WMP 6.4, stop download attempts

[thekief4]

I downloaded divx 5.x and didn't like it, so I uninstalled, and reinstalled 4.x. Since doing that WMP 6.4 (my default player) will attempt to download codecs from the microsoft site whenever I play an avi file, making it impossible to watch avi's while offline. This is very aggrevating, since it worked fine before. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the divx software, and even reinstalled windows, niether worked. Any suggestions?

[setarip]

When you say, "it worked fine before", did it work properly with these SPECIFIC .AVIs that are now causing the Media Player to seek additional codecs?

If these .AVIs were encoded with the DivX 5.0 codec, that's what's required to play them (unless, of course, you are willing to convert them to v.4.xx or v.3.11alpha, via VirtualDub).

[thekief4]

yes it did work with the specific avi's, and it's not that they were encoded with divx 5.x. I guess I wasn't clear on that, all avi files I have, including many over a year old encoded with divx 3.11 (I made them myself), now cause this to happen. WMP will say "opening" in the status bar, then "attempting to download codec etc.", then it says "unable to download appropriate decompressor". At that point the file play perfectly, however if I am not online then it hangs up cause it obviously can not contact the microsoft web site. So what I really want to do is get WMP to behave like before when it just used the divx codec without trying to download microsoft ones.

[setarip]

1) I assume that you're playing these .AVIs from CD-Rs, so that there's no chance of any headers having been rewritten.

2) Based on the scenario you've now described, I would speculate that, although you've uninstalled v.5.0, it's left some dirty little hooks in your system. If you feel comfortable about dealing with the Windows registry, I'd suggest that you run RegEdit and search for all entries of "Divx" and delete any that are specific to v.5.0.

3) If I were you, I'd also email the authors and raise a little Hell about what seems to have transpired.

4) Two odd suggestions:

Uninstall and then reinstall WMP 6.4

Uninstall and reinstall DirectX

[johnbmx4christ]

i had the same problem and did what you do..simply wait ..and after its done searching, it plays fine..just annoying how you have to wait..i could not figure out why it did that and there is no preference to change it...but since then i have done a system restore and its back the way it should be.

[thekief4]

well here's what I've done so far

I did send a raisin hell e-mail to divx (no reply)

I did do my best to clean out my registry, I basically took every reference to divx off my hard drive, and out of my registry then reinstalled 3.11

and I did remove, and reinstall wmp 6.4

Have not tried the directx reinstall, doubt that would help.

the only effect, now some of my avi files do not cause this to happen, and it takes longer for wmp to switch to and from full screen mode. I wish that microsoft would just make some compatable codecs for this stuff, but I'm sure that will be a cold day in hell, thanks for all advice, and keep any new ideas coming

[setarip]

Glad to hear my suggestions helped (somewhat).

"Have not tried the directx reinstall, doubt that would help."

Try it, you mught be pleasantly surprised, as DirectX seems to prefer to be installed after everything else (such as codecs)...

[thekief4]

Ok well thanks for the help, I kept trying everything (even thre directx reinstall) but at around 8 last night I had to declare my system beyond my ability to repair. I lost the ability to play any video files, on any program I have, a little before that time. I deleted windows, and reinstalled....everything. It's taken forever but the problem is gone, and now my files play better than I ever remember. So let's all drink to drastic action, and thanks again to everyone for thier suggestions.

[setarip]

"So let's all drink to drastic action"

Whatever it takes - Congratulations on resolving the situation ;>}