Vista + Playback = Problems

[801]

hi everyone. i'm new here.
i was referred to this site because i hear you have all the answers .

i'm having trouble playing some video files in Windows Vista. i think it might be a codec problem, but i'm not sure because i'm not too keen on the subject.

i have WMP11 and VLC Player installed, but am having trouble playing .avi, .mkv, and .ogm files.

some of the .avi files play fine in WMP, and some do not play at all.
the ones that dont play in WMP, the audio portion will play in VLC.

as for the .mkv and .ogm files, the audio plays in VLC, but not the video.
and will not play at all in WMP.

these same files play perfectly fine in WinXP. so i'm guessing its either a Vista problem, or lack of codecs. and if it is a codec problem, i'll need some help with where to get the files and how to install them.

i'd very much appreciate if anyone can help me get this sorted.

thanks
-801

[jagabo]

Open your files with GSpot and see what codec(s) you're missing. I think VLC can tell you too. Start playing one of the videos, right click on VLC and select Miscellaneous -> Media Info -> Advanced Information.

[801]

thanks
it looks like i needed Xvid and ogm.

heres what i installed just now...

XviD 1.1.2
OggDS 0.9.9.5
Lazy Man's MKV
MediaCoder 0.5.1-r8

my files seem to be playing alright in WMP now. but there are still a few bugs. some videos have dual audio tracks, and WMP is playing both of them at the same time. if i go to
Play > Audio and Language Tracks
there is no option to choose which track to play. the only option there is Defaults. i selected English (United States) from the list, but it didnt do anything. both the language tracks still play at the same time.

i also tried playing the file in VLC. i figured it would handle it better. but VLC still wont display the video track.

so i went into the install folders of those apps i listed above, and copied the all the .dll files i could find and put them in the Plugins folder of the VLC directory. but that didnt help anything.

thanks for your help so far. i know i'm almost there. if i can just get the video to play in VLC Player, i'll be set

[jagabo]

You could try Media Player Classic. Another good player is KMPlayer. The latter has a ton of codecs and A/V splitters (MKV, OGM, FLV, etc) built in. MPC has been my player of choice but I've been checking out KMPlayer and may switch.

[801]

thanks, i've got everything sorted now

someone over at wiredfire suggested i use CCCP
http://cccp-project.net/

and now everything is playing just fine

thanks again guys for all your suggestions!

[shinypate1]

It appears that VLC has to be tweaked in order to work with Vista. Here is the walkthru:
Open VLC media player.
Click on Settings and select Preferences… .
Expand Video and click on Output modules.
Check Advanced options in the lower right corner.
Set Video output module to either “DirectX“, “OpenGL” or “Windows GDI“ depending on your preferences.
VLC should work.
Good luck.
Shiny