Windows Media Player MPEG2 Codec Problem

[rixware]

All of a sudden, all of the MPEG2 files that I play in Windows Media Player (any version) play out of sync. The audio plays perfectly, but the video is about 10% faster than normal. They begin about a second out of sync and get progressively worse as the playback continues.

These are files that I know are good (i.e. do not contain inherent sync problems) because they have always played perfectly until now. In other words, this is a problem with the player or codecs, not the files. IN fact, when they get written to DVD, they're fine.

I can't figure out what might have changed on my system, though I'm sure that's the root of the problem. (Hardware acceleration has not changed.) But I have no idea how to troubleshoot this. I wonder if some piece of software has installed a new codec or overwritten something, and tried reinstalling WMP but nothing changed.

Any ideas are greatly appreciated.

Rick
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[johns0]

Open the file with mplayer2 and then click on file/properties/advanced and see whats being used for the sound,then uninstall or configure it if you can.

[Megahurts]

rixware

Which version of WMP are you using? If it's WMP6.4xxx (the best) then right click and check the codec it is using. let us know what it is.

Chas

[rixware]

Great suggestion, mega. I had no idea you could do this. (I prefer and mostly use 6.4, but have other versions installed to check compatability. This was happening on all of them.)

WMP was inexplicably using a nanoCosmos codec. I disabled that one, then it picked another -- non-Microsoft -- codec seemingly at random. VCSwap shows that I have 193 (!!) different DirectShow filters on my system. I didn't count, but lots of them are for MPEG2.

So the next question is: Is there a way to tell WMP which one to use?

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[rixware]

A quick follow-up:

I disabled the codecs one by one:

1. nanoCosmos
2. ulead (x2)
3. PowerDVD
4. Hauppauge
5. Ligos

After that, WMP tried to download a codec and I was sure that would get me what I want. But it got me squat because it was unable to download anything (this is version 6.4, by the way).

VCSwap still lists a bunch of filters that didn't get tried, including the Microsoft one that I'm sure is the one I want. I have no idea how to get WMP to see it.

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[rixware]

Well, I've continued to troubleshoot this without much success. I reenabled one of the codes (Ligos) and the player still tries to download a new codec first, but after it fails, it plays the clip.

With the Ligos codec, the sync is much closer than it was, but still not back to perfect (which it was always before this problem cropped up).

Help!

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[rixware]

I found a Microsoft site where you can download newer codecs for the older player. I did this thinking that at least it would reconnect things if they had gone askew. But it did not work. Even with the new codecs installed, the video plays about 25% faster than the audio (which plays normally).

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[rixware]

(I'm going to keep posting my progress just in case it helps someone else who has the same problem in the future...)

I have successfully uninstalled WMP 9, and version 7.1 went away with it (unexpectedly). Version 6.4 is still around on my system, and I would like to try uninstalling it and starting from scratch. Problem is, it's not listed in the Add/Remove Programs dialog.

Anyone know how to uninstall WMP 6.4? Specifically, I want to make sure all traces in the registry are also eliminated.

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