Help Needed: Cannot play video

[cassio00]

XP SP2 with Radeon 9220 card. Had CRT monitor replaced with ViewSonic VX2025wm. Went from 1152x864 to 1680x1050. All seemed to be just fine until I tried to play mpg, wmv, avi files using Windows Media Player, FastStone Player, IrfanView. Get black screen in player window although there is sound and progress bar moves properly. Media Player Classic works with some files but not all.

Strangely (to me), I get streamed video feed fine from ABCNEWS, MSN, etc.

Advice please. My whole video library is dead.

 

[Dr_asik]

Try downloading a codec pack like K-Lite Codec. If some video works but not others then you're probably just missing some codecs, it's not a video card problem.

 

[cassio00]

Thanks for the advice, but I already had K-Lite so I d/l'd the latest Standard version and reinstalled, and made sure I am using the ViewSonic Signed XP driver and I stll have this scary problem. Fortunately, DVD play is fine (I use PowerDvd player), and at least an older version of Media Player Classic works. I ran afreeCodecVT against a few avis's, and it's internal player shows a blank window, and plays the sound ....

So I have the codecs, and I have the driver, and I have DVDs that work, and Media Player Classic works at least for most files, but WMP and its cousins play sound but give me a blank window.

Can you think of anywhere else to look?

David

 

[GavinLeigh]

Have you had two monitors connected to the computer?. I think that you may have the overlay video settings incorrectly set. Go into you video driver advanced settings and check inside the video overlay setup. Make sure you don't have full screen video set to go to secondary monitor. Either disable the function or check it back to primary monitor. That is of course as long as your monitor is set to be the primary monitor (another setting in the advanced settings). I use an nvidia card but I am guessing the same functions affect both cards.

I have experienced similar issues when outputting to a TV and then trying to play video on the PC the next day. I forgot to disable second display and move the video back over.

I know there's a lot of reasons for things to not work.. I just hope this helps.

 

[cassio00]

Seems to be a codec problem. I installed RealPlayer (I like it even less than WMP) and tried to play some of the same video files. I get sound but no picture, just as with WMP. But, I already d/l'd latest K-Lite codec pack, uninstalled previous, installed new, and I still get this mess. And Media Player Classic (bless it's simple little heart) works fine. Shows picture and plays sound.

Do you know of any other codec packs, or have any suggestions?

 

[GavinLeigh]

I suffered issues with media player not playing any audio in webpages, so went looking for codec packs. I installed a couple and got in a complete mess. Luckily installing K-Lite rectified the problem. You might run into issues if you start installing more codec packs. Microsoft recommends reinstalling Media Player to repair codec issues. You might want to unistall your current version and then download WMP9 and restart from there.

That's about the only help I can offer. I hope it helps.

 

[Wgfalcon]

if your playing vids in wmp classic and that same vid won't play in the newer wmp then it's probably not a codec problem. also that all of your vids were playing before you switched monitors is more evidence it's not a codec problem.i agree with logainofhades try lowering your resolution and if you still have the old monitor hook it back up as see if the problem persists. if either of those works it's probably the video card. also just to check are you using d-sub or dvi to connect to the monitor

 

[cassio00]

Aha! and thanks. I switched to digital mode and voila, the wmv's and avi's play on WMP, FastStone and IrfanView. I will look further at other files but so far, so good.

Life, however, is never simple. For reasons unknown (to me), IE 7 (yes, good old IE, although I have FireFox installed, which I prefer anyway) is a total mess. It seems to think it is 6 (no tabs, etc), but claims to be 7 in the Help About. It opens with a series of new windows and some error messages. Almost useless, except that I have to use it with hotmail and this forum (try this forum with Firefox ... lots of functionality, e.g., Reply, are missing). Sigh. You wouldn't know how to clean IE up ... uninstall and reinstall, safely, would you? And as if that wasn't enough, it doesn't seem to be available from my wife's account ... that is a problem.

David