Black screen when I play anything except Motion JPEG

[ronbruce]

I had to reformat my C drive, reinstalled Win XP, etc,
now when I try to play MPEG 1, Win Media Video 7, 9, Xvid MPEG 4, MPEG 2 all I see is a black screen on Win Media Player or Media Player Classic (which I use to play movies on my TV via video-out on my Nvidia GF 6600 GT.

AVI codec say that all those formats are supported, ????

The only thing that plays is Motion JPEG. This plays OK on the moniter but it is plays in B & W on the TV screen instead of color.

I loaded K-Lite codecs, but no changes.

Any suggestions appreciated.


ronbruce

[redwudz]

I'd get rid of the K-lite codec pack before it damages your existing codecs. Bad history with that program. Do a all forum search for 'K-lite' for details. I wouldn't let K-lite within 30 feet of any computer.

But likely your problem is video overlay settings. This will give you a black screen when you play the video, though the audio should work.

First thing to try is to go to your video settings. 'Control Panel>Display>Settings>Advanced>Troubleshoot' and lower the 'Hardware acceleration' to about 1/3. Or you may have other overlay adjustments there. I use VLC media player and you can change the overlay settings with it.

Further information, do a forum search for 'Overlay'.

[ronbruce]

Thanks Redwudz, reducing the Hardware acceleration a notch got the picture onto my moniter screen.
I downloaded VLC and it works well.

Still have no color on my TV screen, and I,ve tried every adjustment in the Nvidia Control panel!!!

It worked fine before so I must be able to fix it....BUT HOW?

NOTE: While fiddling with the screen saver Got the message...

"Could not find any compatible Direct3D devices"
What does this mean and what's the fix?

ronbruce

[redwudz]

That error may be because the acceleration has been lowered. Sorry, I don't know a simple cure. I would make sure your DirectX is up to date, along with your video card drivers. I've had better luck with using VLC, so I haven't had to adjust the overlay settings. Some video cards like ATI seem to be easier to adjust overlay settings. But I've had it happen less with Nvidia cards.

This has only happened occasionally on my computers, and usually updating everything fixed it. But I don't know the technical explanation for why it happens.

[gll99]

Just going from memory here:
Don't lower your acceleration. If it is because you have the tv-out on your video card activated or a second monitor connected it's normal but there is a simple solution that works for me.

Start a video, pause it and minimize it. Then start another player if the one you are using only allows a single copy to run at once then choose a different player application.

The second one should be visible now on the tv-out.

The idea is that you are tying up the overlay with the first player.

For the following, I learned this using the wmp plugin while programming a player in VB.

For mpeg2 and using WMP I had to use a free mpeg2 decoder linked from this site. I think I installed the one that came with dscaler but it's a separate download than the program

https://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=Dscaler_5

This may also work for you as an option. In WMP you can also change the option telling the app not to use overlays for avi and/or dvd playback without touching the dx acceleration slider. See menu Tools, Option, Performance, Advance and uncheck "use overlay" on either one and check only "use video mixing renderer.

[Bjs]

"reinstalled Win XP" ...

Don't use those driver's supplied on cd that came with the card ... go and get the updated one's from the chipset manufacture , and use them .

You can pull all the trick's you like ... but it is best to resolve the vga driver's issue correctly and permanently ... it will cause less issue's in the long term , and you'll enjoy the pc more .

The xp os supplied driver's are only basic to function

--------------

Another issue that dose crop up once in a while is a fault with the vga card not being properly seated in it's slot .
We refer this to as the "dry rott" syndrome ... it's oxidization of connections over time that cause issue's .

Turn pc off and remove power cord , then remove vga card .

While your here , clean out all the dust you see and clean the contact's on the vga card , and the slot it came out of .

Reinsert the vga card correctly , and firmly into the slot , then restart the pc ... and see if performance has returned to normal using updated vga driver's designed specifically for the graphics card .

[ronbruce]

No joy getting a color display on the TV
Googled "problems with Nvidia TV display"

Pages of angry people that cannot get color display on their TV from their Nvidia Video-out port.

The crazy thing is that it worked before I reinstalled Windows.
So I loaded the latest Nvidia drivers (93.71 ) like all the other complainants on Google,
no difference.
Some suggest BIOS update for graphic card.... but it worked with the old BIOS.

Using the nine pin Video-out to composite blue,red,green and 4 pin out adaptor .
Then Four pin to RCA cable t0 the TV.

Any better suggestions out there?


ronbruce