WMV file won't play - kills players!

Cybe R. Wizard cyber_wizard at mindspring.com
Fri Sep 7 01:34:33 UTC 2012


On Fri, 07 Sep 2012 10:29:41 +1000
Karl Auer <kauer at biplane.com.au> wrote:

> I have a WMV file from the Twilight Zone. It's sourced off a Sony
> digital video camera. The file plays fine under Windows, but kills
> every Linux player I try to play it with.
> 
> - Totem just dies; window closes.
> 
> - VLC doesn't close, but it does not play the file and a system error
> comes up that suggests a subprocess has died unexpectedly.
> 
> - if I try to convert the file with ffmpeg or avconf, they say that
> "Interlaced frames/fields support is incomplete"
> 
> - if I try to load the file into kino, the conversion dies (I presume
> Kino is using or similar under the hood)
> 
> - if I try to load the file into Lombard or pitivi, they die (window
> closes).
> 
> - avidemux loads the file, and shows plausible information about it,
> but reports a file size of only 9.44 MB. It even plays the file -
> except that every frame is blank green :-)
> 
> Here's the kicker though - if I try to get the properties in Nautilus
> (right-click, then select "Properties") Nautilus dies! As in boom, no
> more desktop icons, no more file manager windows.
> 
> The file is not unduly large - around 310MB or so. I can copy it in
> Unix, or drag and drop it in Nautilus, so it is the content rather
> than the package that is causing problems. The "file" program reports
> the file as being "Microsoft ASF".
> 
> Any clues out there?
> 
> Regards, K.
>  
Try xine.

being "barely capable" on a Linux system is better than 
being "expert" on a Windows system.
	crankypuss




More information about the ubuntu-users mailing list