Microsoft's new DRM is insidious

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  • Trevmar
    Junior Member
    Junior Member
    • Nov 2002
    • 2
    #1

    Microsoft's new DRM is insidious

    Earlier this week I did a windows update on my Win2K machine. I am sure I accepted nothing but IE upgrades, but suddenly I find that Windows Media Player will not play .AVI files with DIV3 fourcc coses and will not even play my .MP3s encoded with VBR at 128-300 Kbps.

    Winamp still works OK, as does VirtualDub, but MS has locked out WMP, thus tightening their hold on what my computer can play.

    All this without me being aware of it, and I am a journalist who is savvy with the technologies. Pity the public...

    Specifically worrying though is the refusal by Windows installer to install the Nimo Codec Pack 5 build 8 which I downloaded from two seperate trusted sources. Windows installer refuses to install Nimo, saying "NSIS error, Installer Verification Failed". Hmmm...

    After installing NimoLite, when I play an AVI with WMP I get an "80004005" error, which seems to imply it is trying to access some ODMP database somewhere, and failing. That sounds sinister to me...

    Has anybody any insight into what MSFT is doing? Somewhere I read that they are limiting MP3 playback to 192 Kbps. But what are they doing with the video? Surely they should allow DivX5 codecs?

    ..Trevor..
    oh.. my WMP announces as version "6.4.09.1124"
    Last edited by Trevmar; 25 Nov 2002, 09:18 AM.
    Tags: None
    • Enchanter
      Old member
      • Feb 2002
      • 5417
      #2
      II haven't had any problems with Windows Update components so far, though I've heard many reports of Windows updated components taking over other, and presumably older, non-windows codecs. Your problem, though, seems to indicate something more serious than just a rampant codec. Your system seems to have lost the DLL files that are necesary for media playback. Try reinstalling DirectX.

      Has anybody any insight into what MSFT is doing? Somewhere I read that they are limiting MP3 playback to 192 Kbps.
      I have been wondering about this. To anyone else reading this, try playing an AVI with MP3 soundtrack, using WMP 6.4. Check the Advanced Properties windows and go to 'Default DirectSound Device.' Under the AudioRenderer window, see the value for nAvgBytesPerSec and confirm with me that the value is 192000. Does anyone know if this refers to the bitrate of the output sound stream, or something entirely different?

      oh.. my WMP announces as version "6.4.09.1124
      Funnily, my WMP 6.4 is reported as 6.4.09.1125. Well, it works perfectly for me anyway, so no complaints there.

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