Trouble Playing Real Media Video

[-phenom-]

I've been trying to play a Real Media video file. It seems to play fine in Real player, but I don't like using that piece of junk. Usually I would turn to VLC but it doesn't play nor does it work in MPC. I have the K-Lite codec pack installed.

[guns1inger]

MPC will if you have real alternative installed - most of the time. Personally I have never found anything in the Real format to warrant installing their abominable player.

[-phenom-]

I installed that.

I'm getting this error when I try playing the file:

AM_MEDIA_TYPE:
majortype: MEDIATYPE_Stream {E436EB83-524F-11CE-9F53-0020AF0BA770}
subtype: Unknown GUID Name {57428EC6-C2B2-44A2-AA9C-28F0B6A5C48E}
formattype: TIME_FORMAT_NONE {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}
bFixedSizeSamples: 1
bTemporalCompression: 0
lSampleSize: 1
cbFormat: 0

[guns1inger]

At the risk of starting up the codec packs are crap debate yet again, my personal feeling is that if you install a codec pack like k-lite without an enormous amount of knowledge and care you should consider your video playback system compromised and expect things like this to happen. (And if you have an enormous amount of knowledge, you should know enough not to have to install a codec pack anyway).

Of course it could also be that the file is corrupt.

Those that support k-lite keep saying that it has great management tools, so perhaps you need to systematically work through the codecs it has installed, turning them all off, then bring them back one at a time looking for the point where things either break, or start working.

[-phenom-]

What if I uninstalled K-lite then? Any alternative solutions?

I considered that the file could possibly be corrupt, especially due to the fact that I have been able to play other RealMedia files previously. However, it was able to work in Real Player, which I wouldn't think possible if it was corrupted.

[El Heggunte]

If the only goal is the DirectShow-based playback of RealMedia, one just needs to copy the files listed below to the %WinDir% folder (usually = "C:\Windows") and then register the filter:

"RealMediaSplitter.ax"

— there really is no need to do a full install of RealAlternative.

14_43260.dll
28_83260.dll
atrc.dll
cook.dll
cook3260.dll
ddnt3260.dll
dnet3260.dll
drv1.dll
drv2.dll
drvc.dll
hxltcolor.dll
pncrt.dll
pndx5032.dll
raac.dll
ralf.dll
RealMediaSplitter.ax
rv10.dll
rv20.dll
rv30.dll
rv40.dll
sipr.dll
sipr3260.dll

"Everybody" should regularly use Uniextract on various "setup.exes" in order to obtain only the files that their computers really need.