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stuck with Windows media problem

C

chirp

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Feb 16, 2007
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I am hoping someone can help....

I have finally figured out the details of a dual boot with Vista and XP pro but, I have a remaining problem with windows media and its ability to play .wma files from the ineternet. It will play the files from the net but the image is barely visible as the picture screen is extremely dark / black. The sound is okay.

Everything appears to be okay with the Vista boot. The Vista WM will play the same files that the XP media boot won't play. When I first set up after figuring the dual boot, the XP boot would play preloaded songs fine (aka David Byrne)but would not play my cd's or music DVD's. It suggested that I was missing codecs. I figured that problem out by loading roxio / cineplayer. Those are working fine now and sound great.
I have tried to reload the media 11 package...that didn't help. I even tried to repair load the xp disc specific to wm. Assuming I was close to doing that right, which I doubt, that didn't help either.

Can anyone tell me what is going on? Can anyone suggest how I might fix it?
Thanks, chirp
 
chirp said:
I am hoping someone can help....

I have finally figured out the details of a dual boot with Vista and XP pro but, I have a remaining problem with windows media and its ability to play .wma files from the ineternet. It will play the files from the net but the image is barely visible as the picture screen is extremely dark / black. The sound is okay.

Everything appears to be okay with the Vista boot. The Vista WM will play the same files that the XP media boot won't play. When I first set up after figuring the dual boot, the XP boot would play preloaded songs fine (aka David Byrne)but would not play my cd's or music DVD's. It suggested that I was missing codecs. I figured that problem out by loading roxio / cineplayer. Those are working fine now and sound great.
I have tried to reload the media 11 package...that didn't help. I even tried to repair load the xp disc specific to wm. Assuming I was close to doing that right, which I doubt, that didn't help either.

Can anyone tell me what is going on? Can anyone suggest how I might fix it?
Thanks, chirp
Click to expand...

It has absolutely nothing to do with the player you are using, your missing the required codecs. Uninstall all your current media softwares and codecs and try "Combine Community Codec" as it can play most files easily and integrates well with Windows Media player.

http://www.cccp-project.net/
 
Thanks Darren, I will give that a try but, it will have to wait as the site appears to be down at the current time. ( or I am having more problems than I thought...Internet explorer is telling me the site is not available at this time) I'll let you know.....
 
Darren,
Here's the update.
I removed three media related programs...Roxio, Cineplayer, and Plextor(which relates to one of my disk drives).
I loaded the combined community codec pack. It seem to load without any problems.
I went to the web and surfed for a media clip that would pull open windows media as opposed to streaming a vidio. THE SAME PROBLEM IS OCCURRING! The video will play with sound but images are barely visible. You can see movement but what you see moving is not identifiable. It is a very dark but not quite solid black screen.

I decided to try a DVD music video in my disc drive and that is again a problem. A windows media alert window came up as follows..." Windows Media Player cannot play this DVD because there is a problem with Digital Copy Protection between your DVD drive, decoder, and video card. Try installing an updated driver for your video card."
I can't remember if I have seen this suggeastion before and I can't remember if I have tried to update the drivers for my video card since this problem began. I will give that a shot. If you have any further suggestions please, send them my way.
Thanks, chirp
 
Chirp, leave the combine community codec installed if it can play all your files. The fact that your getting black screens seems as if the problem stems with another issue, posibilty a dodgy graphics card driver. What graphics card are you running and have you installed the latest driver?

Secondly, Windows Media is generally unable to play DVDs without either an dedicated DVD plug-in or unless a dedicated DVD application such as Win DVD or PowerDVD is installed that way Media Player can borrow it's codec.The only way round this without any additional software is to run "Media Player Classic" which is fully capable of DVD playback, luckily Media Player Classic comes built into the Community Codec.

Check Directory:
C:\Program Files\Combined Community Codec Pack\MPC
 
still stuck

Darren and Reign,
I could still use your help.

Things just aren't working and I have tried all I can think of plus your suggestions. I've done the WM codec installation. I have installed the encoder9. I have installed the community codec. I have tried to rollback the media player and reinstall various versions. Nothing has solved the problem.

Two points of interest however.
I installed windows XP video decoder check up utility. It lists about seven or eight different decoders...none of which are recommended as preferred MPEG 2 decoders. (I downloaded the same program to my vista drive and it lists as the first item a MPEG 2 decoder. It is checked in green but is still listed as "not recommend for the system a a preferred decoder." That line item decoder does not show up in the list on the XP drive).
Also, I downloaded Quicktime. When I attempted to play a .wma file on it the visual was brighter than it has been to this point. That was encouraging even though the image was still darkened more than it should be. Unfortunately, in an effort to download further codec components the visual seems to have fallen back to its extremely darkened screen and I can no longer make out the images.

I hope that information might trigger another thought from you as to another option that I might try.
Thanks, chirp.
 
working fine, I think

Darren and Reign,
I tried thinking in different terms. The way things were going I felt that the problem wasn't the cedecs but either some Internet explorer setting or something related to the video card. (I believe one of you mentioned that but the slight improvement at the point of loading quicktime had me sticking with the codec theory)
In any case, I went to the remove programs file in the control panel and removed my nvidia video drivers. It shook me up a little after doing it because of the search for the proper drivers to reinstall, some of which didn't have the recommended Microsoft "signing" or something to that effect.
I thought I had screwed everything up but upon a restart everything seems to be working great! I hope it lasts!
Thanks for your help guys!
chirp
 
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