Two video problems with WMP 11 (VISTA)

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Hi, I need some help with some videos not playing correctley in WMPW 11 on VISTA.

(1) Some of my movie clips (.mpg) only play with the sound & no video.

(2) HD windows media/audio vids play without sound & only the image.

I installed VISTA about 3 weeks ago & just recenlety installed the Vista codec pack. But had no luck fixing this problem. Im a noob with all these audio & video codecs so I dont know which ones to try, & if they will fix my problem.

Any help is greatley appreciated, thanks.

opps for title error (WMP 11 not MWP 11)

Last edited 10 May 2008 10:36 am by Dav333

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(1) You could be trying to play an MPEG-2 file. There’s also a chance that it’s another file type (AVI, WMV) but the file was renamed. To be sure, use gspot or avicodec to find out which codec/container the file uses and download the necessary codec. If you find that you need an MPEG-2 decoder, get one from here
(2) Missing audio codec. Use the same procedure as above to find out which one.

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I had no luck with both gspot & avicodec.

Nothing came up as a problem.

Is it WMP11 ? can I use WMP 10?


any more advice is appreciated.
thanks.

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What exactly does gspot say in the codec box in the upper right when you feed it files that don’t play the video?
And what does it say in the audio box when you feed it files you can’t hear?

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I took a screenshot of GSpot from both videos types that are not playing correctley.


GSpot (HD WMA)

http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/4681/gspothdwmaut7.jpg


GSpot (.mpg)

http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/2944/gspotmpgwh4.jpg

Hope this helps.

thanks.

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I’m very surprised the first one doesn’t play. It’s Windows Media Video 9 and Windows Media Audio, and those come bundled with Windows since XP at least. You could try re-installing Windows Media Player (not sure it’ll work under Vista though). Unless...
You say it plays sound, and the image only. Do you mean it hangs at one frame and doesn’t move on? It may mean your CPU is underpowered. HD clips take A LOT of processing power, and frames will be dropped or the video will appear to freeze if your CPU is not powerful enough. One way to check is during playback, right click your taskbar and choose task manager. Then look at the performance tab. Is it at 100% CPU usage? If so the CPU is choking. There’s not much you can do about this, except get a better processor. You could also try to close any background programs or system tray programs that are using up CPU cycles. (I know Vista has A LOT of system background processes that are difficult to turn off at best - it’s one of the reasons so many people are downgrading to XP - it’s just so slow on old hardware)

About the other video. It’s MPEG-2. If you have Vista Home Premium or Vista Ultimate you shouldn’t need anything extra to play it. Those versions of Vista come with MPEG-2 decoding and DVD playback bundled with Windows Media Player. If you don’t have one of those two, you can either get an MPEG-2 decoder (from Elecard, LEAD, MainConcept, or the GPL one for example), a software DVD decoder (PowerDVD WinDVD etc.) (they contain filters that let you play MPEG-2 seamlessly in WMP), or a third party player (VLC Media Player, Media Player Classic).
http://sourceforge.net/projects/gplmpgdec The GPL MPEG-1/2 DirectShow Decoder Filter
http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/ Media Player Classic
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306331 (the “official” Microsoft page that lists supported DVD and MPEG-2 decoders)

Last edited 12 May 2008 05:27 am by anonymous

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thanks for the reply.

With HD WMA it plays the video fine, just no sound. I have a standard P4 3.6ghz HT. I will be getting Quad core soon.

Maybe coz Ive installed alot of programs on my PC some codecs have conflicted or caused the problem?

Also I have 5.1 SS speakers with new updated drivers to work with vista. Maybe I have to change some speaker settings?

And with my second problem, its strange how some (.mpg) videos play with only sound.

Anymore advice is always welcome.

thanks.

