MPEG2 Video not displaying correctly on WMP9

[Namie]

I have installed the MPEG2 Codec that was on this site and was able to watch MPEG2 video with Windows Media Player 9 but I realized it became unstable... there is either some conflict or the settings is incorrect... I also have FFDShow installed.

The video resolution became really small and flickers and frames look messed up. If I load the video with PowerDVD then it plays fine but I'd like to use WMP9...

If I click on File Properties, it says it is using Ligos MPEG Audio Decoder and video codec as "Subtitle Mixer" which seems sort of strange... is that part normal?

I am also on Windows XP...

Lastly, my computer becomes pretty unstable when I try to open the MPEG2 video because it seems like Windows is trying to read the video content but it has difficulty reading it and just takes forever... I had no problem with this when it was working though.

[sacajaweeda]

Windows Mediaplayer just sucks.

[D_Knife]

Agreed - media player sucks big time
You could either stick with PowerDVD or try Media Player Classic
(It's a seperate program) find it in the tools
it will allow you to specify the codecs you use for playback

[Namie]

Cool, thank you D_Knife. I got the Media Player Classic and now using it as default for all the media formats... it plays fine with it and very simple too!

Yeah I guess WMP9 isn't that great... I never really liked the junk along with it... Oh well.

For future reference though, if anyone knows why this problem is happening with WMP9 and could elaborate more than just "it sucks" I'd appreciate that as well. If not, it's still cool since I'll just be using the Media Classic.

[MeTaLgEaRsOoTy]

but theres the thing though...it DOES just plain suck.
no,oh,but if you change this and do that..
DONT.. it just sucks.

[Namie]

Sorry, but one problem still exists... I'll forget about WMP9 and continue on using Media Classic but when I click on the MPEG2 file(15 Mbps CBR-1024x576) Windows tries to read all the content through the folder details preview and the folder just becomes really unstable... Just a guess, is it because by default windows uses WMP9 or whatever through the folder?

[Poppa_Meth]

why did you use the MP2 codec from the tools section? Not only is it unstable and doesn't work worth a crap on anything I've tried it on, but if you have Power DVD installed then WMP9 should use the Power DVD MP2 codec anyway, which works a lot better.

[Namie]

Could you please tell me how I can switch to PowerDVD's MPEG2 instead of using the MPEG2 Codec that I downloaded off this site with Media Player Classic? I presumed WMP9 can't switch codecs but MPC can?

When I try to open certain MPEG2 files from just double clicking through the folder then the folder becomes really unstable because again Windows is trying to read all the content wrongly I think, it works fine if I just go to File and Open then select the video from there since it doesn't preview that way... but I like to just double click from the folder itself, is there a way to disable the folder preview or stop windows from trying to read all the content?

[D_Knife]

yes you can turn off windows trying (and failing) to read the file
Explorer>Tools>Folder Options>View
seecond item from the bottom
Show pop-up description for folder and desktops items
untick this
I used to get explorer crashing constantly when viewing CVD's - this fixed it

[Namie]

It still tries to load the preview video on the left side of the folder under Details... thus Windows has trouble reading the entire MPEG2 from there. Unchecking the "Show pop-up description..." doesn't turn off the preview image/video for the folder...

I'm assuming the problem is the preview video on the folder because I just select a certain MPEG2 file once and my folder basically stops responding completely.

[Poppa_Meth]

uninstall the MP2 codec you downloaded and reinstall Power DVD if you need to. both MPC and WMP9 should use the Power DVD codec with no problem. Mine uses it by default.

[Namie]

I did what you said by removing the MPEG2 Codec and reinstalling PowerDVD but when I just click on a certain MPEG2 file in explorer, it still tries to preview through explorer and it just completely stops responding and I'll have to alt+ctrl+del explorer to close the folder... the problem isn't viewing it but just trying to open it by double clicking on the file without having the folder to freeze everytime... this is getting really annoying