WMP not playing WMVs

Under Steam's Media collection, the WMVs's video tracks don't play (but the sound does) under WMP or any WMP host, like Steam's Media Player.

But Media Player Classic can play the WMVs fine, so what's up? Why can't Microsoft's own player play its own formats?

W3bbo wrote:

Under Steam's Media collection, the WMVs's video tracks don't play (but the sound does) under WMP or any WMP host, like Steam's Media Player.

But Media Player Classic can play the WMVs fine, so what's up? Why can't Microsoft's own player play its own formats?

Only files from Steam don't work?

CannotResolveSymbol wrote:



W3bbo wrote:Under Steam's Media collection, the WMVs's video tracks don't play (but the sound does) under WMP or any WMP host, like Steam's Media Player. But Media Player Classic can play the WMVs fine, so what's up? Why can't Microsoft's own player play its own formats?

Only files from Steam don't work?

That's right.

I've got two other WMVs lying around: a rip of Electric Six - Radio Ga Ga (made with SDP Multimedia sometime in 2004) and a copy of "Don't copy that floppy" (oh, how ironic), both play fine in WMP.

blowdart wrote:

Sounds like a duff codec. Have you looked into them using GSpot to see what they were encoded using? Just because they have a wmv extension doesn't mean a WM codec was used?

File Type: ASF (.WMA/.WMV)
Mime Type: video/x-ms-asf

The preview in GSpot can play it fine.

Interesting:

When I open it in WMP6.4, it downloads the "WMV09 VCM RTW" codec installer. When I click Install it throws this:

Unable to download an appropriate decompressor. (Error=80040200)
Unable to download an appropriate decompressor. (Error=80040200)

Yay.

Hmm.. I'm going to have to try that when I get home. But then again it may well work as I've already gone through all the pain of getting Divx Xvid and other codecs for Vista x64. So I should be ready to play pretty much any format you care to name.

Uninstall any "codec packs". There are several "packs" which breaks WMP.

BlackTiger wrote:

Uninstall any "codec packs". There are several "packs" which breaks WMP.

I had K-Lite Codec Pack (Standard) installed, after removing it WMP still won't play the WMVs.

W3bbo wrote:



BlackTiger wrote: Uninstall any "codec packs". There are several "packs" which breaks WMP.

I had K-Lite Codec Pack (Standard) installed, after removing it WMP still won't play the WMVs.

Are any of these WMVs that won't play accessible without Steam (or can you make one available)?  I'd like to take a look at it.

CannotResolveSymbol wrote:



W3bbo wrote: BlackTiger wrote: Uninstall any "codec packs". There are several "packs" which breaks WMP. I had K-Lite Codec Pack (Standard) installed, after removing it WMP still won't play the WMVs.

Are any of these WMVs that won't play accessible without Steam (or can you make one available)?  I'd like to take a look at it.

They're *.wmv files located under %programfiles%\Steam\SteamApps\media. The Steam Media Player "smp.exe" is just a DirectShow host.

W3bbo wrote:



CannotResolveSymbol wrote:  W3bbo wrote:  BlackTiger wrote: Uninstall any "codec packs". There are several "packs" which breaks WMP. I had K-Lite Codec Pack (Standard) installed, after removing it WMP still won't play the WMVs. Are any of these WMVs that won't play accessible without Steam (or can you make one available)?  I'd like to take a look at it.

They're *.wmv files located under %programfiles%\Steam\SteamApps\media. The Steam Media Player "smp.exe" is just a DirectShow host.

Okay, maybe I should be a little more clear:

I want to take a look at one of the videos that doesn't work, but I don't want to install Steam.  Are these videos available from any other sources?

CannotResolveSymbol wrote:

Okay, maybe I should be a little more clear:

I want to take a look at one of the videos that doesn't work, but I don't want to install Steam.  Are these videos available from any other sources?

Not that I'm aware of.

Of course, the videos (as in the trailers and gameplay vids) are available elsewhere, but they're a different filetype. The ones on Steam are like 300MB each and are 1280x720.

Is it not possible Steam is using a twisted form of WMP to keep people from copying their media previews, outside of steam?

Quite interesting...

It seems(!) like a bug in WMP11 (Vista)... I will try to do the same on my more powerfull home PC with ATI video card later... May be this is just a GeForce driver's issue.

I'm able to play Steam's movies in WMP only in "windowed" mode. But I'm getting blank screen with sound in "full screen" mode. If I'm just maximizing WMP's window (not "full screen") then WMP displays error message "Unable to play movie" and exists.

I recommend you to use ZoomPlayer instead of WMP! This player plays Steam's WMVs correctly in any mode. And with much better quality than WMP.

I posted a while back about how i could not get wmp11 to play asf files from my sons old digital movie camera.

At the time search we not coming back with much...

but now vista is out - it's probably biting more people and searches seem to be throwing some light on the issue....

this post hints that ASF files are activley blocked by WMP because of malware issues. Why WMP/MS can't tell you that is beyond me......

http://help.lockergnome.com/general/view-asf-videos-WMP-11-ftopict51104.html


It also hints that installing DivX codec in can get rid of the problem. In somecases.

Which will be my next atemp when i get back to my laptop.

If it effects WMP then it will probably effect Media Centre too.

My tempoary work arround was to use WinAmp to play the video files. I have a DVB-T recorder on my xp machine, WMP/Vista cannot play its files back either so winamp is not a fix there.

From following up on searches, the problem seem to be caused by WMP.

I tried to have a look, but Steam wouldn't actually let me download the videos at all. (I click on the "add to my media" button and nothing happens... sasser frassin' rasser frasser.)

Sigh...

Ok. I've tried to play same movies at home. PC with Vista and ATI X1600 video. WMP plays videos almost fine except strange slow downs in full screen mode.

It looks like video driver's issue. Do you have GeForce card, or Intel's "super fast video mega-accelerator"?