Windows AVIFile problems

[c d saunter]

Hi All,

I'm trying to access individual video frames of an AVI file from within 
Python 2.4 or 2.5 under Windows XP.

I have found this example code here for that does exactly what I want,
using the windows avifile.dll but I am unable to find the AVIFile.h 
header...

http://mail.python.org/pipermail/image-sig/2002-February/001748.html

An alternative is to call into avifile.dll dynamically using ctypes, 
however under both Python 2.4 and 2.5 the following error happens:

>>> from ctypes import *
>>> windll.AVIFile

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<pyshell#2>", line 1, in <module>
    windll.AVIFile
  File "C:\Python25\lib\ctypes\__init__.py", line 415, in __getattr__
    dll = self._dlltype(name)
  File "C:\Python25\lib\ctypes\__init__.py", line 340, in __init__
    self._handle = _dlopen(self._name, mode)
WindowsError: [Error 193] %1 is not a valid Win32 application

or

WinDLL('c:/windows/system/AVIFILE.DLL') # same for .../system32/AVI...
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<pyshell#2>", line 1, in <module>
    windll.AVIFile
  File "C:\Python25\lib\ctypes\__init__.py", line 415, in __getattr__
    dll = self._dlltype(name)
  File "C:\Python25\lib\ctypes\__init__.py", line 340, in __init__
    self._handle = _dlopen(self._name, mode)
WindowsError: [Error 193] %1 is not a valid Win32 application

This suggests that the dll is corrupt?  However if I download
and run the exe's from this example of a VB program calling
the DLL, they work:
http://www.shrinkwrapvb.com/avihelp/avihelp.htm

I'm open to suggestions about the specific problems above 
or other ways of getting at the frames.  I've tried pymedia
but it also has issues.

Regards
	Chris Saunter