No video on mpg mpeg avi WMP playback, baffling problems...

[aram12]

So here's the situation....

One day...yesterday in fact...without any change in codecs or anything I can pinpoint...suddenly...the following happens...

Mpeg, mpg, most avi files play a few frames of video on startup, then video goes black, audio continues fine...
BS Player, my backup, plays files correctly...

Turn on extended desktop to my TV...ATI Radeon 9700 Pro...
Mpeg, mpg, avi files play perfect on WMP...
BS Player plays mpeg and mpg backwards and upside down but avi correctly...

What the?

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Just tried something else....
Open up any avi, mpeg, mpg file with WMP 9...video blank, audio fine. Stop file, or leave it playing...then open up avi,mpeg,mpg file, same or different, with WMP 6.4 and it plays fine. Bizarrely enough, the reverse also works...Open up a file in WMP 6.4, no video...leave the player up and open up a file in WMP 9 and it plays fine...

**

More info...

When playing files with a cloned desktop to my tvout...as opposed to "extended desktop"...WMP plays fine on the TV but has blank video on my desktop...isn't that the opposite of what is supposed to happen with WMP? Doesn't it have some kind of coding that blanks out the video on the TV screen when you clone your desktop? That's the problem I always USED to have, which I always solved by using "extended desktop" instead...Now it seems I have to have on "extended desktop" to get video on my desktop, as if WMP thinks my desktop is my "secondary monitor"...

Oh yeah, and check this out...when "extended desktop" is on...BS player plays the files upside down and backwards on my desktop...but when I drag it over to my tv...they play correctly...what the heck is going on?

[aram12]

Ok, so I fixed the BSplayer problem...just uninstalled and reinstalled a newer version...so I guess that's "fixed"...

But the WMP problem persists...

I also just discovered yet another strange thing...

If I play a file as above without extended desktop on, the video is blank, audio plays fine...now...drag another window over the top of WMP, then remove it...suddenly there's video being shown...and then 5 seconds later it goes black again...now THAT'S weird...

[aram12]

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