About 2 months ago, without changing any codecs except the odd Xvid upgrade here and there, I started to notice vertical bands on many files types. Over the past 2 months, the bands have increased in number and size, affect nearly all file types (mpeg2,divx,xvid,asf,wmv). I've tried multiple codec installations/deinstallations (always making certain to unregister and delete the .ax files). The bands simply change color and increase in quanity when switching between Divx 5.1, Xvid 1.0, ffdshow, 3ivx, etc. Oddly enough, screenshots of the artifacts come out perfect.. so I had to take pictures of my screen with my phone's digicam. You can see how distracting the artifacts/bands are to all video watching..
I believe I have isolated it to a NON-codec issue. After uninstalling my video driver (nVidia 28.42's on a Geforce4 Go 420, Toshiba Tecra laptop), I noticed that while in plain XP VGA mode, the artifacts completely disappear and movies play fine (though choppy since no driver is installed). I have since tried over 6 different driver revisions and yet still, the problem remains. I've also upgraded to DirectX 9.0b with no luck.
I have literally been pulling out my hair trying to figure out what's causing these strange artifacts (intensive googling and codec forum searching has come up dry). Reformatting is not an option unfortunately. Any help, ideas, or suggestions would be TREMENDOUSLY APPRECIATED!
I'm using the 28.42's as they are the most recent versions supported by Toshiba.. I have tried many more recent versions, including the latest on nVidia's site, with no luck.
Ok after trying every nVidia driver version known to man, I've narrowed it down to specifically a *directdraw issue*. Enabling directdraw hardware acceleration causes the artifacts, disabling it and the video is back to normal (although framerate/resolution suffer). I'm running the very latest DirectX 9.0b. I'm pretty sure the issue wasn't present under DirectX 8.1, although I cannot uninstall 9.0b, and overwriting the ddraw.dll with 8.1's version is not successful.
Does anyone have any ideas on how I could rectify this situation? This problem has plagued me for months and I feel like I'm finally close to solving it for good. Thx for all the help thus far.
