No Video Playback, Audio OK

[rckowal]

O.S. is Windows XP Media Center Edition (same as XP with extras). My Windows Media Player & RealPlayer were working fine until very recently.

Now, when I playback known good commercial &/or home movie DVDs using Windows Media Player or RealPlayer, I can hear the audio OK but there is no video.

If I playback the same DVDs on the same PC using VLC Media Player, a stand alone Sony DVD player or another PC, both video & audio play OK.

When playing back movie files stored on HDD, both W.M.P. & RealPlayer will play both video & audio in AVI files but will not play the video if the file is an MPEG.

In trying to troubleshoot this issue, I had a hunch that it might be codecs related. Using another PC (that still plays DVDs OK - with nearly the same software installed) I was able to compare the installed video codecs as shown in the Device Manager.

A glaring difference between the two machines was the "no playback" one had an additional codec called fps1. This reminded me that the "non-working" PC had FRAPS software installed which also installs fps1.

I thought that uninstalling and manually removing fps1 from the registry & Windows files would fix this but I thought wrong! Although all traces of FRAPS & fps1 were gone, there was still no video during playback.

Other than a backup/restore of the out-of-date working system to the non-working one, I'm at a complete loss. If I can avoid doing so, it would save me considerable time.

Help! How can I fix this?

 

[Ultiweap]

This may be due to a codec problem.

Have you recently installed a new player or codec pack or something like that. If yes remove it and make it as it was before.

You may download a codec pack if you need.

Here: http://www.free-codecs.com/download/K_lite_codec_pack.htm

 

[rckowal]

Thanks for replying Ultiweap,

FRAPS was installed, which in turn installed its codec - fps1. I already uninstalled FRAPS & fps1.

VLC Player was also installed but from what I understand, it uses its own codecs.

The only other thing I can think of is the installation of VideoStudio 11, a video editing program that may use a built in player for use while previewing changes.

A dumb newbie question - but could this condition be due to improper configuration of codecs &/or player? I know almost nothing about this subject.

Regards, Richard

 

[Ultiweap]

Normally if codec a misconfigured it may cause problem thus creating a codec conflict that's why it is not good to install to many player and too many different codec pack.

When finish removing it if it still don't work you may try to delete their registry too.

 

[rckowal]

Normally if codec a misconfigured it may cause problem thus creating a codec conflict that's why it is not good to install to many player and too many different codec pack.

When finish removing it if it still don't work you may try to delete their registry too.

Ultiweap, thanks but please clarify. Are you saying to remove all installed players except one? FRAPS (with fps1 codec) has already been removed including registry entries for both. I'm guessing that VLC may not be a problem even if installed with one other player. Is this correct?

Would I also need to remove all previously installed codecs - then install K-Lite to replace them?