Codecs gone, not showing up in VirtualDub or other software....

[ggouweloos]

I am experiencing a very weird problem at the moment.
Running Windows Vista for over two months now without any problem I had a crash of Ulead Video Studio 11 yesterday. I am not sure if that is the cause but now all codecs (encoders!) are gone under the VirtualDub videocompression window. Also under VideoStudio I do not see the avi codecs anymore.
Under VirtualDub only 'uncompressed RGB/YCbCr' is showing up. All audiocodecs are still availiable as before.

I reinstalled the latest Klite codec pack, ffdshow,etc. I manually installing latest Xvid codec. All audio/video plays fine, no problems there, but it seems impossible to get the encoders back under VirtualDub or other conversion software.

DLL's seem to be in the right places. I checked the registry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\MediaResources\icm
there I do see 9 VIDC.* entries, but they don't show up under software. Is it possible that all VFW codecs have been disabled? If so... how to enable them again under Vista?

Any other suggestions are welcome....

[ggouweloos]

At the moment I am comparing two Vista PC's, one with working encoders, the other one is the problem-machine.
The working-one is showing the module msvfw32.dll under 'loaded modules'... could this has something to do with it? How can I load this module on the other machine? Might be a service that has to be started?

[WorBry]

ggouweloos,

I've experienced the same problem that you describe, on my laptop running Vista:

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=135086

I cant exactly recall what action resulted in the 'disappearance' of the installed vfw codecs. I thought originally that it might have had something to do with VCSwap incompatibility as it seemed to occur after I tried to inactivate the Cedocida DV codec which I use as my primary decoder for AVISynth and VirtualDub ; when working with Ulead Video Studio my habit has been to inactivate Cedocida and use only the native Type II DV encoder for editing and rendering projects. As it turned out, VCSwap was not the culprit as I was able to inactivate and reactivate codecs perfectly well after disabling User Account Control.

So now my reasonable assumption is that Video Studio 11 Plus was responsible. Since I have not encountered the problem on my desktop (running XP), it would appear to be specific to Vista. It seems unlikely that VirtualDub is implicated, unless there is some conflict with VS 11 Plus, but one would have expect such a conflict to manifest in XP also.

Like yourself, I've tried the standard registry fixes, but with no improvement. As I mention in the linked post, it would appear that the codecs are still there and are functional, but now out of reach.

In view of your like experience, I'm inclined to address the matter on the Ulead forum as a potential bug.

Meanwhile, if you find an effective solution, please post it. Is msvfw32.dll actually missing from the affected machine? Dont have my laptop with me right now to test it myself.

Cheers.

[Squash]

You might try the free "InstalledCodec" utility from Nir Sofer: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/installed_codec.html

He writes some pretty good utilities.

I'm running Vista 32-bit. I just did a little test where I disabled Lagarith using InstalledCodec, then opened vdubmod and it had disappeared from the codec list. After enabling it again with InstalledCodec it was back. I have no idea if this will help you but it might.

Just right-click the codec name to enable/disable.

[WorBry]

It's quite similar to VCSwap except that VCSwap indicates (highlights) when there is more than one vfw codec installed capable of decoding the same video format e.g. multiple DV decoders.

I'm afraid it doesnt solve the problem. The codecs are there and 'enabled', but just do not show up in the editing software vfw codec listings.

Thanks anyway.

[poisondeathray]

Do you have system restore turned on? You could restore to a point before the crash

A shot in the dark, but you could try the "codec tweak tool" that detects & fixes registry settings, missing DLL's etc... that comes with k-lite. Also try "reset to recommended settings" in k-lite configuration

[mgh]

Don't know about vista but the particular problem is usually caused by missing and/or unregistered quartz.dll.

[Ihmemies]

I've had same kind of problem for some time now. I have no idea what makes the codecs not to show up. Probably incompatibility with something, I just can't figure out with what.

In safe mode I can see all the installed codecs: http://hakkarainen.kuvat.fi/tempo/kodekit.png
But in normal mode.. http://hakkarainen.kuvat.fi/tempo/kodekit2.png

This is very weird. There shouldn't be any problems with the codecs, they seem to be properly registered etc. K-Lite codec pack's tool didn't fix them, uninstalling or reinstalling didn't fix them. So I can play videos only with VLCPlayer, because it has built-in codecs.

I can't use system restore, so it would be nice to find some real solution to this...

[mgh]

Virtualdub uses vfw codecs only and all of them are handled by quartz.dll afaik. If by accident quartz.dll is deleted or unregistered, virtualdub will not see any codecs, all codecs will apparently vanish.

[Safesurfer]

Virtualdub uses vfw codecs only and all of them are handled by quartz.dll afaik. If by accident quartz.dll is deleted or unregistered, virtualdub will not see any codecs, all codecs will apparently vanish.

