Windows Media Player not showing movie

larsonjean · 28th July 2004

Hello,
I sent my friend a mpeg movie today and she said she was not able to play it on Windows Media Player. I went over to her house and we tried to play it by opening the Media Player and we received the black screen and the bar moved across the screen as though it was playing the movie but there was no sound nor video. She also said she is not able to play any movie she has received from people.

I just don't know where to start troubleshooting this problem. She is running Windows XP, and I ran the Windows Update but it said there were no updates at all to update.

Could someone help us figure out where to start troubleshooting her problem. She seems to be running the latest version of Windows Media Player.

Thank you.

Jean

**TonyT** · 28th July 2004

If sent via email, then chances are thet either your or her email client, or either isp butchered and corrupted the media file. Try putting the file on removable media and then try to play it. If she has same issue w/ files sent to her from others, then likely it's her mail client or isp that is corrupting the media files. 10 bucks says she is using AOL.

larsonjean · 28th July 2004

Hi Tony,

No, she is not using AOL, she is using Verizon DSL.

She said she is not able to play any movies of any types. We'll try to copy it to a media device and see if it can play. I'll let you know.

Jean

**Dennis L** · 28th July 2004

Hi larsonjean

Quote:

She said she is not able to play any movies of any types.

Have your friend download this tiny clip (takes email out of the issue)
Open / play in WM9, If no go....
May be missing some required codec. Take a look at Codecs Installation Packages.

larsonjean · 30th July 2004

Hi Dennis,
I told my friend to go to the website you suggested (the dog racing). She said she could not bring the movie in at all.

I guess I'll have to instruct her to visit the other website you suggested (Codecs Installation Packages.). I'll try to figure out what she may be missing and I'll get back to you.

Jean

larsonjean · 6th August 2004

Hi,

Today I went over to my friend's house and we installed all the Codec Installations but Direct X for Windows XP. Still no luck. When she plays a mpg movie, she gets the sound but no picture. I had her play an AVI movie and it played so It has be be something else.

Any other ideas. We are getting discouraged.

Jean

P.S. I also checked the preferences in Windows Media Player and it is set that it plays all the different extensions.

Newt · 7th August 2004

Not a fix for WMP but Irfanview /w the plug-ins does a good job of playing lots of media types and the price is certainly right.

larsonjean · 7th August 2004

Thanks for the suggestion to use Irfanview. It certainly might be a work-around. I'll help her install it and see if that works but I still would like to get Windows Media Player working for her.

Thanks for your help.

Jean

LDTate · 7th August 2004

I've never had any issues with MP9 not playing videos of all types except Quick Time movies.
I'd suggest you try removing Media Player and downloading it again. Not sure if it has the lasest Direct X with it. If not, I'd update that also.

silverwork · 13th August 2004

I have got the exact same problem. I used MP9 for a while with no probs at all. Suddenly it only plays sound for all movie files. I have not installed anything recenly except Direct X9.0c

I have to play all movie files in DivX now. I have reinstalled WMP9 - still same problem

Using XP Pro
ASUS p4p800-se
3.3 gig Intel 800fsb
1 gig cl2 ddr400 ram
6800 GT

larsonjean · 19th August 2004

We did try deleting and re-installing WMP. Still having same problems. I will install Irfanview and see if this works properly. More to come.

Jean

larsonjean · 28th August 2004

I went over to my friend's house today. We uninstalled Media Player, reinstalled it, then the player did not show the video but we had the sound.
We then installed Real Player, same problem, no video but sound.
We next installed Irfanview. Same thing sound, no video.

We chatted online with Gateway support. He took over the computer, checked a few things (seemed knowledgeable) but in the end he said we had to re-install Windows XP. He told us to go to this website:
http://support.gateway.com/s/SOFTWAR...nstall06.shtml

After we closed the call, we following the instructions of repairing XP per the Gateway website. This also made no difference. Still just sound and no video.

We are at a loss and don't know what else to do. Is there somewhere that we can run a test to see if the video board is bad. I just don't know.

Thank you in advance if you have any suggestions.

Jean

**Dennis L** · 28th August 2004

Could check, reloaded / update......
Direct X, drivers for video card, and audio card.
Also try turning down your hardware acceleration.

For more FAQ's on WMP and MPEG problems...
MPEG/DVD playback Questions
THe above is just a chapter inside a large FAQ for WMP. You can explore throughout the FAQ. Tremendous amount of links.. which is good, but you can get lost. Careful, they constantly jump around between versions of WMP.

dishon · 29th August 2004

I'd had a problem for a while that *.avi clips that played on my PC when it was Win98SE don't play under XP with Media Player 9. The media player tries to download a codec, the win98 era didn't need to download a codec, but comes up with an error. It plays the sound all right.

I tried IrfanView and it said,
"Video not available, cannot find 'vids:xvid' decompressor."

I downloaded the xvid codec from,

http://www.xvidmovies.com/codec/

and hey presto it worked.

larsonjean · 4th September 2004

I received a note from my friend that she received the following reply from our Gateway request we sent a few days ago. Her son-in-law is visiting her and she said he got it to work. She does have video now. I don't know which one of the following helped her but this is what the tech support (and hopefully it might help other people) sent:

Jean

The issue you are experiencing might because of improper configuration of display resolution. Please follow the steps given below to set the set the resolution at 800 x 600 with High Color (16 Bit).

1. Open Control Panel.
From the Windows XP default Start menu, click Control Panel. From the Classic Start menu, point to Settings, and then Control Panel.

2. Open Display.
If in Category View, click Appearance and Themes, and then click Display.
If in Classic View, double-click Display.

3. In the Display Properties dialog box, click the Settings tab.

4. In the Settings tab in the Color quality section, select Medium (16 bit). In the Screen resolution section, move the slider to 800 by 600 pixels, and then click OK.

5. In the Monitor Settings dialog box, click Yes.

6. Close Control Panel.

If the issue persists, please use the following steps to increase
hardware acceleration.

1. Open the Control Panel.
If you are using the Windows XP default Start menu, from the Start menu
click Control Panel.
If you are using the Classic Start Menu, from the Start menu, point to
Settings, and then click Control Panel.

2. In Control Panel, open Display.
If the computer is in Category View, click Appearance and Themes, and
then click Display.
If the computer is in Classic View, double-click Display.

3. In the Display Properties dialog box, click the Settings tab.

4. On the Settings tab, click Advanced, and then click the Troubleshoot
tab.

5. Move the Hardware acceleration slider to the second position from
the right to select Disable all but basic accelerations, and then click OK.

6. In the Display Properties dialog box, click OK.

Note: Set the Hardware Acceleration back to Full when you are finished
troubleshooting.

Leo, if you are unable to resolve the issue, I would like to direct you
to the Microsoft Support Web page to download and install DirectX.
Please visit the Internet address below:

http://search.support.microsoft.com/...&sa=gn&lng=eng

Do the following when you get to this page:

1. From the Select a Microsoft Product list, choose -All Microsoft
Products-.

2. From the Search For list, enter document number 179113.

3. Under Search Type, put a dot in front of Article ID.

4. To locate the document, click the green button to the left of Go.

5. To view the document, click the document title which appears under
Search Results.

I am directing you to this site for informational purposes only, not for
support. Gateway encourages you to visit this site for useful
information. Please keep in mind that if you download or install
anything from another vendor's site, you are acting on your own behalf. Gateway assumes no responsibility for support.