ok so out of no where my .avi's .wmv and .mp4's have stopped working video wise. Black screen with only audio is now the result. It just randomly started tonight, i watched these video's earlier today.

I did not change a codec, or install anything related to the sort

I have googled for 3 hours now with no result

I did reinstall all my codecs (minus the ones built into wmp11 b/c its unable to be removed)

Your my only hope tww

btw im running vista

3/24/2008 1:20:07 AM

vista seems to be having issues with codecs. Have you run the latest service pack?

3/24/2008 5:35:16 AM

if you updated your GFX rivers recently, make sure you have wmv acceleration disabled. ATI used to enable it in driver updates and all it does is fuck up video playback.

You can also try disabling hardware accleration in your media player to see if that fixes it. If it does, its probably driver/hardware related. If it doesn't fix it, its a codec/media player issue. Try another player or try removing all your 3rd party codecs. Alot of codec packs are worthless and like to fuck up the default windows codecs which are just dandy.

Really the only codecs you should have installed for playback are DivX (from divx.com) and ac3filter (from the sourceforge page). Maybe an ogg filter or an MKV splitter if you are a faggot.

Dont install codec packs. Always install the original codec from its source whenever possible.

3/24/2008 1:53:22 PM

I've found codec packs to be useful for when you're encoding, but for decoding only they're overkill and can cause fuckups.

3/24/2008 1:55:03 PM

I've found codec packs are the best way to go. Google "cccp". It's the only one i use, and it has everything i need. It's annoying having to install each individual decoder. Never had an issue with codec support in vista either. Seems even better than XP.

^^haha considering EVERYTHING HD ONLINE is in .mkv format, you'd better have a MKV splitter. I hardly ever see anything in wmv format anymore. Everyone seems to use the .mkv wrapper. Kinda annoying though, cause it won't play on the 360.

V yeah try that too. I use only media player classic, but vlc some times.

[Edited on March 24, 2008 at 2:39 PM. Reason : .]

3/24/2008 2:35:44 PM

Actually, try opening the file with VLC. It has an internal decoder and should be fine for you - codecs or not.

3/24/2008 2:36:39 PM

mkv is a container format developed by anime watching neckbeard grooming slashdot lunix fags.

You can wrap h264 with .avi and WMV has excellent HD support as well.

3/24/2008 2:40:56 PM

^ i completly agree with you. But why is 90-95% of everything i download in .mkv format? I don't mind using wmv (would make my life easier cause it would play on the 360) but alass EVERYTHING IS IN DAMN MKV FORMAT!!!

3/24/2008 2:50:29 PM

mkv is decent when you don't want to hardcode subtitle files into a rip but it's seriously lacking otherwise because it's just not that compatible with the 'generic' media centers (ps3, xbox). Although I think that's more of a fault of h264 than the mkv 'format' itself since it's just a container. It'd be nice to have h264 support on the ps3 and xbox. (It'd also be nice to support loading of subtitle files)

3/24/2008 2:56:16 PM

^^scene fags are dumb, mostly.

^ you can wrap h264 in avi and the container will play on 99.999% of platforms. Then all you need is codec support for h264. For MKV support you need a filter for a junk "community" container.

[Edited on March 24, 2008 at 3:11 PM. Reason : .]

3/24/2008 3:02:01 PM

^^ why would anyone ever want to hardcode subtitle files into a rip? When i think "hardcoded" i think you can't turn them off. But you mean something else right?

But yeah .mkv sucks in the fact that you can't play them on non-computer media players. Although this will play them:
http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinestore/index.php?module=onlinestore&pluginoption=catalog

[Edited on March 24, 2008 at 3:04 PM. Reason : .]

3/24/2008 3:04:38 PM

You would want hardcoded subtitles for shit like the xbox and ps3 that can't play external subtitle files if you were watching 1) foreign movies 2) anime 3) were deaf.

3/24/2008 3:07:20 PM

^oh really? That sucks. Before our 360 we had a modded xbox and that played anything even subtitle files, but i guess they still didn't implement that into the 360/ps3.

3/24/2008 3:10:24 PM

vlc support for mkvs is not as good as media player classic

k-lite codec pack ftw

3/24/2008 5:00:27 PM

ok ok ty for all the responses, I found the problem and fixed it.

It occurred to me that due to the video's not being able to play in any of my media players (even vlc) and that i hadnt adjusted any codecs prior that maybe it was a setting in my nvidia drivers (similiar to shaqqy's suggestion)

worked through the settings and found that when i had added my new hdtv as a cloned monitor my 8800 auto checked the setting for "use the nvidia control panel color settings" under the "adjust video color settings" tab. This caused all video's in any form (.wmv .avi .dvx etc) to only play audio...a simple uncheck and problem solved.

ty x 5 for all the help guys

3/25/2008 10:54:35 AM