Divx playback problems

[lurker]

I’m having some DIVX playback problems. I have installed mpeg2, DIVX, and XVID codecs on this laptop using the K lite combo pack as well as the standalone versions. Everything runs perfectly except the Divx. It used to work great. But now, Divx playback has no sound and has a couple diagnol lines through it. Stuff that was encoded in in 5.11 I can see a bit, but has no sound and the same lines. I tried installing different versions of the codecs. I tried uninstalling the codecs but it didn’t fix the problems. Anyone know a codec wiper to clean the XP system? Anyone know anyway to fix this problem?



Lurker

[lurker]

I also forgot to mention that lately Xvid playback has been a bit troublesome in regard to sound synchronization. There would be a .05 second delay..then it would catch up 2 min later..then desynch again. This also happened in the last month and no amount of uninstall and reinstalls have fixed it.

Lurker

[Prospero424]

Well, you can remove codecs through the WIndows XP Device Manager. Look under "Sound, Video and Game Controllers" and you'll find "Video Codecs". You can remove them here.

Avoid codec packages wherever possible. They work great most of the time, but with a non-standard configuration they can cause major problems like yours. Just install all the latest codecs individually, or simply use ffdshow if you don't do any encoding yourself, it can handle almost all MPEG4 based codecs like DivX and Xvid and it's CPU utilization is great.

Good Luck

[racerx10]

Could someone clarify how to remove codecs? I tried going under device manager, then selecting a codec and clicking [REMOVE], the codec drops off the list, but if I close device manager out and then open it again, the codec is still listed. I also tried removing them, and rebooting, but they were still there when I rebooted. I have a couple AVI's that play fine on one computer, but have a 'smearing' effect when played on another PC.

There are 3 MPEG-4 codecs on the computer that won't play.
ffvfw MPEG-4, MS-MPEG-4, and Xvid MPEG-4.

The PC that works fine has only the Xvid MPEG-4 codec, so I want to get rid of the MS codec, and the ffvfw codec on the 'bad' pc.

Any advice is appreciated!

[Prospero424]

Well, you can bang your head against the wall and maybe eventually find a way to really remove those codecs (I don't know why the device manager mthod isn't working) or you could just install ffdshow, make sure you go into confiiguration through the start menu, then click on "codecs" and make sure that next all of the codecs you are having problems with, the option is set to "libavodec". This will cause ffdshow to handle the decoding, overriding the other decoders. This should fix all of your playbaclk problems the easy way

[racerx10]

I opted for the non-headbanging approach. The ffdshow install made things better. All my AVI's play fine now. Still, it would be nice to know how to remove the unnecessary codecs from my system, if anyone knows.

[racerx10]

I opted for the non-headbanging approach. The ffdshow install made things better. All my AVI's play fine now. Still, it would be nice to know how to remove the unnecessary codecs from my system, if anyone knows.

[Prospero424]

Well, since the Device Manager method is broken, you can always try searching through the registry, using regedit, for program and file names associated with each codec you want to get rid of, deleting as you go, then deleting their associated files from the hard drive. But this can cause some nasty damage to your system, requiring a reload of the entire OS. So just keep this risk in mind and decide if it's worth it.