(My original post doesn't seem to have made it, so here goes again) Hi. I have a problem I’m hoping someone knows the answer to. I take a lot of AVIs with my Nikon digital camera and noticed that these files don’t play well in Vista (using WMP 11) on at least three totally different computers. The playback looks something like a negative only the colors are blue and green. The audio is fine, just the video is affected. I assumed this was a codec problem, however Quicktime (ver 7.6.4) has no problem with it and GSpot renders it perfectly. As best I can tell, I do have the necessary codecs, but I don't see what else it could be. I realize that many people hate WMP and that I could just use Quicktime or some other program, but I dislike the facr that it isn’t working. Plus, others who view these files just use WMP. So, if someone can help me figure out how to fix playback in WMP, I’d greatly appreciate it. GSpot has the following: 4CC = mjpg Name = Motion JPEG including Huffman Tables Video Path = (S) --> AVI Splitter --> MJPEG Decompressor --> MainConcept Color Space Converter --> (R)
Possibly some combination of filter is to blame. I created a test mjpeg avi and got the following set of filters when rendering in graphstudio (directshow). Render your file in graphstudio and see what you get. It may agree with Gspot. In any event the graph can be manipulated and perhaps you'll find the issue. Uploaded with ImageShack.us
The issue you describe is caused by the video settings in your player and how it uses the video acceleration features. Most likely the video settings got changed because of some upgrade Microsoft downloaded. Goto windows media player 11 in tools options performance area. look for video acceleration section. Click on advanced. look for video mixing renderer ... click on use HIGH Quality not overlays. The video should now play ok. (this was tested using Windows XP Home)
davexnet, Thanks for the response. I ran the file in Graphstudio and got this image (Hope I did that right.) It seems to agree with GSpot and rendered the video file just fine. I'm not sure what I am supposed to do when manipulating it, though. Can you enlighten me a bit more? I have never used this program before. Thanks. ed_s, Thanks, too, for the advice. It does seem as if the problem is solely with Windows Media Player. Of course. I have read elsewhere that video acceleration could be the culprit, but I don't see where to change it. In my version (11.0.6002.18111), the Performance tab appears a little dumbed down. Here is a snapshot: I have tried changing those "DVD and Video Playback" options to no avail. Any other ideas? Thanks
Yes, you're right, it does seem a little dumbed down. What happened to the "advanced" tab? Here's what I had in mind regarding Graphstudio. Render the media file, then select graph/insert filter. Scroll down until you see FFDshow video decoder. Select it and insert the filter (close the box now, the filter should be on the main screen). Right click the new filter and select properties. Hilight "codecs" top left, and on the right you'll see a list of types that it can handle. Scroll it down until you can see mjpeg. Set it from "disabled" to "libavcodec". (OK out). Click on the "mjpeg compressor" box and delete. Same for the mainconcept filter. Move the FFDShow filter into position and "draw" the link from the "avi splitter" stream 0 to the left side of the FFDshow filter, (click on the "pin" and hold down the left mouse button and drag) and draw a link from the right side to the video renderer. Press play. How's the video now ? Close graphstudio and reopen. Render the file again. Is FFdshow video being used? If so, play the file in WMP. How is it now?
Awesome! davexnet, the fix was simple thanks to your input. I started to do as you asked, but found that there was no ffdshow codec (filter?) listed in the DirectShow filters list. Then I vaguely remembered an error I had seen a long time ago when watching some other kind of video - it had mentioned something about either not having ffdshow and so using something else or using ffdshow just this once. In any case, I looked online and downloaded the ffdshow beta package from ffdshow tryouts (http://ffdshow-tryout.sourceforge.net/). This is all I needed, apparently, for the video plays in WMP11 without any trouble. Again, thanks for your help. I'll definitely come back here when I next have playback problems.
Sounds good. Not everybody has it installed, but quite a few do. Either installed directly or possibly installed under the covers through some other codec pack or even some apps install it.