Problems with WinXP and DivX

[mevan]

I upgraded to WinXP. Now some DivX files play correctly, some have only sound and some just make my PC hang!!!In general the bigger the filesize the more the problems! I use the Windows Media Player included in WinXP and I have tried both the DivX codec 3 and the DivX codec 4 with no results. My VGA drivers (Nvidia Riva TNT) are up-to-date. Please help!!!

[mouridis]

same problem here

Same problem here...can't exactly identify where the source of the problem hides though I believe it has to do with this shitty media player 8...I could pay to get 6.4 back!

[UncasMS]

if you think your probs are player related, havent you tried any other player??

give it a go with e.g. 'powerdivx next gen'

maybe it helps

i'll keep my fingers crossed

[mevan]

Thanx

Thanks for your advice, UncasMS. I installed "powerdivx" and now everything plays.

The only problem is that I have no antialiasing. Tried with some other players (microDVD, The Playa) but the same results...Plays with no antialiasing. I suspect the problem to be in my VGA driver, but it is the newest (and the only one) available.
If someone has a solution for this, let me know.

PS:Maybe the only solution is to roll back to good-old Win98!!!

PS2:To mr. Mouridis:I am working on it (MP 6.4 on WinXP)

[mouridis]

BINGO!

Ok there is a workaround having Media Player 6.4 on XP, and I'm happy to say that I tricked Microsoft with XP's own weapons!

Step 1: Get Media Player 6.4 from Microsoft (mpfull.exe approx. 3.5mb) in their download section, stating that you have win95 and want available downloads for media player...

Step 2: mpfull.exe won't install on XP stating that it doesn't work in W2k, blah-blah. Right click on the exe and choose properties. Click on the "Compatibility" tab. Check the "Run this program in combatibility mode for:" and select "Windows NT 4.0/Service pack 5" from the menu. Apply the changes. Run mpfull.exe ignoring the messages (press cancel/continue/ignore where applicable) and voila!

Step 3: At this point 6.4 is installed but XP won't let it associate itself with your video or audio files. Go to "\Program Files\Windows Media Player". "wmplayer.exe" is 8.0 while "mplayer2.exe" is 6.4. You can create shortcuts of 6.4 and use it immidiately or go to Step 4

Step 4: Rename "wmplayer.exe" to "wmplayer.bak" and "mplayer2.exe" to "wmplayer.exe". XP will prompt you to insert your XP installation CD to reinstall MP8 because some program replaced it with another version. Cancel this message. Now XP think 6.4 is 8.0.

Step 5: Open your new "wmplayer.exe" (whick is 6.4) and go to "View" then "Options..." then click the "Formats" tab, then select the formats you like to be associated with MP 6.4 and finito!

And a last message: MP8 STINKS, MP6.4 is maybe the best program micosoft ever released.

More info: praeto@math.auth.gr (please no e-mails, use Messenger service)

[mouridis]

To mevan

Normally working with mp6.4 like I described above should solve your "anti-aliasing" problem, which probably is that the players you mentioned don't use overlay...
But even if you don't want to use 6.4 but an external player get the latest BS Player beta from http://bsplayer.cjb.net an exceptional player with overlay support (this will probably give you antialiasing)
Make sure you enable overlay in the options of bsplayer, and get some other skin from the same page because the one that comes with the player sucks....

[UncasMS]

powerdivx should actually be the latest 'bsplayer' (correct me if i'm wrong, blacksun!) as it is the latest player that blacksun did.

concerning antialising:

could you please check if this is true for you or not:
movies with a resolution (width) div/32 should run fine, whereas non div/32 resolution should not allow the overlay filter to smooth. i.e. antialise!

720 x XXX should be bad as it not div/32
704 should be fine

you get the idea?

could you check this out on some other films you've got?

otherwiese re-installing vga-driver + directx should help (the latter, however, seems impossible with xp for the time being!)

i'd love to get some feedback on this.
thanx

[mevan]

OK, I didn't have a movie with a resolution div/32 so I encoded some scenes from a dvd in 480x212. Nothing...still the image was "jagged". Having nothing more to do (for now), I decided to install Win98 on a spare harddisk just to watch movies and DVD's (they can handle DVD playback much better).

I am going to wait till Nvidia releases some new drivers and till Microsoft releases a new version of DX. Then we'll see.....

I have installed mp6.4 on winXP the way you describe.No antialiasing!!!!

(I had used the "compatibility" feature to install some other programs (Autocad and Matlab)).

Thanks for the attention