Ok guys, recently I downloaded a codec off of the windows media player website because my computer wouldnt stream movies correctly, the thing is that I can't remember what codec this was and now any movie file I play or view the colours are all messed up and it looks really naff, is there anyway I can get rid of this codec? or could you guys identify it for me and then guide me from there.
Thanks a bunch :approve:
Frosty

Welcome to TechSpot

First we're needing all the specs of your system.
it may not be just the codec, could be conflict with vid drivers.
dunno yet.
post back and we'll try to help out.
G'Luck

your post had no detail, try to find out the reason you downloaded it and from where. include the type(s) of file(s) you were trying to play.

Ok, it appears that it is only AVI and WMV files that are affected by the codec, so I take it that they both use the same codec to run? .MPG and .mpeg files are ok.
The problem occurs with the AVI and WMV files no matter which media player I use, windows media player 10, windows media player classic, realplayer etc.
I guess the distortion 'effect' makes the videos look like they are running through the computer on the 8mb low video quality setting that you select on display properties.
I don't know what other information I could give you as I said I forgot the name of the codec installed, but it was from the windows media player website.

Cheers for the replies people

PS would a DXDIAG be helpful?

You can do the following:
Have a look in Control Panel -> Software and search for installed codecs, throw them out and get new ones.

Matroska has all that you need. I used these when I had codec trouble before. But I just installed them right over the others.
You can't do many things wrong...if it doesn't work, you throw it all out and try again from scratch.

Umm, there is no Software in Control Panel, what OS are you running?

Yeah, i'm using windows xp home, there no software in the control panel

The only place I've found any video codecs was in:
Control panel/ system/ hardware/devices manager
go in to sound, video and game controllers.
There may be other place the codecs are hidden.
I think this is what Abraxas is reffering to.
You can remove them from there. You can
re-installing the new codecs to test if they work.
G'Luck I hope this proves to help.

He is probably using a foreign language version of XP. The German version, for example, uses the word "software" instead of the english/american XP version with "add or remove software".

Alot of codecs are installed as an .exe, and will be registered in "add or remove software", which can be found in your "settings" under "control panel". One that is installed on my computer is called "SLD codec pack". Alot of hardware vendors also use custom codecs for various purposes, frostythebush you might want to check on that. An example would be something like a "DVD audio plugin" ect.

Exactly. I use a German version. And by the time I wrote "Software" I already knew it's not there, hehe. I suspected.
It's "add or remove software". Basically the first spot one would look for something except program tab or whatever you call that.