No Video playback after graphics driver update

[Hikeman]

Hey guys.
After certain update of my graphics card driver I no longer have a video playback on my video players (including WMP), besides VLC. All the other video player are just able to play the sound of the video file, Nut not the video (the screen just stays black).The thing is that I didn't have this problem previously,, all my video players were able to play all the same video files, which they can't now!

I have the latest AMD Radeon HD video drivers installed. As I mentioned I didn't have this problem before,, with a previous versions of the AMD graphics card driver. This happened to my laptop a while ago already,, Since I have this problem I updated my video drivers 5 or 6 times at least, and no change so far !!!

As I mentioned I have the problem for some time already, during this time I re-installed my Windows couple of times, plus I even changed the version of the windows (7 to 8), for the moment I have the last version of video driver installed, I haven't installed ANY codecs.

I can probably find out from which update of a graphic card driver it started to happen and install the previous version, but I don't wanna miss out on the benefits of the driver updates, since I can still play normally videos on VLC (Only! cuz its probably have integrated codecs?!)

Can anyone help me with this pleas?
Thanks and have a nice day, hope we can solve this. ))

p.s. All the other graphic card related tasks are perfectly normal, I play games and so on.

 

[Faladu]

Driver updates are over-rated, unless they specifically target your situation, better to stay with what is working fine.

I would hit up guru3d.com for old drivers and nvidia driver clearing utilities, try one until it works, that's obviously what the problem is....

Been there done that..... if it ain't broke don't fix it....

 

[bobafetthotmail]

From the descritpion, sounds like a codec issue. VLC is fully self-contained in that regard and you say it works, so the video driver it's 99% likely to be fine.

I'd say to try shark's codec packs. They allow even WMP to rival VLC as far as readable formats, and will fix any codec issue you have.

 

[Hikeman]

I have never installed any codec on any of my machines I had never had a problem up to that update of the graphics card driver. what kind of codec problem can cause a WMP not to be able to play WMA videos,, isn't it Windows native video format?
I re-installed my Windows multiple times,, in fact now I have upgraded it to Windows 8 and still the exact same issue! I understand that WMP will have a difficulty playing some mp4 videos and such, but I don't think WMA and even AVI should be the same?!
In fact VLC is my main player (which also works for me now), is just a little annoying knowing that I have that problem plus sometimes I used to watch a video on Cyberlink PowerDVD for better viewing quality.
What i'd like is to have the normal stat of the Windows OS , when it's able to play (video formats) what it's created to be able to play and nothing more I don't need WMP to be like VLC, also codecs are known to cause issues most of the time.
I forget to mansion, that right after fresh install of the Windows 7 (before, when all the drivers are installed by Windows os itself),,, I don't have this problem, meaning I can play all the usual video formats that I used to before, right after installing the latest version of the drivers from AMD I am getting this issue, and i do install it cuz if i don't then I am having problems playing games, due to some OpenGl problems.. With windows 8 it's a different story, though. I have this problem even right after the fresh install (probably that "problem" was implemented to the driver updated for Microsoft as well???!)
SO, maybe it's a codec problem, but it appears the problem to be not the absence of it but the presence of it, i guess?!
Thanks for response and suggestions appreciate them a lot.

 

[bobafetthotmail]

WMP and most players for that matter use codecs to play anything. Wma requires its own codec for example.
A codec is a plugin that allows the programs to "compress and decompress" (hence the name) a media file encoded with a specific format for playing or when making it. Any format has its own codec.

If WMP does not play anything, but VLC does, it's not a display driver issue for sure.
VLC does not have special ability to communicate better with the GPU's video coprocessors or video hardware decoders, but has its own codecs stashed safely while WMP does not.

If somehow the codecs were screwed up by the driver install, you have to install them again.
I personally never had issues with shark's codec packs, which is why I recommended them. May not solve the issue at hand, but it's something that has to be tried imho given the symptoms.

So far the only things I encountered that ever had issues with non-standard codecs were X3: Reunion and X3: Terran Conflict, as both games's own audio and cutscene player was very picky (and coded badly as I might add, all games I know either use players with their own codecs or piggyback on WMP).

 

[Faladu]

If just Codec issue, I would suggest K-Lite:

K-Lite Codec Pack - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Find it and some other goodies here:
Codec Guide: K-Lite Codec Pack - For XP, Vista, Windows 7 and 8

 

[Hikeman]

Hello. Sorry for replying late. So I installed the K-Lite Codec Pack - Basic (I looked up for the Basic, it had all the "basic" codecs the system needs to play all the common video formats) and there was still no change. Other then VLC all the players (WMP12 MPC ) are not able to play any video format (I tried to play some movies which I successfully played on those player previously). I can hear the sound/music/speech and see the subtitles, but not the video picture.
Thanks for staying here and with me and helping me out with suggestions. Hope you still have some more ideas, which might eventually solve my problem.
Have a great day guys.

 

[Mark Phelps]

If I were you, I would try the downloads from the linked page: FOURCC identifier

They can tell you what codecs the file is actually using, so you then know which ones you are missing.