Cannot playback .mpg video

[michael_metal]

Hi,

I am running W98SE (128MB RAM/PIII 7333 Mhz). I recently downloaded a 1.69 GB .mpg concert video. When trying to play the file in WMP 7.0 it tried to connect to codec server and then displayed a msg "class not registered." In classic WMP, it displays the following:

Unable to download an appropriate decompressor. (Error=80040200)
Unable to download an appropriate decompressor. (Error=80040200)
Unable to download an appropriate decompressor. (Error=80040200)
Unable to download an appropriate decompressor. (Error=80040200)
Class not registered (Error=80040154)

When I try playing this file in DivX Player, it prompts me to ensure that its a valid .AVI or MPEG 4 file. I tried playing the file in VLC Player...audio plays fine. I tried using the VLC Wizard to render in different formats, no go.

I opened the file in G-Spot, it did not show anything wrong with the file. (see attached screenshot). However, rendering failed.

I am running DirectX 9.0c (4.09.8000.0904), have installed the Codec Pack for WMP offered by Microsoft. I have also followed the instructions in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/842186, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/141801/ and Chris Lainer's blog on WMP errors, still no go.

Any suggestions in this regard are welcome!

Thanx!

[DereX888]

...from the gspot screencap, size and title of the file, I would say its a dump of a Transport MPEG format from a satellite tv broadcast... so there it is, your hint what to search for (unless Im wrong? )

[olyteddy]

Have you tried VLC?

[redwudz]

That's also a very old version of Gspot, one that does not handle MPEG very well. You might try Gspot 2.70 and it will likely give you better information.

[michael_metal]

Hi redwudz,

I ran the file in GSpot 2.70 and the resulting file info can be seen in the 2nd image I have attached. It identifies the vdo stream as MPEG2 w/o specifying the codec. On trying to render A/V it displayed a Directshow error 0x00040242. I checked this on MSDN and it gave the interpretation as "Some of the streams in this movie are in an unsupported format...." Does this imply that I won't be able to view the video at all?

Your suggestions are much appreciated...tnx

[Ai Haibara]

Looks like you may need an MPEG-2 codec.

There are one or two free MPEG-2 codecs in the Tools section to the left. ffdshow also has support for MPEG-2.