Solved Media Player and Youtube - video playback problem

[Hiker Guy]

Not sure which forum section to place this in.

My pc is Win 7 64 SP1, all updates (including video drivers) should be there.

I don't go to Youtube a lot, but tried this morning, and the video was extremely dark (normal audio). Strange, but the teaser commercial on some of the videos was fine. Tried Media Player as well, same issue.

I do have a FLV player, and if I use that to open the MP4 files on my computer, that works.

I suspect this is a codec type issue, which I admit I am a novice at. Don't think it is a Flash setting, as Media Player has the same issues.

The only "strange" thing I have done is when downloading a file to upgrade my camera software, it was in a VLC format. I thought I had to download a VLC player, and there were some configuration screens that tried to associate everything with the VLC player. Turns out that I didn't have to do that, and my camera recognized the file and finally got it uploaded to my camera fine. Removed the VLC player.

I had Shark007 codecs once on my PC, haven't for awhile.

Would appreciate being pointed in the right direction.

Thx

 

[Hiker Guy]

follow up actions

Still not solved, although I did remove Adobe Flash and re-installed it, installed Shark007's codecs for Win 7 64 bit, monitor driver update, and ATI graphic card driver update (Radeon HD 4800).

Rebooted a few times. Still no joy.

YouTube videos (except for the commercial teasers up front) plays audio fine, and the video is extremely dark, partially blood red, cannot see the video.

 

[Hiker Guy]

Stranger and Stranger.....went to LiveLeaks, videos play great.

Fox News.....videos play great.

A few other websites, videos play great.

Back to YouTube, videos are extremely dark, barely discernible, heavy deep red/black tint to everything

 

[Hiker Guy]

For those of you following, two issues.

Solved: Found out that I could get YouTube to work in Chrome, not IE. Went back to IE, added youtube to a Compatibility view, and it works now in IE.

Not yet solved: Windows Media player still an issue. Will try something similar tomorrow for that.

Cheers,

 

[Hiker Guy]

At least all of it is not in my head....there seems to be some issues afoot...

Video not displaying (black box over player) or cannot seek/scrub (weird or no scroll bar) -- Look here - YouTube Help

Also went to YouTube - SWF Testing, was finally able to uncheck hardware acceleration....

Still issues with Microsoft Media Player, can't run it in compatibility mode....to be continued....

 

[Hiker Guy]

In my continuing monologue to myself (and the occasional visitor to this thread), as of this morning YouTube is perfect.

The apparently other problem is with WMP12. Interestingly, this also affects the desktop Zune program. Both play the videos with a very very heavy red tint, with an unrecognizable video. Audio is fine. Yet, when I play a copy of the same video on my Zune portable player, it plays fine.

I tried a couple of things this morning, including deactivating WMP12 and then reactivating it, no joy. A registry cleanup (using TuneUp Utilities) did not uncover anything that I could recognize (am a novice at that part, to be honest).

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Thx

 

[Devux]

Well I would suggest trying a different media player, maybe WinAmp or MediaPlayerClassic. That being said, MediaPlayerClassic doesn't connect to devices in the same manner WMP does, and WinAmp may or may not have support for your Zune. They support just about every iPod so it's a possibility. I stopped dealing with the inconsistencies of WMP a long time ago. Another thought if those players don't work, try downloading the Combined Community Codec Pack. (CCCP) It has every codec you can possibly imagine and will fix most play back issues, and it comes with Media Player Classic if you so desire.

 

[Hiker Guy]

Devux, Thank you for the suggestion, but I am somewhat wary at this point, as this involves a different pack of codecs, and the response from MS is "we are working with the software publisher to confirm this product's compatibility".

Windows 7 Compatibility for Media Player Classic version 6.4: Gabest. Drivers, Updates, Downloads

I am not against moving to another player, but it is still perplexing to me why the WMP12 has "suddenly" stopped working. I would like to get this fixed, and then move to another player. Willing to pay for a good player, not stuck on free only. If the "perfect" player was out there, I would buy it.

Someone else suggested VLC. My hesitation with that is that I had a camera upgrade file that was in a VLC format, so I downloaded that. Turns out I did not need it, so I removed it. Sometime after that point (and probably not related), I used the WMP12 player and noticed the issue of video playback (see my 1st post). So.....I am hesitant to add more players/codecs until I get this fixed.

So, first I want to fix what I have. May build another user profile, and see if that is the same.

Ran /sfc scannow, did fix something that was corrupted, but still have the same WMP12 video playback problem. Also re-registered my Jscript.dll and Vbscript.dll files.

 

[bk11]

Solved the dark video problem in Windows Media Player

Hi,

After hours of googling, trying different video codecs, players and being totally frustrated, I was trying to find video acceleration settings of my graphics card.

BUT, then found there was a Media Colour Enhancement menu in the video card settings. From there setting brighten movie or now even default profile made the videos watchable and bright from the previous overly dark ones.

So, those having problems with dark videos in Windows 7 Windows Media Player, go rightclick on your windows desktop, check into Graphics Properties and see, if your video card driver has
Media /
Color Enhancement
Image Enhancement

options.

My graphics card is Intel, so the menu might be different on your graphics card control panel.

btw: the recommendations of turning down video acceleration in Windows Media Player didn't have any effect. Now the colours are normal with whatever settings in the WMP performance.

Regards,
bk

 

[kado897]

There is one video player that doesn't need any codecs VLC it has its own builtin decoding. VideoLAN - VLC: Official site - Free multimedia solutions for all OS!

 

[Hiker Guy]

Hi,

After hours of googling, trying different video codecs, players and being totally frustrated, I was trying to find video acceleration settings of my graphics card.

BUT, then found there was a Media Colour Enhancement menu in the video card settings. From there setting brighten movie or now even default profile made the videos watchable and bright from the previous overly dark ones.

Regards,
bk

BK11,

It has taken me awhile to get back here, but you are right, this was the issue!

On my AMD graphic card system, if I right-click on the desktop, I have a ASUS Splendid option, which permits a number of settings. I have been unable to find the program on my computer to actually disable it, but then found an option off of the desktop right click.

One simple "disable", and now WMP12 works fine! Strange, I could not find this option or program in the Control Panel to disable. Would like to uninstall it, but it does not show up in the list of programs.

This must have been installed when I updated my drivers some time ago, and then I just never used WMP12 until recently. Now, it appears everything is working fine.

Frustrating indeed, but glad that everything seems to be right again.

Again, thank you for pointing me in the right direction.