ELAN closes immediately

ELAN most recent version on windows xp sp2 only starts to play video files for 2 seconds, then closes down. A JRE update did not help. There are too many possible interferences to try out uninstalling them all. What might be a common reason for the breakdown? Many thanks in advance, Tom

It could be a problem with the media handling. What is the media file type and are there any special codecs installed?
You can check as follows:

  • open one of the eaf files in ELAN
  • close and quit ELAN
  • open the ELAN log file in a text editor. The log file is located in
  • there will be a long list of installed “filters”

Han, I appreciate very much your quick and clear reply.

elan0.log says: “Preferred media framework ‘NativeWindows’ can not handle: file:///Z:/filename.mpg”. Strange, since the files were converted from asf to mpg1 using SuperConverter. However, after I converted them to mpg2, they are displayed.

On the other hand, Elan recommends to uninstall the mpg2 codec that came with K-lite codec pack, which in turn are necessary to enable WMP to display the mpg1 files.

Tom, I think WMP (in fact Direct Show) can handle regular mpg-1 files without having to install any additional codec. If you are only working with mpg-1 files you could uninstall any mpeg-2 codec you have.

If you have had a warning message from ELAN advising you to uninstall an mpeg-2 codec, you probably have an older Elecard codec installed. You could consider to purchase the latest Elecard mpeg-2 codec/plugin. The main problem that we know with that one is, that it is no longer possible to play mpg-1 files in slow motion in ELAN after installing it. In our experience the older Elecard codecs are more problematic.

The mpg1 files that I produced with Super Converter (build 24 or 25) are not displayed in WMP11, and ELAN sticks with initializing them. After installing K-Lite codec pack (except mpg2 codec), WMP11 does display these mpg1 files well, but ELAN still does not. Rather, ELAN now recommends uninstalling the mpg2 codec.

On the other hand, with or without k-lite codec pack, ELAN easily displays mpg2 files produced with Super.

Unfortunately, here arises a separate problem. If running in Media synchronisation mode, ELAN does not keep the mpg2 files synchronized. After two minutes, they differ for more than 30 seconds. I am not sure, if this might be due to different resolution of the 2 simultanenous videos (1024x768 vs. 1280x800).

It would be interesting to see which “filter” is used to play mpg-1 in case you have uninstalled K-Lite. In the ELAN log locate the line “Filters in the filter chain:”, listing the used filters. Just above the
index: x name: file:///…
there is the media splitter. If no special codecs have been installed this should be “MPEG-I Stream Splitter”. If this is the case and the file is not correctly played, there’s probably something wrong with the mpg-1 encoding.

We known of 2 mpeg-2 video’s running out of sync with any playback rate other than 1 (system and codec dependent). If 2 video’s are running out of sync it is pretty much beyond the control of ELAN (whether a different resolution/dimension is causing this or not).

The mpg1 files in question can not played at all by ELAN, their initialization never comes to an end. They have in common that they were created with SUPER, using MEncoder.

Today, I converted the same original asf files to mpg1 with MediaCoder, using FFmpeg. These ones can be handled by ELAN with ease.

I was not expert enough to foresee that MEncoder does something to mpg1 files that cant be dealt with by ELAN.

As for synchronization, after 120 sec of running, these files differ by 30 seconds.


elan0.log :

Filters in the filter chain:
index: 0 name: Default DirectSound Device
pin: 0 name: Audio Input pin (rendered)
index: 1 name: Video Renderer
pin: 0 name: VMR Input0
index: 2 name: ffdshow Audio Decoder
pin: 0 name: Out
pin: 1 name: In
index: 3 name: MainConcept MPEG Video Decoder
pin: 0 name: Video In
pin: 1 name: Video Out
index: 4 name: MPEG-I Stream Splitter
pin: 0 name: Input
pin: 1 name: Video
pin: 2 name: Audio
index: 5 name: file:///Z:/Video/Aufnahmen/Morae/_simultan/2008,01,01 14 04 41.scr.mpg1.mpg
pin: 0 name: Output
Media splitter filter name: MPEG-I Stream Splitter
Aspect Ratio: 1.3333334
Millis per Sample: 40.0
offset: 0
duration: 1747983
No media export functionality available
Clean up media player…
Using Windows Native Media Player DS
Filters in the filter chain:
index: 0 name: Default DirectSound Device
pin: 0 name: Audio Input pin (rendered)
index: 1 name: Video Renderer
pin: 0 name: VMR Input0
index: 2 name: ffdshow Audio Decoder
pin: 0 name: Out
pin: 1 name: In
index: 3 name: MainConcept MPEG Video Decoder
pin: 0 name: Video In
pin: 1 name: Video Out
index: 4 name: MPEG-I Stream Splitter
pin: 0 name: Input
pin: 1 name: Video
pin: 2 name: Audio
index: 5 name: file:///Z:/Video/Aufnahmen/Morae/_simultan/2008,01,01 14 04 41.scr.mpg1.mpg
pin: 0 name: Output
Media splitter filter name: MPEG-I Stream Splitter
Aspect Ratio: 1.3333334
Millis per Sample: 40.0
offset: 0
duration: 1747983
Using Windows Native Media Player DS
Filters in the filter chain:
index: 0 name: Default DirectSound Device
pin: 0 name: Audio Input pin (rendered)
index: 1 name: Video Renderer
pin: 0 name: VMR Input0
index: 2 name: ffdshow Audio Decoder
pin: 0 name: Out
pin: 1 name: In
index: 3 name: MainConcept MPEG Video Decoder
pin: 0 name: Video In
pin: 1 name: Video Out
index: 4 name: MPEG-I Stream Splitter
pin: 0 name: Input
pin: 1 name: Video
pin: 2 name: Audio
index: 5 name: file:///Z:/Video/Aufnahmen/Morae/_simultan/2008,01,01 14 07 11.scr.mpg1.mpg
pin: 0 name: Output
Media splitter filter name: MPEG-I Stream Splitter
Aspect Ratio: 1.6
Millis per Sample: 40.0
offset: 0
duration: 2320509

The filter chain looks quite normal, I’m not sure whether the “MainConcept MPEG Video Decoder” can have an impact.

Does this running out of sync occur with the normal playback speed? And with the mpg-1 as well as with the mpeg-2 files? If the computer is powerful enough to handle 2 or 3 video’s at a time, I’m afraid I can not explain it.

Han

Thank you so much, Han, for inspecting my parameters and contributing to the ‘quiz’.

Yes, it’s the mpg1 files that run out of sync, though hardware conditions are not really bad (dualcore 3800+ and 1 GB of RAM). Interestingly, the same videos, when converted into avi and played with FairPLAY, run out of sync, too (by 1 sec after 10 min of playtime).

Should I find explanations or solutions, I’ll be glad to post them here. Thanks again for your engaged support.

Tom