No Video During Playback

[rckowal]

Newbie here. When I playback known good DVD movies on my PC (home made &/or commercially made DVD's) I can hear the audio but there is no video (black screen). I've tried two different DVD drives as well as Real Player and Windows Media Player with no luck.

This is a Dell E510 PC with Windows XP Pro O/S. It has always played back DVD movies, including several that played just fine as recently as two weeks ago. Since then, I had to restore the software in this PC from a backup in an external HDD. Perhaps that disturbed some settings????

What's wrong here & how can I fix it?

[MilesAhead]

Try VLC media player. If that doesn't work then perhaps you are missing some codecs. I would try VLC first.

[rckowal]

Thanks for the suggestion MilesAhead. VLC player works just fine. Plays both video & audio.

Obviously some things missing here since Real Player & Win. Media Player aren't playing the video. Your idea that my PC maybe missing some codecs is entirely likely. In fact, I think I may have uninstalled or deleted MPEG2 codecs.

Please tell me how to fix this problem. Can I just install the codecs - or is reinstalling Real Player & Win, Media Player better?

[MilesAhead]

I don't use XP so much anymore. For that reason I haven't kept up on the codecs for XP. In Windows Seven and Vista I rely on the Shark's codecs. I found this site to be a good resource:

http://www.free-codecs.com/

I don't use the library functions of WMP. I disable it to keep it from indexing my drives. I use Media Player Classic and MPC Home Theater, Divx Player, and Splash Lite for mkv mp4 files. If you look around on free codecs you should get some idea of which codecs are most effective in XP these days. On Shark's site it claims Vista codec pack is compatible with XP. May not hurt to try it if you want to put everything on in one go. He has done a good job and I haven't noticed any issues on either my Vista or W7 PCs.

http://shark007.net/vistacodecpackage.html

edit: btw just coincidentally I checked the NirSoft site for updates and he just updated a codec utility that shows what you have installed:

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/installed_codec.html

[rckowal]

MilesAhead,

Thanks for the ideas. I downloaded Nirsoft & have tinkered with it but nothing obviously wrong jumped out at me.

Before I try Sharks codec package, I would like to learn more about this issue. There appears to be a whole new world out there regarding codecs - it's like trying to wash an elephant, where do you start?

[MilesAhead]

My basic trick when I'm new to a topic is search the terms
topic(as in fill in the blank whatever the topic is) and FAQ.

That usually gets hits that explain the basic concepts to a newbie.
Works for me with just about any computer-related topic.

Usually after reading a couple of FAQs you have a better idea which facets you want to pursue to get into more depth.

[rckowal]

I frequently use the same "getting started with new topic searches" approach as you do. But thanks, it's a good idea.

After doing more research on my issue, I found some interesting free utilities that search your PC for available &/or missing codecs. To me, "GSpot" seems to be the best.

In any case, it appears that my problem is probably not related to codecs. If it were missing, it would most likely be an MPEG 2 - but that one is installed. If I can believe GSpot, it reports that this is so.

I'm coming to the notion that my Windows Media Player & RealPlayer were somehow corrupted when I went through the breakdown then restoration by backup. Not certain about this, but it is an idea that is simple enough to pursue with an uninstall/reinstall.

If it works, I'll let you & anyone else who is having a similar problem know.

[MilesAhead]

I posted the FAQ approach mainly because I'm not an expert. Just relate my experiences when I think they may be helpful. The other idea that occurs to me is perhaps the settings in the players may be set to DirectShow and that may not be configured. I'll be curious to see what it turns out to be.

[rckowal]

I spent the last two days trying to track down the cause of this problem. In comparing an older backup with the current system configuration, I have been able to determine that the probable cause is a codec from an old utility called Fraps - used to count scene frames & other "apps".

It apparently installed it's own codec (which processes streaming decompression) into my video codecs files. This may be corrupting the normal DVD playback process, or causing the players to try to use the wrong codec.

Regardless, I was able to locate & remove the Fraps codec, but the DVDs still will not play normally. I suspect the Fraps codec some how broke or corrupted some thing.

I'm completely out of ideas at this point so I think I'll just forget about playing video using Real Player or Windows Media Player. VLC plays anything you throw at it so why continue to fight what seems to be a futile battle.

[Muhammad adnan]

For no Video issue, you may try turning off the Video Files in Movie maker.

1. Open Windows Movie maker
2. Click Tools, and then click Options.
3. Click the Compatibility tab.
4. To turn off a filter, clear the check box next to the video filter name.

Also try installing the compatible codecs. You may search online to get it.
Using Third Party Software, including hardware drivers can cause serious problems that may prevent your computer from booting properly. Microsoft cannot guarantee that any problems resulting from the use of Third Party Software can be solved

[salminho]

I would try VLC first.

[salminho]

Just relate my experiences when I think they may be helpful.