Windows Media Player 12 - Video Quality Poor with Examples

[TheGreatOne]

I'm encountering a problem with playing mp4 videos at the moment (or so it seems to be only mp4). Basically, sometime last month, I began to notice the video quality becoming very poor when playing videos on WMP 12, as well as on CNN.com (streaming videos). CNN, somehow, is playing normally again. YouTube is playing just fine as well. But I noticed playing native mp4 videos are playing poorly. Interestingly, if I try to play that same video in Real Player or Quicktime, the quality comes back to normal (with some staggering effect). Here are snapshots:

Bad video: http://i1351.photobucket.com/albums/p797/benr7277/wmp_poor_zpsab4005e7.png

Good video: http://i1351.photobucket.com/albums/p797/benr7277/qtp_good_zps2a69d208.png

I also tried downloading something called K-light codec pack. I'm not really sure how to use or fix my problem with this, so..

I need your gracious help. thanks!

Ben

 

[ThrashZone]

WMP Trouble shooter,
http://support.microsoft.com/mats/windows_media_player_diagnostic/
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/open-the-windows-media-player-settings-troubleshooter
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/play-an-audio-or-video-file-frequently-asked-questions