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I know really little about audio. Gspot says the wmv file has 5.1 audio. Did you adjust your sound settings? In XP if you look under multimedia/audio in control panel and look at advanced settings for the speakers, it should something like this. I don’t know where you’d find it in Vista, but it’s in Control Panel somewhere I’m sure. And is each audio channel connected to a speaker/subwoofer/whatever it’s supposed to be connected to?

For your second problem - is the second screenshot of one of the videos that play only sound? Do you have/did you get an MPEG-2 decoder? Not all files with extension .mpg are the same. Some are MPEG-1. Some are MPEG-2. Some are renamed extensions by dweebs on file sharing networks who a) want to insert popups in wmv or mov files b) rename other file types like mp3 to hide their songs. You can’t know unless you feed the offending file into a diagnostic utility (or hex editor) to check there is indeed a video stream.

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Had no luck with trying diff sound settings.

That second screen is of a (.mpg) video that only plays sound.

These (.mpg) videos were all captured by me from a capture card at the same settings, & on XP they all worked fine.

Heres a screen shot comparing a (.mpg) that only plays sound & (.mpg) that plays properly.
They look the same.

http://img104.imageshack.us/img104/841/94634259dh7.jpg



But I just noticed something strange. All the (.mpg) videos that only play the sound are at a Res of 720x576. But the (.mpg) that do play both sound & video are at a Res of 768x576. I use to capture in both 720x576 & 768x576, but I would not have expected that to be the problem. Weird?

So any suggestions?

Last edited 12 May 2008 12:19 pm by Dav333

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Your res seems fine. So long as it’s multiples of 16.
Have you tried alternate players? Get Media Player Classic. It’s a single file you can just unzip on your desktop, then just drag and drop your video onto it. It has its own built-in MPEG-2 decoder.
I’d also try VirtualDub-MPEG-2. I know it’s a video editor; however, it has a parser for MPEG-2 (it will actually scan the whole file), so it may be more successful at reporting if anything is wrong.

I’m really stumped for the audio. When feeding the file into gspot, can you click the render buttons at the bottom (it’s the little 1’s at the bottom left. I think only the MS one works for WMV files at the moment. Also try drag and dropping the WMV into Media Player Classic. I know MPC can downsample AC3 (also 5.1 I think) down to stereo (2 channels) by default. Don’t know if it will do it for wmv files, but you can try.

Also try the render button for the mpeg files to see (both the working and non-working ones)

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I can now watch the (.mpg) videos, after downloading some MPEG-2 decoder. But now those (.mpg) videos take about 10ses to play from when I open it. I guess this is as good as Ill get it.

As for the HD WMA, maybe I try reinstall WMP 11.

thanks.

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I fixed the problem with HD WMA not playing the sound.

I just un checked a certain box in my settings
(Below Exclusive Mode)

http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/9103/84150555rb4.jpg

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This is probably the first time I’ve ever heard of Exclusive Mode. A google search turns up
“Checking 'Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device' will allow your audio programs to more efficiently and effectively control your audio hardware."

As another google search reveals, this is still poorly documented.

As for MPEG-2 I don’t even have a decoder installed. Whenever I encounter MPEG-2 video I just drag and drop it onto MPC.

Last edited 13 May 2008 05:15 am by anonymous

Bob golf

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I have Windows Vista Home Premium and I am unable to feed any video from my Canon GL2 camcorder. Nothing seems to show it’s connected. Is there a better video editing program anyone would suggest rather than what comes on Vista Premium?

Glomer

Guest

I have the same problem... all .mpg files have sound but no video.... Gspot says all it good? I also tried using the same file in VLC media player. And it also doesn’t work - audio but no video.

I have Vista Home Prem. SP1.
Intel Core2 DUO E8400 @ 3.00GHz
4.0GB RAM
ATI Radeon HD 2400 Pro

Everything is up to date as far as drivers, etc...

This is very frustrating.

Glomer

Guest

Also tried the k-lite codec pack 4.1.7.0... still none of my players work... WMP, VLC, MPC.