[SOLVED] .avi file plays reversed and upside down

BobNutfield · 05-13-2010, 01:59 PM

Hello Everyone,

I have an .avi file that is a clip from a security camera recording of an incident. I am trying to edit the video with an editor and I have an issue in just playing the video. When playing the video it opens and plays just fine but reversed and upside down. I don't see any settings in any of the players I have tried (VLC, etc.) to correct this. It plays fine from the Windows computer at work. I believe there may be some special codecs related to this particular security camera software.

Does anyone know how I might deal with this to correct it?

Any thoughts appreciated.

Bob

Shadow_7 · 05-13-2010, 03:02 PM

Try the various players to see if they all behave the same.

vlc
mplayer
ffplay
xine
kaffeine
............................

Worst case you can edit it. Extract each frame as an image, flip them, change their order, create a video from them. Reversing audio is easy in sox or audacity. Many means to an end.

H_TeXMeX_H · 05-13-2010, 03:18 PM

Something like:

Code:

mencoder input.avi -oac copy -ovc lavc -vf flip -o out.avi

for '-vf' options you can use 'flip', 'mirror', or both 'mirror,flip', not sure which one you need. Or see the man page:
http://linux.die.net/man/1/mplayer

BobNutfield · 05-13-2010, 03:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by H_TeXMeX_H

Something like:

Code:

mencoder input.avi -oac copy -ovc lavc -vf flip -o out.avi

for '-vf' options you can use 'flip', 'mirror', or both 'mirror,flip', not sure which one you need. Or see the man page:
http://linux.die.net/man/1/mplayer

Thanks for the reply H TexMex. Apparently I was correct in thinking there is some special codec provided in the security camera software, because when I run your suggestion, it looks like it is working then:

Quote:

Cannot find codec matching selected -vo and video format 0x584F4547.
Read DOCS/HTML/en/codecs.html!

The file is in "GEOX" (no idea what that is, but I will google it.)

Thanks again,

Bob

H_TeXMeX_H · 05-14-2010, 04:05 AM

Hmm, well if you post the output of either 'ffmpeg -i video.avi' or the mplayer output on the console, it might help in knowing what codecs it is using.

You can also use mplayer to just play in upside down:

Code:

mplayer -vf flip movie.avi

this won't fix the file, but it might play it. Make sure you have proprietary codecs installed.

BobNutfield · 05-14-2010, 01:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by H_TeXMeX_H

Hmm, well if you post the output of either 'ffmpeg -i video.avi' or the mplayer output on the console, it might help in knowing what codecs it is using.

You can also use mplayer to just play in upside down:

Code:

mplayer -vf flip movie.avi

this won't fix the file, but it might play it. Make sure you have proprietary codecs installed.

Hi, sorry for taking so long to respond, got late here...

Here is the output of playing the file with mplayer:

Code:

bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
MPlayer SVN-r1.0~rc3+svn20090426-4.4.3 (C) 2000-2009 MPlayer Team
mplayer: could not connect to socket
mplayer: No such file or directory
Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control.

Playing out.avi.
AVI file format detected.
[aviheader] Video stream found, -vid 0
AVI: No audio stream found -> no sound.
VIDEO:  [FMP4]  320x240  24bpp  30.000 fps  212.4 kbps (25.9 kbyte/s)
Clip info:
 Software: Lavf52.31.0
open: No such file or directory
[MGA] Couldn't open: /dev/mga_vid
open: No such file or directory
[MGA] Couldn't open: /dev/mga_vid
[VO_TDFXFB] Can't open /dev/fb0: Permission denied.
[VO_3DFX] Unable to open /dev/3dfx.
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
Selected video codec: [ffodivx] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg MPEG-4)
==========================================================================
Audio: no sound
Starting playback...
VDec: vo config request - 320 x 240 (preferred colorspace: Planar YV12)
VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0)
Movie-Aspect is 1.33:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect.
VO: [xv] 320x240 => 320x240 Planar YV12 
V:  12.9 387/387  3%  0%  0.0% 0 0 
Exiting... (Quit)

It plays the file, but the same reverse upside down picture. As I mentioned, it plays in Windows, but when the files are downloaded and played from a disc recorded from the security camera, it does have a dialog box before loading them that says "installing codecs". So I feel reasonably sure that is the problem. I have the disc it was record from, but I do not find a file containing codecs.

Thanks for looking at this.

Bob

H_TeXMeX_H · 05-14-2010, 01:37 PM

It looks like mpeg4, so I don't see why it mencoder can't handle it.

BobNutfield · 05-14-2010, 01:49 PM

Yes, it appeared that way to me, too. I did find a file on the cd it is recorded on that is labled "cdoecs.dll", so obviously there are some particular codecs that are only usable in Windows.

Thanks for your help. I'll have to find a Windows machine to do this with.

Bob

BobNutfield · 05-16-2010, 04:05 AM

UPDATE: Found the answer. There was indeed codecs related to playback from the security cameras, but I found that if I convert them to .mpg with ffmpeg, then use H_TexMex_H's mencoder solution, it works. Video is flipped and can now be edited with either Cinelerra or Kdenlive.

Thanks H_TexMex_H.

Bob

Shadow_7 · 05-16-2010, 06:38 AM

ffmpeg has -vfilter options for stuff. I'm not sure if flipped in a current one. And the latest and greatest seems to be the most feature-full. Alternatively have you tried putting the codecs.dll into /usr/lib/codecs and see if mplayer just runs with it? Perhaps not that "simple", but something to at least try.