Windows 7: Problems with EVERY media player I try!

I'm trying out different media players for watching my movies on my PC, and so far I am running into "issues" with every one I've tried.

VLC 1.1.11: Audio dropouts every 10 - 30 seconds on both .mkv and .mp4 files.
DivX Plus 8.1.3: Won't play about half of my .mkv files... works fine on the rest.
WMP12: Plays subtitles on .mkv files even though they're turned off.

Questions:
Anybody dealt with these issues successfully?
Is there a better media player that'll play both .mkv and .mp4 files "straight out of the box"?
Should I be using 3rd party codecs/decoders/processors with these players?
[In case you can't tell, I'm new to using my PC as a media center.]

Any suggestions will be appreciated. Thanks!

give shark007 codecs a try ,if that wont do it then try scf/scannow then try shark007 again.

Shark007's FREE Codec solutions - Windows 7 codecs

SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker - Windows 7 Forums

Thanks boohbah.

I ran sfc /scannow, installed Shark007 codecs, associated all files in shark's settings. WMP still shows subtitles on all .mkv files even though they are set disabled (.m4v work fine).

VLC player still has audio dropouts, and its debugger says:
It gives me messages like that over and over again. I thought it might be because the .mkv files were on a separate HD, so I copies a few over to the C drive. Still does it.

DivX still won't play some of the .mkv files.

I don't like VLC either, try Media Player Classic - Home Cinema - Video Player I have used this with and without FFD Show with great success. Infact, I cant remember the last time I found a video it didn't play!

It looks real old skool and that's because the work has been done behind the scenes, not on pretty buttons.

Oh and do you know that the .mkv subs are from file and not in the video source?

Anything from DivX will cause problems on your PC.

Remove DivX, remove and re-install the Shark007 codecs.
I linked to MajorGeeks above because I just made a new release today.
I also noticed you have an 64bit OS - you will also need the x64Components addon.

After installation, run the both Settings App(s) using a rightclick and choose, Run as Administrator
then go to the Help TAB and use the Button to Associate filetypes to the Windows players

If you do not want Subs, go to the Config TAB and select 'No Subtitles'

Thanks for the info. I might try classic; I saw quite a few people recommend it when I was googling around about these problems.

I assume the subtitles are separate... when I play those files in vlc I can turn them on/off. If not, I guess I'll be learning about muxing (I don't even know what that means!)

Ahhh... I saw that x64 stuff on your site. I wasn't sure if it referred to the OS or the only the player itself (mine is x86). Will these codecs work with the WMP classic? I might switch to that one.

I use Winamp for audio files only, as it is a pain if used for video files. My fav is as above Media Player Classic HC and its set as default for all files. Still to find what it can't play, NO codecs installed.

Roadrunner! you app copy cat! That's the way I run this ship, winamp for all audio, MPC for all video! Winamp was ok for video untill about 2002 and then too many formats arrived for nullsoft to keep up with.

Woohoo! Victory! Every type of video plays, and plays well. Thanks everybody!
WMP classic + Shark007 codecs - DivX = Movie night
Time to make the popcorn.