Solved Problems with EVERY media player I try!

[stevieray]

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!

 

[boohbah]

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

 

[stevieray]

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:

main debug: control type=1
main warning: computed PTS is out of range (17981334), clearing out
main warning: output PTS is out of range (18066667), clearing out
main debug: audio output is starving (378000), playing silence
waveout warning: aout_OutputNextBuffer no buffer got next_date=1772608 ms, 0 frames to play, starving? 1, waiting...

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.

 

[Sub Styler]

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?

 

[Shark007]

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'

 

[stevieray]

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?

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!)

 

[stevieray]

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'

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.

 

[Roderunner]

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.

 

[Sub Styler]

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.

 

[stevieray]

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

 

[rraod]

Another option would be to use WDTV Live media player (a small hardware box, looks like a compact USB HDD from Western Digital with a remote control) with a couple of usb HDDs (upto 2TB) containing all the media (mp3s, movies, avi, mkv, mp4 etc, photos like JPGs etc...) connected to a HDTV by a HDMI cable. You will get full HD video with DTS passthrough, and an option to connect a Dolby 5.1 surround home theatre to get the best of everything.

There is a lot of difference in watching the movies on a HDTV in 1080i rather than watching movies on a computer.

I have been using this setup for the last two years (minus 5.1 surround home theatre) and very happy with the performance. You throw any file at WDTV and it plays without a hiccup.... One of the best media player in the market.

 

[stevieray]

That will be my next project.

 

[Roderunner]

Roadrunner! you app copy cat!

Miaooooowww.

 

[Wishmaster]

Shark,
Can we actually opt out of any of the toolbars, especially ASK in the newest version?

It never asks me and always force installs it.
The last one I tried only allowed the opt out if the toolbar was already installed, for whatever reason.
If it wasnt present, it forced it.

 

[Sub Styler]

Glad you got it sorted, and if you can turn the subs off in another app they are certainly in a/the file, not the video source.