Opening .lvi files

Usage & Issues
#1

Hi,

I’m a PhD student in the UK and have recently recorded some videos on the microscope in our lab. These worked well and I could view them at the time of filming but now I have no way to open them. They are saved as .lvi files. When I researched this file format online one of the few things that came up was a forum post from 10 years ago (http://imagej.1557.x6.nabble.com/lvi-files-td3688360.html) which discussed getting support for these files in Bio-Formats. I have downloaded Bio-Formats but from looking through the documentation I can’t see that .lvi files are supported?

From further reading (http://imagej.1557.x6.nabble.com/AVI-Virtual-Stack-gt-1GB-boundery-td3693422.html#a3693453) I saw that I could try renaming the file to a .avi file and windows media should read this. Unfortunately I had no success here.

Can anyone suggest what I can try to open my .lvi files?

Many thanks,

#2

Hi @x346x, Im afraid the .lvi format is not currently supported in Bio-Formats. Do you have the option to export any other file types from the original software?

#3

Hi, thanks for your response. I am not sure, it wasn’t immediately obvious when I was collecting the data. I won’t be in the lab until January but will take a closer look then.

#4

If those LVI files are indeed AVI files in disguise, your system might be missing a codec to decode the video. Some vendors use RAW codecs specific for their cameras. Try to open the file with another media player or tool, e.g. VLC, to get information about the file format and codec.
Be cautious when installing “codec packs” found on the Internet. Try them in a Windows Sandbox.

#5

Hi all, thank you for all of the suggestions. I recently gained access to the lab again and had a closer look through the software and there is a tool to convert the .lvi files to .avi so the issue is solved.