.264.
There's no problem with mp4 or mkv files.
I'll keep a lookout for any h.264 infected avi files around and will shoot in sight... either that or go back to v1.0. anyway thanks for your thoughts!

[pokrface]

I'm seeing identical behavior. h264/x264-encoded AVI files show as a white window during playback--sound is there, but no video. Reverting to 1.0 fixes the problem.

[JoeyDee]

Hey Folks,

I believe I'm having the exact same problem. Here's a screenshot of my AVI file



I can hear audio & see the subtitles but I can't view the video, except only a white screen. How can I fix that?



Thanks.
-Joey

[paavels]

same problem

[JoeyDee]

Can anyone help us out?

[nathangsm]

Same issue here, with H.264 encoded content in an AVI container showing a white screen in QuickTime Player with Perian 1.1 installed, but playing properly with Perian 1.1. What's going on here, folks? I thought the idea of subsequent releases was to improve upon the previous version...

This content was almost certainly encoded with x264, and the reason it's an AVI at all is because it's a fansub (putting H.264 content into an AVI container really isn't the most sensible thing to do, but fansub groups do because of the compatibility of AVI containers with the software they use).

Interestingly, with version 1.1, the video's on the perian.org site's "watch" tab ALSO show blank white, but with version 1.0, they show missing plug-in icons.

FYI, I'm running Mac OS X 10.4.11 on an Intel Core 2 Duo MacBook, and aside from Perian, the only codec components I have installed are the Flip4Mac components, and Apple's one components (and none of the obsolete ones, so far as I know).

-nathan

[JoeyDee]

FYI, I'm running Mac OS X 10.4.11 on an Intel Core 2 Duo MacBook, and aside from Perian, the only codec components I have installed are the Flip4Mac components, and Apple's one components (and none of the obsolete ones, so far as I know).

Funny you mentino that Nate! Cause I'm running the same thing except now (well since Leopard has been released I been on OS X 10.5.2)

HOpefully there's a fix for this issue cause it's frustrating

-Joey

[jjuhnke]

Gonna bump this to the top because there are three other threads complaining of the same problem. It wouldn't be a big deal except for those of use who've archived (lot's and lot's of) our DVDs to AVI containers so we can enjoy AC3 passthrough (this was before the quicktime AC3 passthrough hack). Anybody looking into this?

[Synthetic Frost]

Gonna bump this to the top because there are three other threads complaining of the same problem. It wouldn't be a big deal except for those of use who've archived (lot's and lot's of) our DVDs to AVI containers so we can enjoy AC3 passthrough (this was before the quicktime AC3 passthrough hack). Anybody looking into this?

Just three? I counted twelve on the first page alone. I know Perian is just a project the devs do in their free time, but this is getting ridiculous. There's a large enough user base out there who use Perian that are having problems to the point where it should be a personal responsibility to get a working release out.

To the Perian Devs: For the time being I'm just using VLC until the H.264 and AC3 things are fixed. Call me when that happens.

[gbooker]

Just three? I counted twelve on the first page alone. I know Perian is just a project the devs do in their free time, but this is getting ridiculous. There's a large enough user base out there who use Perian that are having problems to the point where it should be a personal responsibility to get a working release out.

To the Perian Devs: For the time being I'm just using VLC until the H.264 and AC3 things are fixed. Call me when that happens.

You are forgetting your place! If Perian were a commercial product, then you would be well within your right to make such a statement, but it isn't. Posts like this and users that make them actually drive me away from spending my time working on a free project. Be grateful for what you already have and stop demanding for more.

[Stannum]

Actually, it's not so hard to get around the problem temporary...

Just keep both Perian 1.0 and 1.1 installers around. So whenever there's a movie with problems, I just switch the version by replacing the other version... it takes less than 3 minutes to do that. And once it's done, you'll get your wonderful movie with the stunning subtitles (which I've never seen in the other players, VLC has the worst subtitles for some reason.)

Anyways, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the Perian team for all their hard work as well. I am a developer myself, so I understand the frustration of fixing something and then breaking others. Sometimes it's just impossible to know you've broke something, because everything made perfect sense when you were fixing a bug. But hopefully we'll be able to catch this mystery bug soon!

[zac]

The Perian repository has had this fixed since like, the day 1.1 came out. You guys should really just push a new version, it's annoying to have to send friends custom builds just to watch AVIs.

[cheung]

The Perian repository has had this fixed since like, the day 1.1 came out. You guys should really just push a new version, it's annoying to have to send friends custom builds just to watch AVIs.

1. What is "The Perian repository?"

2. How do I fix my 1.1?

3. Thank you!

[Stannum]

Thanks for the info zac! I've just confirmed it.

For those of you who wants to go through the trouble of building your own Perian, here's how you can build it from the repository. Of course, DO IT AT YOUR OWN RISK, and I won't be your technical support. Although it shouldn't break anything, as long as the newest Perian source code isn't broken.

Note however, I am not sure if you need to have Xcode installed for it to be compiled successfully... If it doesn't work for you, it probably means you'll need to install Apple's Xcode first.

Steps:
1. Go to System Preferences -> Perian -> Remove Perian.
2. Open Terminal (Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal)
3. In Terminal, type the following:

cd /
svn co http://svn.perian.org/trunk perian
cd perian
make

(Note: if it asks you to accept something, just temporary accept them.)
4. Wait for everything to finish....
5. In Finder, use Go to Folder (shift+command+g), and enter: /perian/build/Deployment
6. Double-click on "Perian.prefPane" to install the new Perian.
7. In the new Perian preferences, go to the General tab and Install Perian.
8. Once you are done, you can remove the perian folder; to do this in Terminal, type:

cd /
rm -fr perian

9. Congratulations! You are done!

Hopefully this helps! And thanks again to the Perian team for all their hard work.
Cheers.

[Synthetic Frost]

Just three? I counted twelve on the first page alone. I know Perian is just a project the devs do in their free time, but this is getting ridiculous. There's a large enough user base out there who use Perian that are having problems to the point where it should be a personal responsibility to get a working release out.

To the Perian Devs: For the time being I'm just using VLC until the H.264 and AC3 things are fixed. Call me when that happens.

You are forgetting your place! If Perian were a commercial product, then you would be well within your right to make such a statement, but it isn't. Posts like this and users that make them actually drive me away from spending my time working on a free project. Be grateful for what you already have and stop demanding for more.

I'm not demanding for "more". I'm asking you to simply fix something that had already worked in the past. You broke it. You have the responsibility to fix it. It's not like I'm asking you to go above and beyond and write your own API for working with proprietary formats.

[gbooker]

You broke it. You have the responsibility to fix it.

Wrong! Again, Perian is a free project; we don't have the responsibility to do anything for you.