Problem with video playback

Hello,

I am running Windows 7 Professional (x64). Whenever I attempt to play a video file, the player opens and the sound is there but the video is not present. I am using VLC. When I try to play the video files with WMP12, PowerDVD, BS.Player, etc. I get an error message that says that the program has crashed. This happens with AVI and MP4 video files. The ONLY way I can play a video is to open it with Media Center. Here's my computer specs:

MS Windows 7 64-bit SP1 Beta
Intel Mobile Core 2 Duo T6600
4.0GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 398MHz
Dell Inc. 0G848F (Microprocessor)
Generic PnP Monitor @ 1366x768
Mobile Intel(R) 4 Series Express Chipset Family
320GB TOSHIBA TOSHIBA MK3265GSX (IDE)
Optiarc DVD+-RW AD-7585H

It is a Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop. Speccy snapshot attached. Open with Speccy

Do you have the latest GPU drivers installed?
Do you have any codec packs installed?
How new is this Win installation?
When did this problem start to manifest?

I see you have SP1 beta installed. When was it installed and was the problem there before it?

The laptop came with Win7 Home Premium (x64) but I reformatted the hard drive and installed Win7 Professional (x64) which was free through MSDNAA. I backed up all of my drivers and personal files before the upgrade. The installation was not an upgrade, I did a clean install.

All of my drivers, including GPU, are up-to-date. I verified this with the Dell Support center, as well as the results using Driver Magician.

I have the Win7codecs and x64 Components (both by Shark007) installed.

The Windows installation was completed on Monday, October 4, 2010.

This problem started occurring as soon as the OS installation was complete. The problem was present prior to installing SP1 Beta as well. When I play videos in Media Center (my only working option at this point) the audio/video tracks are not synchronized if I skip around the video. This problem was not present when the laptop was running Home Premium.

If you haven't tried using VLC, I'd think that it's a codec issue, but this sounds more serious. Perhaps the best thing would be to do a repair install. However, be patient, perhaps someone else would have a better advice.

I had Home Premium before and it had no problems then. Oh I forgot to mention: when I attempt to play a video using VLC, the OS drops Aero theme and goes to Basic, then switches back to Aero once the video is done playing. Could this have something to do with it? That never occurred when I was using Home Premium.

It sounds like VLC may not like 64 bit professional. Since you're having problems with the windows player also....that could point to a problem with the OS video drivers

You could remove and reinstall VLC to see if that solves the problem. Or you could try to run another player and see if you have the same problem.

It does sound like there's a definite conflict somewhere. If after you try to reinstall or run another player and that doesn't resolve the issue, you might want to go with what Gornot is saying and do a repair install.

Dropping the Aero theme upon video playback may also indicate that your video renderer is set to System Default, unfortunately, I don't know how to change that in VLC or any other player besides Media Player Classic - Home Cinema. VLC has many advanced options that I never dared touch, but perhaps if you go to Settings -> Video and switch Output under Display you might get a different outcome.

I can safely say that many media players that use system codecs adapt to whichever renderer you set up in MPCHC; I also remember that for Windows 7, the EVR renderer is the best one for all video types. That might fix the Aero theme change upon playback.

Do you have UAC disabled?
If so, uninstall the Shark007 codecs, re-enable UAC, reboot, re-install the Shark007 codecs.

Shark007 said:

Do you have UAC disabled?
If so, uninstall the Shark007 codecs, re-enable UAC, reboot, re-install the Shark007 codecs.

Click to expand...

That worked! Thanks Shark007

Good job, Shark