# FF7 Video Problems



## Pyro (Sep 6, 2002)

I'm having problems with the videos in FF7, it won't play them at all, even the opening movies before the game even starts.

I have un-re-installed it at least 6 times to no avail.  

I can watch them from the disk, I've tried to copy the movies to the HD but that didn't work either.

I've even switched back to my old video card (from NVIDIA Geforce 2 MX/MX 400) because it states in the readme that Matrox is a supported card.

I've had it working on both of the video cards at one point or another but now it will not play any videos & when I start a new game, it skips the intro movie then the screen stays black until I press the menu button.

My Computer is
Intel Pentium II MMX 400MHz 
Win98 (with service pack 1)
320Mb RAM
Matrox Millennium G200 AGP
DirectX 8.0

I have tried the updated drivers for both cards (I think, neither page I downloaded from had the exact same name)

OK I think that's everything, if I've left anything out let me know.


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## bkatz540 (Oct 23, 2003)

Hi!

I had the same problem, to fix it: go into autorun on FF7, then install the "movie player", that fixed all mah problems...............it should wrk......




~Ben


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## Pyro (Sep 6, 2002)

Thanks for the reply, I tried that but nothing changed.

I don't know if it makes a difference since I've uninstalled the game at least twice since, but I did install the NVIDIA TNT patch to force that card into Direct3D Hardware Acceleration mode.

And ever since I've had a whole bunch of files with a *.p extension in the install directory.

P.S. 
Going through the readme I found this and was wondering if it would help;

"For users of Matrox Millenium (not supported but can run in software 
rendering mode), if you cannot run the FF7 Configuration program,
please uncheck the Bus Mastering box located in the PowerDesk settings 
in your Display Properties."


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## DragonByte (Jan 29, 2004)

if your use windows media player try watching it from the cd, try even if you dont but either way they should work


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## Pyro (Sep 6, 2002)

I can watch them straight from the disk, that's not the problem.

I don't know if you've played the game but I'll try and explain what's happening.
I'm at the Cosmo Canyon area where my ride breaks.
When I go up to talk to Bugenhagen my party steps into his machine, goes up on the platform then each walk to seperate place on the screen, he starts to explain some things about the lifestream, at this point it skips one movie (flashes static for a sec) then he starts talking again.
Until he gets to a comment that isn't in the regular blue box,
"And not only living things. It makes it possible to form planets"
The text starts at the bottom middle of the screen, there's another static flash (skip movie) and the text jumps from mid bottom to top left. At this point I can move Cloud around the screen I can walk straight through one character but the other is solid.
Bugenhagen is still floating up and down at the top of the screen and I can run around, so the game isn't really frozen but I can't progress any further, and the text is still there.

If somone could tell me how to do a screen capture I'd post a pic.

I'll try to attach the savegame file.
(it's slot #1 just rename it 'save00.ff7')
Maybe somone could just walk the game through this movie sequence and re-post it I'll try anything at this point.

Just a thought, if I start the game and get to just before the movie sequence minimize it open the movie in WMP and switch back to the game might that work? or damn I dunno I'm lost


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## Pyro (Sep 6, 2002)

I've been doing some digging to see if something might be wrong with Windows Media Player and I found that I downloaded and installed Media Player 8 codecs & I only have WMP 7.1. Would that have any impact on the game trying to play videos? And if it is how would I uninstall this.


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## Pyro (Sep 6, 2002)

Well I think I've made some progress, I started the game today and heard it start to play the Eidos logo movie, sadly it didn't finish and the in-game movies are still out of whack.
I've noticed that it doesn't seem to even try to play the movies from the disk anymore.
Here is the DxDiag.


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## Pyro (Sep 6, 2002)

Ok? Let's try that again.


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## Pyro (Sep 6, 2002)

Looks like I'm the only one posting on this thread.
I contacted Eidos and they told me that it might be a corrupt save game. But that can't be it because after I uninstall then reinstall, before I even _start_ a new game it still won't play the Squaresoft-Eidos movies before the game starts. And if I do start a new game it won't play the opening movie.
Anyone have any ideas?


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## DragonByte (Jan 29, 2004)

I was having the same problem, I fixed it but removing every ff7 file i could find and backing up my saves (Uninstall didnt work) and the installed it on full and it works great, though now im have a problem with the config...


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## Couriant (Mar 26, 2002)

Well, I was looking at your post and I don't know what would be causing it. The only logical thing is the graphics card. Have you tried forcing it to software rendering?


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## Pyro (Sep 6, 2002)

Software mode made no difference, even forcing D3D mode didn't work. But I was up till the wee hours of the morning and found ff7betap1.exe (Duck True Motion Update) it worked like a charm, all the videos play perfectly. Dragonbyte go HERE to get it.
Let me know if it works for you too.


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## Couriant (Mar 26, 2002)

So now it works?


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## Pyro (Sep 6, 2002)

Yup It's working perfectly.


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## Couriant (Mar 26, 2002)

Cool!


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