I'm working on a promo that involves using media provided from performers around the country. I received one demo DVD that won't play correctly, let alone allow me to edit. The file is almost 850mb yet when I put it on my timeline only a fraction shows up.

I asked for a file that works but got nowhere, so have icky 30kb frame grabs of video I managed to isolate by clicking around the craziness on the timeline. I checked the file and it says it's mpgv. What in the world is that?

I think the V just implies Video, MPG being the format.

Have you tried playing this file in any other player? Maybe VLC can play it, it doesn't help if it does as they use their own codecs for decoding, but you might be able to determine what codec you need to obtain.

Thanks, Craig.

VLC is my player. I'll check a bit more, but if it involves obtaining another codec I guess I'm not willing to go that far. In response to my inquiry the promoters sent an mp3 of a radio spot and ONE photograph. If they don't care any more than that...

You might try and see if Mpeg Streamclip can recognize and transcode that file to something usable...

That worked, Bryan! Interesting little converter; it found and fixed over 40 time code breaks, which must have been the problem. Now it's converted to .avi so I can give this band the coverage it needs. Thank you so much!