Video files playing in black and white, no color.

[aki11es]

I heard it could be a codec issue, just not sure what to do next, my computer is as up to date as I can get, is there another way to fix this? my mini movies I take are all black and white, same as trailers I download. I open up windows movie maker and I get color and plays in color, I save teh movie, and use winamp or WMP or even VLC, all black and white. I had just reformatted my computer due to an issue with it, re-installed, had all updates done. Drivers done.

3.2 ghz HT Intel
2.5gb ram
6800gt nvidia 256mb ram
200gb hdd
XP Pro

Please help me figure this out.

thanks,

[Krispy Kritter]

If it is a codec issue, all you need to do is remove and/or reinstall the codec(s).

Why are you opening and saving the files with WMM? Do the files still play in color with WMM after you save them?

[Ai Haibara]

I save teh movie, and use winamp or WMP or even VLC, all black and white.

It does sound like WMM is indeed doing something to the movie, because you're only seeing this result with the video you've saved in WMM (unless I'm misreading your post). What are you doing in WMM, or why are you using it?

[aki11es]

I was testing things with WMM, everything plays black and white, I put it in WMM still plays Black and White, I drag the movie to the timeline and play it from the time line it plays color. IF I save the file from WMM it will still play in black and white in media players.

[Ai Haibara]

Do the (original, not touched by WMM) movies play as black and white in VLC no matter what you do? (VLC uses its own codecs, so if a movie doesn't play correctly there, the problem may be with the movie itself.)

Could you post some more information about the videos themselves? For example, if they're AVIs or MPEGs, you can run them through GSpot (2.52 beta or later) and post screenshots of the resulting information windows here. Blank out the path and filename info if you'd rather not show that information.

For WMV, the only thing I know that can provide information on them is VLC's own information display. I'm not sure about any other program's ability to provide info on a WMV.

[aki11es]

Ok, I needed to reformat, as I reformatted, I tested stuff out, Win XP Pro SP1, everything played fine, full color on everything. Install SP2 and again it is black and white. I reformatted about 1 week ago, possibel virus, I had SP2 installed, everything was fine. I reformatted to get rid of the virus then BLAM! all movies play Black and White. I figured try another re-format, SP1 everything was normal, GREAT! updates and BLAM! Black and White again.

[aki11es]

I decided to test some more, what do I have to lose, I uninstalled Service Pack 2, all is normal again, all playing in color. I would love to know what is so diffrent from service pack 1 to service pack 2.

[Krispy Kritter]

Did you install the lastest video drivers AFTER SP2?