Music files ruined by downloading VLC DVD player

I recently downloaded the VLC free DVD player. When I did I discovered all of my music files containing my original recordings had their WAV icon changed to an orange pyramid VLC icon and the extensions were changed from MP3 or WAV to MP4A and can only be played by the VLC player. Also, a voice of an woman with an English accent stating "AVS Media Data" has been added to the beginning of every song, obscuring the music. If I try to delete the voice, it is moved over to a new spot in the song and can't be deleted. I deleted all AVS, and VLC programs from my program files, and went into the registry and "searched" all VLC and AVS entries and deleted them. I also emptied the temporary internet files, and nothing helped. My songs are ruined. How can I get rid of this malicious, unwanted software?
I am using Windows XP Home Edition and either Media Player 11, or EMU Wave Lab Light, or Cubasis to play music files. thanks for any help

 

VLC is just a player, not an editor. You must have done something else with the files to modify them as you described.

 

Greetings, phlegmox.

Agreed with abekl: I've never known VLC to be anything but a good, solid player. Did you download the file from Major Geeks or elsewhere?

You might try restoring XP to a previous state, one before the download and installation of the program.

You might also try re-associating the files in question to WMP.

 

This is not the work of VLC; this has to do with something AVS installed on your computer.
Every tried this?
http://download.cnet.com/AVS-Audio-Converter/3000-2140_4-11114451.html
That would do it!

again VLC is a player. When file extensions change, that means some program converted the files to a different file type. File extensions do not magically change, a converter program does this.
A file association can change. For example, if you let VLC take over, all your wav files will chow the VLC icon instead of WMP BUT they continue to be wav files. You simply right-click any wav file and re-associate it with WMP if you want to use that instead of VLC to play all wavs on the computer.

I suggest you try restoring to a point in time before the AVS program or hardware was attached to the computer.

 

Hi,
First let me thank you all for responding. I already tried restoring to a date previous to the installation of the VLC player. It didn't help. I didn't mean to blame the VLC player for this problem, it just happened to manifest at exactly the same time as the installation of the player. I downloaded it from Major Geeks. The voice stating "AVS Media Data" is insidious. If I put the file into my digital editor, and chop it off the beginning of a song file, it moves it to another, and sometimes to multiple spots in the file. I did a "find" in my registry, and deleted every single entry which included the letters VLC, and/or AVS. It's still there. It didn't attack every music file. Just the music files that are my own original compositions. Thanks again. Phlegmox

 

Hi,
First let me thank you all for responding. I already tried restoring to a date previous to the installation of the VLC player. It didn't help. I didn't mean to blame the VLC player for this problem, it just happened to manifest at exactly the same time as the installation of the player. I downloaded it from Major Geeks. The voice stating "AVS Media Data" is insidious. If I put the file into my digital editor, and chop it off the beginning of a song file, it moves it to another, and sometimes to multiple spots in the file. I did a "find" in my registry, and deleted every single entry which included the letters VLC, and/or AVS. It's still there. It didn't attack every music file. Just the music files that are my own original compositions. Thanks again. Phlegmox

 

If you read the comments at plodr's link it definitely seems like the culprit. Now, that program re-encodes the files and places the voice-over on the copy. Have you searched your computer for the original files?

 

Hi Sach,
Thanks for getting involved. I'm not sure which original files you are referring to. I never downloaded, or heard of AVS prior to installing the VLC player. I went back and read the comments you suggested and yes, it sure does sound like the culprit. How is it that it's able to "move" the voice-over to a new spot in the file when I delete it from the start of the song? I have searched and removed any trace of any AVS program I was able to find. I went through all of the highlighted dates in my system restore calendar looking for any "installed, or deleted AVS" and there are none. I swear I never installed, or even heard of it prior to this fiasco. It somwhow hitched a ride along with VLC. That's the only explanation that makes any sense. Does anybody know where they are physically located? I'd like to pay them a visit.

 

If you didn't download VLC from here
http://majorgeeks.com/VLC_media_player_d4674.html
or here http://www.videolan.org/
anything could have been bundled with it.
I see links posted in forums (not here) to download VLC posted and it is not the official site. If I have any power at that forum, I replace the link with the videolan one.

That "trial" of a converter program smacks of ransomware! They alter your files so you are almost forced to buy the program to get rid of the annoyance.
Spread the word: avoid AVS converter

 

Hi plodr,
I did download it from Major Geeks site but I don't remember which mirror I used. (if that's the correct term). I agree completely about the ransomware and spreading the word about them. I wrote to them and got no response several days ago. There ought to be a law.

 

My apologies to VLC. I did download the AVS audio converter on Dec. 10th. 2010. I found it on my downloads list in Mozilla. So even though I never used the thing, it immediately hijacked my song files, converted them to an unusable extension and changed the icon, and added that woman's voice. Now I know where it came from, but how do I get rid of it? It's been completely uninstalled, but the voice remains, and recreates itself whenever I try to delete it. I already tried a restore and it didn't work.

 

I think Sach2 is talking about the 'source' files. Usually when a converter converts files it either moves the original files (your mp3s) and places the new ones in its place or it leaves the original ones alone and put the converted ones in its directory or 'somewhere' I would do a search for (Filename).mp3. I would hope the program wouldn't delete the source files but it can and does happen. I've never used AVS and see that I never will now. I like dbpoweramp for music converting needs but it's a paid program.

 

Yes, I was just getting back to this thread. I would follow Buck_nekid's advice on searching for *.mp3 to see if the original files are still on your computer.

Unfortunately, System Restore only has copies of system files and doesn't back up music.

You could give recuva a try to see if it finds any deleted music files (that have a green dot next to them which means they are still good). If it finds any that look like your originals then you want to "recover" them to a different partition or a USB flash drive so as not to overwrite anything.

I'll take a look around the net but I don't see a huge amount of complaints about the software so I don't see any quick fixes.

Edit: Maybe upload one of the mp4a files to mediafire and post a link. I'll take a look at it to see if the voiceover is permanent.

 

I was wondering the same thing, not sure if mp4a files are saved in 'streams' like videos is. If so there may be some hope if the originals are gone. If the mp4a contains two streams you might be able to re-encode them dropping the voice over stream but you say it moves the voice if you drop the beginning so that is confusing. I would like to look at one of the files also. The file recovery idea is good, hopefully you haven't written to the drive to much.