# No image when playing video files



## Twiddlebug (Apr 15, 2003)

I have a problem playing video files of every format. There is no visuals no matter what player I use (REALONE/Win Media Player) though I can hear the sound. I'm running Win XP Home on a P4 2GHz, RAM 256 and basically I cannot view files of every format (realmedia, mpg, avi, winamp media, and whatever there is).


----------



## putasolution (Mar 20, 2003)

Have you loaded all the relevant codecs for Windows Media Player?


----------



## Twiddlebug (Apr 15, 2003)

hmmm i'm quite green in these areas....could u please teach me how to load all the codecs?


----------



## putasolution (Mar 20, 2003)

Ok, you're on XP and have to assume that you are running Windows Media Player 8, unless you have updated.

Start with this DivX bundle, download it and install it, then see if any of your movies will play


----------



## Twiddlebug (Apr 15, 2003)

hmmm i'm using WMP version 9 and i have tried the DivX player before and it does not work at all i still get the audio only minus the visuals.......


----------



## putasolution (Mar 20, 2003)

Add this then to your downloads


----------



## Twiddlebug (Apr 15, 2003)

hmmm what am i supposed to download from the link u provided?i already have the WMP version 9 installed but it does not play too.....


----------



## Twiddlebug (Apr 15, 2003)

Oh anyway an auto update of my OS was carried out the other day before i could not get any visuals.....could it be due to some of then installed components? I remember that a new version of DirX was among the installed components and i cannot seem to uninstall them......


----------



## putasolution (Mar 20, 2003)

Try this link


----------



## Twiddlebug (Apr 15, 2003)

sadly the codecs did not work for me too. I installed them and restarted my pc, tried to play but still not getting any visuals.......


----------



## putasolution (Mar 20, 2003)

As you are using WMP9, go to *View | Now Playing Options*
Click *Show Playlist* and *Show Media Information*
Try playing one of these files
If there is an error trying to obtain a codec, it will show an orange exclamation mark.
Click on that and post back what it says


----------



## Twiddlebug (Apr 15, 2003)

ok i did like u suggested the sound can be heard n no visuals as usual, and there is no orange exclamation mark to be seen.....


----------



## putasolution (Mar 20, 2003)

I suppose we could always be looking at faulty files or that they are only sound files


----------



## putasolution (Mar 20, 2003)

Go to *Tools | Options | Player* Tab
See if *Download codecs automatically* is checked


----------



## Twiddlebug (Apr 15, 2003)

hmm i would rule that out as i tried one of the movie file that i just watched the night before i had this problem and it also showed no visuals. It was perfectly ok the day before......


----------



## Twiddlebug (Apr 15, 2003)

yup the auto download for codecs is checked


----------



## putasolution (Mar 20, 2003)

What file extension is the file?


----------



## Twiddlebug (Apr 15, 2003)

err i can't view all types of video file from mpeg, avi, Realmedia VBR, winamp media file, every type of formatt there is......


----------



## putasolution (Mar 20, 2003)

I'm at a loss, the ? is which codec worked for the file before. I don't doubt that it is a codec problem, but which one?


----------



## Twiddlebug (Apr 15, 2003)

opps sorry for the confusion but the file which worked before was a Realmedia VBR played using REALONE player.
but before this problem surfaced, i tried playing the other files once i downloaded them and they could play perfectly well using both WMP n REALONE but not anymore


----------



## putasolution (Mar 20, 2003)

I don't think you'll find that The VBR file will play in WMP only in real player


----------



## Twiddlebug (Apr 15, 2003)

hmmm the point is now no matter wat player or wat file format i play there are no visuals.........


----------



## putasolution (Mar 20, 2003)

Ok, Try this, go to this site, download and run AVIcodec (freeware).

This program will tell you what codeces the films need and the other tab will tell you what is installed on your computer


----------



## Twiddlebug (Apr 15, 2003)

hmmm tried the programme u mentioned on all my video files and they all got ticks without any error messages


----------



## putasolution (Mar 20, 2003)

Help, anyone? I don't know where to go from here


----------



## Twiddlebug (Apr 15, 2003)

err i was thinkin whether Dir X could be the probelm here as the auto updates installed some Dir X updates....


----------



## putasolution (Mar 20, 2003)

You could try re-installing DirectX


----------



## Twiddlebug (Apr 15, 2003)

hmm can u please tell me how it can be done?as i'm not very good at these software stuff....and where can i get older versions of DirX?


----------



## putasolution (Mar 20, 2003)

I think that the first thing to do would be do a system restore to before the time that you did the updates, using system restore


----------



## Twiddlebug (Apr 15, 2003)

err sad to say there is no restore point that i can restore my system to due to some unknown reasons........


----------



## putasolution (Mar 20, 2003)

Go to Start | run 
Type in Dxdiag
Click the Display Tab
Run the tests there

(I still think this is a codec problem)


----------



## Twiddlebug (Apr 15, 2003)

ok i did both the Directdraw & Direct3D tests and both test were totally successful...........


----------



## putasolution (Mar 20, 2003)

So we can rule out DirectX, I think

Lets' try the Xvid Codec download and try


----------



## Twiddlebug (Apr 15, 2003)

hmmm i d/l the file n install it then what am i supposed to do try playing the files again?i am a real idiot in this so i think u might need to give me more detailed instructions......sorry for all the trouble....


----------



## putasolution (Mar 20, 2003)

Double click on the file, it should install


----------



## Twiddlebug (Apr 15, 2003)

i already install the file and tried playing the files using different players but i still did not get any visuals is there anything that i have to do after i installed the codec thingy?


----------



## putasolution (Mar 20, 2003)

Try re-installing RealPlayer


----------



## Twiddlebug (Apr 15, 2003)

i reinstalled my real player but the visuals still cannot be seen


----------



## mysticnas (Jun 6, 2003)

I have exactly the same problem. 

no matter what type if video file i try to play or what player i use i only get sound. it started yesterday for no apparent reason. Even my DVD players are affected!!!

When i tried to play a quicktime file it said this file may not play propperly as the compressor could not be found (or was it loaded?)

however, when i imported the file into adobe premiere to see if it would work in that, it did, and also in the media players too. 

So the situation is EVERY type of video file only plays sound, but when adobe premiere is running it seems to work ok, with most of the files anyway.

I think there's a problem with windows not being able to load the codecs/compressors propperly, but when adobe premiere run it forces the drivers/codecs/compressors to run.

any idea's as to solving this problem?


----------



## marbendill (Aug 12, 2003)

I had the same problem. Suddenly I couldn´t view any type of video I only got sound. I´m using WinXP home and I had recently installed Nvidia detonator drivers v. 44.03 for my Geforce4 MX 440 and when I used the "roll back driver" option for my graphics adapter everything went back to normal again  
So in my case it was a problem with v. 44.03 drivers and going back to v. 43.45 fixed it all. Hope this helps you


----------



## tropic_slice (Aug 19, 2003)

I have the same problem. i don't know a sure fix to it tho, just a temporary one.

Go to Start | run 
Type in Dxdiag
Click the Display Tab
then disable DirectDraw Acceleration

i know this isn't a very good fix. but at least it allows you to view your movies. i've got an image of my early C:\ and that works fine. when i update the Nvidia Drivers i lose my image for videos. fine i thought. i reloaded my image back and instead of updating the nvidia drivers i updated to directx 9.0 . same result. no image. hopefully someone will come up with the fix.


----------

