Topic: FourCC Changer can fix the video stream Four Character Code of AVI Movies

[Software Santa]

FourCC Changer can fix the video stream Four Character Code of AVI Movies as a last resort IF they can't Play ...

https://www.tweaking4all.com/home-theatre/fourcc-changer/

FourCC Changer for Windows, Linux and MacOS X

For the veterans amongst us, we all know FourCC Changer from https://fourcc.org , a small utility which allows you to change the video stream Four Character Code that identifies the codec used to compress/store the video stream.

If you’ve used it before, then you will know that it’s a nifty little Windows program that can be used as a last resort when AVI files do not playback. Since FourCC Changer only exists for the Windows platform: here a free version for Windows, Linux (32 and 64bit) and MacOS X (intel).

This application also support batches, offers a backup function and is very fast even for files in network shares.


Before you begin …

Before you being using this kind of application, please be aware that changing the FourCC does not suddenly convert a video stream to another format. It only tricks your media player to believe it’s another codec/format.
Therefor: only use this when you really know what you’re doing.

The reason why this sometimes can “fix” a “broken” AVI, is because quite a few codecs show a lot of resemblance and in certain cases they can decode video that was not originally intended for the codec that you have. For example MPEG4, DIVX and XVID show a lot of resemblance and considering the origin of DivX ;-) this is no surprise.

More information on FourCC can be found at:

    FourCC Wiki
    Microsoft MSDN FourCC
    abcAVI Tag Editor (Windows)
    FourCC.org (Windows)

 
Download FourCC Changer

I originally created this app for MacOS X, but recompiled and tested it under Windows and Linux as well.
You can download the latest version here for your Operating System for free

Using FourCC Changer

I’ll just assume you know why you want the FourCC code of your AVI file(s), so I won’t go into that too much, but these are the basic steps to use AVI FourCC Fix.

Select Files

First thing to do is to add files to your list by either using Drag and Drop or by clicking “Select Video Files“. You can add multiple files at once, or when you use Drag and Drop, you can even add an entire directory – all the AVI file(s) found in the directory and it’s sub-directories will be added automatically.

Drag and Drop doesn’t work the same for all platforms.
1) MacOS X users have to drag and drop on the dock icon,
2) Windows users drag and drop on the application,
3) Linux user can only drag and drop from mounted volumes.

Your selected files will appear in the list on the right.


Make a backup

Warning – Original files will be modified!
 

Please be aware that the original files will be modified. Making a backup before doing so is highly recommended!

Optionally, you can use “Make a Backup” to automatically have a backup made of all files in your list. The same filename will be used with “_bak” added before the extension, so example.avi will have example_bak.avi as a backup file.


Set current and new FourCC

The next step is to enter your current FourCC and the FourCC you’d like to replace it with. You’ll notice that the drop-down already provides a long list of “common” FourCC codes. Also keep in mind that the FourCC code is case sensitive!!

The “Fix QNAP Recording” button will automatically fill in the FourCC requirements for those who use this application to fix their Surveillance Station recordings.


Change the FourCC

The button “Change FourCC” will, for each file in the list, look for the current FourCC you entered and when it finds it, replace it with the new FourCC code. This process will be very fast, even if your AVI files reside on a network share.

Please keep in mind that the new FourCC cannot be longer than the old FourCC code. So if your FourCC code was “RLE” then you cannot change it it “DIVX” (not that this would make any sense anyway).

https://www.tweaking4all.com/home-theatre/fourcc-changer/