That was my thought too, try reregistering quartz.dll by going to Start>Run and typing regsvr32 quartz.dll.

[WorBry]

Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm afraid (re)registering the quartz.dll doesnt resolve the problem.

[Squash]

As a long shot, you might try running (or re-running) this Vista update from last year:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938979

It includes some core VfW files like msvfw32.dll and msvidc32.dll. Maybe by reinstalling them it can fix whatever Ulead screwed up.

Files used by VfW:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/205087

And if you haven't already, you might post over at the virtualdub.org forum. The author frequently answers users' questions.

[Safesurfer]

I've had some success diagnozing codec problems with Filmerit. Might be worth a try, there's obviously some kind of codec conflict going on.

[WorBry]

Safesurfer: Looks like Filmerit deals only with Direct Show codecs, not vfw codecs.

Squash: Tried re-installing the update. The auto installer just tells me that 'The update is not for your system'. I can only assume that means the update was already installed and so not needed, as I had selected the correct version for 32-bit Vista. How does one then re-install?

I fear the inevetible conclusion to all of this is going to be a clean re-install of Vista, unless someone out there has a sure fix.

[Squash]

You could uninstall it by going to Control Panel...Programs and Features, then click "View installed updates" under "Tasks" in the upper left corner. Find the "Update for Microsoft Windows (KB938979)" click on it, then on "uninstall". Assuming it will let you do that, then you should be able to reinstall it.

Keep in mind I'm just guessing here; I have no idea if it will work.

[redwudz]

If you need to re-install Vista, I would pass on the K-Lite codec pack and codec packs in general. It may be the cause of many of your problems. It has destroyed a lot of OSs in the past by overwriting existing codecs. And it doesn't remove cleanly

Codecs can interfere with each other. Some programs like K-lite just throw a bunch of codecs haphazardly into your system with no regard for the existing codecs. If you then add other programs that install more codecs, you can end up with a unmanageable mess.

If you need to play multiple formats, try ffdshow. It covers most common formats and doesn't do any damage. Or just use VLC Media player as it has it's own codecs.

There are a few programs that are incompatible with Vista. You might want to check this site before installing a new program:
http://www.iexbeta.com/wiki/index.php/Windows_Vista_Software_Compatibility_List

[WorBry]

Squash: Cant see KB938979 in the installed upgrades listing, so there's nothing to reinstall.

Redwudz; I hadnt installed any codec packs when the problem arose. I do already use FFDshow, or rather did since I can no longer access the vfw version for encoding in VirtualDub. Thanks for the heads up on the Vista program compatibility though.

[Squash]

Check this thread over on virtualdub.org:

http://forums.virtualdub.org/index.php?act=ST&f=3&t=14258&s=9012717beebbcb6270c84278c1742070

The guy tried the same HKLM...drivers32 registry fix as you did; it didn't work, nothing was empty; but he found the codecs listed again in HKCU...drivers32 and one was empty. The prefix was "vidc.uldx"="" which would seem to implicate Ulead again. Once he deleted it he was OK.

I don't have that section in my registry but that may depend on whether it was installed as administrator, what account level you're running on, etc.

You might also search the entire registry for the key drivers32. I've had to track down stuff that in XP would have been in one place but under Vista it's in a "virtualstore" section due to the registry virtualization Vista has for backwards compatibility.

[WorBry]

Squash. You're a genius. Yep, found and deleted empty vidc.uldx entry in the HKCU..Drivers 32 key and that solved the problem; the codecs are now visible in VirtualDub. Thanks so much for your help.

[Budman1]

Since this is an old post I assume everyone found the answer but in case you haven't...... I use VirtualDub a lot and aside from installing separate codecs such as XVID, I use K-Lite. HOWEVER, K-Lite seems to have removed all the ffdshow VFW codecs unless you get their MEGA-Pack. If you look real close at the page that shows the contents http://codecguide.com/klcp_contents_comparison.htm or better yet http://codecguide.com/klcp_ability_comparison.htm it shows a few such as H264 and Xvid as well as several other VFW codecs.
All the other packs are missing them. I was hesitant about a Mega-pack as many others are but, having flushed and tweaked my codecs so much in the past, I no longer worried about it. Actually, right out of the install, everything worked except WMA audio 9.2 and it seems for some reason you need the DIVX 3.11 codec or Better yet the DIVX 4.02 Audio codec (which installs 3.11 anyway).
Now VirtualDub, Avanti and Media Player all play everything. AVISynth (DirectShowSoure("video.avi") avs script even works in the new Virtualdub.
I do have Windows 7 Ultimate installed but use all the x86 codecs, etc.
Budman1