Playing videos is just one of those things that seems to be an albatross for me. It seems like its always been a problem for me in one way or another. But now, I have decided, I can't take it anymore and I need help.
I have had various problems. Sometimes one program will work when others don't. And even had a problem with the programs I used to use and then used program I could not use before. The last time I had no problems at all with video, was before I decided to reinstall Windows because an Opera update killed IE7. I could not open IE at all so I thought, OK, I'll reinstall Windows XP Pro one more time(maybe the 30th time over the years).
And now here is the problem with post-install history.
I zipped through the install with no noticeable problems until I wanted to play an MPG I enjoy(ed). WMP11 would not play it, so I downloaded MPlayer for Windows (which used to work for me before) and it would not play the MPG it once played. So I downloaded VLC. It worked for a few seconds and then all I got was audio and no video. Matter of fact, all the video players played audio but no video. Irfanview and Classic Media Player also had the same problem. K-Lite didn't work. The only videos I could play were like youtube and my hauppauge 1600 tv tuner. But I could not play the Hauppauge videos I recorded.
Sooooo, I restored my computer to yesterday, prior to service pack 3. All I have now is WMP 9(not trusting 11 yet). It will still not play the small video I recorded with Hauppauge a long time ago. However, Hauppauge is tuning into all the channels as normal and I can record just fine. This is the kicker and maybe the clue for everyone but myself(being clueless). WMP9 will play that file if I happen to have Hauppauge 1600 running at the same time. When I close Hauppauge, WMP only plays audio and no video.
BTW I have the AMD Phenom MB with 4 meg of ram and a realtek sound card and ATI radeon HD 3200 graphics card.
Hmm, I just upgraded WMP9 to WMP11 and it works the same way - plays the MPG file only as long as I am watching a TV channel on Hauppauge.
Thanks in advance for any help. I am a tired old man :)
It sounds just a codec issue.
As my understanding, Windows does not come with MPEGcodec. Normally System or DVD-ROM/DVD-RW come with the movie player software which has codec (PowerDVD , Nero Showtime etc.) You need to install one of those or purchase just an encoder.
(Though I heard that VLC could play without those mpeg codec? I must be wrong.)
vlc should play it straight off (comes with it's own codecs) .. so there is something wrong with the file.. probably interleaving is wrong or the index is broken.
try gspot on it and see what type of thing you have.
