Can't watch DVD's or MP4's all of a sudden

[Adebisi]

Hi all,

I'm running WinXP SP2, Quad Core Q6600@2.40Ghz, 2GB ram.

All of a sudden my computer won't play DVD's or if it does, the video is very choppy (audio is fine). This happens with WMP 11 and CinePlayer. Futhermore, I can no longer play my video mp4 files (all of my audio only mp4 still work just fine).

When I try to run some DVD's with WMP 11 i get the message: "Windows Media Player cannot play this DVD because there is a problem with digital copy protection between your DVD drive, decoder, and video card. Try installing an updated driver for your video card." The DVD's that do work just come out choppy.

If I try to use iTunes or DivX Player to run my mp4's I get the "<application> has encountered a problem and needs to close" message.

All of my other avi, mpeg, and mov files are still working perfectly with all of my players.
I have no idea why this has started happening as I don't recall installing/uninstalling anything.

I've tried installing countless codec packs with no luck. (Can codecs conflict? I used a program called Codec sniper which told me everthing was ok). I've updated my video card drivers (GeForce 8800GTX).
I will update to WinXP SP3, but I don't think that will fix the problem.

Any help would be much appreciated. I don't really want to completely reinstall my system lol
Cheers,
Adebisi.

[guns1inger]

I've tried installing countless codec packs with no luck

Yes, they certainly can. In fact one bad codec pack is enough to kill the video playback on a system to the point where on a reinstall will fix it.

Start by uninstalling all codec packs and individual codecs that you have installed. Then restart the machine.

Reinstall Quicktime/iTunes, Divx, and any other individual codecs (Xvid etc). Do not install a codec pack. You should probably also install the latest DirectX as well.

Now test playback and see what happens.

If it still fails, install VLC or The KM Player to see if they can at least play the videos. If they cannot, you have major problems.

[45tripp]

"Windows Media Player cannot play this DVD because there is a problem with digital copy protection between your DVD drive, decoder, and video card. Try installing an updated driver for your video card."

hehe
bloody m$

I've tried installing countless codec packs with no luck. (Can codecs conflict? I used a program called Codec sniper

you might want to start uninstalling them one by one,
and killing debris with sniper.


use a standalone player
like vlc, or kmplayer.

and try old trusty media player classic, to see what you get.

tripp


edit: snap

[Adebisi]

ok thanks for the quick reply. I'll give this a go, but I think I may have more serious problems....

In my device manager, there is NO listing of my IDE controllers.
Is this something to be majorly worried about? Everything else on my computer is working fine.

[Adebisi]

Well VLC plays my DVDs and my mp4s perfectly. So the problem is more or less solved.

But I'm still curious as to know why WMP 11 suddenly won't play my DVDs nor iTunes my video mp4s. I'm not worried about WMP (had nothing but problems with it and quite glad to uninstall it lol), but I prefer to be able to use iTunes for my mp4s. Can this sort of thing be caused by a virus???

And I'm still worried about the absence of my IDE controllers in the device manager listings...

Anyway, really appreciate the help guys.
Cheers, Adebisi

[guns1inger]

Your problem is far from solved, unless all you want to do is watch. VLC uses it's own built in decoders, instead of the system ones. All this proves is that the video drivers and video files themselves are not the problem. However your underlying codecs are still fubar, and need to be fixed if you ever intend to convert your video to other formats.

[Adebisi]

Ok. I've uninstalled all of the visible codecs in the add/remove programs panel, and only re-installed DivX. I've re-installed Quicktime and iTunes. I'm runnning the latest version of DirectX.

I'm assuming that deleting every last codec with Codec Sniper would be a disastrous thing to do....sorry but I'm a complete newbie with this codec stuff.

Any other suggestions? Virus checker is turning up nothing and I'v just defragmented the hard drive.