Why can't I play MPG files?

[chylld]

Hi all,

My computer has a problem: ZoomPlayer and Windows Media Player both refuse to play .mpg or .mpeg files! This is not a missing codec problem, as I can simply rename the files to .wmv or .avi and they will open and play fine.

The error message from ZoomPlayer:
"An ERROR has occured! | Unable to play [blah] This may be due to a corrupt file, missing filters, filter conflicts, or hardware related issues"

Error message from Windows Media Player:
"Windows Media Player encountered a problem while playing the file. For additional assistance, click Web Help."

Oddly enough, Media Player Classic can open and play .mpg files, however I do not like using it as it has other problems with my computer.

If anyone could please shed some light on this awkward problem, it would be greatly appreciated!

[soup]

Have you tried VLC.

[benbryant]

Download and install DScaler 5 MPEG filter which helps multimedia players play MPEG-2 video:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=7420&package_id=123423

Regards

[chylld]

thanks for the suggestions guys.

I downloaded and tried VLC which seems to be able to play the files just like MPC, however it is exhibiting even worse performance problems than MPC so it isn't a good compromise.

I also downloaded and installed the DScaler 5 MPEG filter, but that had no effect. is there a procedure i need to follow in order to get it to be used as the preferred filter?

[anonymez]

welcome to the forum

download & register gabest's mpeg splitter

[chylld]

welcome to the forum

download & register gabest's mpeg splitter

thanks

i downloaded and registered the filter (can see it on the insurgent filter list now as "mpeg source" and "mpeg splitter") but it didn't fix it. i went into zoomplayer's registered filter manager and bumped the splitter's merit up to 00800001 (was 00600001) but that didn't help either.

any other ideas?

[anonymez]

does this happen to all mpg files? try playing with wmp again

[chylld]

does this happen to all mpg files? try playing with wmp again

yes it happens to all mpg files. wmp still doing the same thing...

if i rename the mpg file to something else, it tries to play it but hangs very quickly.

if i rename a wmv file (that works under every player) to an mpg file, wmp and zoomplayer both error straight away.

[anonymez]

well you have a codec conflict on your hands, don't expect wmp to work while it's there, but zoomplayer should work fine since you can specify which filters to use. set the mpeg ps splitter to gabest's, mpeg2 video to dscaler, ac3/mp2 to ac3filter or whatever you prefer. did you by chance install any codec packs?

This is not a missing codec problem, as I can simply rename the files to .wmv or .avi and they will open and play fine.

and

if i rename the mpg file to something else, it tries to play it but hangs very quickly.

contradict?

[chylld]

yes they do contradict; i apologise for failing to mention that yesterday i tried to run a file on my computer called "wmpcodecs8.exe" which apparently had some mpeg4 stuffs in there, but after running that the mpg files refuse to play even after renaming.

i'll try to set things up manually in zoomplayer.

[chylld]

ok well that failed but the cccp people themselves came to the rescue turns out i had to do 2 things:

1. delete registry keys HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Media Type\Extensions\.mpg (and .mpeg)
2. unregister the mainconcept mpeg audio/video decoder.

now it all works sweet thanks to all who helped.