Problem with playing MPEGS (Complicated)

[NeonTetra]

I recently formatted my harddrive and reinstalled windows.

Prior to the formatting I had no video problems, I had all the proper codecs installed and no conflicts. Everything worked great.

My problem is: Now, when I download an mpeg (.mpg) off the internet, instead of saving as a .mpg it saves as ".mpg.mp2". I know that it's not because it's a different file because I downloaded some of the same files that I had before the format that had saved as ".mpg" and now they are saved as ".mpg.mp2".

Now that's not the real problem. Honestly, I don't even know if that's significant, I just know that that's the only thing that I notice as different since the problem occured. The REAL problem is that these .mpg.mp2 files won't play. I use zoom player as my media player (I also tried playing the files in windows media player 9, real player, and powerdvd). I've installed and played around with combinations of the latest nimo code pack, ffdshow, and the codecs recommended by zoom player.

I should correct myself though, the files DO play. They are just really messed up (weird colored squares everywhere and the audio is crazy). It seems to be the result of a codec problem. But I've tried all combinations of codecs that I can think of (and more importantly I tried the same combination that I was using when everything worked prior to the format).

I've even tried uninstalling all codecs and then installing just the mpeg2 codec (http://www.inmatrix.com/zplayer/formats/mpeg2.shtml).

With just that I still get the messed up videos.

How do I fix this problem?

Why do my mpeg files save as "mpg.mp2"?

Thanks for reading.

[mats.hogberg]

Yes, I'm sure it's a codec problem. Best bet is usually PowerDVD when it comes to playing mpeg2 material.
One thing that comes to mind is: Have you switched off "hide known file type extensions"? (Or maybe forgotten to?) And what is "it" in

instead of saving as a .mpg it saves as ".mpg.mp2"

?
Neither of these suggestions and questions will cure your problem, but...

/Mats

[Krispy Kritter]

If you remove the .mp2, does the file play correctly?

[NeonTetra]

Thanks for the replies.

Turns out I did have "hide known file type extensions" turned off. I really appreciate your pointing that out. I'd have never figured it out and it was bothing the he.. out of me.

I suppose I'll just have to continue messing with the codecs. I never had a problem in the past. Perhaps there's something wrong with some motherboard driver? I did download the drivers from the manufacturer's site this time instead of using the disk. I don't have the disk with me here at college unfortunately though. Could that possibly contribute? I don't know how it would.

Oh, and yes, I had tried renaming the mpg.mp2 to .mpg but that's irrelavant now that mats.hogberg cleared that up.

Thanks again. Any other ideas?

[Duchess]

Have you tried using Gspot to see what codec is required?

[NeonTetra]

yeah, i tried it but no go because it's not an avi, it's an mpeg

[redwudz]

Try AVIcodec, preferably the latest version. It shows info on MPEGs.

[mats.hogberg]

So does GSpot in its latest beta versions.

/Mats