WMP stopped working?

[glowworm12]

Before I ask for help, I just want to say I've been researching my problem all day (literally), and I haven't found anything that quite fits the situation or provides any real help. I've read alot of posts on other forums about WMP going wrong, but no one seems to have any advice except to use the VLC player. I'm really tired of sitting at my PC trying to find an answer, so I've decided to post here and see if you guys can provide some relief.

I have a couple of videos that I saved in a folder on my PC and later burned to DVD. I was able to play them on Windows Media Player (ver. 11), and the DVD would play on my DVD player. Everything worked fine. The other day, I wanted to watch the DVD, and for some reason it wouldn't show...just for that one video....the other videos on the DVD would play fine. So I tried to play the original movie file that I saved on my PC, and it wouldn't work, either. Windows Media Player gave me error code C00D1199 and suggested that the file type wasn't supported...but that doesn't make sense because it worked previously. None of the other videos would work on my PC, either. They're all AVIs. I don't recall doing anything recently that would affect my codecs or cause WMP to stop working. I guess this is the curse of Vista?

I've done a few things in hopes that my problem would be solved, but nothing works. I've updated my video and sound card drivers...I've uninstalled/deleted the codec packs that were on my PC, considering I've read alot of bad things about them while researching...I used both VideoInspector and GSpot to detect the codecs I need, and then I installed them (though Gspot said the codecs are NOT installed for any of the videos, when I know they are). I've no idea what to do now...I'd really hate to switch to some other media player.

[redwudz]

I doubt it has much to do with Vista and probably is the result of codec packs if you had installed them. WMP11 is not that stable, IMO, and codec packs seem to upset it. I suspect if Gspot says the codecs aren't installed (Properly), it's most likely correct. Some codec packs like K-lite rarely uninstall without leaving some damage.

I use Vista Home Premium and WMP11 doesn't do much of anything with DVDs. Windows Media Center works OK for DVDs, but I rarely use it as MS seems to have their own ideas what it should play. Works on DVDs in the DVD drive, but wants to ignore DVD files on the hard drive. You need both the MPEG-2 codec and a program that understands the DVD structure to play back a DVD.

I assume you have been to MS's site for WMP?
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/d2930eab-10cb-400c-8bac-b59993c16d5c1033.mspx
OR http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/knowledgecenter/mediaadvice/0082.mspx#EYB

But they all seem to relate to codec problems. You could try uninstalling and reinstalling the player.

And welcome to our forums.

[Krispy Kritter]

As you have already figured out (more or less anyway) and as suggested above, this is all likely a codec related issue.

Basic information can be found here: http://msmvps.com/blogs/chrisl/articles/14322.aspx

although it is for WMP 9 & 10, it is likely still relevant for 11.

[glowworm12]

Thanks for welcoming me.

I still can't seem to get it to work...I tried the things suggested in that link, but it refuses to fix. And I don't know enough about codecs and what makes them work. As for reinstalling WMP, I can't find the download for WMP11 Vista...is it safe to use the XP version? That's probably the last effort I'll put into WMP... T.T

Thanks for the advice, both of you.

[redwudz]

Apparently there is just the one version of WMP11 for XP and Vista, or the installer decides the OS. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/mediaplayer/default.mspx

[Krispy Kritter]

As initially responding to this post, I have seen numerous other posts from other users with the same issue. It appears to be an issue with WMP 11 and Vista.