Problem with videos in media player

[Deneb]

I just nuked out my computers drive to start fresh. I am running XP home SP2, with WMP 11.

At first, I was just using XP with the stock media player, however when I would try to play videos, I could hear sound, but the videos would be black as pitch. I upgraded to WMP 11 (and consequently SP2) and I'm still having the issues.

I've got the latest drivers for this video card (256Mb Geforce FX5900) and it's still doing it.

I'm imagining it's something simple, but I'm just overlooking it. Any suggestions?

[ApeDosMil]

VLC Player will play pretty much any video out there.

or you'r gonna have to scour for codecs.. GSpot is a free program that will tell you what codecs a movie needs.

[GWARGHOUL]

Theres a set of video codecs that Microsoft stopped passing on for free.
I can't remember the name, but they were 3rd party, and I believe thats your issue.

[Deneb]

Ah, I didn't think about that. I had this codec pack awhile back, ace's video codecs or something.

I'll have to try and locate that.

Thank you.

[Deneb]

I should note, it's only videos played from the net. I've got a copy of a video hosted, and the same video on my hard drive. The one on my drive plays fine, the one from the net is all dark. Also, like, youtube videos work just fine, it's only videos that are opened from IE into WMP that are the problem it seems.

[GWARGHOUL]

How much ram do ya have?

[ApeDosMil]

I should note, it's only videos played from the net. I've got a copy of a video hosted, and the same video on my hard drive. The one on my drive plays fine, the one from the net is all dark. Also, like, youtube videos work just fine, it's only videos that are opened from IE into WMP that are the problem it seems.

strange... can you try firefox with the video plugin just to see if this is a IE problem? Download firefox and the plugin should be requested.

Gwar, ram doesn't have anything to do with this.

[GWARGHOUL]

Actually, ram has a lot to do with streaming video.
And multimedia applications in general.

Are you trying to stream the video inside of IE, or just launch it externally from WMP as streamed media?

[ApeDosMil]

I really don't ram would cause a black screen and only sound, I've had this problem before, in fact I remember what I did now, I would right click the video and zoom in then go back to normal view and the video played fine.

[GWARGHOUL]

RAM again, has a lot to do with streaming media, and multimedia in general.
I know when I'm multi tasking, or working on a system low on ram, or VRAM, WMP will often display black video, and only play audio, I've also ran into the exact opposite.

Sounds like some funky programming, in your case ape.

[audiophile]

Black video is 95% a missing vid codec.
If it works with a file on desktop but not embedded in IE, then it's because it's not integrated with IE as a plugin.
Media player want you to use wmv or vcd mpg, no divx, no xvid, just MS monopoly.

Avoid codec packs like the plague. There are so many different encoding methods out there, tryin to embed them together in media player has always created unwanted anomalies.

Go with VLC player, simple app, much more powerful and flexible than any other player, and all inclusive so no need to 'add' anything.

[Deneb]

The thing is this, before I nuked the drive, I played videos from IE just fine.

They are video links from online, played in WMP, NOT in IE.

My computer runs a gig of ram, and even still, I don't think that would make it black. I could see it making a video choppy, but not black.

[ApeDosMil]

RAM again, has a lot to do with streaming media, and multimedia in general.
I know when I'm multi tasking, or working on a system low on ram, or VRAM, WMP will often display black video, and only play audio, I've also ran into the exact opposite.

Sounds like some funky programming, in your case ape.

haha, you can have 128 megs of ram and you can still stream a video. I don't understand your train of thought on the subject. There is almost NO hard drive/ram action that is intense when you are streaming a video. He has a gig of ram so it is obvious it is just some quirk he is having. I had the same problem.

[ApeDosMil]

The thing is this, before I nuked the drive, I played videos from IE just fine.

They are video links from online, played in WMP, NOT in IE.

My computer runs a gig of ram, and even still, I don't think that would make it black. I could see it making a video choppy, but not black.

Try right clicking the black screen of the streaming video and expand the size. Let me know what happens. I had a similar problem a long time ago with firefox where it was a black screen while I could hear sound. Just right click the black screen and do Zoom -> 50%

Let me know what happens.

[GWARGHOUL]

haha, you can have 128 megs of ram and you can still stream a video. I don't understand your train of thought on the subject. There is almost NO hard drive/ram action that is intense when you are streaming a video. He has a gig of ram so it is obvious it is just some quirk he is having. I had the same problem.

Maybe you should study the concept of RAM a bit better before you speak.

Everything streaming is being processed, then stored in RAM, if the amount of ram is to small, it will be stored in a page file on windows systems.